News Article: Luigi Aquilini sued following deaths of 2 children in Washington State

FroshaugFan2

Registered User
Dec 7, 2006
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The Aquilini's are once again in the news for horrendous reasons.

Lawsuit alleges children died from injuries suffered in a fire on Luigi Aquilini's U.S. property

...

The court documents allege both children suffered burns to most of their bodies and about a third of Sergio's body was also burned.

Patty succumbed to her injuries on Aug. 18, 2017, and Alex, who had since turned 11, died in late January 2018.

The lawsuit alleges the boy and girl both endured "horrific suffering" before their deaths and their father hasn't been able to work since the incident.

It claims there were no smoke alarms in the home and extensive alterations were made to the electrical systems without required permits or inspections.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/aquilini-fatal-fire-lawsuit-1.5221119
 
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LordBacon

CEO of sh*tposting
Oct 31, 2017
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As a fan living overseas, is the reputation of them really bad? I’m asking because I honestly have no idea.
 

bobbyb2009

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Sep 3, 2009
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Horrific, but the complaint about no smoke detectors is bogus. It's up to you as a resident to make sure you have smoke detectors, and check the batteries periodically. If the house didn't have them, they should have spent the $20 to buy one.

Especially when you leave your kids alone while you go out to work.

Really really sad story. Can't imagine having this happen.

However, leaving 7 and 10 year olds at home sleeping when you go to work? Yikes.... And yeah, hard to jump on a landlord, at least with this information in the article, for any wrongdoing when if, as a resident, I am concerned for my safety, I make sure I have working smoke detectors and I don't leave my young children at home alone- EVER.
 

MS

1%er
Mar 18, 2002
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Horrific, but the complaint about no smoke detectors is bogus. It's up to you as a resident to make sure you have smoke detectors, and check the batteries periodically. If the house didn't have them, they should have spent the $20 to buy one.

Especially when you leave your kids alone while you go out to work.

It looks like in BC that landlords are required to provide smoke detectors and ensure they're working at the time the occupant moves in. So they'd be screwed if this happened here.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/...-position-papers/bulletins/smoke-alarm-safety

However, this happened in Washington State, where the law is the opposite and it appears to be on tenants to ensure they have smoke alarms.

The bigger issue here is that the home was apparently re-wired multiple times without required permits.
 

StreetHawk

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Sep 30, 2017
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There should have been criminal charges laid after the police and fire department conducted their investigation into the fire if the electrical work was done without permits and not up to code.
 
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Javaman

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Jul 13, 2010
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There should have been criminal charges laid after the police and fire department conducted their investigation into the fire if the electrical work was done without permits and not up to code.

Do we know if faulty wiring was the cause of the fire? I read through the article a couple of times but it didn't specify what the cause of the fire was.
 
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StreetHawk

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Sep 30, 2017
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Do we know if faulty wiring was the cause of the fire? I read through the article a couple of times but it didn't specify what the cause of the fire was.
No mention of the cause of the fire. May or may not have anything to do with the unpermitted re wiring.
 

Johnny Canucker

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Jan 4, 2009
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Thoughts go out to the family and I would probably sue as well BUT.

1) the home was a trailer , so I’m not sure permits are even required for alterations.

2) if there was no smoke detector, why wouldn’t the father / mother have bought one? They are $20.

3) you left 2 kids 10 and under home alone all day?

4) you started the fire by driving in to an electrical box.


With Aquas high priced lawyers these parents will probably go to jail for child endangerment.

This guy isn’t getting a penny.
 
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F A N

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Aug 12, 2005
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I have heard that the Aquilinis like to stick people with the bill, so that's where I am coming from. I would caution to not draw any quick conclusions. There's a lot of information that we don't know. Just because it was alleged doesn't mean it's true. For example, given the Aquilinis' wealth, we assume that they owned the mobile home. It's possible that they rented the place.
 
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MS

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Mar 18, 2002
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That is not true.

You are correct. Did a quick google search and didn't read far enough.

Anyhow, yes, apparently landlords in Washington must provide a working smoke alarm at the time the tenant moves in. Past that point if it dies it's the tenant's responsible to put new batteries in it.

So if this trailer had no smoke alarm at all as reported ... there would seem to be a good chance they're in a lot of trouble. Obviously we don't know all the details, however.
 
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RandV

It's a wolf v2.0
Jul 29, 2003
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Thoughts go out to the family and I would probably sue as well BUT.

1) the home was a trailer , so I’m not sure permits are even required for alterations.

2) if there was no smoke detector, why wouldn’t the father / mother have bought one? They are $20.

3) you left 2 kids 10 and under home alone all day?

4) you started the fire by driving in to an electrical box.


With Aquas high priced lawyers these parents will probably go to jail for child endangerment.

This guy isn’t getting a penny.

On #2 and #3 you're applying North American/1st world standards to migrant workers. When you're in poverty and both parents not to work it's not going to be unusual to leave children home alone. With the rise of helicopter parenting social services over here may charge you for it but stuff like this happens all over the world, especially if it's a small community. And again if they're from a poor South American region a home fire alarm may not be a standard, but either way there's a reason why our laws (and Washington State laws) put the onus on the landlord to provide them.

On #4, this is what the article says:

The statement from the Aqulinis also alleges Sergio Hernandez hit a junction box with a truck and the fire started minutes later.

Where's the junction box and how did that start the fire? This is the same kind of ambigious speculation as saying the fire started from shoddy under the table electrical work. It's just lawyer speak, you have to wait and see what investigators say.

Either way though, the Aquilini's are known cheap skates and it's highly likely they cut corners on the homes being provided. Whether or not that makes them liable remains to be seen, and while the Aquilini's are going to have the bigger fancier lawyers the fact that these migrant workers are taking them to court probably means they have someone working pro-bono for them who thinks there's enough there to get a payout.

Something like this probably ends in a settlement and we'll never hear about it again.
 

Hit the post

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Oct 1, 2015
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On #2 and #3 you're applying North American/1st world standards to migrant workers. When you're in poverty and both parents not to work it's not going to be unusual to leave children home alone. With the rise of helicopter parenting social services over here may charge you for it but stuff like this happens all over the world, especially if it's a small community. And again if they're from a poor South American region a home fire alarm may not be a standard, but either way there's a reason why our laws (and Washington State laws) put the onus on the landlord to provide them.

On #4, this is what the article says:



Where's the junction box and how did that start the fire? This is the same kind of ambigious speculation as saying the fire started from shoddy under the table electrical work. It's just lawyer speak, you have to wait and see what investigators say.

Either way though, the Aquilini's are known cheap skates and it's highly likely they cut corners on the homes being provided. Whether or not that makes them liable remains to be seen, and while the Aquilini's are going to have the bigger fancier lawyers the fact that these migrant workers are taking them to court probably means they have someone working pro-bono for them who thinks there's enough there to get a payout.

Something like this probably ends in a settlement and we'll never hear about it again.
Thank Jeebus these turkeys had nothing to do with the construction of Rogers (near as I can tell).
 

F A N

Registered User
Aug 12, 2005
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Either way though, the Aquilini's are known cheap skates and it's highly likely they cut corners on the homes being provided. Whether or not that makes them liable remains to be seen, and while the Aquilini's are going to have the bigger fancier lawyers the fact that these migrant workers are taking them to court probably means they have someone working pro-bono for them who thinks there's enough there to get a payout.

Something like this probably ends in a settlement and we'll never hear about it again.

I'm pretty sure the Plaintiffs can hire fancy lawyers as well (on a contingency fee basis).
 

bandwagonesque

I eat Kraft Dinner and I vote
Mar 5, 2014
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I'm pretty sure the Plaintiffs can hire fancy lawyers as well (on a contingency fee basis).
They can't hire two or three of them and half a dozen researchers.

At any rate, one thing we can agree on is that watching your children die slowly of burn injuries would be hell. I hope the parents can find a way to recover.
 

RandV

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I'm pretty sure the Plaintiffs can hire fancy lawyers as well (on a contingency fee basis).

Yeah I may have had the terminology wrong but that's basically what I mean. A lawyer(s) picking this up not for the hourly rate from the plaintiffs but because they think they can win money from Aquilini's.
 

pgj98m3

Registered User
Jan 8, 2012
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Thoughts go out to the family and I would probably sue as well BUT.

1) the home was a trailer , so I’m not sure permits are even required for alterations.

2) if there was no smoke detector, why wouldn’t the father / mother have bought one? They are $20.

3) you left 2 kids 10 and under home alone all day?

4) you started the fire by driving in to an electrical box.


With Aquas high priced lawyers these parents will probably go to jail for child endangerment.

This guy isn’t getting a penny.
Farm workers are paid crap with no benefits. Twenty dollars would be a lot money. Guarantee the billionaire Aquilinis weren’t offering day care.
 

VanJack

Registered User
Jul 11, 2014
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It really is beyond embarrassing that a flagship property like the NHL Canucks are owned by this family. Of course looking at the checkered history of Canucks ownership over the years, other than the Griffiths family, the rest of them would look good for a Goodfellas' remake.
 

Love

Registered User
Feb 29, 2012
14,999
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I don’t understand how you don’t hear anything about this or Francesco short changing workers on 1040 or 650. These are huge news stories and should be the talk of the city. It’s absolutely disgraceful.
 
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