Pennsylvania Company To Pay $3.5 Million To Resolve Allegations It Caused Fire At FAA Facility

NEWARK, N.J. – A Pennsylvania company doing business in New Jersey will pay $3.5 million to resolve allegations that it caused a fire at the Federal Aviation Administration’s William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced.

EDA Contractors Inc. (EDA), a corporation headquartered in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, received a government contract in March 2012 to perform roofing work at the FAA Technical Center and began work in May 2012. Part of the contract involved the replacement of a roof at Building 300 of the FAA Technical Center. On June 22, 2012, approximately half an hour after EDA’s workers finished work for the day, a fire engulfed the rooftop of Building 300, causing extensive damage.

The consent judgment agreed to by the United States and EDA and entered by the court resolves allegations that the negligence of EDA’s employees was the proximate cause of the fire.

Acting U.S. Attorney Fitzpatrick credited the Legal Office of the FAA Technical Center, under the direction of Diane Cherinchak Loughrin, and Senior Attorney William Sheehan and Program Analyst Brenda Martello, for their support in gathering information and providing substantial assistance during the litigation and settlement negotiations.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark C. Orlowski of the U.S. Attorney’s Civil Division in Newark.

Defense counsel: Floyd Cottrell Esq., Newark