He jumped from a burning building. Now he’s being sued
Josh Goldenberg jumped out of a third floor window to save his own life. Now an insurance company is suing him, saying he started the fire in the overcrowded, rundown house.
Goldenberg and his former roommates are being sued by Quincy Mutual Fire Insurance Co., which said they neglected to put out a cigarette that started the 2012 blaze, according to The Boston Globe’s Thomas Farragher.
But how they decided a cigarette started it is unclear, because Boston fire officials were unable to determine a cause.
Farragher shared Boston Fire Lieutenant Thomas Murray’s reaction to the lawsuit:
“All the evidence that we were looking for was consumed,’’ Murray said.
When I told him the insurance company’s lawsuit blamed careless disposal of a cigarette for the fire, Murray called that conclusion curious.
“We have to let science tell us what the cause is,’’ he said. “You can speculate all you want but you’d better have some pretty good evidence. We just don’t know. We live in a professional world and we can’t just shoot from the hip.’’
Goldenberg’s case was highlighted by The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team investigation Shadow Campus, a series revealing a history of deadly apartment overcrowding among Boston’s college population.
He was in the hospital and rehabilitation for three months after the fire forced him from his bedroom window. Since then, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh took aim at housing violations by management companies that ignored deplorable conditions in order to collect high rent.
Read Farragher’s entire take in The Boston Globehere.
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