041908Mitch Dyer and wife R.JPG

Mitch Dryer and his wife, Aimee, in 2008.

(File photo)

A Madison County jury has awarded $11 million to an Oneida firefighter who blamed a failure of his gear for severe injuries he suffered in a 2007 fire.

The lawsuit filed by Mitch and Aimee Dryer centered around a locator alarm on Dryer's apparatus that failed when he was trapped in a burning building. Without the alarm, firefighters couldn't find him quickly to rescue him, causing the Oneida firefighter's injuries that led to him losing an arm and an ear.

The verdict came this afternoon, according to the lawyers for the Lynn law firm, which represented the Dryers.

The jury awarded the couple about $11.2 million in compensatory damages. The jury also will decide on punitive damages at a hearing Thursday in state Supreme Court.

The jury found Scott Technologies, maker of the PASS alarm, liable for Dryer's injuries. As part of the overall amount, he was awarded $2 million for past pain and suffering and $5 million for future pain and suffering, according to Patricia Lynn-Ford, Dryer's lawyer.

The overall award includes $1.25 million for Aimee Dryer for the losses suffered by her husband.

Dryer was injured in an April 2007 fire at the Oneida City Lanes when he was buried in a pile of burning debris. He lost an arm and ear as a result of his severe burns, and has not worked since.

His lawsuit alleged that his burns weren't sustained when the ceiling of the bowling alley collapsed, but instead resulted and worsened because he couldn't be located and pulled from the rubble because his alarm didn't work.

The case revolved around whether Scott Technologies knew about failures with its safety alarms that are worn by firefighters, and if they did enough to warn firefighters about the failures.

Oneida firefighters, like firefighters across the country, wear self-contained breathing apparatus known to breathe inside a burning building. It includes a Personal Alarm Safety System, or "PASS alarm," which emits an audible alert and visual signal designed to assist firefighters in locating a firefighter who has become motionless.

The couple also is entitled to punitive damages, and the jury will make a decision on that Thursday.