The surviving members of the Pickett family, who lost their parents and two brothers when a blaze destroyed their Grant Avenue home in March 2014, are suing Jersey City in Hudson County Superior Court, alleging the city failed to adequately train its employees, leaving the four victims to burn alive.
The Rev. Bishop William Pickett, his wife, Elumae, and two of their sons, Thomas and Curtis, died inside the Grant Avenue house. Firefighters were sent accidentally to 27 Grand St. — three miles from the blaze — and arrived on Grant Avenue roughly seven minutes after the call for the fire, about double the normal response time.
Jersey City's actions, as well as those of the fire department, public-safety department and a handful of named dispatchers, constitute "a wanton and willful disregard for the safety of others," reads the five-count lawsuit, filed initially on Nov. 20, 2015.
The Rev. Bernadine Byrd, a spokeswoman for the family, said the city recently offered to settle the suit for $200,000. The family turned the "preposterous" offer down and intends to proceed with the lawsuit, Byrd told The Jersey Journal.