Irwin Marine Boat Storage Collapse
 

oh boy...I store my boat there... Thank goodness no one was hurt.





Boat storage building collapses in Laconia

Article Date: Thursday, February 28, 2008

LACONIA, N.H. (AP) — The latest New Hampshire building to fall victim to this winter's deep snow is a boat storage facility in Laconia.

Police say part of the large storage building at Irwin Marine went down around 1 a.m. today. No one was inside.

There is no word on how many boats are inside or how many may be crushed under the debris.

About ten years ago I stored at Irwins and remember signing a release to hold them harmless, and that I needed to have my own insurance.

So, Blaisdale Ave, Laconia, formerly Grossman's Lumber and very close to the Gilford Lowe's Home Improvement, storage customers of Irwin's: here's hop'n you remembered to pay that insurance bill. Ditto that for all the snowy roofs, all over, otherwise your friendly insurance company may be telling you that "oopsie, we have a problem here!" :eek:

Doesn't seem right that they would be able to sign away responsibility. Their perfectly happy to take your money when you sign up, they should have coverage that pays.

Dear FLL
 

Are you ever NOT on line? You really do need to get steady employment.:laugh: At least when I "surf" I do it from my desk!:D

Yes, agreed, and look'n at the clock, my shift is almost over....am scheduled to go shovel the last storm off the roof at noon, and try to somehow get the sno-thrower around to the front as only a Caterpillar could now get thru the back.:) Ooopsie...hey....I'm overtime....gotta run....

Typically all storage or service facilities use a hold-harmless agreement in which you agree to hold your own coverage and release them if anything happens to your vehicle/boat.

I would be very surprised if the boat owners insurance company doesn't go after Irwin's insurance based on negligence or something

expectations
 

It would seem that for the money you are paying for inside storage there would be an expectation of safety for your boat. It would seem that all of this damage would have been avoided if Irwins had not been negligent in clearing off their roof. Surely they were aware of the accumulation of snow on the roof, and aware of the other publicized roof collapses. The boatowners may file claims with their insurance companies to speed the replacement/repair of their boats but I bet more than one company will be filing suits against Irwins.

Well time will tell as to how Irwin will handle this, I try to for the most part give people, especially businesses the benefit of responding to a situation like this before jumping all over them. I think Irwin was negligent to some degree, and therefore liable legally to pay for some if not all the damages to customer's boats. Heck they've got to be carrying some sort of catastrophic insurance coverage for such an incident. I can see that for the customers having coverage for incidental damages done, but just like if say an employee damaged a boat moving it around, the darn building collapsing should be on Irwin's dime.

Legal stuff aside, they should as a business want to avoid a PR disaster by having a reputation of sticking it to customers, take responsibility and do something. Question is will they?

I'm courious as to what The storage contract says.

storage contract
 

Every storage and dock lease That I have signed every year for the last 10 years, says that the marina Is not liable for damages period. moral of the story--- keep your baot fully Insured at all times.

:D

Every slip and/or storage agreement I have ever signed since 1970 has said the same thing but if their negligence contributed to or was causal to the event you can litigate and you can win. BTDT

I'm sure that Irwin's will try to do the right thing, they have reputation to uphold. But they are also a business and probably will have to work with their insurance company. They will probably try to settle as much as they can amicably.

The question is neglegence. If there was any wiff of neglegence, regardless of what I signed, I would expect and demand that they make me whole. In my opinion the boat owner should not be saddled with a deductable and higher premiums if Irwin's was neglegent.

So who determines if they were neglegent? Well unless they agree and just pay up, it has to go to court. And as a follow up, Irwin's may have to go after the people who built the building.

I hear that there were mostly small boats, so smaller dollar values means litigation is less likely. This may all just be settled quietly.

I have unofficially heard that 25 boats were damaged total.

In person look really shows a lot
 

I went by today and most of the main part of the building is collapsed and the rest (low addition) appears to be holding up for now. Many curious people were driving up to see the damage. I have posted a photo.

I checked Fay's where my boat is and the building is doing fine. Lots of snow on the ground that has slid off the roof and very little on it. The covered slips looked very good too with most not having any snow on them.

Heavy Snow On Other Bldg's Too
 

Hello Group,

Took a ride yesterday and saw the Irwin Marine bldg damage from the entrance road. The left wall can be seen actually bulged out! It was something. We drove over to Lakeport Landing and saw (we think) Erica Blizzard shoveling snow off the roof of "C" dock.

A lot of the bldg's in the area look to have in excess of two feet of snow and quite a few of the bldg's had folks shoveling them off. Better to take a proactive approach as opposed to the potential for damage.

Erica is out shoveling roofs?Wow.Must have a skeleton crew for the winter.

FWIW, the GM of Irwins was quite specific in some of the interviews he did right after that Irwins had been checking the roofs of all its buildings frequently and thought they would be OK. May become a he-said-she-said ordeal. I doubt that the buildings contractor/designer are still around, anyone remember when Grossmans opened the place?