Nashville residents will likely remember the massive fire—one year ago today—that destroyed the downtown library’s parking garage, totaled dozens of vehicles, and left the library closed for months.
Travelers Excess & Surplus Lines, which had provided a multimillion-dollar policy for the Nashville metro area government, now believes the 6th Avenue fire was the result of improper storage of combustible materials in an unauthorized, flammable storage shed—not to mention smoking by nearby workers—caused the massive blaze.
Travelers, which paid the policy limits after the fire, last week filed a $10 million subrogation lawsuit against a non-profit organization that manages downtown business districts and parking garages, along with a for-profit firm that had used space in the garage for its cleaning and security services in the area.
The Nashville Downtown Partnership organization breached its duties to the city, was negligent, and broke its contract with the city by allowing the cleaning firm to build the shed and store combustible materials there, all without authorization from authorities, the June 4 complaint alleges.
SMS Holdings, the parent company of Mydatt Services and its cleaning firm known as Block by Block, which used the parking garage for storage, also is a defendant in the suit. The firm was guilty of negligence, the suit claims.
“As a direct and proximate result of defendant Block by Block’s negligence, gross negligence, carelessness, recklessness and/or wanton and/or willful and/or negligent acts and/or omissions, Travelers made payments to or on behalf of” the Nashville metro government, the complaint reads.
The defendants have not yet filed an answer or a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The complaint did not say if the nonprofit or the cleaning company carried liability insurance.
The complaint notes that the fire burned so hot that it caused the collapse of a concrete ramp in the garage. The blaze closed the library until March of this year because almost all of the library was touched by smoke or soot, according to local news reports. The garage remains closed.
Travelers is represented by the Wiseman Ashworth law firm in Nashville.
The garage fire came five years after a 2020 Christmas day bombing, in which a suicidal man blew up his van, heavily damaging some 45 properties in downtown Nashville and disrupting cell phone and internet operations in the area.
Top photo: The scene after firefighters responded to the blaze. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
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