Owner of fire-ravaged Champion rink sues insurer

 The owner of a Trumbull County roller rink that went up in flames more than a year ago is suing an insurance company that he says has yet to pay for his loss.

Keith Brainard, the owner of Champion Rollarena, filed a breach of contract lawsuit in county common pleas court Monday against Auto Owner Insurance company seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $25,000.

Brainard says the insurer has not paid his claim on the loss sustained on December 29, 2019, when a fire destroyed the fifty-year-old roller rink on Mahoning Avenue.

According to the complaint, less than a month after the fire, investigators declared that the cause of the blaze would be “undetermined”, but found no evidence that accelerants were used to start the fire.

The suit says the insurance company has breached its contract with Brainard and has acted in bad faith for failing to pay the claim.

In addition, according to the suit, the Trumbull County Board of heath has issued a complaint to Brainard declaring the remnants of the rink as “unfit for human habitation”.

The insurance company has yet to file an answer to the lawsuit.