Police in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, released dash camera footage that shows the moment an explosion occurred in the city’s downtown area.
No criminal charges will be filed in the incident, officials said Dec. 20.
The police camera footage was released in late December. The blast killed a firefighter, injured other firefighters, injured one police officer, and leveled buildings in the city.
Patrick Anhalt, the Sun Prairie police chief, said firms working on the project had “incomplete and inaccurate information” when they began working in the area before striking the main. But the county district attorney and state attorney general’s office agreed that criminal charges are not necessary.
Investigators carried out 67 interviews and examined 45 pieces of evidence in the case during a five-month probe into the blast.
Sun Prairie firefighter Capt. Cory Barr was later identified as the lone fatality. Eleven other people, including five other firefighters and a police officer, were hurt, WISN reported.
Police and firefighters evacuated a number of people before the gas ignited.
VC Tech, the company involved in the project, engaged in “underground directional boring” and cut through a WE Energies gas line that wasn’t totally marked, the police chief told WISN. The escaping gas then ignited, and the cause isn’t clear.
“This error appears to be the result of miscommunication between USIC, Bear Communications, Jet Underground, and VC Tech,” Anhalt said in the local station’s report. “Prior to the explosion, conversations occurred between representatives of each of these companies, both on and off-site, during which incomplete and inaccurate information was exchanged and relied upon.”
Barr was not on duty when the explosion occurred, according to his family members. However, they said Barr felt he needed to help evacuate and secure his business, the Barr House, which is a bar that he and his wife owned. The Barr House was leveled in the blast.
“We lost Cory. Ryan is still with us, but has a long road ahead. Volunteer Firefighters are regular people, with regular jobs, who do extraordinary things just to give back to the community. Ryan is a mechanic, he works with his hands. His face is burned, his jaw is broken in several places, he lost teeth, his hands are injured. A building fell on him, but he was up walking (with help) the next day,” according to the page.
