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| Situation Update No. 1 Ref.no.: EX-20091230-24355-USA
Situation Update No. 1
On 2009-12-30 at 06:39:55 [UTC]
Event: Explosion
Location: USA State of Wisconsin Bremer Manufacturing Saint Anna
Number of Deads: 1 person(s)
Number of Injured: 9 person(s)
Situation: An explosion at a foundry in southern Calumet County left one firefighter dead and nine others injured, one seriously, Tuesday night, according to Sheriff Gerald Pagel. Pagel, who declined to immediately identify any of the victims, said no initial indication was made of what caused the blast at Bremer Manufacturing, which is located just west of the rural locality of St. Anna. The scene is not far from Fond du Lac and Sheboygan counties. Pagel said the state fire marshal and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were being called in to assist with the investigation. Pagel said one of his officers on patrol saw a fire on the Bremer grounds about 7:20 p.m. and called for the St. Anna Fire Department to respond. No employees were at the foundry at the time of the fire. Bremer officials could not be reached for comment. Megan Wilcox, a spokeswoman for Appleton-based ThedaCare, said one firefighter was in critical condition at Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah after being flown there by ThedaStar helicopter. She had no information about the victim’s identity or extent of injuries. The other eight firefighters had nonlife-threatening injuries and were treated at Calumet Medical Center in Chilton. Two were in stable condition and six were treated and released, according to Lisa Cruz, a spokeswoman for Affinity Health System. Their identities were not released. Alice Thome, who lives about a quarter-mile from the foundry, said she heard an explosion some time before 8 p.m. “It sort of shook everything,” she said. David Boll, who lives about a half-mile from the site, said he heard the blast at about 7:50 p.m. “It rocked the house,” he said. Boll immediately drove to the scene. “There was a large plume of white smoke in the sky,” he said. Boll said he left after he saw firefighters were already on the scene. He said officials blocked off about a one-mile stretch of County Q. Bill Braun, who lives about 500 feet from the blast, said he was home with his wife Linda Suda at the time. He thought something had exploded inside his house. “It just shook everything,” he said. “Things fell off the wall. It just rocked the house. It was just a bad explosion.” Braun said he went to the blast scene and said the front of the Bremer building did not appear to be damaged. “You wouldn’t think the building would still be standing. This was a real bad explosion,” he said. Suda said she thought a car had hit their house. “We have cracks in the wall that we didn’t have before,” she said. “It was massive.” Suda said this event will be difficult for the area. “It’s a really close-knit community,” she said. “Everybody knows everybody, and everyone is related.” After the explosion, the New Holstein and Kiel fire departments relieved St. Anna firefighters at the scene. Also responding were New Holstein first responders and the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Department. |  | | | |
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