Ellison Bay Disaster Community Portal

Evidence doesn’t justify criminal prosecution, district attorney says

By Paige Funkhouser
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers • Green Bay Press-Gazette

STURGEON BAY — The Door County district attorney has decided not to file criminal charges against any person or business responsible for the fatal Ellison Bay explosions on July 10.

District Attorney Raymond Pelrine’s decision will not have an effect on the civil lawsuit filed on behalf of the survivors of the couple killed in one explosion, according to an attorney for the family.

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From wgba.com, VIDEO

No criminal charges will be filed in the deadly Ellison Bay Explosion that killed Patrick and Peggy Higdon last July.

See video at Link

From wbay.com

March 19, 2007 06:48 PM
By Andrew Fefer

Eight months after a series of deadly explosions in Ellison Bay, the investigation is complete and the Door County district attorney says no criminal charges will be filed.

The propane explosions rocked the small tourist town last year on July 10th. The three explosions happened within blocks of each other.

One blast caused the first floor of the Pioneer General Store to collapse, injuring one person. To the west. A second explosion at the Cedar Grove Resort happened at a building used mostly for storage. The most damage happened northwest of there, at a duplex cottage on the Cedar Grove Resort, where rescue crews found the bodies of two people who died in the explosions.

The report is hundreds of pages long and documents how a construction crew unknowingly severed a propane line at Cedar Grove Resort.

A year ago, the resort wanted an electrical upgrade at their north and south docks.

Within the report are sketches, maps, and documents showing how five different companies, most from Northeast Wisconsin, all failed to map out buried propane lines on the property.

The report goes on to say Arby’s Construction bored its way right through one of the propane lines while digging a trench July 7th.

Propane started leaking into the ground and didn’t stop for three days, fueling the explosions on July 10th.

Investigators found the leak after searching for five days.

The district attorney concludes there was negligence before the explosions but nothing criminal.

“The district attorney didn’t feel there was a high degree of criminal negligence there,” Sheriff Terry Vogel said after the report’s release.

Asked if he agreed, Sheriff Vogel said, “I concur with the D.A.’s decision on that, yes.”

To this day there’s no word on what ignited the propane. Officials say there may never be.

“For the most part we’re– our department is pretty much done with everything here. We are going to be working with this case for several years, working with some of the attorneys on the civil end,” Vogel said.

The report identifies a man who smelled a strong odor two days before the explosions but never reported it.

from wbay.com

By Sarah Thomsen

The Door County district attorney says he will not file charges against anyone involved in last July’s propane gas explosion in Ellison Bay that killed two people at the Cedar Grove Resort. A report released Monday by the sheriff’s department details the findings of the investigation, and the D.A. says nothing rises to the level of criminal negligence.

We now know Ferrell Gas installed the propane lines under the resort in the summer of 1999, and no Wisconsin law required the company to document their location.

We also know that on June 26, 2006, Arby’s Construction emailed Diggers Hotline to check for buried utilities before doing electrical work on the resort property. Two phone lines were marked but the buried propane lines weren’t.

And we know on July 7, 2006, Arby’s construction crew unknowingly damaged one of the propane lines, which started leaking into the ground. Three days later, a series of explosions rocked Ellison Bay.

Among the hundreds of pages in the report is an interview with Scott Wesa. He was fishing in the bay two days before the explosion and smelled a strong odor coming from the Cedar Grove Resort area but didn’t realize what it was.

“We were coming into the harbor in the morning, 10 or 11 A.M., and it stunk, it stunk really bad. It smelled like rotten eggs. I thought, well, they’re having all the E. coli problems up there, it’s just some sewage or something that blew in because the wind was blowing in.”

The smell drifting on to the bay was so strong it made Wesa’s eyes water and he became nauseous.

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By Andrew Fefer

Door County wants to know where and when propane distribution systems were installed to avoid accidents involving severed lines.

Last July, a propane leak caused a series of explosions that destroyed three buildings in Ellison Bay and left two people dead.

The county hopes to gather propane information so it doesn’t happen again. Just a day after those explosions, the county says, it started working to prevent another tragedy.

Mandatory registration is illegal in Wisconsin, so the county will ask homeowners and propane companies to notify the county where and then they installed their propane systems. The records will go on the county’s web site, so people can look before they dig.

County Administrator Michael Serpe says the database will be the first of its kind in Wisconsin.

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