A Wisconsin bonfire explosion reportedly left dozens burned Friday night, according to Fox 11 News.
The explosion occurred in the town of Maple Grove and resulted in some victims being airlifted to Milwaukee for medical care, according to Fox 11 News. The Shawano Country Sheriff’s Office has yet to provide an exact number of burn victims or details regarding the severity of injuries stemming from the incident. The bonfire was reportedly held to celebrate the Pulaski High School homecoming, according to NBC 26.
Jen Ziech said her nephew Brandon experienced severe burns in the explosion and “saw 2 kids with a gas can” just prior to the blast, Fox 11 News reported. Shawano County Detective Craig Rekoske confirmed in a press release that “an accelerant was applied to the fire causing the fire to expand out of control,” according to Fox 11 News.
Pulaski Community School District offers resources after bonfire explosion https://t.co/NO7rEFRY1D
— NBC 26 News (@NBC26) October 17, 2022
Ziech said that Brandon explained how the individuals with the “gas can” reportedly “threw it into the fire and it blew up, so it was basically like a bomb,” according to Fox 11 News.
Shawano Country Sheriff Adam Bieber told FOX 11 that an investigation into the explosion remains ongoing and that no one is currently in custody. (RELATED: Grass Fire Destroys Multiple Homes, Displaces Balch Springs Residents)
The Pulaski Community School District released a statement outlining accessible resources to aid the community in recovery from the blast, according to NBC 26.
The bonfire explosion follows a September explosion of a residential building in Chicago. The month of August saw another blast that killed three in Indiana, and another at a Google data center which caused major outages.