This property in the Shawano County town of Maple Grove, seen Oct. 18, 2022, is the location of a bonfire explosion that injured dozens of current and former Pulaski High School students four days earlier.
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Five civil lawsuits filed separately in the wake of the bonfire explosion near Pulaski have been merged into one case.
Benjamin Van Asten; Isaac Nelson and his parents; Brady McAllister and his father; Brandon Brzeczkowski; and Matthew Lindsley filed separate civil lawsuits against the same three defendants: Allan Eron, Samuel Armstrong and Tyler Frisch. They were some of those injured when a partially filled drum of diesel and gasoline was tossed on to a fire at a home in the town of Maple Grove on Oct. 14, 2022, causing an explosion.
In Brown County, cases are assigned to judges as each case is filed. As each of the five cases were filed separately, they were assigned separately, and were randomly distributed to four different judges. Currently, only two have status conferences scheduled.
But according to court documents filed this week, the attorneys for the plaintiffs, defendants, and their insurance companies asked the court to merge them.
“IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED, by and between the parties hereto, by their respective counsel, that all parties and claims related to the incident that form the basis of the controversy in Brown County Case Numbers 23-CV-1459, 23-CV-1460, 23-CV-1461, 23-CV-1463, and 23-CV-1609 could have been brought as a single action, arise out of the same accident and involve common questions of law and fact, and should be consolidated pursuant to Wis. Stat. 805.05. Consistent with the statute, this matter may continue as a consolidated action in a single case to be assigned by the Brown County Circuit Court Administrator,” one document states.
“This request is based upon a finding that all of these lawsuits involve similar issues and arise out of the same common nucleus of operative fact, all of the parties are necessary parties to each of the lawsuits, and because separate trials would result in a waste of judicial resources,” another brief states.
On Friday, Judge Kendall Kelley signed an order granting the merger motion.
Separate from the civil cases, there also has been criminal court associated with the explosion. One person was prosecuted in juvenile court, while Armstrong was convicted of 13 counts of injury by negligent use of an explosive. He will be sentenced April 11.
According to the criminal complaint, police responded to the Cedar Drive address in Maple Grove on Oct. 14, 2022, after multiple teens were admitted to local hospitals after the explosion.
When police talked to Armstrong, he said he had been asking someone who lives at the house “all night to throw the barrel in the fire and finally at approximately 10:50 pm, (that person) told him to “just do it.”
“After the barrel was thrown onto the fire, it was approximately half a second and the fire began shooting out. (Armstrong) indicated he backed away from the firepit and then went over to put the fire out that was burning VICTIM #4,” the complaint states.
After the fire was out, several people assaulted Armstrong, he said.
“Armstrong was asked about his alcohol consumption. He stated he consumed approximately 6 drinks. He indicated he was drinking Bush (sic) Light,” the complaint states.
The complaint then details accounts from some of the others at the party.
“Upon (the juvenile who charged) dropping the drum, Samuel Armstrong took his end of the drum and threw it into the flames of the fire. Instantaneously, I felt a really high volume of heat on my face and observed a very large eruption of flame all around me. I then observed multiple people running from the area of the fire. Multiple people were actively burning,” one witness is quoted as saying.
The Shawano County Sheriff’s Department has said at least 17 teenagers suffered burn injuries out of about 60 that were at the bonfire.
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