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One person killed in Waupaca County house explosion

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Emergency personnel in Waupaca County dealt with two deaths Sunday, including one in a house explosion. The man killed in the house explosion around 8:45 Sunday morning is believed to be the owner of the home. It happened near a rural intersection about five miles northeast of Manawa. The Waupaca County Sheriff’s Office reported that some debris from the explosion landed 500 feet from the residence. The state fire marshal’s office is aiding in the investigation into the cause. The identity of the man has not been released.

The second death came in a drowning Sunday afternoon in the Town of Caledonia. A 37-year-old rural Fremont man drowned in a pond behind a residence there just before 4:00 pm. The man was pulled from the water before emergency personnel arrived, and CPR was started, but the man was pronounced dead at a Neenah hospital. His name also has not been released.

WDUX

GoFundMe page set up for family of boy killed in Dane Co. farm accident

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The Dane County Sheriff’s Department has set up a GoFundMe page for the family of a boy killed in a farm accident. Eight-year-old Jefferson Rodriguez was killed one week ago when he was run over by a skid steer loader being operated by his father on a Town of Dane farm north of Madison.

Both father and son were recent immigrants from Nicaragua and have no other family in the area. The GoFundMe account was established to help with funeral expenses and to return his body to Nicaragua.

Eight children with severe lung injuries were all vaping, says Children’s Hospital

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State agencies and the Children’s Hospital are investigating a rash of lung injuries in teens that might be due to vaping.

Eight children have been brought to Children’s Hospital with severe lung problems in the last month.

Chief medical officer Dr. Michael Gutzeit says they’ve brought in the Department of Health Services to help them investigate. 

“They’re investigating the cause and perhaps the origin of that, whether it may be a singular batch or whether there might be other factors involved.”

“The focus here has been treating the primary cause and obviously trying to understand what we can do to support the patients during this difficult time that they’re having.”

One of the children remains in the hospital, the rest were treated and released. 

Beware of ‘storm chaser’ work crews who might be scammers, says DATCP

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The state division of consumer protection says travelling road crews are following last weekend’s storms and are looking to make a quick buck.

Spokesman Jerad Albract says that the scammers take advantage of people who are in immediate need of home repairs, and that people need to step back and try to take some time to think about what work needs to be done. 

“They need to take their time before they make any type of agreements. Look into finding a local contractor before they have these crews do work on their property.”

Albract says several of these crews have already been reported in northern Wisconsin. He reminds people that any legitimate contractor will not rush you to do work immediately, and will be happy to fill out contracts and file for permits to do their work. 

“Those companies can be problematic if they’re taking your money and running or if they’re doing some work that’s really questionable or could even damage your property.”

Albracht recommends finding a local, trusted contractor to complete your repairs or clean up.

Utility crews nearing completion of storm damage repair

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Work is nearly complete to restore power to northern and central Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Public Service spokesman Matt Cullen says We Energies crews have been joining them at repair sites now that most of the work in the Fox Valley is complete. 

“We certainly appreciate the patience that our customers have shown us, but especially in those hardest hit areas, the ones where we have seen extensive, very severe damage that was caused by storms.”

Cullen says WPS and We Energies have already restored power to over 250-thousand homes. 

“We’re committed to working around the clock until every customer that has been affected by these storms has had their service restored to them.”

As of Wednesday night, around 6-thousand remain without power. 

 

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Utility crews are hoping to restore power to nearly every home in northern and Central Wisconsin by the end of the day on Thursday. Wisconsin Public Service spokesman Matt

 

As of Wednesday night, only around 6 thousand W P S remain without power. 

 

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The end is in sight for those without power in the wake of last weekend’s storms. Wisconsin Public Service spokesman Matt Cullen says there’s more help on the way to finish repairs to the hardest hit areas. 

 

[wrnwpswed3] :09 “…as possible.”

 

(“We’ll be having additional crews from our sister company We Energies come up to those hardest hit areas to help us, again, make repairs as safely and as quickly as possible.”)

 

Crews have restored power to over 250-thousand We Energies and WPS customers. As of Wednesday night, only around 6 thousand are without power.

Utility crews continue to restore power to northern and eastern Wisconsin after weekend storms

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Utility crews have been steadily restoring power to homes in Central Wisconsin and the Fox Valley.

As of Monday morning, roughly 39,000 Wisconsin Public Service and 21,000 We Energies customers remain without power.

WPS spokesman Matt Cullen says anyone who is thinking of running a generator in their home should follow the instructions carefully. 

“We remind them that it must be operated outdoors in a well ventilated area. A generator should never be operated indoors or it could lead to a buildup of carbon monoxide.

Cullen says that while crews have been working around the clock to get power restored, there are still plenty of places where damage remains. 

“If they happen to encounter a downed power line, stay at least 25 feet away from it, and make sure to report it to WPS or a law enforcement agency right away.”

Utility teams have come to the area from across the Midwest to help get power restored.

Thousands without power in Madison following MG&E fire

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Thousands of people are without power in Madison, following a power station fire. Initial reports had over 13,000 Madison Gas and Electric customers are without service due to a transformer explosion and fire at MG&E’s downtown Madison facility. A second fire occurred at a substation just south of downtown. Both fires were out by 9:00 and no one was injured.

Governor Tony Evers has closed state buildings due to the outage.

With high temperatures in the mid 90s today, the Kohl Center on the UW campus has been opened as a cooling center.

MG&E crews are working to restore power. A press conference is scheduled for 11:00.

Sushi condiment cause of fire at two Madison restaurants

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The Madison fire department is putting out a warning to Japanese and sushi restaurants after two of them had fires this spring due to an unusual source.

Investigator Kara Nelson says the fires started when baskets of fried breading used to top sushi rolls caught on fire spontaneously. 

“A lot of us are very familiar with the process of spontaneous combustion. It happens with haystacks, it happens with mulch.”

Nelson says that the crumbs were fried and put into a colander to dry out, but were left hot overnight, catching on fire from the residual heat. They’re taking a closer look to try and see how these fires start and how they can be prevented. 

“Is it the type of oil that they’re using? Is it the temperature they’re cooking it at? Is it the batter they’re making? And this is out of our scope, this needs to go to a laboratory.”

She’s hoping that proper research will help business owners have a plan of best practices for dealing with the topping.

The two stores had combined damages of around 575-thousand dollars.

 

Six victims in Langlade County fire includes four children

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Six people are dead, including four children, following a Tuesday morning house fire in Langlade County. WAOW-TV reports that the victims, including four children, died in the fire of a multi-family dwelling in the community of Pickeral.

The fire was reported at around 6:30 a.m. and crews spent four hours getting the flames under control.

The children range in age from seven months to 10 years old. The adults are said to be in their 30s. Names had not been released as of Tuesday evening and the cause of the fire has not been determined.

Pickeral is an unincorporated community located on Wisconsin Highway 55, 19 miles northeast of Antigo.

WSAU

Two dead in fiery crash that closed I-94 in Racine County

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A series of crashes on I-94 in Racine County killed two people and closed down the interstate for several hours.

Sheriff Christopher Schmaling says the chain reaction crash was started by a semi in a construction zone.

“A semi tractor trailer travelling southbound on I-94 near 50th Road, made a lane change, and ultimately hit a construction barrier.”

That started a crash that shoved the median divider into northbound traffic and into oncoming cars, and forced a second semi to veer off the road where it burst into flames.

Schmaling says the actions of the semi driver in veering off the road might have saved dozens of other people at the cost of their own life. He’s calling that driver a hero.

The State Patrol is handling the overall investigation.