Excerpts from madison.com:
A search warrant states that a Wisconsin-based worker for USIC, an Indiana company that has offices all over the U.S., failed to correctly mark the gas line in the street, where it was actually located, and instead marked a spot on a sidewalk about 25 feet away where there was no gas line.
The warrant was to search the public street for evidence that could support a charge of second-degree reckless homicide for the death of Sun Prairie Volunteer Fire Department Capt. Cory Barr, who was killed July 10 when gas that poured out of a rupture in a 4-inch natural gas line was ignited. Another firefighter, Ryan Welch, was critically injured in the explosion.
The warrant sought any electronic storage devices and data stored on equipment that was being used to do underground boring at the time the gas line was struck, items related to fiber communications conduit, and sections of the gas line.
According to the search warrant affidavit:
Buildings at 100 and 104 W. Main St. in Sun Prairie exploded about 40 minutes after a gas leak had been reported to 911. Properties from 100 to 113 W. Main St., on both sides of the street, were destroyed.
Valentine Cociuba of VC Tech, which was subcontracted by Verizon contractor Bear Communications to place a fiber communication line underground for Verizon, told investigators that Bear had told him that Diggers Hotline had been called on July 9, and that VC Tech could do its horizontal-directional boring through Bristol Street and Main Street.
Work began after looking over lines painted by USIC and formulating a plan, Cociuba told investigators. He said in the southwest corner of the Bristol-Main Street intersection, he and other VC Tech employees smelled gas and called 911. He took a photo of the area with his phone before evacuating the area, which showed no “T” markings indicating an intersecting utility, such as a gas line, on the pavement. Investigators later confirmed that on the ground above the area where VC Tech struck a gas line, there were no markings indicating an intersecting utility. Instead, there was a yellow painted T on the sidewalk about 25 feet to the north of the damaged gas pipe. No gas line was located there.
Another company was called to locate the gas lines in the area and confirmed the findings.
State Department of Criminal Investigation Agent Ryan Windorff was also provided a map by We Energies showing the gas utilities in the area. The gas line was in the road, he noted, not on the sidewalk as marked by USIC.
