By Vicky Wedig
Staff Writer
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Sept. 9 for an East Troy man charged with causing an explosion that burned his friends.
Kevin A. Budzien, 25, was charged Aug. 8 in Walworth County Circuit Court with two counts each of second-degree recklessly endangering safety and injury by negligent handling of fire and negligent handling of burning material.
According to the criminal complaint:
As friends were sitting around a campfire at a home on Stone School Road in the Town of East Troy on June 1, an explosion came from the fire, burning Nicholas Kortykowski and Brooke Joecks, both of whom were taken to St. Mary’s Burn Unit in Milwaukee for treatment of their injuries.
Andrew Heck, who lives at the Stone School Road home, told police he and his friends had trouble starting the fire, so they poured waste oil on it, according to the complaint.
Heck said Budzien put waste oil in plastic bottles and placed them on the fire. At one point, Heck said, Budzien put a capped vodka bottle half filled with waste oil into the fire, according to the complaint.
