TOWN OF CRESCENT, WI (WSAU) — The Oneida County Sheriff’s Office has released the name of the man killed in a garage explosion on Monday.
Jared Houg, 34, was killed when items he was assembling to make his own fireworks went off, causing the explosion and fire in his garage.
Sheriff’s Officials say none of the items Houg was working with were illegal, and the incident has been deemed an accident. Captain Terry Hook says there will be no charges recommended, but the incident should serve as a reminder to be careful when working with such substances.
“Some people have [traditional] hobbies that involve things like flower making or making fishing lures, and other people have more exotic hobbies like this,” said Hook. “This kind of hobby can be really dangerous. You need to know what it is you are doing and you can’t just trust what you are seeing on the internet; [such as] in a YouTube video.”
Hook adds that they called in the Marathon County Bomb Squad to help investigate because of the nature of the materials that were present.
“A lay person doesn’t know what is explosive or what [substance] mixed with something else will turn out to be explosive. We wanted to be safe, and a bomb squad has experience with these types of things and knows what [should be moved] and how.”
The blast was reported at about 7:30 Monday evening, and Houg was pronounced dead at the scene.
