Federal Regulators Cite Contractors For Safety Violations In Sun Prairie Gas Explosion

Federal safety regulators have cited two contractors for their failure to locate a gas main that exploded during work in a Madison suburb in July. Officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) say a V-C Tech employee punctured the line while installing fiber optics, resulting in an explosion that leveled half a city block in Sun Prairie and killed firefighter Corey Barr. The U-S Labor Department announced today (Thursday) that OSHA cited V-C Tech and the contractor that hired the firm, Kansas-based Bear Communications, 12-thousand-934 dollars each on January 4th. The citations assert that neither contractor contacted We Energies, the utility that owns the line, or Digger’s Hotline to ascertain the gas main’s location.