COTTONWOOD

Southwestern Minnesota communities looking to support 3 friends recovering from severe burns in bonfire accident

Tom Cherveny — Sun, 18 Apr 2021 04:51:44 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — They’re often called the “three amigos” or the “three musketeers.”

Today, the three graduates of Lakeview High �� in Cottonwood are in the Hennepin County Medical Center burn unit, where they’re separated by walls but not by spirit.

Cole Busack, 20, of Echo, Brody Bloch, 18, of Wood Lake, and Lane Louwagie, 20, of Echo, are recovering from extensive burns they suffered while gathered around a bonfire with other friends in rural Granite Falls in the early morning hours of April 11. A flammable liquid had been poured on the fire and injured the three as well as two others who needed to be transported for medical care.

RELATED:

Update: Five young men burned Sunday at bonfire in rural Granite Falls identified
Parker Viaene Obituary

The three friends were transported by air ambulance to HCMC. Two others, Carter Timm, 20, of Echo, and Jacob Lymer, 18, Wood Lake, were treated at the Avera Granite Falls hospital.

They had all joined around the bonfire to share memories and console one another over the loss the preceding day of their friend and fellow Lakeview graduate, Parker Viaene, 20. Viaene had died in an ATV accident on April 10.

While Viaene’s loss is being grieved, many are looking for ways to assist the three young men. Accounts have been started to collect donations for the three victims to help them and their families with the expenses they face for medical care, as well as the lost income they need for rent and other needs.

“They were always friends,” said Kathleen Preuss, of Wood Lake, who launched the accounts on behalf of Bloch. He grew up across the street from Preuss.

Bloch is on a ventilator with second-degree burns to his face and second- and third- degree burns to his hands and torso area. He tested positive for COVID-19 and has to be kept isolated until May 2.

Family members have been devastated by the separation, but are reaching out to him with phone and video connections every day, Preuss said. When he heard the voices of his family, “his vitals really got better,” she said.

An avid waterfowl hunter and fisherman, he always lives life to the fullest, she said. He has a lot of friends and family support, and he’s one tough guy, she said.

Louwagie suffered burns to 60 percent of his body, including his face, legs and torso area. He has first-, second- and third-degree burns.

Busack suffered second- and third-degree burns to the back of his legs, according to his father, John Busack.

All three of the men are undergoing daily cleaning of the wounds, and will undergo skin grafting and other procedures in the recovery ahead. Family members have already been advised of the excruciating pain they will continue to endure through the recovery process.

Busack and Louwagie have been able to communicate via electronics, according to Shari Vien, a friend of the Louwagie family. Her daughter is Louwagie’s girlfriend.

“Lane has such a huge heart,” said Vien. She is hopeful that support from friends and the larger community will help him and his friends in their recovery.

Family and community support is very important, Vien said.

The loss of a former classmate and friend and the subsequent trauma of the event and burn injuries to their friends has been hard for all of the young people, Vien noted.

To assist the burn victims, the following accounts have been established. A Go Fund Me account was to be established for Cole Busack after press time, and can be accessed by going to the Go Fund Me website and searching for Cole Busack.

To assist Brody Bloch:

On GoFundMe.com — search for Brody's Healing Fund. On Venmo and go to @Tamar/Bloch

To assist Lane Louwagie:

On GoFundMe.com — Search for Raising donations for Lane Louwagie On Venmo @Lane/Louwagie Funds can be sent directly to:
Citizens Alliance Bank
Attn: Lane Louwagie Benefit
PO Box 276
Echo MN 56237

To assist Cole Busack:

A GoFundMe.com account was to be established for Cole Busack after press time and can be accessed by searching for Cole Busack.

Southwestern Minnesota communities looking to support 3 friends recovering from severe burns in bonfire accident

A graduation day photo of three Lakeview high schools friends: Brody Boch (from left), Cole Busack and Lane Louwagie. The three Lakeview High �� graduates who was severely burned April 11 in a bonfire accident at a rural Granite Falls, Minnesota, location. Submitted photo

Brody Bloch

Lane Louwagie

Cole Busack

A photo of Parker Viaene from his April 2021 obituary. Source / Hamilton Funeral Home, Marshall, Minnesota

Brody Bloch of Wood Lake, Minnesota, and an unidentified friend are shown in this undated photo. Bloch is one of the three teenagers from Lakeview High �� who was severely burned April 11 in a bonfire accident at a rural Granite Falls, Minnesota, location. Submitted photo

Brody Bloch of Wood Lake, Minnesota, is shown in the undated photo. Bloch is one of the three teenagers from Lakeview High �� who was severely burned April 11 in a bonfire accident at a rural Granite Falls, Minnesota, location. Submitted photo

Southwestern Minnesota communities looking to support 3 friends recovering from severe burns in bonfire accident

Brody Bloch

Lane Louwagie

Cole Busack

A photo of Parker Viaene from his April 2021 obituary. Source / Hamilton Funeral Home, Marshall, Minnesota

Southwestern Minnesota communities looking to support 3 friends recovering from severe burns in bonfire accident

Brody Bloch

Lane Louwagie

Cole Busack

A photo of Parker Viaene from his April 2021 obituary. Source / Hamilton Funeral Home, Marshall, Minnesota

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Over 3 lbs of meth, incendiary device found during raid near Cottonwood

Forum News Service — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 19:06:17 GMT

COTTONWOOD, Minn. — More than three pounds of methamphetamine and an incendiary device were found by law enforcement Thursday, Sept. 17, during the raid of a suspected methamphetamine lab in rural Yellow Medicine County, according to the CEE-VI Drug and Gang Task Force.

Agents executed a search warrant at rural Yellow Medicine County residence near Cottonwood where they located a suspected liquid methamphetamine conversion lab, according to the news release from the task force. They recovered 3.55 pounds of methamphetamine in various stages of the conversion process, along with chemicals and pieces of equipment commonly used to convert liquid methamphetamine into crystal form.

Agents also found a Molotov cocktail type incendiary device which was disposed of by the Bloomington Bomb Squad. Bay West Environmental Services was engaged to assist with the cleanup and disposal of chemical products found inside the residence.

The case is still under investigation.

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Guatemalan in fatal 2008 school bus crash pleads guilty to U.S. re-entry

Nick Ferraro / St. Paul Pioneer Press — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 22:10:15 GMT

ST. PAUL — A Guatemalan woman deported in 2016 after serving eight years in a Minnesota prison for causing a school bus crash that killed four children has pleaded guilty to re-entering the United States illegally, the U.S. attorney’s office announced Monday, Feb. 3.

Olga Marina Franco del Cid, 36, entered the guilty plea Monday before Judge Susan Richard Nelson, while also admitting to a charge of falsely using a Social Security number on a Form I-9, which is meant to verify employment eligibility in the United States.

A sentencing date has been set for June 11.

Acting on a tip, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Franco del Cid on Nov. 26 at a residence in Inver Grove Heights. A day earlier, a family member had reported her missing.

In February 2008, Franco del Cid was driving a minivan near rural Cottonwood in southwestern Minnesota when she drove through a stop sign and crashed into a school bus full of children, killing four and injuring 17 more.

After the crash, Franco del Cid gave police a false name and claimed to be a Puerto Rican citizen, but investigators determined that she was a Guatemalan national and in the U.S. illegally.

During her trial the following August, Franco del Cid told jurors that her boyfriend had been driving the van at the time of the crash, but she said the impact of the crash ejected him from the vehicle and threw her partially into the driver’s seat.

Franco del Cid was convicted on 24 separate charges, including four counts of criminal vehicular homicide, and sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. She served eight years at the women’s prison in Shakopee before being released and deported.

While she was in prison, Franco del Cid began corresponding with a Minnesota man. The couple married in 2009 and they have a child together, but Harvieux filed for divorce in October, according to a court document.

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ICE arrests woman involved in fatal 2008 Minnesota school bus crash

Nick Woltman / St. Paul Pioneer Press — Thu, 28 Nov 2019 00:39:31 GMT

INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, Minn. — A Guatemalan woman, who was deported in 2016 after serving eight years in a Minnesota prison for causing a school bus crash that killed four children, was arrested Tuesday evening, Nov. 26, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials for reentering the United States illegally.

Acting on a tip, ICE agents arrested 36-year-old Olga Franco del Cid at a residence in Inver Grove Heights, according to agency spokesman Shawn Neudauer. She will remain in custody while ICE awaits a charging decision from the U.S. attorney’s office, Neudauer said.

A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Erica MacDonald did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Franco del Cid was reported missing Monday by a family member, according to Inver Grove Heights Police Chief Melissa Chiodo.

Inver Grove Heights police were not involved in her arrest, but the department was notified by ICE after the fact, Chiodo said.

Franco del Cid was driving a minivan near rural Cottonwood in February 2008 when she drove through a stop sign and crashed into a school bus full of children, killing four and injuring 17 more.

After the crash, Franco del Cid gave police a false name and claimed to be a Puerto Rican citizen, but investigators determined that she was a Guatemalan national and in the country illegally.

She was convicted on 24 separate charges, including four counts of criminal vehicular homicide, and sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. Franco del Cid served eight years at the women’s prison in Shakopee before being released and deported.

While she was in prison, Franco del Cid began corresponding with Jerome Harvieux, now 36 and living in Maple Grove. The couple married in 2009 and they have a child together, but Harvieux filed for divorce in October, according to court documents.

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Video of Minnesota boy seeing color for the first time helps to raise money for colorblind students

Washington Post — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 19:46:46 GMT

To Jonathan Jones, who is colorblind, the periodic table of elements hanging on the wall in his seventh grade science classroom in Minnesota looked like rows of indistinct squares. Then, he put on a pair of glasses that allow him to see shades of color.

He could barely believe what he was seeing. The periodic table seemed to glow with green, purple, pink and yellow - colors he never knew were there.

In a now-viral video of the moment, Jonathan looks around and smiles and laughs along with his classmates, giving everyone a thumb's up. Then he takes the glasses off and puts his hands over his face, overcome with emotion. Suddenly, he's sobbing.

"I've been in education for 25 years, and to see that reaction on his face, and that pure joy and overwhelming happiness and sadness, all those emotions at once, was just an awesome experience," said Scott Hanson, principal of Lakeview High �� in Cottonwood, Minnesota.

The glasses were handed to Jonathan, 12, by Hanson, who is also color blind. Hanson got a pair for Christmas two years ago and brings them into seventh-grade science during the lesson on genetics, because color blindness is an inherited condition. He said this is the first time he was able to share the glasses with a color blind student.

Jonathan's parents, Carole and Don Jones, were in the classroom when Jonathan put on the glasses for the first time. When they saw his reaction to the colors around him, they knew they had to figure out how to pay for the glasses, which are typically $269 to $429.

"It wasn't a question of if, just how we were going to budget this," said Carole Jones, a 47-year-old food blogger.

Once the family set aside the money and bought Jonathan a pair, they wanted a color blind classmate of Jonathan's to also have his own pair of the glasses, which have optical filters that enhance the perception of color for people with color blindness.

Since the video went viral last week, family, friends and even strangers were messaging the Jones family offering to contribute money for Jonathan so he could get the glasses. So they decided to create a GoFundMe with a goal of $350 to buy a pair for Jonathan's classmate.

The fundraiser has since raised more than $27,000, and Jones said the money will go toward purchasing glasses for other color blind students who can't afford them. The company that makes the glasses, EnChroma, said it will work with the Jones family and donate a pair of glasses for each pair purchased with the money from the fundraiser.

Kent Streeb, a spokesman for EnChroma, said there isn't a limit to the number of glasses the company will contribute. The company, which advocates for more color blind testing in schools, believes students are at a disadvantage when they can't see color in class.

Some states require that schools test for colorblindness, but many, like Minnesota, don't.

"There are kids sitting in class who don't understand why they might not be picking up on some things," Streeb said.

Jonathan's two older brothers figured out this week that they have the same genetic color blindness as their brother, and EnChroma said they'd also give them each a pair of glasses, according to Carole Jones.

Jonathan has started wearing the pair his parents bought him to class, and told his mother how much it has helped him. Earlier this school year, he had to repeatedly ask his biology lab partner for help when differentiating between lab instructions written in red and black. Now, he can do the assignment without asking for a hand.

He tried to describe to his mother why he had such an emotional reaction the first time he put on the glasses.

"The colors just attacked me, mom," he told her.

This article was written by Meryl Kornfield, a reporter for The Washington Post.

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Ruptured pipeline in western Minnesota may have been intentionally damaged

Carolyn Lange / Forum News Service — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 23:19:00 GMT

COTTONWOOD, Minn. — A broken pipeline that caused an undetermined amount of diesel fuel to flow into a drainage ditch and the Yellow Medicine River may have been intentionally damaged.

The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said a suspect has been identified for allegedly damaging the pipeline Wednesday night, April 24, near Cottonwood and causing diesel fuel to leak into downstream waters.

The issue has been turned over to the Lyon County Attorney’s Office for consideration of charges.

The ruptured pipeline was reported at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday when operators at Magellan Midstream pipeline control center observed a pressure drop associated with their eight-inch refined products pipeline near Cottonwood.

Representatives from Magellan Midstream, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, closed the valves on the system Wednesday night and fuel was found to be leaking from a small hole in the pipeline.

The leak was stopped around 10:30 p.m. and crews began working to recover the product.

In a news release issued Thursday afternoon, Bruce Heine, media contact with Magellan Midstream, said crews at the scene are focused on containment and recovery operations along the drainage ditch.

“We have made significant progress recovering a high percentage of the available diesel fuel in the drainage ditch, which ultimately flows into the Yellow Medicine River,” he said.

Heine said, however, that “minor remnants of a petroleum sheen have passed through the containment areas along the drainage ditch into the Yellow Medicine River. We are continuing cleanup operations on the drainage ditch.”

He said repairs on the affected segment of the pipeline have not yet begun and because of that, the segment of Magellan’s pipeline between Willmar and Marshall will remain out of service.

Cottonwood is about 54 miles southwest of Willmar.

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Minnesota keeps Palmer amaranth at bay by pulling by hand, blow torching

Tom Cherveny — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 00:22:28 GMT

COTTONWOOD, Minn. - Propane blow torches, herbicide, the sharp blades of mowers, hand pulling, and most important of all, the vigilant eyes of landowners.

These are among the weapons the Minnesota Department of Agriculture has employed to eradicate Palmer amaranth from 30 conservation plantings in Yellow Medicine and Lyon counties.

And so far, it's been working.

"I think everything we have been doing has been successful, but there is just a series of things we need to keep doing to keep sure we're not getting any mature plants out there,'' said Anthony Cortilet, noxious weed program coordinator with the Department of Agriculture.

He said the department is in the process of employing someone to work full time on the eradication effort this year.

The state launched its eradication effort after it was discovered that 13 landowners had unknowingly spread seed mixes containing Palmer amaranth on the 30 conservation sites last year. The contaminated seed was tracked to a family-owned company in Cottonwood, Minn.

News that Palmer amaranth had been found in Minnesota raised alarm bells in the agricultural community.

Cortilet said the Department of Agriculture has been receiving a number of calls from farmers and crop consultants about suspect plants they have found this year, and some have sent in samples.

"So far so good,'' said Cortilet during a phone interview Friday. None of the samples have proven to be Palmer amaranth.

Sometimes termed a super weed, Palmer amaranth is an annual broadleaf native to the southwestern U.S. It is difficult to control, can significantly reduce corn and soybean yields if not managed, and has a hard, woody stem that disrupts harvesting, according to published reports.

The contaminated seed mixes were spread on only about 175 acres total in Minnesota. Still, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack to find the weed amidst the conservation plantings, according to Cortilet. On a 40-acre site, maybe 40 to 80 Palmer amaranth plants could be found, he explained.

The Minnesota Conservation Corps sent workers with propane blowtorches to the fields last fall to eradicate any plants that were found before they could produce seed. A single plant can produce up to 500,000 seeds, so all of the effort has been focused on not letting one female plant mature to that point.

Cortilet said they have also applied herbicide on many of the acres, and landowners have also done their own mowing and hand pulling.

If needed, more flame weeding, mowing and hand pulling will occur this season.

Flowering could start in early August if there any plants that escape detection. The flowered plants must be pollinated before they produce seeds. The flowered plants are easy to spot, so Cortilet remains optimistic that they could be eradicated before producing seeds.

Cortilet said the affected landowners have been very cooperative, and vigilant.

"We're really lucky to have some very knowledgeable people that are familiar with their lands, know what they are doing and what they are looking for now. They've been the biggest help we could ask for,'' he said.

The eradication effort on the 30 sites will be ongoing, and Cortilet is optimistic about its outlook. But he cautions that vigilance is still needed.

The plant has been found in conservation and crop fields in many Iowa counties, he said.

"The potential for it to keep spreading into the state is there, unfortunately,'' Cortilet said. "We can't prevent that from happening, but we can do our best by letting these growers know the issue in cleaning equipment and being vigilant about what they buy and where they buy it from and all that kind of stuff.''

No state has been able to stop Palmer amaranth as it continues to spread beyond the Southwest. The last stand is here.

As Cortilet likes to point out: "How many states north of Minnesota are there?"

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