Kurtis and Joshua Popp

According to their mother, Kurtis and Joshua Popp were "just being idiots" when they allegedly set off a military-grade flare that started the fire at the Patrick Cudahy plant.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Two brothers suspected in the launching of a military flare that ignited the fire at the Patrick Cudahy meat plant on the Fourth of July weekend were having fun at a barbecue and "they were just being idiots," their mother said Thursday.

"They didn't know it was going to get this far," said a woman who identified herself as the mother of Kurtis Popp, 25, and Joshua Popp, 23.

Kurtis Popp was arrested Wednesday and was in the Milwaukee County Jail on Thursday night while the Milwaukee County district attorney's office determines charges in the case.

Joshua Popp is on inactive duty with the U.S. Marines, lives in California and is cooperating with authorities who are making arrangements to fly him back to Milwaukee, his mother said.

Authorities announced Thursday that an arrest had been made in the case and that a second suspect was being brought to Milwaukee County from out of state.

In an afternoon news conference at the Cudahy Police Department, Chief Thomas Poellot said the investigation into the fire led authorities to a residence in the 3600 block of E. Holmes Ave., from which a military illumination flare that started the fire is believed to have been fired.

Poellot said a pyrotechnics expert determined the flare was not of a commercial or consumer grade, and investigators do not believe the fire was intentionally set.

It would be illegal for a civilian to possess a military-grade flare, said Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern, who was also at the news conference.

Military-grade flare?

It's illegal for anyone in Cudahy to use or possess fireworks without a valid permit. Only "sparklers, stationary cones, toy snakes, smoke devices, toy caps, noisemakers, confetti poppers with less than one-fourth grain of explosive grain, and fountains that do not whistle, emit flames or explode" are legal in Cudahy.

Posted on CudahyNow, Rachel Mosey writes:

The Cudahy Police Department is reminding residents and visitors to leave the fireworks to the professionals this 4th of July.

The law prohibits the discharge of fireworks in the city. A fireworks permit issued by a fireworks stand is not valid in Cudahy.

“The only big bangs we want to hear on July 4th are the ones at Sheridan Park,” said Police Chief Thomas D. Poellot. “We encourage everyone to come down to the lakefront and watch the city’s great fireworks display.”

The fine for violation of the fireworks ordinance in Cudahy is $167.

Under Wisconsin law, anyone who possesses or uses fireworks without a valid permit, or who sells fireworks to a person without a valid permit, is subject to a $1,000 fine per violation. Each firework illegally possessed, used or sold may be a separate violation.

...“Our officers will be watching and listening for fireworks in Cudahy neighborhoods and in the crowds at Sheridan Park,” Poellot said.

Although fireworks are illegal, that doesn't keep people from using them.

Joshua Popp has served two tours in Iraq and received the Purple Heart, a medal that hung from his mother's front door as she spoke with a reporter.

She said Kurtis Popp lives in Milwaukee, and the two had a party at her house the night of July 5 while she was not home.

She said she didn't learn they were involved in the incident until Wednesday night and said her sons intended no harm or damage.

The woman also said repeatedly that she was very distraught over the incident.

The blaze, which burned for about three days, caused more than $50 million in damage, forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents and idled most of the plant's 1,800 employees.

I believe that the mother is distraught over the $50 million fire.

Although her remark about her sons' "just being idiots" might be taken as an effort on her part to minimize the seriousness of the incident, I don't think that's the case.

The media dwelling on that quote makes for a good angle for the story.

Can you believe that mother would say her sons were "just being idiots"?

I think she's referring to the stupidity of her sons' behavior. I'm sure she's very aware of the scale of their "idiocy."

The woman's next-door neighbor, Nathan Bronson, 22, said about 10 people attended a barbecue in the Popps' backyard the night the five-alarm fire began. Bronson, a Marine reservist who did not attend the party, said he heard firecrackers and bottle rockets being shot from the yard throughout the night.

The matter of the Popps' allegedly possessing and firing a flare that is not a consumer grade adds another dimension to this story.

That issue aside, even though consumer grade fireworks are illegal in Milwaukee and Cudahy and other communities, people so often tend to look the other way when they hear or see them being used.

I wonder how many calls police get from people reporting the illegal use of fireworks.

The laws prohibiting the possession and use of fireworks are routinely broken.

Obviously, breaking those laws can lead to disaster.

"Idiots" Kurtis and Joshua Popp should be thankful that no one was killed in the blaze, though a firefighter did suffer a back injury.

...Kurtis Popp's attorney, Julius Kim, said he could not confirm whether Popp was directly involved in the incident but characterized the situation as "a terrible, terrible accident."

"There was no malicious intent," Kim said. "This was not an act of domestic terrorism. This wasn't a person who had a beef to pick with this plant."

Kurtis Popp is employed and attends school part time, but Kim said he did not want to reveal more personal information about his client.

"Kurtis and his family, they're all good people," Kim said. "They're good, hard-working people, longtime members of the community. . . .  They appreciate the gravity of what happened here, and that jobs have been lost and there's been a lot of property damage and lives were put in harm's way. . . . Certainly from their standpoint, they understand the seriousness of the situation and they feel horrible that it occurred, too."

..."In criminal law, we prosecute people and we punish people based upon a lot of times what their intent was and whether they were trying, in fact, to harm people," he said.

"When people do things that may have been absent-minded or foolish, it's a difficult decision as to what you do in those situations. This appears to be one of those situations."

It's more than "absent-minded or foolish" to set off a military flare in a densely populated and developed area.

Assuming there was in fact no malicious intent, the degree of the "idiocy" is enormous.

It can't really be a considered a "terrible, terrible accident" when one chooses to break the law.
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On a related note, I wonder if anyone will be receiving that $16,000 reward "for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the fire."