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POOL PHOTO BY DARRYL HUFF/KITV
A burned out car is seen near the entrance to an underground storage bunker used to hold confiscated fireworks. A fire and explosions in the bunker killed at least two people this morning.
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Two more defendants being sued over the deaths of five men in a fireworks explosion and fire at a Waikele storage facility in 2011 are hoping to settle their portion of the lawsuits.
Thomas E. Blanchard & Associates Inc. and Richard Bratt have agreed to pay
the families of the five men $1 million — the liability limit of Blanchard’s insurance policy with State Farm Fire and Casualty Co.
The families of Bryan Cabalce, Robert Kevin Freeman, Justin Joseph Kelii, Robert Leahey and Neil Benjamin Sprankle claim that Blanchard was hired to manage the fireworks that federal law enforcement agencies had seized. They claim that Bratt was a Blanchard employee.
A proposed settlement needs the approval of a federal judge.
The court previously approved a $1.5 million settlement between the families and Ford Island Ventures, which holds the master lease to the former munitions bunker where the fireworks exploded.
The other defendants include VSE Corp., which the families claim had a contract with the federal government to transport, store and dispose of seized fireworks, and Donaldson Enterprises Inc., the vender providing services to VSE.
The five men who died in the explosion and fire were Donaldson employees.