Bonfire Explosion Kills Brother And Sister During Graduation Ceremony

ST. CLAIR TOWNSHIP (WWJ) - A St. Clair County family is grieving after a brother and sister were killed Saturday night by a bonfire explosion. It happened on Gratiot Road during a graduation party for 18-year-old Savannah Blewett.

Her brother, 27-year-old Christopher Blewett, poured gasoline on the wood -- only to have it explode when Savannah put a flame to it, police said.

"He's a grown adult, who put the -- constructed the pit," St Clair County Sheriff's Tim Donnellon said. "You know ... it's an accident; this is not a situation where somebody ... threw a 5-gallon can of gas on a bonfire with people sitting around. It was not something like that. This was strictly just a terrible accident."

Several other people were hurt, but are expected to be OK.