Local lawsuit for fireworks explosion settled

The only local lawsuit stemming from the deadly 2003 fireworks explosion near Bonita Springs has been settled, according to Collier County Circuit Court records obtained Wednesday by the Daily News.

Terry Krantz, owner of Naples-based Florida Truck Rentals, filed the lawsuit in September 2003 against Dittmer, Mo.,-based Sunset Fireworks Ltd., alleging unfair and deceptive trade practices, fraud and breach of contract. According to the lawsuit, supervisor Ken Kinard Jr. rented a 20-foot 1992 GMC box truck from his company on July 1. Kinard was under contract with Sunset Fireworks to haul and set up the annual July 4 fireworks display at Lovers Key/Carl E. Johnson State Park. Krantz later added Kinard’s estate as a defendant in the suit.

Collier County Circuit Court Judge Ted H. Brousseau dismissed the lawsuit on March 6 because of a settlement in the case. Details of the settlement were not available.

“It’s confidential,” Gordon Harrison, the Kinard estate’s Fort Myers-based attorney, said Wednesday of settlement terms.

He said he could not comment on whether any money was to change hands, or on any other settlement provision. Messages were left for Krantz’s attorney, Kevin Jursinski, and for Sunset Fireworks’ attorney, Eugene H. Smith, but they were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Brothers Eugene Brown, 52, and Bryan Brown, 54, of Tickfaw, La.; Kinard’s nephew, James Rooker Jr., 22, of Port St. John; and truck driver Russell Combs, 47, of Dittmer, Mo., died July 2, 2003, when part of the fireworks shipment they were handling exploded as it was off-loaded at Lovers Key for Bonita Springs’ Fourth of July fireworks display. Kinard, 42, of Cocoa, died later of injuries suffered in that explosion.

Kinard’s estate had been added as a defendant because Kinard did not tell truck company staff he planned to transport fireworks in the truck. He said he needed the truck to move furniture, Jursinski told the Daily News in 2003.

Dittmer, Mo., resident Juanita Combs was the sole survivor of the explosion. She was the wife of truck driver Russell Combs.