Rhinelander native, wife, two children killed in house explosion

A Rhinelander native, his wife and two of the couple’s three children were killed in a home explosion Dec. 30 in Northfield Township, Mich.

According to published reports in the Livingston Daily and the Detroit Free Press, as well as obituaries published on the Hildebrand Funeral Home website, Don Charles Bragg, 53, his wife, Hope (Pruden) Bragg, 51, and their children Elizabeth, 19, and Kenneth, 22, were killed when a single-family home in Northfield, located approximately 45 miles west of Detroit, was leveled by an explosion.

The couple’s 16-year-old son, Stephen, and Hope Bragg’s father, Richard Pruden, survived with serious injuries.

According to published reports and the Northfield Township Police Department Facebook page, the Bragg family was based in Monticello, Ark. and was in Michigan for a visit.

“Upon arrival, police and fire personnel found a single-family residence to be completely destroyed with a debris field covering approximately 2 acres of the property,” the Northfield Township Police Department reported on its Facebook page.

In a separate Facebook post, the department reported that “preliminary Investigation (subject to change pending further analysis of evidence and interviews) reveals that an undetermined fuel air explosion caused the damage. Foul play is not suspected at this time.”

According to his obituary, Don Bragg was born in Rhinelander in 1970 and was a 1988 graduate of Rhinelander High School. He met his wife while both of them were studying forestry at Michigan Technological University in Houghton. The couple married in 1996. Since 2003, Bragg was employed as a research forester at the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern Station in Monticello. At the time of her death, Hope Bragg was an instructor of 4-H Youth Development at Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. Elizabeth and Kenneth Bragg were both college students. Elizabeth was studying child psychology while Kenneth was set to graduate this spring and planned to pursue a career in archeology.

Funeral services will be held at Nativity Catholic Church in Rhinelander. For more information, visit www.hildebrandrussfh.com.