Family sues Avon, Burlington after teens drowned
Lucas Brewer and Anthony Nagore died in July 2021
The estate of a 15-year-old Plainville boy who drowned last year along with a friend in the rain-swollen Farmington River is suing the towns of Avon and Burlington along with organizations and businesses deemed responsible for controlling a dam and posting warnings in a popular swimming area.
Lucas Brewer and 17-year-old Anthony Nagore, who was visiting from Arizona, were pulled from the river on July 19, 2021 after a five-day search. The Chief State Medical Examiner’s Office found both died by accidental drowning.
Along with the two towns, the suit filed in Hartford Superior Court names as defendants the Farmington River, Salmon Brook and Pequabuck River watershed associations, the Lower Farmington River and Salmon Brook River Scenic Committee, Stanley Black & Decker and the Farmington River Power Co.
The defendants were negligent, the suit contends, in failing to maintain and control the Lower Collinsville Dam and pump house off New Road in Avon, where the boys went to swim on July 15, 2021. At the time, the water level in the river was six or seven times higher than normal, a state official said at the time.
The defendants knew or should have known about “dangerous, defective, hazardous and/
or inappropriate conditions created by the flow of water, dam and/or pump house(s) and should have taken measures to remedy and correct the same but this they carelessly and negligently failed to do,” the suit stated.
Defendants also failed to install fencing or post warnings when they knew or should have known that water conditions in the area were unsafe, the suit said. The defendants’ negligence destroyed Lucas’ life and his ability to earn wages, the suit
said.
Brewer was born in Bristol on Jan. 23, 2006. He loved to swim, according to his obituary, and was excited to start his sophomore year at Plainville High School and play football. He played Pop Warner Football since elementary school and competed in travel basketball leagues. When he wasn’t playing team sports, he was riding dirt bikes, swimming or meeting up with friends at the park, according to his obituary.
Nagore’s obituary said he was
born in Tucson, Ariz., on May 14, 2004, and has called “many places home” throughout his life. He lived in Tucson and Bucklin, Kan., and had spent his last three summers in Plainville.
“Anthony was a fun-loving, yet hard-working young man,” his obituary said. “Anthony could light up a room with his smile and was always respectful with a pure heart of gold.”