720 ILCS 5/29D-15.1 – Causing a Catastrophe
This law makes it a serious crime to cause a huge disaster that hurts people or damages buildings or important places.
This Illinois law says it’s against the law to purposely cause a big disaster like an explosion, fire, flood, or release of something poisonous or dangerous that harms many people or buildings.
(a) A person breaks this law if they knowingly cause a big disaster. This can include things like an explosion, fire, flood, building collapse, or the release of poison, radiation, bacteria, viruses, or any other dangerous substance that’s hard to control.
(b) In this law, a “catastrophe” means any of these things:
- Serious physical injury to 5 or more people.
- Major damage to 5 or more buildings or places where people live.
- Serious damage to an important public place that makes it hard or impossible to use. This includes hospitals, police stations, fire departments, power companies, the military, defense sites, or emergency service agencies.
(c) Sentence: Causing a catastrophe is a Class X felony, which is one of the most serious types of crimes in Illinois.
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