Fire!

[Volkonski]

Survivor pulled from rubble of chocolate factory explosion in West Reading, Pa.; 2 killed

https://6abc.com/chocolate-factory-on-f ... /13013778/

Two people are dead and five others are unaccounted for after an explosion and four-alarm fire at a West Reading, Pennsylvania chocolate factory on Friday evening.

Officials say one person was found alive and pulled from the rubble overnight Saturday.

Chief of Police Wayne Holben said the rescue of one person from the rubble "provides hope that others still may be found."

Rescue workers were continuing a thorough search using specialized equipment and techniques. Officials said dogs and imaging equipment were being used to look for signs of life during the careful removal of debris.

Tower Health said Saturday that Reading Hospital received a total of 10 patients.

"Of those, one was transferred to Lehigh Valley Hospital, one to Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center, two have been admitted and are in good and fair condition, and the others have been discharged," the health system said in a statement.

The explosion is believed to have been caused by a gas leak, but officials are still investigating the cause.

A UGI Utilities spokesperson said crews were brought in after damage from the blast led to the release of gas that was helping to feed the fire.

[RTH10260]

18,000 cows killed in explosion, fire at Texas dairy farm may be largest cattle killing ever

Rick Jervis, USA TODAY
Thu, April 13, 2023 at 3:43 AM GMT+2

The fire spread quickly through the holding pens, where thousands of dairy cows crowded together waiting to be milked, trapped in deadly confines.

After subduing the fire at the west Texas dairy farm Monday evening, officials were stunned at the scale of livestock death left behind: 18,000 head of cattle perished in the fire at the South Fork Dairy farm near Dimmitt, Texas – or nearly three times the number of cattle led to slaughter each day across the U.S.

A dairy farm worker rescued from inside the structure was taken to an area hospital and was in critical but stable condition as of Tuesday. There were no other human casualties.

Special report: 'We don’t seem to learn': The West, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion, 10 years later

"It's mind-boggling," Dimmitt Mayor Roger Malone said of the number of bovine deaths. "I don’t think it's ever happened before around here. It's a real tragedy."

The Castro County Sheriff's Office was among several agencies to respond to a fire and explosion at a dairy farm near Dimmitt on Monday.
The Castro County Sheriff's Office was among several agencies to respond to a fire and explosion at a dairy farm near Dimmitt on Monday.
It was the biggest single-incident death of cattle in the country since the Animal Welfare Institute, a Washington-based animal advocacy group, began tracking barn and farm fires in 2013.

That easily surpassed the previous high: a 2020 fire at an upstate New York dairy farm that consumed around 400 cows, said Allie Granger, a policy associate at the institute.

"This is the deadliest fire involving cattle we know of," she said of the Texas incident. "In the past, we have seen fires involving several hundred cows at a time, but nothing anything near this level of mortality."




https://www.yahoo.com/news/18-000-cows- ... 01077.html

(original: USA TODAY)

[Greatgrey]

I was gonna post about this fire. 18,000…. I have a hard time wrapping my head around that. Horrible

[pipistrelle]

That’s not a farm. That’s a factory.

[Volkonski]

Alberta declares state of emergency over wildfires

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ ... 023-05-06/

Alberta on Saturday declared a provincial state of emergency after tens of thousands of Albertans have been forced to evacuate their homes as "unprecedented" wildfires rage on in Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith, head of the ruling United Conservative Party (UCP) said at a press conference.

By Saturday at 5 p.m. Mountain Time (7 p.m. ET), more than 24,000 Albertans had been evacuated from their homes, with 110 active wildfires across the province, and 36 out of control.

"It has been an extremely challenging day for firefighters here," said Christie Tucker, an information unit manager for Alberta Wildfire. "We were battling very strong winds, hot weather and those winds produced extreme wildfire activity."

She added that additional firefighters had arrived today from Quebec and Ontario.

"Much of Alberta has been experiencing a hot, dry spring and with so much kindling, all it takes is a few sparks to ignite some truly frightening wildfires," said Smith at a press conference earlier in the day. "These conditions have resulted in the unprecedented situation our province is facing today."

[Volkonski]

Reuters

Canada’s Nova Scotia is having its worst-ever fire season with more than 50,000 acres burned and 25,000 people displaced by June. Here are some of the factors causing wildfires.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ ... 023-06-02/

[Volkonski]

NJ wildfire update: Conditions improving as firefighters continue to battle blaze

https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/ne ... e-parkway/

After battling towering flames and smoky skies for more than two days, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said conditions from the Bass River State Forest wildfire are improving. However, the lack of rainfall is still creating challenges for firefighters battling the blaze.

"We've experienced some really dry conditions here over the past year, such a warm and dry winter -- no snowfall, no snowpack -- and it just set the scene," said Shawn Judy, division forest fire warden.

Smoke from the massive wildfire burning in Burlington County came together with fog rolling in Friday morning. That forced the Garden State Parkway to close in both directions for more than four hours.

[northland10]

Up in Northern Lower Michigan.

Grayling wildfire nearly contained; people urged to stay away from area

The frightening wildfire over the weekend southeast of Grayling was 90% Monday, with fire crews hoping to have full containment by the end of the day, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The agency said preliminary estimates show that the fire, which prompted a closure of Interstate 75 for much of Saturday and temporary evacuations of some homes, threatened 35 homes, 38 vehicles and 58 outbuildings, three of which burned. What the DNR is calling the Wilderness Trail Fire started Saturday with a campfire on private land in Crawford County.

[Maybenaut]

I was going to post this in the View From Maybelot thread, but there’s not much of one at the moment. The last couple of weeks the sky has been kind of hazy. Now I can actually smell the smoke. I can’t see the towns of Luray and Stanley, both of which are only 7miles from here, and usually clearly visible.

For comparison, here’s a picture from today and fromJune of last year.

DEF4BC2D-28DF-4766-A894-EA7BBE6582B0.jpeg (103.11 KiB) Viewed 4537 times

EB92C17D-2764-47CB-BAC4-7971DB13D452.jpeg (159.14 KiB) Viewed 4537 times

[AndyinPA]

Yikes. That's pretty dramatic.

[Phoenix520]

In solidarity with y’all back East my fireplace is filling the house with smoke smell even though we haven’t had a fire for a week. ( yeah, big time May grey and June gloom this year. It was in the high 40’s at night when we last had a fire) I’ve shoveled out the ashes but the afternoon wind goes down the chimney. It smells like toasted marshmallows, too also. Weird.

[Whatever4]

In solidarity with y’all back East my fireplace is filling the house with smoke smell even though we haven’t had a fire for a week. ( yeah, big time May grey and June gloom this year. It was in the high 40’s at night when we last had a fire) I’ve shoveled out the ashes but the afternoon wind goes down the chimney. It smells like toasted marshmallows, too also. Weird.

Close the damper!

[Estiveo]

Woke up around 1:30 to every siren in town going off, but just went back to sleep since they were moving away from me. Checked a community page while I was eating breakfast and...

Estiveoshot_20230628_050734.jpg (64.39 KiB) Viewed 4425 times

New mixed use retail/residential project being built downtown went up in flames.

[AndyinPA]

[Volkonski]

Fire breaks out at Dow Louisiana facility

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fire-b ... 023-07-15/

A fire broke out at Dow's (DOW.N) Plaquemine chemical facility in Louisiana, the U.S. chemical maker said in a statement late on Friday.

Everyone at the facility was accounted for and the fire was being managed by the company's Emergency Operations Center, Dow Louisiana said in a statement posted on Facebook, adding that they were in contact with officials.

Explosions at the facility in Iberville Parish shook homes in the nearby state capital, Baton Rouge, WAFB TV reported. Plant officials said they were still working to assess the cause of the incident, which began around 9:15 p.m. (0215 GMT), the CBS affiliate said.

Dow did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Iberville Parish Council Office Of Emergency Preparedness issued a "shelter in place" for residents in a half-mile radius, officials said in a Facebook post, adding that Dow's air monitoring was not picking up any readings.

https://corporate.dow.com/en-us/locatio ... siana.html

Louisiana Operations is one of the largest petrochemical facilities in Louisiana. The integrated manufacturing facility near Plaquemine and brine operations in Grand Bayou comprise the largest employer in Iberville and West Baton Rouge parishes and plays an active role in the surrounding communities.

Home to most of Dow’s global businesses, Louisiana Operations has 23 production units manufacturing more than 50 different intermediate and specialty chemical products, such as chlorine and polyethylene, that are used to produce cosmetics, detergents, solvents, pharmaceuticals, adhesives, plastics for a variety of packaging, automotive parts, electronics components, and more.

With an industrial park design, Louisiana Operations has co-located companies within the site’s borders. It offers convenient transportation options, including marine, rail, truck, and pipeline. In addition, Louisiana Operations has tremendous power and steam capacity along with the ability to treat its own waste.

[AndyinPA]

https://apnews.com/article/spain-wildfi ... 642b4a9809

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — More than 2,000 people were evacuated as a wildfire rages “out of control” on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands on Saturday, destroying around a dozen homes, authorities said.

The blaze has affected an area of about 4,500 hectares (11,000 acres) and officials warned residents that the situation could worsen because a heat wave has made the terrain tinder-dry.

“The fire has spread very fast,” Canary Islands regional president Fernando Clavijo said. “The fire is out of control.”

He said that some residents didn’t want to abandon their homes, and he appealed for people to be responsible and heed the calls for evacuation.

[Volkonski]

The fires in the western Mediterranean are getting worse.

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-66287208

[RTH10260]

[RTH10260]

Firecracker warehouse blast kills nine in southern Thailand
More than 100 injured and hundreds of homes reportedly damaged near border with Malaysia

Agence France-Presse in Bangkok
Sat 29 Jul 2023 15.47 BST

An explosion has ripped through a firework warehouse in Thailand , killing nine people and injuring more than 100, a senior official has said.

The blast in the town of Sungai Kolok, in the southern province of Narathiwat, on Saturday is thought to have been caused by welding during construction work on the building.

“A warehouse storing firecrackers in Sungai Kolok exploded this afternoon, the latest number is nine dead and 115 injured,” the Narathiwat governor, Sanan Pongaksorn, said.

“The fire is now under control. Preliminary investigation suggests the cause was a technical error during the steel-welding process, as the building is under construction.”




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... n-thailand

[poplove]

Multiple structures have burned, evacuation orders issued on Maui

https://www.kitv.com/news/local/brush-f ... bef7d.html

[Volkonski]

‘It’s apocalyptic’: People jumped into the ocean off Maui to flee wildfires Hurricane Dora helped fuel

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/09/weather/ ... index.html

The wildfires raging out of control in Maui are so catastrophic, Hawaiians are hurling themselves into the ocean to escape the flames.

Even emergency crews might not be able to help as the infernos – fueled in part by Hurricane Dora – have cut off 911 services and communications in Maui.

“911 is down. Cell service is down. Phone service is down,” Hawaii Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke told CNN on Wednesday morning.

“Our hospital system on Maui, they are overburdened with burn patients, people suffering from inhalation.”

The disaster also has wiped out power to about 14,000 homes and businesses in Maui, according to PowerOutage.us.

[Maybenaut]

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[neonzx]

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[poplove]

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[Sequoia32]

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