A large fire which erupted at a plastics plant in Brunswick, Georgia, on Saturday prompted officials to issue a shelter-in-place order for the entire city.
In a news conference Saturday evening, Brunswick Mayor Cosby Johnson said that along with the shelter-in-place order, all residents within a half-mile of the Pinova plant were under a voluntary evacuation order.
“As you can see, the wind continues to change, direction continues to change, and we want every part of our citizenry to be safe,” Johnson said.
Laurence Cargile, assistant chief for the Brunswick Fire Department, told reporters that the flames were “contained” and “under control.”
A fire burns at a plastics plant in Brunswick, Georgia. April 15, 2023.
Myra Perkins/Storyful
At the height of the fire, cell phone video showed a massive black cloud of smoke billowing hundreds of feet into the air above the city. There was no report of any injuries.
Cargile explained that a fire had initially sparked on Saturday morning. It was extinguished, but then it “rekindled” in the afternoon.
The Pinova plant, which is operated by Pinova Solutions, manufactures rosin and polyterpene resins, according to the company’s website.
The fire department for the city of Jacksonville, Florida, was one of several agencies from across the region who dispatched personnel to assist in combatting the blaze, Johnson said.
Brunswick, in southeast Georgia, is located about 70 miles north of Jacksonville. The Glynn County Board of Commissioners said that, along with crews, the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department also sent aircraft and helicopters.
“We appreciate Jacksonville bringing their expertise as well,” Johnson said.
There was still no word on the cause of the fire.
“At this time, there is no known origin,” Cargile said.
A freight train hauling hazardous materials derailed in rural Maine on Saturday morning, sparking a fire in the process. Officials said that none of the cars carrying hazardous materials were involved in the blaze.
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“Grey’s Anatomy” star Caterina Scorsone revealed in a social media post Monday that she saved her three children from a house fire “a couple of months ago,” escaping her burning Southern California residence in about two minutes.
“While getting my kids ready for bed and finishing bath time, smoke began to seep up through the grout around the tub,” Scorsone wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of the fire damage in her home. “When I looked down the hallway a river of thick black smoke had already formed and was filling the house.”
Scorsone did not provide details on the exact date and location of the fire, or whether authorities had established a cause.
Best known for playing Dr. Amelia Shepherd on the medical series, Scorsone emphasized how quickly the blaze spread, and disclosed that four pets died in the fire.
“I had about two minutes to get my three kids out of the house, and we escaped with less than shoes on our feet,” Scorsone wrote. “But we got out. And for that I am eternally grateful. Heartbreakingly, we lost all four of our pets. We are still sitting with that loss, but we are lucky we got to love them at all.”
Scorsone shared a series of photos of her three cats and dog “to say goodbye to the animals that loved us so well.”
She also thanked her “community” of family and friends who supported her family after the tragedy.
“This is a love letter to the incredible people that showed up and the incredible ways that they did,” she said, praising the firefighters, school parents and her “Grey’s Anatomy” team for their help getting her family back on their feet.
“What we learned is that the only thing that matters are the people (and beings) that you love,” Scorsone said. “The only thing that matters is community. We would not be here without it and we are so grateful.”
Family members of the 38 people killed in a fire at a migrant holding facility in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, near the U.S. border are demanding answers from the Mexican government. Jonathan Vigliotti reports on the deadliest incident inside a Mexican immigration facility in recent memory.
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The father of her three children had been picked up by immigration agents earlier in the day, part of a recent crackdown that netted 67 other migrants, many of whom were asking for handouts or washing car windows at stoplights in this city across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas.
In moments of shock and horror, Infante Padrón recounted how she saw immigration agents rush out of the building after fire started late Monday. Later came the migrants’ bodies carried out on stretchers, wrapped in foil blankets. The toll: 38 dead in and 28 seriously injured, victims of a blaze apparently set in protest by the detainees themselves.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the fire was started by migrants in protest after learning they would be deported or moved.
“They never imagined that this would cause this terrible misfortune,” López Obrador said.
People place candles outside the Migration Institute after a fire broke out at a migration facility, killing at least 38 migrants in the Mexican northern border city of Ciudad Juarez Mexico on March 28, 2023.
Christian Torres / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Authorities originally reported 40 dead, but later said some may have been counted twice in the confusion. Twenty-eight people were injured and were in “delicate-serious” condition, according to the National Immigration Institute, which ran the facility.
“I was desperate because I saw a dead body, a body, a body, and I didn’t see him anywhere,” Infante Padrón said of her husband, Eduard Caraballo López, who in the end survived with only light injuries, perhaps because he was scheduled for release and was near a door.
But what she saw in those first minutes has become the center of a question much of Mexico is asking itself: Why didn’t authorities attempt to release the men — almost all from Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela and El Salvador — before smoke filled the room and killed so many?
“There was smoke everywhere. The ones they let out were the women, and those (employees) with immigration,” Infante Padrón said. “The men, they never took them out until the firefighters arrived.”
“They alone had the key,” Infante Padrón said. “The responsibility was theirs to open the bar doors and save those lives, regardless of whether there were detainees, regardless of whether they would run away, regardless of everything that happened. They had to save those lives.”
Migrants hold a candlelight vigil outside the office of the National Institute of Migration on March 28, 2023 in memory of the victims of a fire that broke out late on Monday at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ / REUTERS
Immigration authorities said they released 15 women when the fire broke out but haven’t explained why no men were released.
Surveillance video leaked Tuesday shows migrants placing foam mattresses against the bars of their detention cell and setting them on fire.
In the video, later confirmed by the government, two people dressed as guards rush into the camera frame and at least one migrant appears by the metal gate on the other side. But the guards don’t appear to make any effort to open the cell doors and instead hurry away as billowing clouds of smoke fill the structure within seconds.
“What humanity do we have in our lives? What humanity have we built? Death, death, death,” thundered Bishop Mons. José Guadalupe Torres Campos at a Mass in memory of the migrants.
Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said it was cooperating in the investigation. Guatemala has already said many of the victims were its citizens, but full identification of the dead and injured remains incomplete.
U.S. authorities have offered to help treat some of the 28 victims in critical or serious condition, most apparently from smoke inhalation.
For many, the tragedy was the foreseeable result of a long series of decisions made by leaders in places like Venezuela and Central America, by immigration policymakers in Mexico and the United States, right down to residents in Ciudad Juarez complaining about the number of migrants asking for handouts at street corners.
“You could see it coming,” more than 30 migrant shelters and other advocacy organizations said in statement Tuesday. “Mexico’s immigration policy kills.”
Hundreds of migrants go to the migration offices on March 28, 2023 to request information about the victims of a fire inside the migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
David Peinado / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Those same advocacy organizations published an open letter March 9 that complained of a criminalization of migrants and asylum seekers in Ciudad Juarez. It accused authorities of abusing migrants and using excessive force in rounding them up, including complaints that municipal police questioned people in the street about their immigration status without cause.
López Obrador offered sympathy Tuesday but held out little hope of change.
Immigration activist Irineo Mujica said the migrants feared being sent back, not necessarily to their home countries, but to southern Mexico, where they would have to cross the country all over again.
“When people reach the north, it’s like a ping-pong game — they send them back down south,” Mujica said.
“We had said that with the number of people they were sending, the sheer number of people was creating a ticking time bomb,” Mujica said. “Today that time bomb exploded.”
The migrants were stuck in Ciudad Jaurez because U.S. immigration policies don’t allow them to cross the border to file asylum claims. But they were rounded up because Ciudad Juarez residents were tired of migrants blocking border crossings or asking for money.
The high level of frustration in Ciudad Juarez was evident earlier this month when hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants tried to force their way across one of the international bridges to El Paso, acting on false rumors that the United States would allow them to enter the country. U.S. authorities blocked their attempts.
After that, Ciudad Juarez Mayor Cruz Pérez Cuellar started campaigning to inform migrants there was room in shelters and no need to beg in the streets. He urged residents not to give them money and said authorities would remove them from intersections where it was dangerous to beg and residents saw it as a nuisance.
For the migrants, the fire is another tragedy on a long trail of tears.
About 100 migrants gathered Tuesday outside the immigration facility’s doors to demand information about relatives. In many cases, they asked the same question Mexico is asking itself.
Katiuska Márquez, a 23-year-old Venezuelan woman with her two children, ages 2 and 4, was seeking her half-brother, Orlando Maldonado, who had been traveling with her.
“We want to know if he is alive or if he’s dead,” she said. She wondered how all the guards who were inside made it out alive and only the migrants died. “How could they not get them out?”
Three children died Saturday morning in a fire at a home in Baltimore, authorities said.
Firefighters rescued the three children and two adults from the burning home before sunrise, the Baltimore Fire Department said on Twitter. Just before 5:30 a.m. local time, firefighters arrived on Bradhurst Road where a two-story house was on fire with heavy smoke, authorities said.
Fatal Fire just before 5:30am units were dispatched to the 800 block of Bradhurst Road were they came upon a two story dwelling with heavy smoke and fire showing after a primary search FF discovered victim the cause of death will be determined by the ME. fire under investigation pic.twitter.com/8WB9U65ubx
Three people were killed, and three others injured, in a house fire near Auburn, Georgia, early Saturday morning as multiple propane tanks exploded, officials said.
Just after midnight, firefighters responded to reports that there had been an explosion in a house on Hidden Acres Road in the Winder area, and that multiple people were trapped, Barrow County Emergency Services said on its Facebook page.
“Explosions were going off inside the home” when firefighters arrived just after midnight, Barrow County Fire Chief Alan Shuman told news outlets.
3 people were killed in a Georgia house fire when multiple propane tanks exploded. March 11, 2023.
photo via Barrow County Emergency Services
Shuman said the house collapsed from the fire. Two patients were taken by ambulance, and the third by helicopter, to area hospitals, Barrow County Emergency Services said. Their conditions were not confirmed.
Three people were found dead inside the home, Barrow County Emergency Services said. Officials have not released the victims’ names.
“This is a very tragic event that resulted in loss of life and injuries to others,” Shuman said. “The firefighters and medical personnel on the scene did a great job under the circumstances. We also want to remind citizens that it is extremely dangerous to have propane cylinders stored in your home, or any other structure.”
Once the fire was contained, multiple propane cylinders were found in the home, which had resulted in the explosions, Barrow County Emergency Services said.
The Office of the Barrow County Emergency Services Fire Marshal is leading an investigation into the incident with the help of the Georgia Fire Marshal’s Office and Barrow County Sheriff’s Office.
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A group of coworkers in Seattle sprang into action when they saw their neighbor’s building was on fire – with dozens of dogs inside. Strangers came together to help a man named Cash, who found himself living on the street.
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Five people, including two children, were killed in a house fire in Spring Valley, New York early Saturday morning, authorities said.
“We have a tragedy on our hands,” said Rockland County Executive Ed Day at a press conference providing details on the fire.
At 4:03 a.m. multiple 911 calls reported a fire at a two-dwelling residence at 118 Lake Street. Fire and police arrived at the wooden structure to find the home engulfed in flames and reports of numerous people trapped inside, said Rockland County Fire Coordinator Christopher Kear.
“Numerous attempts and multiple efforts were made to get into the building, but the conditions weren’t good and it was impossible,” said Kear.
The fire was under control by 4:40 a.m., authorities said, but they were not able to rescue the people inside. The victims’ bodies were found on different floors of the dwelling; three victims were found on the second floor, and two were found on the first level.
“We believe the victims were found on the first floor due to a collapse from the second level,” said Kear. The structure of the house was destroyed by the blaze.
Release of victim names and ages is pending until proper notification of the families, authorities said.
A firefighter was injured and was treated at the scene. Five other people were injured during the fire and taken to local hospitals, authorities said.
One person, a male, jumped out of the second-floor rear window, said Kear.
The current condition of the five injured people is unknown, authorities said, and it was not said which hospitals they were brought to. It is unclear how many people were currently residing in the house at the time of the fire, authorities said.
In 2021, the home had a violation was for missing smoke detectors, but that violation was subsequently cleared, said Day.
Police are investigating the causes and origins of the fire.
“The investigation is in its infancy,” said Spring Valley Police Chief Rick Oleszczuk.
Indonesian rescuers and firefighters on Saturday searched for more than a dozen missing under the rubble of charred houses and buildings, after a large fire spread from a fuel storage depot in the capital and killed at least 18 people.
The Plumpang fuel storage station, operated by state-run oil and gas company Pertamina, is near a densely populated area in the Tanah Merah neighborhood in North Jakarta. It supplies 25% of Indonesia’s fuel needs.
At least 260 firefighters and 52 fire engines extinguished the blaze just before midnight on Friday after it tore through the neighborhood for more than two hours, fire officials said.
Footage showed hundreds of people running in panic as thick plumes of black smoke and orange flames filled the sky.
Residents walk though the rubble at a neighborhood affected by a fuel depot fire in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, March 4, 2023. A large fire broke out at the fuel storage depot in Indonesia’s capital Friday, killing multiple people, injuring dozens of others and forcing the evacuation of thousands of nearby residents after spreading to their neighborhood, officials said.
Tatan Syuflana / AP
A preliminary investigation showed the fire broke out when a pipeline ruptured during heavy rain, possibly triggered by a lightning strike, said Eko Kristiawan, Pertamina’s area manager for the western part of Java.
Residents living near the depot said they smelled a strong odor of gasoline, causing some people to vomit, after which thunder rumbled twice, followed by a huge explosion around 8 p.m.
Sri Haryati, a mother of three, said the fire began to spread about 20 minutes later, causing panic.
“I was crying and immediately grabbed our valuable documents and ran with my husband and children,” Haryati said, adding that she heard smaller blasts that echoed across the neighborhood as orange flames jumped from the depot.
Rescuers were searching for 16 people who were reported missing or separated from their families amid the chaos. About 42 people were receiving treatment in five hospitals, some of them in critical condition.
National Police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo said more than 1,300 people were displaced and taking shelter in 10 government offices, a Red Cross command post and a sport stadium.
He said investigators were still working to establish the cause of the fire and questioning dozens of witnesses.
Pertamina’s head Nicke Widyawati apologized and said the company would provide help to the community and cooperate in the investigation.
“We will carry out a thorough evaluation and reflection internally to prevent similar incidents from happening again,” Widyawati said in a statement, adding that the company ensured the safe supply of fuel oil.
People examine the damaged at a neighborhood affected by a fuel depot fire in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, March 4, 2023. A large fire broke out at the fuel storage depot in Indonesia’s capital Friday, killing multiple people, injuring dozens of others and forcing the evacuation of thousands of nearby residents after spreading to their neighborhood, officials said.
Tatan Syuflana / AP
On Saturday, grieving relatives gathered at a police hospital’s morgue in eastern Jakarta to try to identify their loved ones. Officials said the victims were burned beyond recognition and could only be identified through DNA and dental records.
In 2014, a fire at the same fuel depot engulfed at least 40 houses, but no casualties were reported.
Indonesia’s State Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir told reporters that the government will remap safe zones for residential areas away from vital objects.
He said the incident showed the Plumpang area is not safe for the community, and the government is planning to move the fuel storage depot to Tanjung Priok port in northern Jakarta.
As diversity statements in faculty hiring are increasingly scrutinized by Republican-controlled state legislatures, a new survey suggests that faculty members themselves are sharply divided on the issue.
The survey, the results of which were released Tuesday by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, asked about 1,500 faculty members which description of diversity statements more closely aligned with their view: “a justifiable requirement for a job at a university” or “an ideological litmus test that violates academic freedom.” Half of respondents endorsed the first option, and half identified with the second.
Colleges often require or request diversity statements as part of applications for faculty jobs; candidates typically must explain how they have contributed to supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in their academic careers. Supporters say the statements can help increase faculty diversity, ensure that the extra service work done by scholars of color — often called “invisible labor” — is recognized, and assist institutions in hiring professors who are ready to work with a diverse student population. Critics say the statements force academics to agree with progressive beliefs.
Political ideology influences faculty members’ views on mandatory DEI statements, according to the FIRE survey results. Three-fourths of liberal faculty said they were a justifiable requirement, while 56 percent of moderate faculty and 90 percent of conservative faculty considered them an ideological litmus test.
While politics is a factor, it’s not the only driver, said Nathan Honeycutt, a research fellow at FIRE who helped author a report on the survey results. While there’s a narrative that most professors support diversity statements, Honeycutt said, some faculty might be afraid to share their real opinions on the statements publicly.
“Given the context and the conversations we hear surrounding DEI, it seems like many faculty are on board,” he said. “That’s why so many universities are instituting these things, but as the numbers from our study suggest, it’s even hotly contested among faculty.”
As the use of DEI statements has become increasingly common among colleges over the past five years, the debate about them has become more heated. Some states, including Utah, West Virginia, Florida, and Texas have introduced legislation in the last two months that would ban mandatory DEI statements.
FIRE has publicly opposed DEI statements. The organization released model legislation aimed at banning such requirements on February 16.
The report noted that FIRE’s involvement with the faculty survey could have affected the results. Faculty members who identified as conservative made up 26 percent of respondents and thus were slightly overrepresented in the sample compared to other recent faculty surveys, according to the report. The survey was designed by FIRE and conducted by a market-research firm; faculty respondents came equally from a FIRE database and an education consulting firm’s database. The 1,500 professors all worked at four-year public and private colleges. The survey was conducted from July to August 2022.
The survey also found that 52 percent of faculty are afraid of losing their jobs or reputation due to a misunderstanding of their words or actions, their words or actions being taken out of context, or something from their past being posted online.
Honeycutt said it’s disheartening that faculty are so scared of losing their jobs, since academics should be able to study and discuss any topic. He worried that faculty members’ job-security fears could chill the advancement of research, with scholars afraid to challenge the established canon.
“We seem to have a climate today which is also reflected in the data, where a lot of faculty don’t feel comfortable speaking up about things,” he said.
The survey also asked faculty members whether they would support a college conducting a formal investigation into a professor, based on several hypothetical scenarios. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they’d support an investigation if a professor told a class that “all white people are racist.” Twenty percent said they’d support an investigation if a professor told a class that “it’s racist to say that all white people are racist.”
Honeycutt said he hopes faculty who feel they have to self-censor their work realize they aren’t alone after reading the report.
“We really need courageous faculty, faculty who can dissent even when it might be uncomfortable, who can ask difficult questions, who can confront those who are censoring others, or who have the courage to publicly support colleagues who are speaking up,” he said.
Club owners opened up for the first time after deadly fire kills 100. “48 Hours” contributor Jim Axelrod reports. Watch Saturday, Feb. 11 at 9/8c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
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This photo taken with a drone shows, on Feb. 4, 2023, portions of a Norfolk and Southern freight train that derailed on the night of Feb. 3, 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio.
Gene J. Puskar / AP
Officials monitoring the smoldering, tangled wreckage of a train derailment in northeastern Ohio urgently warned hundreds of nearby residents who had declined to evacuate to do so Sunday night, saying a rail car was at risk of a potential explosion that could launch deadly shrapnel as far as a mile.
They warned of “the potential of a catastrophic tanker failure” after a “drastic temperature change” was observed in that rail car, according to a statement from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office that said teams were working to prevent an explosion at the scene in East Palestine. It didn’t specify what was in that car or whether it was among those that had been carrying hazardous materials.
Authorities urged anyone within a one-mile radius of the site to leave immediately. Many had, but local officials indicated more than 500 residents had declined to leave, the statement said.
Arrests of people staying put were possible, CBS Pittsburgh reported:
The Columbiana County Emergency Management Director told CBS Pittsburgh the condition of one of the derailed train cars carrying hazardous materials has degraded and that there’s now a much higher concern about an uncontrolled release and explosion of the car.
Early Monday morning, a small explosion was caught on video as crews continued to work to put out the burning rail cars, CBS Pittsburgh reports:
NEW: Small explosion captured by #SkyEye2 early Monday as crews continue working to put out burning rail cars in East Palestine after a train derailment Friday. Police have evacuated most of the town fearing a much larger explosion. @KDKApic.twitter.com/v1G0tbGRVg
Federal investigators had announced earlier Sunday that a mechanical issue with a rail car axle caused the fiery derailment near the Pennsylvania state line Friday night.
In this photo provided by Melissa Smith, a train fire is seen from her farm in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3, 2023. A train derailment and resulting large fire prompted an evacuation order in the Ohio village near the Pennsylvania state line.
(Melissa Smith via AP)
Michael Graham, a board member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference that the three-member train crew received an alert about the mechanical defect “shortly before the derailment” but said the board was still working to determine which rail car experienced the issue.
About 50 cars derailed in East Palestine as a train was carrying a variety of products from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, rail operator Norfolk Southern said. No injuries to crew, residents or first responders were reported.
Graham said investigators identified the exact “point of derailment” but didn’t disclose the location Sunday. He said information will be included in a preliminary investigative report expected in the next month or so.
East Palestine officials said emergency responders were monitoring but keeping their distance from the fire, and that remediation efforts couldn’t begin while the cars smoldered.
Mayor Trent Conaway, who declared a state of emergency in the village, said one person was arrested for going around barricades right up to the crash during the night. He warned that more arrests would follow if people didn’t to stay away.
“I don’t know why anybody would want to be up there; you’re breathing toxic fumes if you’re that close,” he said, stressing that monitors of air quality away from the fire showed no levels of concern and the town’s water is safe because it’s fed by groundwater unaffected by some material that went into streams. Environmental protection agency crews were working to remove contaminants from streams and monitor water quality.
Sheriffs went door-to-door Sunday to count residents remaining and urge people within the evacuation area to leave. Schools and village offices will be closed at least through Monday, and businesses within the evacuation zone aren’t allowed to open Monday, officials said.
Norfolk Southern said 20 of the more than 100 cars on the train were classified as carrying hazardous materials – defined as cargo that could pose any kind of danger “including flammables, combustibles, or environmental risks.”
The NTSB said only 10 cars carrying hazardous materials derailed, and five of them were carrying vinyl chloride, not 14 as was said earlier. Officials stressed late Saturday that they hadn’t confirmed the release of vinyl chloride other than from pressure release devices operating as designed.
Vinyl chloride, used to make the polyvinyl chloride hard plastic resin in a variety of plastic products, is associated with increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute.
“Short-term exposure to low levels of substances associated with the derailment does not present a long-term health risk to residents,” according to a “Frequently Asked Questions” post on the village Facebook page. “Vinyl chloride and benzene may cause cancer in people exposed in the workplace to high concentrations for many years; however, there is no indication that any potential exposure that occurred after the derailment increases the risk of cancer or any other long-term health effects in community members.”
Officials said Sunday afternoon that cars involved also carried combustible liquids, butyl acrylate and residue of benzene from previous shipments, as well as nonhazardous materials such as wheat, plastic pellets, malt liquors and lube oil.
The evacuation order covered homes of 1,500 to 2,000 of the town’s 4,800 to 4,900 residents, but officials said it was unknown exactly how many were actually affected. Most of those who had gone to an emergency shelter were no longer there by Sunday.
Norfolk Southern opened an assistance center in the village to gather information from affected residents. Village officials said 75 people went to the center Saturday and about 100 had been there Sunday morning.
Chile extended an emergency declaration to another region on Saturday as firefighters continued to struggle to control dozens of raging wildfires. At least 22 people have died in connection to the fires, and 554 have been injured, including 16 in serious condition, according to Interior Minister Carolina Tohá.
The death toll is likely to rise as Tohá said there are unconfirmed reports of at least 10 people missing.
Firefighters work a forest fire in the Valparaiso Region, Chile.
JAVIER TORRES via Getty Images
The government declared a state of catastrophe Saturday on La Araucanía region, which is south of Ñuble and Biobío, two central-southern regions where the emergency declaration had already been issued, allowing for greater cooperation with the military.
The fires come at a time of record high temperatures.
Sixteen of the deaths took place in Biobío, five in La Araucanía, and one in Ñuble.
The deaths included a Bolivian pilot who died when a helicopter that was helping combat the flames crashed in La Araucanía. A Chilean mechanic also died in the crash.
A woman walks on a bridge during the fires in Renaico, Araucania region, Chile.
JAVIER TORRES via Getty Images
Over the past week, fires have burned through an area equivalent to what is usually burned in an entire year, Tohá said in a news conference.
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A train derailment and resulting large fire prompted an evacuation order in an Ohio village near the Pennsylvania state line on Friday night, covering the area in billows of smoke lit orange by the flames below.
About 50 cars derailed in East Palestine as a train was carrying a variety of freight from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, rail operator Norfolk Southern said in a statement Saturday. There was no immediate information about what caused the derailment. No injuries were reported.
Local officials notified residents that an evacuation order remained in place Saturday morning for people within a mile of the scene. A high school and community center were opened to shelter dozens of people, while residents beyond that radius were urged to stay inside.
In this photo provided by Melissa Smith, a train fire is seen from her farm in East Palestine, Ohio, Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. A train derailment and resulting large fire prompted an evacuation order in the Ohio village near the Pennsylvania state line on Friday night, covering the area in billows of smoke lit orange by the flames below. (Melissa Smith via AP)
Melissa Smith / AP
The few dozen residents sheltering at the high school included Ann McAnlis, who said a neighbor had texted her about the crash.
“She took a picture of the glow in the sky from the front porch,” McAnlis told WFMJ-TV. “That’s when I knew how substantial this was.”
Mayor Trent Conaway told reporters that firefighters from three states responded due to the location of the derailment about 51 miles (82 kilometers) northwest of Pittsburgh and within 20 miles (32 kilometers) of the tip of West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle.
Freezing temperatures in the single digits complicated the response as trucks pumping water froze, Conaway said.
Hazmat crews also responded to the scene to determine whether hazardous materials were involved, he said.
Norfolk Southern said it has personnel on-site coordinating with first responders.
The fire created so much smoke that meteorologists from the region said it was visible on weather radar.
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A three-alarm fire displaced 105 residents from a Miami Gardens apartment building Saturday, authorities said. No injuries had been reported so far.
“We had numerous occupants still in their apartment with a raging fire, coupled with the wind pushing relatively quick,” Miami Dade County Fire Chief Raied “Ray” Jadallah said during a press conference on the challenges confronting rescue teams to contain the fire.
Miami Dade Fire Rescue teams respond to heavy fire that displaced 105 residents.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue
Heavy smoke and fire enveloped the two-story apartment building when firefighters arrived at 10:28 a.m. local time near the 39500 block of NW 177 Street.
About 75 units were affected by the fire, with a partial roof collapse, Jadallah said. Almost half of those units were destroyed as a result, he added.
Miami Dade fire rescue units work to stabilize an apartment building after a three-alarm fire.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue
Numerous service organizations, including the Red Cross and homeless services, were on-site to assist residents that cannot return to their apartments, the chief said. Fire crews were working to stop the spread of the fire by monitoring and putting out hot spots.
Fire officials don’t have an official cause for the fire, and it is an ongoing and active investigation, the chief said.
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Paris — Hundreds of thousands of commuters and regional travelers in France faced cancellations or delays Tuesday after hundreds of electrical cables on the Paris rail network were deliberately set on fire, according to the French rail authority.
The Gare de l’Est station in Paris was hardest hit and was all but shut down for the day. That station serves the French capital’s eastern suburbs and links Paris to towns and cities in eastern France and neighboring countries, with a daily footfall in the hundreds of thousands.
Passengers wait in the main hall during a total traffic shutdown at the Gare de l’Est train station in Paris, France, January 24, 2023.
THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty
SNCF, France’s state-owned national rail company, said a fire was discovered by an employee in the early hours of Tuesday morning and he raised the alarm.
At first the company thought it was an accidental fire and that the shutdown would last only a few hours, but then it became clear that the clusters of cables that power the signals for the entire Paris rail network had been deliberately targeted.
A police investigation was underway into the sabotage. Investigators have said the vandals broke through protective casings and set fire to clusters of cables, damaging some 600 cables in all.
By Tuesday afternoon, SNCF was warning that the damage and disruption caused by the fires was so significant that normal services still might not be restored on Wednesday.
Screens display a traffic alert message at a platform entrance during a total traffic shutdown at the Gare de l’Est train station in Paris, France, January 24, 2023.
THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty
In the Gare de l’Est, passengers milled about, unsure of how to organize their onward travel. Departure boards showed high-speed TGV trains to the eastern cities of Strasbourg and Reims, and destinations in Germany and Luxembourg all cancelled.
Regional trains from the station were also cancelled, and the commuter line to Paris’s eastern suburbs was at a standstill.
French Transport Minister Clément Beaune told reporters it was “a scandalous act of vandalism” that should be punished “severely.”
He said investigators had found traces of gasoline “at two key points” at the site of the fire.
The incident was “quite extraordinary, very serious,” Beaune said.
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After burning in direct flames for more than three minutes, wood treated with Fire Terminator … [+] maintains its integrity.
Fire Terminator
There is no shortage of media coverage on the housing industry right now. Most of it points to rising prices and the lack of affordability. Missing from most of those stories are the escalating costs and ever increasing requirements to build homes.
There are hundreds of inputs into the cost of a home, including land, labor, regulation, and materials. However, in the age of climate crises, there is more focus on finding the perfect, protected land, the right materials, and following the regulations that hopefully are written to keep the home and owner safe in the advent of a climate event.
While all of that sounds incredibly rational, pressure is on for builders to lower costs. The National Association of Home Builders doesn’t have average construction cost increases for housing, but offered average construction values instead.
The group’s chief economist Rob Dietz shared with me that US Census permit data shows that the average construction value, which does not include land, increased 78% since 2015 – going from $166,276 to $295,965 in 2021.
Dietz added that values have been increasing due to rising regulatory costs, rising material costs, limited lot availability, and skilled labor shortages among other factors.
“Moreover, it is an average, so if entry level homes are simply not built, it rises as an average,” he said. “And that has happened.”
Burning Up
Wildfires are just one climate event adding pressure to the housing industry. USA Today reported that in 2022 there were 65,000 wildfires in the US, adding up to more than 7 million burned acres.
Nonprofit research organization First Street Foundation reports that more than 20 million properties across the US are threatened by at least “moderate” wildfire risk, or have up to a 6% chance of being in a blaze at some point in the life of a 30-year mortgage.
During these fires, homes are destroyed, and at the same time, building codes are revised and become more complicated to navigate. Plus, surrounding land becomes more expensive, all adding to the costs to build again.
PolicyGenius reported on the risks in the most fire-prone states and the meanings of the risk. For instance, Colorado has 2.2 million homes and the number of those at risk sits around 17%. In 2021, the state’s worst year for wildfire losses that were tracked by insurance, it added up to $450 million. At an even higher risk is Idaho, where 26% of homes are at risk.
Even though this data shows the significant risks to homeowners, Colorado’s legislative efforts to require fire-resistant construction materials have not been successful. At the same time, the number of homes being built in the wildfire prone areas is growing, and in Colorado has more than doubled between 1990 and 2020.
There continues to be a snowball effect. The more wildfires that occur, the more land is susceptible to the burning, the more homes are at risk, the more costs increase for finding land and building homes.
The US Fire Administration shows that the amount of the wildland urban interface, or the zone between development and wildlife, is growing by nearly two million acres per year. The group also reports that homes in 70,000 communities worth $1.3 trillion are now within the path of a fire event.
According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, adopting and carrying out building codes is the most effective mitigation strategy. In 2019, the National Institute of Building Science published a report underlining this finding. The report showed that implementing the International Code Council’s 2015 International Wildland Urban Interface Code saved $4 for every $1 invested and that bringing existing buildings up to that code could provide up to $8 in benefits for each dollar spent.
Blazing Innovative Solutions
A hand with FireGuardia core compound withstands the heat from a blow torch blasting more than 3452 … [+] degrees Fahrenheit.
Idalma R. Vicente
Former fire chief and now chief scientific officer at FireGuardia, Oscar Dominguez, is working to commercialize a fireproof plastic he invented in 2002 to bring the 100-year-old fire detection and suppression techniques used today up to date.
“Many insurance carriers are refusing coverage or won’t renew policies when homes are built in fire prone zones,” said Heather Towsley, president and chief executive officer at FireGuardia. “The demand for greater smart home construction technology could accelerate homeowner insurance incentives for using more sophisticated home fire suppression technology – much like water conservation and solar panel rebates.”
She shares that the FireGuardia solution can retrofit without driving up costs. The product can be applied to a number of construction materials to make them fireproof.
The company has a focus on bringing the solution to scale with an incredibly affordable coating product, targeting between $50 to $60 per 5-gallon bucket where other solutions land between $180 to $600, and hopes to be available later this year after an investment round.
The FireGuardia home fire suppression system integrates detection, suppression and a software tool. It also is nontoxic, sustainably sourced, and has low VOC output, taking out the poisonous materials that have historically been used in fire retardants, so there would be no hazardous material to clean up post fire.
Towsley shared an example of the product’s performance. In the first 20 seconds of a piece of Kevlar subjected to fire, it rose to 360 degrees Fahrenheit. A FireGuardia-coated piece of paper only reached 100 degrees in that time.
Another similar solution is from Singapore-based Fire Terminator. Judah Jay is the founder, inventor and scientist behind this plant-based, liquid technology that provides an aerodynamic shield on each molecule of a combustible material, like the wood and drywall used to build homes.
Jay’s technology comes from work on combustion research for aerospace applications that he did in the 1980s with Russian, Bulgarian and other Eastern European scientists.
“Once you introduce heat to our product, free radicals are produced that negate the combustion molecule that fuels the fire,” Jay said. “Without combustion, the fire cannot start or spread. That is how we can prevent and extinguish any fire. The higher the temperature, the more free radicals are produced, therefore, the better the performance of our product. Once the fire is extinguished, it can no longer be reignited.”
Jetfire Xin is the company’s business developer and is working on ways to commercialize the innovation across North America. Fire Terminator’s goal is to provide every homeowner with a home protection product. The product will be sold by the liter, retailing at $20. After mixing, one liter can cover 172 square feet.
In addition, treating wood with Fire Terminator makes it incombustible and protects it against insect infestations and mold. A coating process over the wood can also be done, which would substantially increase its resilience against fire damage.
Finally, Xin points out that homes and buildings that are equipped with sprinkler systems can add Fire Terminator into the water in the system to prevent a fire from spreading, putting it out quickly.
Home Design to Minimize Risk
California builder Connect Homes incorporates design features to minimize fire risk while also … [+] helping owners feel connected to the natural landscape.
Connect Homes
California builder Connect Homes has been focused on thoughtful design meant to minimize the risk of fire damages. Its homes are designed without eaves, which prevents flying embers from blowing up into the attic and starting a fire. The roofs also have a specific rating to be effective against severe fire exposure.
Plus, the builder also sources non-combustible exterior sheathing and finishes for the most dangerous areas. Connect Homes selects dual-pane glass exterior doors and windows to reduce the chance of breakage that typically occurs due to the extreme heat of a wildfire.
Gordon Stott, co-founder of the home building company, underlines the value of creating defensible space with limited landscaping.
“For me, it’s that balance of knowing that lovely landscaping could turn into a liability,” he said. “Another feature of our prefab system is the extensive use of floor-to-ceiling glass. I’ve been impressed with how floor-to-ceiling glass can sometimes overcome limitations of more limited landscaping. Standing in a modern house, feeling connected to the outdoors often still feels pretty great, even with limited landscaping and if the plant action is far away.”
Bottom line is that building and rebuilding isn’t the answer. Neither can any solution live on an island. There has to be industry-wide collaboration for the right regulations, the most innovative designs and products, along with ways to reduce the costs to bring these solutions to reality.
