Continue reading »]]> Mexico — Twenty-nine children were killed and more than 100 others were injured Friday when their day care center caught fire in the northwestern state of Sonora, a spokesman for the state’s governor said.

The victims were from 1 to 5 years old, said Jose Larrinaga, the spokesman.

The fire appeared to have started at 3 p.m. in a warehouse next door to the one-story concrete building that housed the state-run ABC Daycare and spread to the state-run institution, news reports said.

By then, many children had already been picked up by their parents from the one-story building. But others came after the blaze had been put out, with parents screaming their children’s names as others fainted.

In a message of condolence, President Felipe Calderon wished a quick recovery for the injured, who were taken to several area hospitals. He also called on the nation’s attorney general to investigate the fire.

Authorities dispatched 15 specialists in reconstruction and three air ambulances to the area along with respirators and specialized medicines, and a U.S. hospital will help treat some of the victims. Video Watch chaos in aftermath of tragedy »

Admissions will begin Saturday, said Catherine Curran, a spokeswoman for Shriners Hospitals for Children in Sacramento, California.

Shriners Hospitals is a health care system that gives children free treatment for burns, spinal cord injuries, orthopedic conditions, and cleft lip and palate, according to its Web site. It admits children under 18.

The first hospital opened in 1922. The system has burn units in Boston, Massachusetts; Cincinnati Ohio; and Sacramento, California.

29 children die in Mexico day care center fire

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Continue reading »]]> Fog and light winds were helping contain a wildfire that had ravaged parts of Southern California and scorched nearly 9,000 acres, authorities said late Saturday.

Mandatory evacuation orders had been downgraded to warnings in some areas in Santa Barbara County and the blaze was 40 percent contained, officials said in a news release.

The fire, which started Tuesday, had destroyed or damaged about 80 homes and buildings. Nearly 50,000 people had been evacuated, and 18 firefighters had been injured, officials said.

Cool ocean breezes, increased humidity and lack of heavy winds helped tame the fire.

“All of those together really gave us the opportunity to get in there and make a difference,” according to Fire Chief Tom Davis of Santa Barbara County, who said he thought more progress would be made by Sunday morning.

The cause of the fire was unknown.

The blaze comes about six months after another wildfire — the Tea Fire — destroyed about 200 homes in the area.

Weather helps fight against California fire – CNN.com

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This video is a series of shots of the Jesucita Fire in Santa Barbara, California on May 6, 2009. All of this footage was shot from downtown Santa Barbara only a few blocks from State Street and within walking distance to the ocean.- Scubaman5000

Continue reading »]]> Firefighters wary of unpredictable “sundowner” winds fought on Thursday to keep a wildfire that destroyed dozens of multimillion-dollar homes from burning through the city of Santa Barbara.

Although there were no further reports on Thursday of houses lost in the foothills above Santa Barbara, crews were on alert because the hot, dry winds notoriously pick up speed at sunset. Officials said about 3,500 homes remained threatened.

Some 15,000 people have been driven from their homes by the so-called Jesusita fire. It has also injured 10 firefighters and blackened at least 1,300 acres surrounding the picturesque seaside community since it ignited on Tuesday.

Calmer winds late Thursday afternoon gave firefighters the chance to make headway against the blaze, which was edging toward the more populated downtown area.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has spent recent days promoting wildfire safety throughout the state, visited the site of the first major fire of the year and said dozens of homes have been destroyed.

STUDENTS TRAPPED IN BACK-COUNTRY

“I didn’t want to lose my home. It’s that simple,” homeowner Albert Lindemann told KTLA-TV news, adding that his house ultimately was saved by firefighters who arrived just in time.

“I thought we were going to die,” he said. “Until I started seeing those firemen coming in there, I didn’t think any human being could be out there.”

The Los Angeles Times reported that search and rescue teams saved a group of middle-school students who had been camping in the backcountry and found themselves cut off by the fire.

Authorities said rugged terrain, thick brush and gale-force winds made it difficult to control the blaze. Winds died down overnight, allowing an aerial assault by water-dropping helicopters to continue round-the-clock.

Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for Santa Barbara County on Wednesday, a move that frees up additional funds and equipment. The firefighting force also was beefed up overnight, growing from more than 900 personnel to about 1,400, with additional helicopters and airplanes joining the battle.

Three firefighters whose engine was overrun by flames on Wednesday while they struggled to save a home were reported to be in serious condition at a Los Angeles burn center but were expected to recover.

In southern Arizona, fire teams said they were working to contain a blaze that torched three homes and burned 4,000 acres of mountainous grass and woodlands southeast of Tucson in recent days.

“The fire is not advancing,” Jonetta Holt, a spokeswoman for the incident management team said of the blaze near the city of Sierra Vista. “We have a line around it and we are working to secure it.”

In November, more than 200 homes were destroyed in Santa Barbara and the surrounding communities in a brush fire that was blamed on a bonfire started by local students.

Videos

• Jesucita Fire in Santa Barbara
• California WildFire May 2009

California wildfire unchecked as night falls

Continue reading »]]> The death toll from the Abruzzo earthquake reached 228 last night as a series of strong aftershocks continued to rattle through the region.

A tremor of 5.6 magnitude spread more panic yesterday evening in L’Aquila, a city once home to about 70,000 people, where the impact was felt the strongest. At least one person was reported killed as a result of the shock. Monday’s earthquake was between 5.8 to 6.3 magnitude.

All day, aftershocks hampered the rescue effort as relatives of the missing waited for news of their loved ones.

At one point rescuers looking for more bodies in a collapsed student dormitory in L’Aquila had to run from the rubble as one of the bigger aftershocks hit shortly before midday.

Ollie Hodge, 29, a rugby player from Bristol, who signed up to play for L’Aquila last year, told of his horror as he woke up in the middle of the earthquake, which also killed a teammate.

“Myself and a few of the boys from the club went out to the hospital to help. We were carrying beds down the stairs and carrying people out. You just do what you can in a situation like that. It still hasn’t sunk in yet. The scenes in the centre of town were unreal — it’s like a war zone down there. Absolutely horrendous.”

By yesterday afternoon rescue workers had all but given up hope of pulling any more survivors from the wreckage, and the men in hard hats and harnesses were looking for corpses rather than miracles.

The quake had ripped the student dormitory in two, leaving an ugly crevasse of twisted metal and crumpled air vents. In the afternoon four people were finally located but tearful emergency workers declined to say whether they were alive or dead.

In some areas of the city, rescuers were digging by hand to find any survivors. Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, said that the efforts would continue for two more days “until it is certain that there is no one else alive”.

Tent camps provided by civil protection volunteers housed some of the 17,000 left homeless by the quake, but many spent the night in the chill mountain air without blankets.

David de Angeli stood outside one of the tents, cradling a bandaged hand. He described how he had escaped from his house as the wreckage rained down, scooping up a neighbour’s ten-year-old daughter and fleeing into the street. “I still haven’t heard from my son or my grandson,” he said, bursting into tears and walking away.

Aerial footage showed the scale of the destruction in this city of Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque and Renaissance architectural treasures. Roofs were missing from modern buildings, old churches had fallen and the walls and other parts of medieval buildings had tumbled to the ground. Officials said that 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed.

Earthquake experts and the Italian media praised the rescue effort and said that the Government had responded well to the catastrophe. But, they said, the real disaster was the country’s continuing failure to take measures to limit earthquake damage and prevent deaths.

“This time the State was there for us,” said La Stampa. It added: “It is unpleasant to reflect on a catastrophe when there are still people to pull out of the rubble, but we have to do so if we are to avoid yet more pain and rage. It is not earthquakes which kill, but badly constructed buildings.”

Franco Barberi, a geologist, said in a television broadcast from a camp for evacuees at L’Aquila that “an earthquake like this in California would not have provoked a single death”.

Scale of the disaster

• 228 confirmed dead
• 17 bodies still unidentified
• 15 missing
• 50,000 estimated homeless
• 13,000 estimated number of buildings damaged or destroyed

Italian earthquake: deathtoll reaches 228 as aftershock slows rescue

Continue reading »]]> A U.S. Air Force F-22 fighter, designed to be the world’s top air-superiority aircraft, crashed Wednesday near Edwards Air Force Base, California, while on a test mission, an Air Force official said.

The Lockheed Martin Corp -built F-22 went down about 10 a.m. Central Time about 35 miles northeast of Edwards, where it had been based, said Maj. Michelle Coghill, a spokeswoman for the Air Combat Command.

“It was a test mission,” she said, citing preliminary information. She said the condition of the lone pilot was not immediately known. An investigation would take place, Coghill said.

Lockheed F-22 fighter crashes in California

Continue reading »]]> BUTTE, Mont. — A small plane — possibly carrying children on a ski trip — crashed Sunday as it approached the Butte airport, killing 14 to 17 people aboard, a federal official said. The single engine turboprop nose-dived into a cemetery 500 feet from its destination.

The aircraft crashed and burned while attempting to land, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Mike Fergus. The plane crashed in Holy Cross Cemetery.

An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board offered few details at a press conference in Butte Sunday night. No cause of the crash was given.

“We are just beginning our investigation,” said Kristi Dunks. “We don’t have a lot of information at this time.

“Certain family members were contacted,” she said. “At this point, I don’t have an exact number.”

The aircraft had departed from Oroville, Calif., and the pilot had filed a flight plan showing a destination of Bozeman, about 85 miles southeast of Butte. But the pilot canceled his flight plan at some point and headed for Butte, Fergus said.

Preliminary reports indicate the dead include numerous children, he said. There were no known fatalities on the ground, he added.

“We think that it was probably a ski trip for the kids,” Fergus said.

Martha and Steve Guidoni, who were at a gas station across from the cemetery, told the Standard that the plane “just nose-dived into the ground.”

“My husband went over there to see if he could do anything,” Martha Guidoni said.

Fergus said the Pilatus PC-12 aircraft was manufactured in 2001. Such planes are certified to carry 12 people.

The plane was registered to Eagle Cap Leasing Inc. in Enterprise, Ore., Fergus said. He didn’t know who was operating the plane.

I. Felkamp is listed in Oregon corporate records as Eagle Cap’s president. Attempts to reach him by phone were unsuccessful.

The flight originated at Brown Field Municipal airport in San Diego on Saturday evening and flew to Redlands, Calif., where it left Sunday morning for Vacaville, Calif., according to Flight Aware, a Web site that tracks air traffic. From there it flew to Oroville, Calif., and then to Butte. The NTSB could not confirm that information.

“We are still gathering the information of the aircraft, it’s purpose, what they were doing and where they were going,” Dunks said.

In California, Tom Hagler said he saw a group of about a dozen children and four adults Sunday morning at the Oroville Municipal Airport, about 70 miles north of Sacramento.

Hagler, owner of Table Mountain Aviation, described the children as ranging from about 6- to 10 year olds. He let the children into his building to use the restroom.

“There were a lot of kids in the group,” he said. “A lot of really cute kids.”

Hagler said he showed the pilot where he could fuel his plane, and the pilot said he expected his flight to take two-and-a-half hours. The pilot didn’t file a flight plan at the Oroville airport.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway said its investigators were expected to arrive in Butte late Sunday or early Monday.

The crash is the fourth major plane accident in the U.S. in slightly more than three months.

On Dec. 20, Continental Airlines plane veered off a runway and slid into a snowy field at Denver International Airport, injuring 37 people. No one was killed. In January, a US Airways jetliner landed in New York’s Hudson River after a flock of geese disabled both its engines. All 155 people onboard survived. Last month, commuter plane fell on a house in a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y., killing all 49 passengers and a man in the home.

Before the Buffalo crash there hadn’t been an accident involving a commercial airliner in the U.S. in which there were fatalities in more than two years.

The Associated Press:

Continue reading »]]> A U.S. Border Patrol helicopter went down Thursday night near the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, the FAA said.

The McDonnell Douglas 600N, with three people on board, made a forced landing because of engine trouble.

The three people were able to exit the helicopter on their own and were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Aerial images showed the chopper sitting on the edge of the surf, just north of the nuclear plant. The aircraft was significantly damaged, authorities said.

The helicopter was going from the airport in Long Beach, California, to the Brown Field airport in San Diego, said Vince Bond, the Border Patrol’s public information officer.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the case.

Helicopter goes down near California nuclear plant

Continue reading »]]> WASHINGTON – A minor earthquake shook the California coast when it erupted out to sea early Friday, the US Geological Survey said.

The 5.8 magnitude quake, hit at 5:42 am (1342 GMT) some 221 kilometers (138 miles) west of Petrolia, California and 481 kilometers (299 miles) northwest of San Francisco. Initially the center had said the quake had measured 5.4.

The reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale, now used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released.

The Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii has not issued a warning in response to the event.

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