Date: 2/19/2009 COATESVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A 19-year-old was charged Thursday with setting at least seven fires in an arson-plagued steel town, including a block-long blaze that displaced dozens of people last month. Roger Leon Barlow Jr., of nearby Downingtown, was charged with arson, aggravated assault and related counts. He was arraigned Thursday afternoon and […]
Date: 2/19/2009 By KRISTEN GELINEAUAssociated Press Writer WHITTLESEA, Australia (AP) — The electrician’s tools were incinerated, the trucker’s rig reduced to a useless, burned shell. The deadly wildfires that swept southern Australia destroyed more than lives — they destroyed livelihoods. As the days since the Feb. 7 blazes wear on, the needs of the survivors […]
Date: 2/15/2009 By TANALEE SMITHAssociated Press Writer WHITTLESEA, Australia (AP) — Australians mourning the lives lost in horrific wildfires last week sought comfort at churches Sunday even as firefighters continued to battle a dozen blazes still burning in the state. Fire engines raced past the small, 140-year-old Christ Church in Whittlesea while the Archbishop of […]
Date: 2/14/2009 SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — Ten people who built a campfire won’t be charged with igniting a wildfire last fall that destroyed more than 200 homes in Santa Barbara and neighboring Montecito, prosecutors said Friday. Santa Barbara County District Attorney Christie Stanley said investigators could not prove who caused the wildfire that blackened […]
Date: 2/14/2009 By COLLEEN LONGAssociated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Two tenants were acquitted Friday of creating a deadly maze of illegal walls in their apartment building, forcing two firefighters responding to a blaze to jump to their deaths. Caridad Coste and Rafael Castillo had faced manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and other charges that […]
Date: 2/14/2009 By KRISTEN GELINEAUAssociated Press Writer SYDNEY (AP) — Outrage over the Australian wildfires that killed more than 180 people last week was white hot after police said some of the blazes may have been deliberately set. The prime minister said the culprits should “rot in jail,” and government officials threatened the maximum charge: […]
Date: 2/13/2009 By TANALEE SMITHAssociated Press Writer MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Authorities charged a man Friday with lighting one of the wildfires that killed more than 180 people in Australia, and whisked him into protective custody to guard him from public fury. Police said the suspect was charged with one count of arson causing death […]
Date: 2/5/2009 By AMY WESTFELDTAssociated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers tracking Sept. 11 responders who became ill after working at the World Trade Center site found many had lung problems years later in a study the authors said proves persistent illness in people exposed to toxic dust caused by the twin towers’ collapse. […]
It is very sobering to realize how many people are affected by carbon monoxide every year. These incidents always go up during natural disasters or power outages, like the one affecting so many right now. As much as we hear about carbon monoxide in the news, we rarely hear how many pets die. Smaller and […]
Date: 1/29/2009 By KRISTIN M. HALLAssociated Press Writer PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) — Storm-battered residents of several states hunkered down in frigid homes and shelters Thursday, expecting to spend at least a week without power and waiting in long lines to buy generators, firewood, groceries and bottled water. Utility companies in Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Arkansas and […]