Fire
Fire inside a parked train's private compartment kills nine in southern India
A fire erupted inside a stationary train compartment at a railway station in southern India killing nine people on Saturday morning, officials said.
The blaze broke out early at 5 a.m. and burned for two hours before firefighters were able to put it out, authorities said.
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It started inside a train's private compartment which was detached and parked on the railway tracks in the Madurai station, located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, according to a statement by the Southern Railway.
A gas cylinder smuggled in by some passengers caused the fire, the statement read, adding that police, fire and rescue officials helped pull out the bodies from the coach. There was no damage to other coaches.
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Southern Railway did not divulge the number of people inside the compartment at the time of the fire but said many managed to get out.
Officials told the Press Trust of India news agency that 20 others were injured and taken to hospital.
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Accidents are common on India's railroad network, one of the world's largest, with some 22 million passengers daily. Most collisions and fires are blamed on poor maintenance and human error.
In June, a deadly train collision killed over 290 people in one of India's worst train accidents.
Death toll from devastating Maui fire reaches 101, Hawaii governor says
A mobile morgue unit arrived Tuesday to help Hawaii officials working painstakingly to identify the remains of people killed in wildfires that ravaged Maui, as the death rose above 100 and teams intensified the search for more dead in neighborhoods reduced to ash.
Gov. Josh Green announced the confirmed death toll had risen from 99 to 101 in an afternoon video address, saying, “We are heartsick that we’ve had such loss.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deployed a team of coroners, pathologists and technicians along with exam tables, X-ray units and other equipment to identify victims and process remains, said Jonathan Greene, the agency's deputy assistant secretary for response.
As death toll from Maui fire reaches 89, authorities say effort to count the losses is just starting
“It’s going to be a very, very difficult mission,” Greene said. “And patience will be incredibly important because of the number of victims.”
A week after a blaze tore through historic Lahaina, many survivors started moving into hundreds of hotel rooms set aside for displaced locals, while donations of food, ice, water and other essentials poured in.
Crews using cadaver dogs have scoured about 32% of the area, the County of Maui said in a statement Tuesday. The governor asked for patience as authorities became overwhelmed with requests to visit the burn area.
Just three bodies have been identified, and officials expected to start releasing names Tuesday, according to Maui Police Chief John Pelletier, who renewed an appeal for families with missing relatives to provide DNA samples. So far 41 samples have been submitted, the county statement said, and 13 DNA profiles have been obtained from remains.
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The governor warned that scores more bodies could be found. The wildfires, some of which have not yet been fully contained, are already the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century. Their cause was under investigation.
When asked by Hawaii News Now if children are among the missing, Green said Tuesday: “Tragically, yes. ... When the bodies are smaller, we know it's a child.”
He described some of the sites being searched as “too much to share or see from just a human perspective.”
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Another complicating factor, Green said, is that storms with rain and high winds were forecast for the weekend. Officials are mulling whether to “preemptively power down or not for a short period of time, because right now all of the infrastructure is weaker.”
A week after the fires started, some residents remained with intermittent power, unreliable cellphone service and uncertainty over where to get assistance. Some people walked periodically to a seawall, where phone connections were strongest, to make calls. Flying low off the coast, a single-prop airplane used a loudspeaker to blare information about where to get water and supplies.
Victoria Martocci, who lost her scuba business and a boat, planned to travel to her storage unit in Kahalui from her Kahana home Wednesday to stash documents and keepsakes given to her by a friend whose house burned. “These are things she grabbed, the only things she could grab, and I want to keep them safe for her,” Martocci said.
The local power utility has already faced criticism for not shutting off power as strong winds buffeted a parched area under high risk for fire. It’s not clear whether the utility’s equipment played any role in igniting the flames.
Hawaiian Electric Co. Inc. President and CEO Shelee Kimura said many factors go into a decision to cut power, including the impact on people who rely on specialized medical equipment and concerns that a shutoff in the fire area would have knocked out water pumps.
Green has said the flames raced as fast as a mile (1.6 kilometers) every minute in one area, fueled by dry grass and propelled by strong winds from a passing hurricane.
The blaze that swept into centuries-old Lahaina last week destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000. That fire has been 85% contained, according to the county. Another blaze known as the Upcountry fire was 60% contained.
The Lahaina fire caused about $3.2 billion in insured property losses, according to calculations by Karen Clark & Company, a prominent disaster and risk modeling company. That doesn’t count damage to uninsured property. The firm said more than 2,200 buildings were damaged or destroyed by flames, with about 3,000 damaged by fire or smoke or both.
Even where the flames have retreated, authorities have warned that toxic byproducts may remain, including in drinking water, after the flames spewed poisonous fumes. That has left many unable to return home.
The Red Cross said 575 evacuees were spread across five shelters as of Monday. Green said thousands of people will need housing for at least 36 weeks. He said Tuesday that some 450 hotel rooms and 1,000 Airbnb rentals were being made available.
President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he and first lady Jill Biden would visit Hawaii “as soon as we can” but he doesn’t want his presence to interrupt recovery and cleanup efforts. During a stop in Milwaukee to highlight his economic agenda, Biden pledged that “every asset they need will be there for them.”
More than 3,000 people have registered for federal assistance, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and that number was expected to grow.
FEMA was providing $700 to displaced residents to cover the cost of food, water, first aid and medical supplies, in addition to qualifying coverage for the loss of homes and personal property.
The Biden administration was seeking $12 billion more for the government’s disaster relief fund as part of its supplemental funding request to Congress.
Green said “leaders all across the board” have helped by donating over 1 million pounds (450,000 kilograms) of food as well as ice, water, diapers and baby formula. U.S. Marines, the Hawaii National Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard have all joined the aid and recovery efforts.
Lahaina resident Kekoa Lansford helped rescue people as the flames swept through town. Now he is collecting stories from survivors, hoping to create a timeline of what happened. He has 170 emails so far.
The scene was haunting. “Horrible, horrible," Lansford said Tuesday. "You ever seen hell in the movies? That is what it looked like. Fire everywhere. Dead people.”
25 dead after bus crashes and catches fire in western India
A tire blowout caused a bus to lose control and crash into a road divider and burst into flames, killing 25 people in western India early Saturday, police told local media.
Police officer Sunil Kadasne told the Press Trust of India news agency that 33 people were on the bus when the crash occurred around 1:30 a.m. on a highway in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra state. The eight survivors were taken to a hospital, he said.
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The private travel bus was headed to Pune city from Nagpur, another city in the state.
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Deadly road accidents are common in India, often due to reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles. More than 110,000 people are killed every year in road accidents across India, according to police.
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Couple who suffered burns in fire from ‘gas line leak’ in Dhaka's Tejgaon dies
A couple who sustained burn injures in a fire apparently from leak in a gas line at Nakhalpara in Tejgaon area of the capital on June 15 died on Tuesday.
The deceased were identified as Abdul Kuddus, 58 and his wife Anisa Begum, 50, of Katlamari village of Fulchhari upazila under Gaibandha district.
Tejgaon Model Police Station Sub-Inspector Salekin Millat Tawfik confirmed the matter and said the bodies were sent to the morgue for autopsy on Wednesday.Md Anisur, son of the couple, said that his parents were burnt in sleep in a fire that broke out from gas line leakage on June 15.
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Later, they were rescued by locals and admitted to Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery where they succumbed to their injuries .
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Fire at gas line in Dhaka’s Wari extinguished
A fire broke out at the gas line on Tipu Sultan Road in Dhaka’s Wari area early Wednesday (June 7, 2023).
The fire broke out at the road around 2:25 am, said Deputy Assistant Director of Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters, Shahjahan Shikder.
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On information, fire firefighting units rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire around 5:30 am, said Shahzadi Sultana, duty officer of the Fire Service and Civil Defence control room.
Witnesses said some people were slightly injured during the fire but the fire service men did not confirm any casualty.
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Meanwhile, what caused the fire could not be known immediately and the extent of the loss could not be ascertained yet.
Mother, son among 3 burned to death in Ctg fire
Three people including a woman and her minor son were burned to death and another was critically injured in a fire at a house in Syedpara area of Chattogram port city on Sunday (May 28, 2023).
The deceased are Nur Nahar Begum, 30, her one-year-old son Maruf, and neighbour Md Imam Uddin, 23. Details about them could not be known immediately.
They succumbed to their injuries while undergoing treatment at the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) at noon, Nurul Alam Ashiq, assistant sub inspector at the hospital police outpost, said.
Read more: Fire at building in capital’s Adabar under control
Condition of burned three-year-old Firiya, daughter of Nur Nahar, was stated to be critical, he said.
Ferdous Jahan, officer-in-charge of Bayezid Bostami police station, said the fire originated from a mosquito coil at the shanty of one Tota Miah and it engulfed two other adjacent shanties within a few minutes around 4:30am.
On information, police rushed to the spot and rescued four people and sent them to the hospital, he said.
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Chittro Ranjan, chief leader of Agrabad Fire Station, said on information two firefighting units rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control later.
Fire at building in capital’s Adabar under control
A fire that broke out at a high-rise building in the capital’s Adabar area on Sunday (May 28, 2023) noon was brought under control after around one and a half hours.
Three people including two women were rescued from the building. No casualties were reported till 1:45pm.
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The basement of the eight-storey building on road no.10 in the area caught fire around 12:00pm.
On information, five fire fighting units from several stations rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control around 1:33pm, said Anwarul Islam, warehouse inspector of Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters media cell.
The cause of the fire could not be known immediately, he added.
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Fire in building on SUST campus under control
A fire that broke out in a building on Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) campus early today is under control.
No causality or injury has been reported.
The fire broke out in room 127 of Building A on the campus around 1:45 am where a research laboratory was located.
The security guard of the university rushed to the spot and put the blaze under control.
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On information, a firefighting unit went to the spot and extinguished the fire around 2:30 am.
Proctor Prof Dr Md Quamruzzaman said primarily it is suspected that the fire might have originated from an electric short circuit.
Death toll from Narayanganj re-rolling mill explosion rises to 4
Three more workers died after they were injured in an explosion that took place at a re-rolling mill of Bhulta Gauchia area of Rupganj upazila in Narayanganj taking the toll to 4, police said on Friday.
Elias Ali (35) and Alamgir (30) of Kishoreganj’s Itna upazila and Neyon (20) of Rajbari succumbed to their injuries while undergoing treatment at Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery (SHNIBPS), Inspector Bachchu Mia, in-charge of DMCH police outpost, said.
Earlier on Thursday, a worker named Shankar was declared dead by the doctor after being rushed to the hospital. The conditions of three others remain critical.
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Elias died on Thursday night while undergoing treatment. SM Ayub Hossain, a resident surgeon at the Burn Institute, said he suffered 98 percent burns.
Meanwhile, Neyon breathed his last at around 10am on Friday morning at the burn institute. He suffered 97 percent burns. Alamgir succumbed to his injuries at around 12:30 pm. 95% of his body was burnt, according to the resident doctor.
The bodies have been kept at the hospital morgue for autopsy.
Drone causes fire at Crimea oil reservoir: Russian official
A massive fire erupted at an oil reservoir in Crimea after it was hit by a drone, a Russia-appointed official there reported Saturday.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of the Black Sea peninsula's port city of Sevastopol, posted videos and photos of the blaze on his Telegram channel.
Razvozhayev said the fire was assigned the highest ranking in terms of how complicated it will be to extinguish.
He did not say whether the drone he cited as causing the fire was Ukrainian. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world considered illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country is seeking to reclaim the peninsula during Russia's current full-scale invasion.
The incident comes a day after Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Ukraine, killing at least 23 people. Almost all of the victims died when two missiles slammed into an apartment building. Three children were among the dead.
Razvozhayev said the oil reservoir fire did not cause any casualties and would not hinder fuel supplies in Sevastopol.
The city has been subject to regular attack attempts with drones, especially in recent weeks.
Earlier this week, Razvozhayev reported that the Russian military destroyed a Ukrainian sea drone that attempted to attack the harbor and another one blew up, shattering windows in several apartment buildings, but not inflicting any other damage.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on the oil reservoir fire. After previous attacks on Crimea, Kyiv usually stopped short of openly claiming responsibility but emphasized that the country had the right to strike any target in response to Russian aggression.