BUCHAREST, Romania (AFP) — A fire at a Romanian hospital killed two patients early Thursday, officials said, the fourth such deadly blaze in a year in the EU member known for its dilapidated infrastructure. The blaze ripped through a hospital for infectious diseases in the southern city of Ploiesti shortly after 4:00 am local time. “The fire was extinguished fast, but unfortunately two people died”, Health Minister Cseke Atilla told local media, adding that an […]
Tag: fire
At least 26 children die in Niger school fire
NIAMEY, Niger (AFP) — At least 26 children aged between five and six burnt to death on Monday when their straw and wood classrooms caught fire in southern Niger, seven months after a similar tragedy in the capital Niamey. “Right now, we have 26 dead and 13 injured, four of them seriously,” said Chaibou Aboubacar, mayor of Maradi city. Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, has tried to fix shortages of school […]
Climate change main cause of fires in US west: study
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Climate change caused overwhelmingly by human activity is the primary source of the unprecedented forest fires regularly ravaging the western United States, according to a study published Monday. Fires destroyed an average of 13,500 square kilometers (5,200 square miles) per year in the American west between 2001 and 2018 — twice as much as between 1984-2000. “It’s happened so much faster than we previously anticipated,” Rong Fu, who led […]
Burning cargo ship spews toxic gas off Canada’s Pacific coast
MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — The Canadian coast guard has evacuated 16 people from a burning container ship that is expelling toxic gas off Canada’s Pacific coast, but there is “no safety risk” to those on shore, authorities said Sunday. The Zim Kingston is anchored off the city of Victoria in British Columbia, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca which marks the maritime border between Canada and the United States, according to the marine tracking […]
UPDATED: 15 dead after fire at Russian explosives factory: authorities
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Fifteen people died as a result of a fire at a Russian explosives factory southeast of Moscow on Friday, local authorities said. The government of the Ryazan region, where the factory is based, said “15 people died and one person has serious burns” and is in critical condition. It said one more person is missing. © Agence France-Presse
Fire breaks out in Kuwait’s largest oil refinery
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (AFP) — A fire broke out Monday in Kuwait’s largest oil refinery, causing several injuries but no interruptions to site operations or petrol exports. Plumes of smoke rose above the Mina al-Ahmadi facility, located on the Gulf coast just opposite Iran, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of the capital Kuwait City, according to an AFP photojournalist. The Kuwait National Petrol Company, after initially stating that there were no casualties, later tweeted […]
Anguish and anger after Taiwan building blaze kills 46
KAOSHIUNG, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwanese residents voiced anguish and outrage on Friday after 46 people perished in an inferno that tore through a dilapidated housing block as investigators searched for what sparked the island’s deadliest fire in decades. The blaze is the latest tragedy to highlight concerns over lax safety standards in Taiwan and has exposed the poor living conditions of many elderly in a society that is rapidly ageing. The fire broke out in […]
Taiwan building inferno kills 46, dozens injured
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — An overnight fire tore through a building in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung on Thursday, killing 46 people and injuring dozens of others in the island’s deadliest blaze in decades. The fire broke out in the 13-storey, mixed-use building in the small hours of Thursday morning, according to officials, raging through multiple floors before firefighters finally got it under control. Pictures published by Taiwan’s official Central News Agency showed […]
California’s Alisal Fire burns more than 13,000 acres
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — California firefighters scrambled overnight Wednesday to battle a fast-moving blaze that has scorched more than 13,400 acres and prompted evacuation orders since it started Monday, according to local authorities. Burning in a dry, scrub-filled canyon about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Santa Barbara, the Alisal Fire is just five percent contained, according to the US Forest Service. More than 765 firefighters have been assigned to the blaze, the […]
Lebanon firefighters quell huge fuel tank fire
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Firefighters in Lebanon put out a huge blaze that raged at a key fuel storage depot Monday to the relief of many in the country gripped by desperate energy shortages. There was no immediate report of casualties from the fire that sent large plumes of dark smoke billow into the sky. The fire broke out around 8:00am (0500 GMT) in a large petrol tank belonging to the army at the Zahrani […]
Turkish fires endanger world pine honey supplies
by Raziye Akkoc Agence France-Presse COKEK, Turkey (AFP) – Beekeepers Mustafa Alti and his son Fehmi were kept busy tending to their hives before wildfires tore through a bucolic region of Turkey that makes most of the world’s prized pine honey. Now the Altis and generations of other honey farmers in Turkey’s Aegean province of Mugla are scrambling to find additional work and wondering how many decades it might take to get their old lives […]
Fires, floods, flying insects: 10 recent climate-fuelled disasters
by Natalie HANDEL PARIS, France (AFP) — From a summer of fire and record floods, to freak frosts and locusts invasions, experts say man-made climate change is wreaking havoc on the world’s weather. Here are some of the most devastating climate-fuelled disasters from the past two years: Mediterranean on fire Greece’s worst heatwave in decades fuelled deadly wildfires that burned nearly 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) this year in what the prime minister called the country’s […]
