Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AFP) — Authorities managed to bring a major fire on a tiny Honduran resort island under control Saturday, after the blaze consumed dozens of homes and forced 400 people to evacuate. “The fire is 100 percent controlled,” said the head of the government’s Permanent Intervention Commission (COPECO), Max Gonzales, at a mid-afternoon press conference. A huge cloud of black smoke rose in the early morning from the island of Guanaja, located in the […]
BUCHAREST, Romania (AFP) — A fire in a Romanian hospital has left nine coronavirus patients dead, rescue services said Friday, in the latest blaze in the EU member known for its dilapidated infrastructure. Flames engulfed the intensive care unit at a hospital in Constanta in south eastern Romania with nine people confirmed dead, rescue services said in a statement. Some 100 people had to be evacuated, services spokesman Razvan Parconie told AFP. “The fire is […]
by Paula RAMON Agence France-Presse LOS ANGELES, California (AFP) – The so-far successful battle this month in California to save the world’s biggest trees from ever-worsening forest blazes seems to offer an important lesson: You can fight fire with fire. Human-caused climate change has made the western United States hotter, drier and more vulnerable to increasingly destructive wildfires, which have this year taken a horrific toll on the region’s forests. That has included threatening huge […]
LOS ANGELES, California (AFP) – Hundreds of firefighters were battling to protect several groves of giant sequoias in the United States on Monday, warning the enormous ancient trees were at risk from out-of-control blazes. A number of separate fires were converging on the California woodland that is home to the huge trees, highlighting the terrifying power of wildfires to consume everything in their path. Incident commanders said the Windy Fire, which has already charred 25,000 […]
SAMOS, Greece (AFP) — A major fire that broke out Sunday evening at the Vathy migrant camp on the Greek island of Samos, was brought under control, the Greek Ministry of Migration said. “There is no danger for those who are still there because the fire broke out in abandoned sheds in the western side of the camp,” the ministry statement added. Thirteen firefighters with six engines were fighting the blaze, according to the Fire […]
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — The world’s biggest trees were being wrapped in fire-proof blankets Thursday in an effort to protect them from huge blazes tearing through the drought-stricken western United States. A grove of ancient sequoias, including the 275-foot (83-meter) General Sherman Tree — the largest in the world — were getting aluminum cladding to fend off the flames. Firefighters were also clearing brush and pre-positioning engines among the 2,000 ancient trees in […]
by Anne-Sophie THILL LYTTON, Canada (AFP) — On the front lines of global warming, evacuees from Lytton, a western Canadian village destroyed by wildfires in June, are detached and bitter about the upcoming September 20 snap elections. Lytton, located 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Vancouver, gained international attention for setting a new Canadian heat record of 49.6 degrees Celsius (121.3 Fahrenheit) before being ravaged days later by a fire that killed at least two […]
ESTEPONA, SpainA firefighter was killed on Thursday battling a wind-fuelled wildfire in southern Spain which forced the evacuation of hundreds of people and closed a key highway, local officials said. The 44-year-old was one of around 400 firefighters tackling the flames which had broken out late Wednesday in the Sierra Bermeja mountains in the southern province of Malaga, the Andalusia regional government said in a statement. “You can imagine the pain and sadness at his […]
SKOPJE, Republic of North Macedonia (AFP) — Ten people died in a fire Wednesday at a hospital treating coronavirus patients in North Macedonia, the country’s health minister said. The fire — the cause of which is not yet known — broke out in a Covid-19 clinic in Tetovo in the northwest of the Balkan country, health minister Venko Filipce wrote on Twitter. “A terrible accident has happened in Tetovo. At the moment, 10 people are […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — A fire tore through an Indonesian prison on Java island on Wednesday, killing 41 people and injuring dozens of others, an official said. The blaze at the Tangerang Penitentiary, just outside the capital Jakarta, broke out in the early hours when most inmates were asleep. Rescue teams were able to put out the fire, which was mostly contained in one block that housed prisoners jailed over drug charges, at around 3:00 […]
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, United States (AFP) — Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate Monday as a huge wildfire loomed down on a major US tourist spot, filling the air with choking smoke. The Caldor Fire has already torn through more than 270 square miles (700 square kilometers), razing hundreds of buildings. On Monday it was roaring towards South Lake Tahoe, the main resort town in the popular holiday area that straddles the California and […]
MILAN, Italy (AFP) — Fire ripped through a 20-storey residential building in Milan, northern Italy, on Sunday, leaving rescue workers scrambling to make sure no one had been caught in the spectacular flames and thick smoke. The blaze started on the upper floors of the tower on the southern outskirts of the capital of the Lombardy region. “The flames then spread to the lower levels,” causing thick smoke, the fire services said on a Twitter […]
