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LOS ANGELES, Aug 9, 2023 (AFP) – At least six people have been killed in a wildfire that has razed a Hawaiian town, officials said Wednesday, with desperate residents jumping into the ocean in a bid to escape the fast-moving flames. US Coast Guard officers plucked at least a dozen people from the water as emergency services were overwhelmed by a disaster that appeared to have erupted almost without warning. “I’m sad to report that […]
PORTBOU, Spain, Aug 5, 2023 (AFP) – Firefighters said they evacuated more than 130 people as they fought Saturday to control a wildfire at Portbou on the Spanish border with France on the Mediterranean coast. Firefighters from Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia teamed up with French colleagues as the blaze ravaged some 435 hectares (1,100 acres) of land, with an estimated 2,500 hectares threatened. Local people were evacuated overnight from several villages as a precaution […]
By AFP correspondent with Abdellah Cheballah in Alger Agence France-Presse TOUDJA, Algeria (AFP) — Algerian firefighters on Tuesday battled blazes that have killed 34 people across the tinder-dry north, destroyed homes and coastal resorts, and turned vast forest areas into blackened wastelands. Witnesses described fleeing walls of flames that raged “like a blowtorch”. TV footage showed charred cars, burned-out shops and smoldering fields. Severe fires have raged through the mountain forests of the Kabylia region […]
MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — A pilot died in a helicopter crash in western Canada fighting wildfires that have ravaged the country, police said Thursday. He is the third person to die battling the huge blazes after two firefighters were killed last week during separate operations. His helicopter was reported missing early Wednesday evening, and the aircraft was later located near Haig Lake in northern Alberta province. The aircraft “collided with terrain during firefighting operations,” the […]
TOKYO, July 3, 2023 (AFP) – Four people were injured in a blast and a blaze in a central Tokyo building, the city’s fire department said, with footage showing flames and smoke emerging from a second-floor business. The fire started in a building in a restaurant area of the bustling Shimbashi district around 3:20 pm (0620 GMT). “The sound of an explosion was also heard. A total of 32 fire trucks are at the scene,” […]
CHICAGO, June 28, 2023 (AFP) – Smoke from Canada’s worst-ever wildfires was severely impacting air quality Wednesday across Ontario and at least 15 US states, with monitors warning that over one hundred million people face potentially unhealthy conditions. Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland recorded some of the worst air quality in the United States, with residents told to stay inside or limit outdoor activity as smoke blanketed huge swaths of the country just weeks after communities […]
MONTREAL, June 28, 2023 (AFP) — Hundreds of international firefighters who are helping overwhelmed Canadians battle unprecedented wildfires face a complex task in the heart of the boreal forest scorched by uncontrolled blazes. The leader of a French team deployed in Quebec, Eric Flores, told AFP he had never seen anything like it. His team was busy mopping up smoldering duff to prevent blowups when they were suddenly trapped by a fire that flared 50 […]
An explosion potentially caused by a gas leak ripped through a building in central Paris on Wednesday, leaving four people fighting for their lives and causing a wave of destruction, officials said. Rescue workers were in the evening still searching the rubble for two missing individuals who had not been accounted for, according to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. He told reporters at the scene that four seriously injured victims were in a life-threatening condition, […]
NEW YORK, June 20, 2023 (AFP) – Four people have died after lithium batteries for e-bikes sparked a fire in a New York building, officials said Tuesday, sounding the alarm over the skyrocketing number of such incidents. The fire broke out overnight in a maintenance shop for electric bicycles and scooters, on the ground floor of a building in Chinatown. A large pile of blackened two-wheelers was seen strewn outside the charred facility on Tuesday, […]
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — Extreme weather conditions in Europe have killed almost 195,000 people and caused economic losses of more than 560 billion euros since 1980, the European Environment Agency said Wednesday. “Nearly 195,000 fatalities have been caused by floods, storms, heat- and coldwaves, forest fires and landslides” between 1980 and 2021, the EAA said in its report. Of the 560 billion euros ($605 billion) in losses, only 170 billion, or 30 percent, were insured, […]
By Gwen Roley Agence France-Presse MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) — As Canada hurtles towards its worst wildfire season in history, a conspiracy theory has taken off online claiming environmentalists intentionally set some of the blazes. “I bet a good portion of the wildfires raging across the country were started by green terrorists who want to give their climate change campaign a little boost,” Maxime Bernier, a former foreign minister-turned fringe party leader, said in a June […]
By Lucie AUBOURG Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The air pollution swamping the northeast United States this week from smoke spewed by fires in Canada is “exceptionally rare” and “extreme”, said Ryan Stauffer, a NASA scientist specializing in air pollution. This episode should last for at least the next two days, the expert told AFP on Wednesday. How out of the ordinary is this event? “In the last 20 or 25 years, the […]
