Paradise, United States | AFP | Five people were declared dead and 150,000 evacuated Friday as fierce wildfires raged across the western US state of California, with one rapidly spreading blaze threatening the famed resort of Malibu. The victims died in their vehicles trying to escape a massive late-season inferno …
Read More »Russia holds first funerals for victims of shopping mall blaze
Kemerovo, Russia | AFP | Russia on Wednesday held a national day of mourning and buried the first victims of a fire that ravaged a busy shopping centre and killed 64 people, most of them children. Flags were lowered and entertainment events cancelled three days after Sunday’s devastating blaze in …
Read More »64 dead in Russian shopping mall inferno
Moscow, Russia | AFP | A total of 64 people some of them children perished in a fire that ravaged a busy shopping mall in an industrial city in Siberia, as rescue teams Monday struggled through piles of charred rubble to recover bodies. Russian television showed images of thick black …
Read More »Defective wiring suspected cause of S. Korea hospital fire: police
Seoul, South Korea | AFP | Defective wiring is suspected to have caused the deadly South Korean hospital fire that killed dozens and injured more than 150, police said, as public anger swelled over the country’s worst fire disaster in a decade. The huge blaze that erupted at the hospital …
Read More »Nameless heroes of South Korea fire disaster
Miryang, South Korea | AFP | The deadly hospital blaze in Miryang killed 37 people and injured more than 100 in South Korea’s worst fire disaster in a decade. But witnesses said Friday’s toll could have been far higher without the heroic acts of ordinary citizens and medical staff who …
Read More »Families voice anger over deadly South Korea hospital fire
Miryang, South Korea | AFP | Distraught relatives of those killed in a deadly South Korean hospital fire voiced anger Saturday at what they perceived as another man-made disaster in Asia’s fourth largest economy, just as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics. The huge blaze that erupted at the …
Read More »Dozens feared dead in Philippine mall inferno
Davao, Philippines | AFP | At least 37 people, including call centre staff from an American firm, are believed to have perished in a fire that tore through a shopping mall in the southern Philippine city of Davao, local authorities said on Sunday. President Rodrigo Duterte, himself a Davao native, …
Read More »Grenfell Tower fire probe ‘unprecedented’: UK police
London, United Kingdom | AFP | The criminal investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire in London in which 71 people were killed is “unprecedented”, a police spokesman said on Monday at the opening of a public inquiry into the blaze. “Outside certain counter-terrorism inquiries, the investigation is unprecedented in terms …
Read More »California fire toll rises to 33, winds cause concern
San Francisco, United States | AFP | The death toll from California’s wildfires rose to 33 on Friday as firefighters made some progress in containing the infernos but said intensifying winds were a concern. “We’re not out of this emergency, not even close,” said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California …
Read More »California fires kill 31, deadliest in state’s history
Santa Rosa, United States | AFP | The death toll from raging California wildfires rose to 31 Thursday as body recovery teams used cadaver dogs to locate victims, making it the deadliest series of blazes in the state’s history. The fires, which began on Sunday, have swept through California’s wine country, …
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