Deadly California Fire
In Beaumont, California thick smoke and hot winds hampered firefighters who were struggling on Friday to get the upper hand on a deadly wildfire in the mountains near Palm Springs, California. Four firefighters died and a fifth is on life support with burns over 90 percent of his body after being engulfed by the blaze on Thursday.On Friday by nightfall, the fire had consumed 39,900 acres and was only 25% contained. Fire officials are treating the blaze as arson and the deaths as murder but have not detailed their reasons. A reward rose from $100,000 to $500,000 on Friday for information about who started the fire. Local residents suggest that they had seen teenagers smoking marijuana near where the fire is thought to have started about 17 miles northwest of Palm Springs.
This is a sad article to read. People were being hurt and made to evacuate their homes. Animals and habitats are being destroyed. Also, firefighters are risking their lives to save others. If the teenagers started this wildfire by smoking marijuana, it could have been easily avoided if people would use more common sense. I just hope people will learn from their actions.
To read the entire article California Fire
posted by Anonymous @ 10/28/2006 01:44:00 PM
1 Comments:
It is a sad thing when all those trees are burned and human life is lost by a fire. Thankfully the fire has not claimed any bystanders. However, I've read that the reward claim was tripled to $300,000 (100K from Governor Schwarzenegger, 100K from San Bernardino County), and that the current assumption was that the fire was arson. It's sickening to think that someone would start a forest fire to prove a point, or worse, to start it just for the fun of it. It certainly gives one doubts that humanity can undo the wrongs we've done in the past to the environment if we have people who can wreak more damage far easier. In class (if not Geography, maybe in another class), we talked about how, if arson, it could have been something of a gang initiation or a dare. That is just plain wrong. Why would someone start something that can only end in destruction and death? Oh, and the link to Reuters doesn't work-- here's one that links to Kare 11
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