Eideard

 
Several sailors have been rescued from a fire on board a ship in the Persian gulf by a TV crew who happened to be filming in the area.

Iranian state television reported the ship was carrying fuel to Iran’s Bandar Abbas port when a large blaze broke out on board.

All nine crew members were able to escape onto the TV documentary makers’ small boat.

Great timing – and an exclusive.

Not the tallest crook they ever busted in Eatonville

A 10-year-old elementary-school student broke into a town impound lot…stole an Eatonville pickup and was chased by the police chief, who arrested him.

The Eatonville boy scaled a 10-foot chain-link fence about 3 p.m., climbed into the white pickup and drove through a fence at the lot on Mosely Avenue, near Kennedy Boulevard at the west side of town, police Sgt. Eric McIntyre said.

Someone noticed the child behind the wheel and called police, who tried to stop him. However, the boy threw the truck into reverse to avoid officers’ patrol cars and drove a couple of blocks before crashing into a light pole at College Avenue and Lemon Street, McIntyre said.

An electric wire fell, setting a house there on fire. The Maitland Fire/Rescue Department put out the flames, and there were no serious injuries, he said.

The child got out and ran, but police Chief Joseph Jenkins and a detective caught and handcuffed him a little more than a block away. The boy was taken to the Orange County Juvenile Assessment Center…

He was arrested on charges of burglary of a conveyance, grand theft of a motor vehicle and resisting arrest.

The boy told officers a relative had taught him to drive.

Now, they just need someone to teach the Eatonville, Florida, police department something about security and safety. The kid did $4000 damage to the city-owned truck. No one offered a guess on the cost of damage to the house.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

The French government has rushed to the defence of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo after an arson attack on its headquarters as it published an edition featuring a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad on the cover as “guest editor”.

The Paris offices of the magazine were gutted after a fire broke out at 1am following reports of a petrol bomb being thrown through a window.

The blaze happened just before the special “Sharia Hebdo” edition hit newsstands on Wednesday morning in what the paper mockingly called a “celebration” of the victory of the moderate Islamist party An-Nahda in the Tunisian elections and the Libyan transitional executive’s comments on Islamic sharia law as a main source of the country’s law. On the front page a cartoon prophet Muhammad said: “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter..!”

However, French politicians defended the magazine. The prime minister, François Fillon, said: “Freedom of expression is an inalienable value of democracy and any incursion against press freedom must be condemned with the utmost force. No cause justified violent action.”

The interior minister, Claude Guéant, said: “You like or you don’t like Charlie Hebdo, but it’s a newspaper. Press freedom is sacrosanct for the French.” He added that all French people should feel solidarity towards the magazine.

François Hollande, the Socialist presidential candidate, told Le Monde newspaper the incident demonstrated that the struggle for press freedom and “respect of opinions” was a permanent battle, adding that “fundamentalism must be eradicated in all its forms“…

The main representative body of the Muslim faith in France, the French Muslim Council (CFCM), condemned the fire, while its president pointed out that caricaturing the prophet was considered offensive to Muslims. “The CFCM deplores the deeply mocking tone of the newspaper towards Islam and its prophet, but reaffirms with force its total opposition to any act or form of violence,” it said.

I’ll probably never have an opportunity to live in a world where my repugnance for fundamentalist hatred and violence will come to rest. There doesn’t appear to a shortage in sight of bigots of any religious stripe who would gladly kill for their God or prophet.

I hope the French police are successful in catching these thugs. Lock ‘em up and throw away the key.

A woman suffered serious burns after her beehive hairdo turned into a fiery beacon when gust of wind caught her cigarette.

Sasha Butler, 43, had just lit the cigarette outside a shop when the wind flipped it into her face, setting fire to her heavily-hairsprayed fringe. Shoppers watched in horror as flames engulfed her head…

She managed to smother the fire with her hands before collapsing in agony…

Shop owner Benny Krige said: ”The woman got herself to the shop and collapsed, her hair still smoking.

”My staff got her comfortable, gave her some basic first aid and dialled 999…”

Fire crews were called but the woman had already managed to smother the blaze with her hands before they arrived.

The woman was airlifted to a specialist burns unit at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital. She suffered burns to her head, face and smoke inhalation.

Cigarette smoking on its own is deadly enough over time. Setting yourself on fire with one more than compounds the danger.

Electronics giant Sony Corp has suffered a fresh blow after several of its Bravia LCD televisions sets emitted smoke or parts began to melt. Sony said it will offer free inspection and repairs available to 1.6 million of the TV sets.

Sony’s television unit is already heading for its eighth straight year of losses, as it battles fierce competition from Samsung and LG of South Korea.

The 11 overheating incidents all took place in Japan, but the faulty parts may affect TV sets sold around the world, the company said in a news release.

There have been no reports of injuries or damage to anything other than the televisions, Sony said.

Sony hasn’t figured out, yet, whether to compete head-to-head in a commoditized market – or try to come up with a product sufficiently advanced to survive as an upper end niche.

The fact that Howard Stringer shut down most of their R&D as one of his earliest decisions in just another symptom of the incompetence he brought to leadership of that once-great company.

 
Police in Utah are searching for a group of construction workers, students and bystanders. But for a good reason.

This group is credited with saving a man’s life by working together to lift a burning car and pull a man to safety.

It was a “life-saving move that the Logan Police Department does not want to go unnoticed,” said Jeff Curtis, assistant chief of the police department in Logan, Utah.

The incident occurred Monday morning on a street near Utah State University and was captured on video.

Police said the BMW pulled out of a parking lot and in front of Wright. Curtis said the motorcyclist tried to avoid the car, which resulted in him laying the motorcycle down. After crashing, gas spilled out of the motorcycle and ignited, engulfing both the motorcycle and the front end of the car in flames…The motorcyclist became lodged underneath the burning vehicle…

Curtis said police are trying to find the people who helped so they can be recognized for their efforts at a city council meeting.

Bravo. Ordinary people torn an their ordinary day by extraordinary circumstances. Caring – as we all should – for the life of another human being.

 
A broadcasting tower in the Dutch town of Hoogersmilde has collapsed.

The 200-metre high mast came down following a fire in the building…

Large parts of the Netherlands have been left without reception on their radio FM frequencies as a result of the fire.

Wow! Lucky no one was seriously injured in the fire or the antenna’s collapse.

 
The major fires are something many of you have seen on television, e.g., the Wallow fire rolling in from Arizona, the Loop fire surrounding Carlsbad Caverns, the Track fire up at Raton on the Colorado border. Like most wildfires, they seem to have been started by careless, thoughtless human beings.

People have no concept of responsibility for their actions. The same fools have even less concern for what their actions visit upon other human beings. Many people have lost their homes and livelihood over recent weeks.

At the time I’m composing this – an hour-and-a-half before posting – this fire, the Pacheco Canyon fire is only several hours old. First spotted at one acre – near the Santa Fe ski area – it grew to 200 acres in a couple of hours. It was 83⁰ this afternoon and 5% humidity. Winds steady at 15mph with gusts to 40mph. The first chopper over the fire reported flames 40 feet in the air.

I imagine it’s up around 400-500 acres right now and no containment whatsoever.

We’re lucky because we’re southwest of the fire, about 25 miles away and there is a whole city in between us and the fire. The city is fortunate in that prevailing winds are blowing away from Santa Fe.

The air tankers are landing at the municipal airport for the night, right now. Winds are supposed to be gusting up to 50mph, tomorrow. Going to be a long season.

Two of the five firefighters who suffered serious injuries this morning when two fire trucks crashed head-on in rural Platte County have been released from a hospital…

Two trucks from the Central Platte Fire Protection District, which is staffed by volunteers, were responding from Platte City about 4:10 a.m. to an electrical fire on the deck of a house.

In the darkness, the first truck missed the house’s driveway. The truck turned around and was headed back toward the house when it collided with the other truck in the 15000 block of Missouri HH, about two miles east of Platte City, Holland said.

Both trucks were severely damaged. The accident remains under investigation by the sheriff department.

Camden Point Fire Protection District responded on a mutual aid call and extinguished the fire.

That’s a serious “oops!” I would say. Bad enough the volunteer firefighters are injured; but, how do you NOT notice another firetruck responding to a fire?

Fort Davis wildfire from McDonald Observatory in the Big Bend country near the Rio Grande river.

Thanks, Bubba