Nocere – Earth Disasters

The Arizona’s Wallow fire is the 2nd largest fire on record for the state of Arizona. Smoke from the fire can be seen as far away as 6 states on the east side of it. Air travel was canceled hundreds of miles away from the fire.

The fire is moving at 5 to 8 miles each day. It has been burning a week now, it may have been started by a campfire left burning with no one near to watch over it.

It has been 12 days now and the fire is still not contained. It has put thousands of residents out of their homes.

The fire is heading towards major electric transmission lines. These lines supply electrical power to thousands of people. It sends power as far east as the state of Texas.

There were two more towns in the direction the fire is going that had to be cleared out on Wednesday. The winds adding fuel to the fire sent the last people heading out of Geer which is a little town near the New Mexico border. It also sent another 7000 people out of the towns of Eagar and Springerville.

They are calling the fire Wallow after the Bear Wallow wilderness country. They are using bulldozers to try and make a roadblock to try and keep the fire away from houses.

It’s a big fire and it’s going to take awhile to put it out. At this time no one has suffered any serious injuries.

So far the flames have burnt 388,480 acres of land or 607 square miles. There are about 2500 people fighting the fire. The firefighters have come from as far away as New York. Winds blowing at 30 mph and wind gust of 60mph are not helping out the situation.

 

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On Saturday, a Nato fuel tanker truck on it’s way to Afghanistan exploded. It is possible that an explosive device was attached to the under body of the tanker. As fuel was spilling out of the opening in the tanker, people gathered buckets to try and catch the fuel. They would later try and sell it at the market place where they could earn approximately 1.2 dollars for it.

As the locals from the nearby town of Landi Kotal,  located in the north western part of Pakistan were gathering the fuel, a raging fire started that took the lives of 15 and sent 4 others to the hospital with serious burns.

There was a fire right after the explosion, but it had been put out. The people felt it was safe to collect the fuel. Then another fire erupted.

All who died in the fire were civilians. 9 of them were from the same family.

There was a nine year old child that died in the fire. All the others were between the ages of 18 and 30.

At this time, there was no report of any group taking responsibility for the attacks on Saturday which included another 11 Nato supply transport vehicles. Again most of them were tankers. The tankers were destroyed at a terminal close to Torkham. There were no deaths in the attacks. It is thought that these two attacks could have been done by the same group.

It is possible that the Taliban is behind the bombings. Even though they haven’t yet stepped forward to claim responsibility, it is similar to some of their past deeds.

On Friday there had been an attack by the Taliban against a US consulate convoy in Peshawar. One person died and 11 others were injured. This is the first assault against Americans in Pakistan since the death of Osama bin Laden on May 2nd.

There have been threats made by the Pakistani Taliban against the Western targets which would also point to the Taliban being behind the explosions. A telephone communications to the AFP pointed to the attacks as being in revenge of Osama bin Laden’s death.

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In New Delhi, India, a factory fire has claimed 10 lives.

The hot flames ravaged through the shoe factory on Wednesday.

It is now known, the factory did not have a fire safety license.

At this time, the fire service director of New Delhi stated that the death toll could go up.

No one is sure of the exact number of people that were inside the factory working when the fire broke out Wednesday evening.

The fire that brought part of the building down is still being sprayed with a coolant on shoes that were burnt.

It took the fire personnel hours to extinguish the fire.

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Wild fires in Texas are burning across the state from one border to another.

Firefighters have been battling the fires that have burnt over one million acres of land. The fires have been burning now for over a weeks time.

Fires are being fought all over Texas. There are fires in the north, south, east, and west. Some fires have joined to form one big fire.

There are 34 states that firefighters in Texas helping fight the fires. In the last two weeks, there have been over 170 dwellings burnt.

There are fires that are over 100,000 acres in size and have been burning for more than a week.

Some firefighters have been injured and one died on Friday when working on putting out a fire at East Sidwynicks in Eastland County. Greg Simmons is the firefighter that died.

It is possible that the area may have had a little relief on Wednesday from the dry weather and the high winds which help the fires to spread.

There is a possibility of rain moving in over the weekend and more maybe next week. At this time rainfall is below normal for Texas. The rain will be a big help, but with storms there is also a chance of lightning hitting and contributing to more fires.

Many people have been evacuated from their homes for safety. One couple watched as the fire approached their home. They were lucky as it stopped just 330 yards from their house.

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A home for children that was established in 1950 caught fire in Haapsalu a town on the western side of Estonian.

There were 9 adults and 37 children inside the building when the fire started. Most of the children were sleeping as it was nap time for them.

The one level wooden structure was engulfed in flames.The fire spread quickly throughout the home. It is not know what caused the fire yet.

The orphanage is set up to help handicap children. Most of the children who resided there used wheelchairs. This made it difficult for them to get out of their beds and into the chairs alone to escape the flames.

10 of the 37 children did not make it out alive. The ones that were rescued were taken to a close by building.

Monday has been declared a national day of mourning for Estonia.

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In Pakistan, on Sunday evening, a bus of people returning from a wedding, caught on fire.

The wedding had taken place in Sailkot City located in Punjab. The bus caught on fire close to Sihala located in the area of Jhelum.

12 members of the wedding party perished unable to get out of the burning bus. They burnt to death.

Most of the people who died were women and children.

20 people were injured in the fire, some are in critical condition.

There were 60 people on the bus at the time of the fire.

It is being investigated as to why passengers could not get off the bus.

The dead and wounded were transported to close by hospitals in the towns of Jhelum and Gujar Khan

The number of deaths could increase due to the number of people in critical condition.

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This seems to be a summer full of disasters for Australia. First came the flooding that seem to last forever and now bush fires.

The fires that are on the outer areas of Perth located in the Western Australia has caused total destruction of over 60 dwellings.

While one fire has been brought under control, there are still fires burning hot on the east and northern sides of Perth.

There are over 100 fire department personnel fighting the fires on both the ground and in the air.

Flames are hot and reaching out being fueled by winds gushing as high as 44mph.

Flames surrounded and destroyed 64 homes and caused damages to 32 others.

It is lucky that at this time there are no deaths or severe injuries having been reported as a result of the fires.

People who live in the Clifton Hills area of Perth have been permitted to return to their homes.

Other people may have to wait awhile yet while the fires in their areas are brought under control.

Many people have lost every thing they had to the fires.

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In Indonesia, as a ferry was journeying between the islands of Java and Sumatra, a fire started.

The ferry was in the Sunda Strait at the time the fire broke out. It was approximately 3 kilometers out from the port of Merak. The port of Merak is located at the far western tip of Java.

There are 11 known dead at this time. They are not sure if any of the passengers or crew are still missing. Another 427 people survived the fire.

A great deal of the passengers were taken to a hospital in Cilegon on the island of Java to be checked out and given necessary treatment.

It is thought that a vehicle on the ferry may have caused the fire.

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