Important Takeaways:
- Red Flag fire warnings are expected to remain for the Malibu area along the Southern California coast into Wednesday afternoon after the Franklin Fire forced evacuation orders or warnings for 18,000 residents, including some celebrities, and more than 8,000 homes and businesses.
- Tens of thousands have lost power, and schools have had to cancel classes.
- At its peak, the wildfire that ignited Monday expanded at an alarming rate, consuming an area larger than five football fields per minute and destroying at least seven structures
- Weather conditions: Gusty winds are expected to drop below 30 mph by Wednesday afternoon. Dry conditions persist, with relative humidity below 10%, prompting the weather service to issue Red Flag warnings until 2 p.m. Wednesday. A Red Flag warning means warm temperatures, very low humidities, and stronger winds are expected to combine to produce an increased risk of fire. The Storm Prediction Center has also rated the fire risk for Southern California at level 1 of 3 for Wednesday.
- Power outages: Nearly 60,000 customers across California experienced power outages, primarily concentrated in San Diego County, where utilities implemented preventative shutdowns. Pepperdine University’s Malibu campus lost power, with some buildings relying on generator power.
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Important Takeaways:
- Fires started by Hezbollah rockets and drones ignited and spread throughout northern Israel early this week, posing a new challenge for the Israeli military and leading to public demands for action against the Iranian terror group.
- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a statement Monday evening:
- Over the past few hours, the IDF has been conducting a situational assessment with Israel Fire and Rescue Services to allocate additional means, forces, and firefighting capabilities in order to extinguish the fires in northern Israel.
- At this stage, IDF reserve soldiers, engineer tools, mechanical equipment, fire trucks, and fire tanks were reinforced.
- An IDF Home Front Command’s fire battalion is currently operating at the scene and assisting fire and rescue forces.
- The forces gained control over the locations of fire, and at this stage, no human life is at risk.
- The Commanding Officer of the Northern Command is currently arriving at the Kiryat Shmona Fire Station.
- Six IDF reservist soldiers were lightly injured as a result of smoke inhalation and transferred to a hospital to receive medical treatment. Their families have been notified.
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Important Takeaways:
- Trailer hauling Bibles intentionally set on fire on Easter Sunday in Wilson County
- Investigations are underway after a suspicious trailer fire in Wilson County on Easter Sunday
- Juliet Police Department swiftly responded to the scene, accompanied by the Mt. Juliet Fire Department who worked quickly to extinguish the blaze.
- Early investigations, led by the WSCO, show that the trailer was full of Bibles. Officials believe that the trailer was intentionally dropped off in the middle of the intersection and intentionally set on fire. No injuries have been reported following the incident.
- One of our reporters spoke with Sheriff Robert Bryan, who said he has no doubt the Bibles were burned intentionally. He says investigators are currently reviewing the security footage, and the car appears to be an out of state plate.
- The investigation is ongoing, and as of now we don’t have any more details.
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Important Takeaways:
- Texas Wildfire Causes ‘Catastrophic Losses’ to Cattle Herds: ‘Farmers & Ranchers Are Losing Everything’
- The devastating impact of the Texas wildfires is beginning to emerge as the cattle industry braces for historic losses.
- One of several wildfires raging in the Texas Panhandle has now grown to become the largest in state history.
- The Smokehouse Creek fire has been burning since Monday and has so far destroyed over one million acres of land in Texas alone.
- However, emergency crews have made little progress in containing it.
- It has so far torched the most land than any other recorded wildfire in the history of the state.
- The same blaze has also destroyed 31,500 acres in Oklahoma, according to CNN.
- Two people have died so far in the fires.
- Ranchers have lost thousands of livestock with many more likely to be euthanized.
- Many homes and other buildings have been lost to the flames, as well.
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Important Takeaways:
- Texas wildfires: 1 dead as more than 1 million acres burn across the state
- As many as 23 separate wildfires covered more than a million acres across Texas early this morning, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
- The state’s fire preparedness level was raised to a three, meaning outside help from other agencies, regions or states may be required to battle the blazes
- The wildfire at Smokehouse Creek is only 3% contained and has covered 850,000 acres — making it bigger than Rhode Island — quickly making it the second-largest blaze in Texas history.
- Wildfires, having moved east from the Texas Panhandle, were spreading in Oklahoma. At least 12 fires were burning in the state, covering more than 115,000 acres.
- Conditions ripe for more fires are expected Saturday and Sunday. Heat and high winds — forecast to gust at 20 mph to 35 mph — will likely cause “critical fire weather conditions again,” the National Weather Service in Amarillo said.
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Important Takeaways:
- As many as 200 people may have been living in the building, witnesses said
- A nighttime fire ripped through a rundown five-story building in Johannesburg that was occupied by homeless people and squatters, leaving at least 73 people dead early Thursday, emergency services in South Africa’s biggest city said.
- A witness said he saw people throwing babies out of the burning building in an attempt to save them and that at least one man died when he jumped from a window on the third floor and hit the concrete sidewalk “head first.”
- Seven of the victims were children, the youngest a 1-year-old, according to an emergency services spokesperson.
- Mulaudzi, the emergency services spokesperson, said the death toll was likely to increase and more bodies were probably trapped inside the building.
- The fire took three hours to contain, he said, and firefighters needed time to work through all five floors.
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Important Takeaways:
- Maui’s emergency management chief resigns, citing health reasons, a day after he defended sirens’ silence during deadly wildfires
- The resignation of Maui Emergency Management Agency Administrator Herman Andaya is effective immediately, the county said. His post will be filled “as quickly as possible,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said.
- The wildfires that ignited August 8 have killed at least 111 people – including children – mostly around Lahaina, an economic and cultural hub obliterated by the infernos.
- And the death toll is expected to rise as searchers – many grieving their own fire losses – keep digging through the charred remains of more than 2,000 burned homes and businesses and “probably still over 1,000” residents remain unaccounted for, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told CNN on Wednesday.
- Elsewhere on the island, fires are still burning – though they’re mostly contained – as scrutiny mounts over the official wildfire preparations and response, including the role of the local electricity provider and the siren system.
- As the deadly fires spread, no one tried to activate Maui’s 80-alarm, all-hazard outdoor siren system, a spokesperson for the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said last week. Andaya on Wednesday was asked whether he regretted not sounding the alarms, which are part of a larger statewide network.
- “I do not,” he told reporters, adding he’d worried their blares would have sent many residents inland “into the fire.”
- Hawaiian Electric – the major power company on Maui – also is facing scrutiny for not shutting down power lines when high winds created dangerous fire conditions.
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Matthew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Important Takeaways:
- Wildfire Near Athens Forces Evacuation of Seaside Resorts
- A wildfire broke out near Athens on Monday as a heatwave grips the country, firefighters said, with several seaside resorts ordered to evacuate as a precaution.
- The blaze started in Kouvaras, 50 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of Athens. “It’s a difficult fire, the winds are really strong” with gusts reaching up to 60 kilometres (37 miles) per hour,” said Yannis Artopios, a firefighters’ spokesman.
- Greece, along with Italy and Spain, has been gripped by a heatwave since last week, with temperatures reaching 44C (111 Fahrenheit) in the center of the country.
- Seven water-bombing aircraft, four helicopters and 150 firemen backed by 30 colleagues from Romania were fighting the flames on two fronts, local media reported.
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Revelations 13:16-18 “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”
Important Takeaways:
- Indiana fire at recycling plant prompts evacuation of more than 2,000 residents
- More than 2,000 residents were told to evacuate Tuesday afternoon after a large fire broke out at a recycling plant in Indiana, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky.
- The fire broke out in the City of Richmond, which is about 70 miles east of Indianapolis and near Ohio’s western border.
- Indiana State Police said the blaze was at the former Hoffco factory, which closed in 2009.
- Wayne County EMA said the evacuation order applied to residents and persons within 0.5 miles of the fire. Those outside that zone were advised to keep windows closed and pets inside.
- Richmond Mayor Dave Snow described it as a “serious, large-scale fire.”
- “Many units are on scene,” Snow said. “Please avoid this area if possible, as it is dangerous, and allow our first responders room to get this under control.”
- “The smoke is definitely toxic,” said the Indiana State Fire Marshall on scene according to Fox 59.
- “This fire is going to burn for a few days,” he added.
- No other details were immediately available.
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Revelations 18:23:’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’
Important Takeaways:
- Fears of worsening egg shortage in New Zealand as fire kills 50,000 hens at farm
- The fire at a Zeagold farm broke out on Monday morning and had “taken better part of the day to contain”, a spokesperson for the company said. Twelve workers who were on site were “unharmed but very distressed,” the spokesperson said. Work was under way to assess how many hens had died, but Zeagold estimated it to be about 75,000. The company later revised that number down to 50,000.
- The fire may have ripple effects beyond the immediate demise of the hens, with concerns it may worsen a national scarcity of eggs.
- The shortage has reached the point of contention: one small-town supermarket banned a cruise ship crew from further egg purchases after they cleared the shelves
- Before the Zeagolds fire, farmers had estimated they needed to raise another 300,000 hens before the shortage abated.
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