Esperanza fire trial continues
Much of the testimony in the trial on Thursday centered around the matches in the incendiary devices that were used to start the Esperanza and other fires in the area. The Palm Springs Desert Sun has the details.
Two people burned in brush fire
A police officer and his father were entrapped and received serious burns in a one-acre brush fire in Old Fort, North Carolina. From the McDowell News:
Chief Melvin Lytle of the Old Fort Police Department said Joseph Steppe, who has been an officer on his squad for a little over a year, and Steppe’s father, Philip, were burning brush on a hillside off Salisbury Avenue in Old Fort, when winds spread the flames into a patch of kudzu. The fire quickly got out of control and the Steppes had to flee through the fire.
Lytle stated that Joseph received third-degree burns “from his left pocket to his right pocket” and up his front torso. Phillip, the chief added, sustained first-degree burns on his stomach. Both were also suffering from smoke inhalation.
The father and son were taken by ambulance to Memorial Mission Hospital shortly after the call came in at 10:45 a.m. Lytle said they were both transferred Thursday afternoon to N.C. Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. Condition reports were not available at deadline.
Tire blow-out starts fire
In Davenport, Florida, a tire blew out on a truck, and sparks from the wheel started a 14-acre vegetation fire. No structures were lost, but the fire burned several homeowner’s privacy fences.
Owens Valley fire burns 2,000 acres
The Fort fire near Fort Independence, California, burned 2,000 acres of brush and grass on Thursday while strong southwest winds ahead of a weather front challenged firefighters. The Owens Valley is east of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains.