Blaze cues evacuations
A FAST-MOVING brush fire prompted mandatory evacuation orders for about 500 homes on Wednesday as firefighters battled flames that burned through 4000ha within little more than three hours, , according to the LA County nty Fire Department.
The Lake Fire erupted near ear Lake Hughes, a 90-minute ute drive from LA. More than 300 00 firefighters backed by helicoppters and fixed-wing aircraft ft fought the blaze.
The smoke plume from the e flames could be seen for many y kilometres.
THE massive blast at Beirut port on August 4 caused more than $Us15bn ($20bn) in damages, Lebanese President Michel Aoun said.
“Preliminary estimates of the losses suffered following the port explosion top $Us15bn,” he was quoted as telling Spain’s King Felipe in a phone call, in a message on the presidency’s Twitter account on Wednesday.
The death toll from the blast, caused after a fire in a warehouse ignited 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, is currently more than 200, with more than 6000 injured.
THREE people died in a train derailment in northeast Scotland following torrential rain at a spot identified as being “greatly affected” by landslides.
The driver, conductor and one of the nine passengers were killed and six others injured when the train came off the rails, slid down a steep embankment and burst into flames near Stonehaven, in Aberdeenshire. British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson immediately called for an investigation into the impact of torrential rain on the country’s transport infrastructure following the tragedy – the nation’s first fatal derailment in more than a decade.
The 6.38am Aberdeen to Glasgow Scotrail passenger train came off the tracks at Carmont, 10km southwest of Stonehaven. The area had been hit by violent storms the night before. It is believed the driver stopped the train after encountering a landslide on the track, and it was then hit by a second landslide. Firefighters battled to cut survivors free as dozens of ambulances waited nearby.