Photo of PG&E workers burrying utility lines

State Regulators Launch Investigation into Power Outages

SAN FRANCISCO — California regulators opened a formal investigation Wednesday into preemptive power outages that blacked out large parts of the state in October, drawing strong rebukes from public officials and residents who said the shut-offs were too broad a...
Photo of makeshift memorials to the victims of the Ghost Ship warehouse fire

California Warehouse Fire Limps on After Hung Jury

OAKLAND — An emotionally taxing criminal case over the deaths of 36 people trapped in a fire inside a San Francisco Bay Area warehouse nearly three years ago will continue after a jury acquitted one defendant a...
Photo of law enforcement and coroners in Santa Barbara, Ca.

Searchers Look for 9 Missing in California Boat Fire, 25 Die

SANTA BARBARA — Divers and search crews were still looking Tuesday for nine missing people after at least 25 were confirmed dead when a boat packed with scuba divers caught fire near an island off the Southern California coast. "You couldn't ask for a worse...
Photo of Jim Beam bottles

Fire Levels Jim Beam Warehouse With 45,000 Barrels of Bourbon

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A fire destroyed a massive Jim Beam warehouse filled with 45,000 barrels of bourbon, sending flames shooting into the night sky and generating so much heat that firetruck lights melted, authorities said Wednesday. Firefighters from four cou...