Thirty-nine acres of farmland at the northwest corner of Willow and North avenues southeast of Fresno will be the site of Fresno City College's new $46.1 million First Responders Training Center. But the opening date for classes, originally set for late 2022, now is scheduled for the 2024 spring semester,...
Search Warrants Served in California Boat Fire Investigation
SANTA BARBARA — Authorities served search warrants Sunday at the Southern California company that owned the scuba diving boat that caught fire and killed 34 people last week. Agents with the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other agencies searched Truth Aquatics' offices in Santa Barbara...
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 and deadlocked on the other. Jurors deliberated over a two-week period before they acquitted...
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. The dive-boat Conception became engulfed in flames before dawn as the...
Fighting Fire With Fire Often Falls Short in US West
KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARK — The thick scent of smoke hung in the midday air when a trail along the Kings River opened up to an ominous scene: flames in the trees and thick gray smoke shrouding canyon walls. Firefighters were on the job. In fact, they had started the...
State Center Ready to Hire Architect for First Responders Campus
The same Fresno architectural firm that designed first responder campuses at other California community colleges has been tapped to design Fresno City College's new training center for police officers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians. A State Center Community College District selection committee is recommending that trustees hire SIM-PBK Architects on...
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 counties responded to the blaze that erupted late Tuesday. Lightning might...
PG&E Power Lines Triggered Deadly Paradise Fire, State Officials Say
SAN FRANCISCO — Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. power lines caused a fire that killed 85 people — the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, California fire officials said Wednesday. Cal Fire said the transmission lines owned and operated by the San Francisco-based utility sparked the Nov. 8...
Shock, Prayers Around the World for Notre Dame Cathedral
PARIS — The world reacted with shock, horror and prayers to the massive fire Monday at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, united in grief and in solidarity with the people of France. Spain's prime minister offered France the help of his country in the recovery. The fire is a "catastrophe for France,...
PG&E: Company’s Equipment May Have Ignited Camp Fire
NEW YORK — Pacific Gas & Electric says its equipment may have ignited the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 86 people and destroyed an entire town in Northern California. The embattled utility said Thursday it's taking a $10.5 billion charge for claims connected to the Camp Fire in its fourth...