Fire At Washington State Planned Parenthood Ruled Arson

Sept 4 (Reuters) - A fire that badly damaged a Planned Parenthood building in Washington state early on Friday was caused by arson, local officials said.

The blaze was set around 3:30 a.m. local time and caused extensive damage to the front of the structure in Pullman, the Pullman Fire Department said in a news release. No one was injured in the fire.

Last month, thousands of protesters rallied outside Planned Parenthood locations across the country calling for the federal government to end funding for the health organization.

Demonstrators were mobilized to dozens of locations, including Pullman, after an anti-abortion group released videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials negotiating prices for aborted fetal tissue.

Fire officials in Pullman, a city of about 30,000 people close to Washington's border with Idaho, have not speculated on a motive for the arson and said the investigation was ongoing. (Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Ryan Woo)

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com/
Author: Reuters

Frazier Park Fire: Firefighters Battle Flames & Terrain Of Mountains

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — As firefighters took on a stubborn 3-day-old wildfire Friday in rough terrain north of Los Angeles, a second and more serious blaze broke out 30 miles away near Interstate 5, quickly surging to more than 500 acres, briefly threatening an elementary school and leading to the precautionary evacuation of nearly 20 homes.

The new fire was burning very close to I-5 during some of the busiest hours of the week for the heavily traveled route in and out of Los Angeles. The freeway has seen wildfire activity in its surrounding hills all week. One southbound lane was closed because of the firefight.

Disney, Wal-Mart, Sears used deadly Bangladeshi factory

Amid the ash, broken glass and melted sewing machines at what is left of the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory in Bangladesh, there are piles of children's shorts bearing Wal-Mart's Faded Glory brand.

There were also shorts from hip-hop star Sean Combs's ENYCE label lying on the floor and stacked in cartons.

Honduras prison fire: Inmates awoke to a nightmare around them

COMAYAGUA, HONDURAS—Jose Enrique Guevara woke up to screams and a flash of heat from the fire about to engulf his prison bunk bed.

As flames devoured men around him and tore at his back, Guevara bolted for a corner, seeking to escape the conflagration. But the only door to the overcrowded barracks was locked.

“You can’t imagine what it’s like, knowing that everyone is burning, hearing and seeing how they cry as they’re eaten by flames,” said Guevara, 33, who was serving an 11-year sentence for auto theft in the Comayagua prison. “It all happened in seconds.”

As scores around him died, Guevara survived only by a fellow inmate’s act of heroism: the man picked up a bench and smashed the lock.

Only three of 105 inmates in Guehis dormitory survived the worst prison fire in a century. In all, 358 perished in the blaze that broke out just before 11 p.m. local time Tuesday, including a woman who had come to the medium-security farm prison to spend Valentine’s Day with her husband.

Honduras Prison Fire Kills At Least 300 Inmates

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- A fire started by an inmate tore through a severely overcrowded Honduran prison, burning and suffocating inmates in their locked cells and killing as many as 356 people in one of the world's deadliest prison fires in a century, authorities said Wednesday.

The local governor, a former prison employee, told reporters that an inmate called her moments before the fire and said he was going to set the facility on fire and kill everyone inside.

Survivors told investigators that an unidentified inmate screamed "We will all die here!" as he lit fire to his bedding late Tuesday night in the prison in the central town of Comayagua. The lockup housed people convicted of serious crimes such as homicide and armed robbery.

The blaze spread within minutes, killing about 100 inmates in their cells as firefighters struggled to find officials who had keys, Comayagua fire department spokesman Josue Garcia said.

 "We couldn't get them out because we didn't have the keys and couldn't find the guards who had them," Garcia said.

Others prisoners were set free by guards but died from the flames or smoke as they tried to flee into the fields surrounding the facility, where prisoners convicted of crimes grow corn and beans on a state-run farm. Rescuers carried shirtless, semi-conscious prisoners from the facility by their arms and legs. One hauled a victim away from the fire by piggyback.

Paola Castro, the governor of Comayagua state, said at a press conference that she had received a call several minutes before the first reports of a fire from a prisoner whom she did not name, who told her that "I will set this place on fire and we are all going to die!"