Word: fires
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There are a number of reasons wildfires have grown more destructive in California and elsewhere in the West. As suburban sprawl encroaches on wilderness areas, more homes are in the path of the flames, and there are more people to set fires accidentally--or even on purpose. More than 50% of new housing in California has been built in severe-fire zones. Live near the flames and you'll get burned...
...stillness that worried firefighters most. The wildfires that now annually singe Southern California came early this year, spreading slowly from drought-stricken wilderness to the foothills near Los Angeles. Fire season is usually worst in October, when the hot Santa Ana winds blow over the San Gabriel Mountains. But this inferno needed no wind--the Station fire in Angeles National Forest burned more than 100,000 acres (40,500 hectares), threatened thousands of homes and killed two firefighters in the dry heat of late summer. The stillness kept the flames from spreading quickly--a climatologist called it the "Jabba...
...there's another culprit behind the growing frequency of wildfires in California and elsewhere. As average temperatures climb, the mountain snowpack that waters much of the West thins and melts earlier, producing a longer and drier fire season. The spread of the tree-killing mountain pine beetle, aided by warmer winters, has turned millions of acres of Western forest into kindling. And as the flames burn, they'll reinforce climate change. A report published in the journal Science this spring found that not only are fires worsening as a result of climate change, but the CO[subscript 2] they release...
...dried blood on the clothes, stating that it could be animal blood from experiments conducted in the research facility. Surveillance tapes show that Le, a pharmacology doctoral student from Placerville, Calif. was last seen entering the building at around 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Roughly three hours later, an unexpected fire alarm sounded, and the research facility was quickly evacuated. There is no record of Le leaving the building based on footage from some 75 security cameras stationed around the building, though Yale officials have said it could be difficult to pick out Le, who is 4-feet-11-inches, from...
...main under Plympton Street cracked early Sunday afternoon, causing gas to seep into Old Quincy and the building to be evacuated for several hours. The gas concentration was low enough to not constitute a serious fire danger, according to officials at the scene, and the gas company, NSTAR, was present and actively monitoring gas levels soon after the leak was identified. The gas began filtering into the building through cracks in its foundation during the early afternoon yesterday, according to Cambridge Fire Department Deputy Chief Francis E. Murphy III. Outside Quincy on Plympton Street, the smell of gas was palpable...