Page 4 - ARUBA TODAY

A4 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 29 June 2017
Western wildfires force thousands of people from their homes

Continued from Front state were battling three
fires near Wenatchee that
had grown to about 37
Many residents have pain-
ful memories of the 2013 square miles (95 square ki-
lometers).
wildfire that killed 19 mem-
bers of an elite firefighting And in Idaho, fire offi-
cials say quick responses
crew.
“It’s scary because we’re by ranchers and others
to more than 20 wildfires
coming up on the four-year
anniversary of the Yarnell sparked by lightning have
kept the small fires from be-
Hill fire — there’s still a lot of
fresh memories,” said Arizo- coming major blazes like
those that scorched the
na state Sen. Karen Fann,
who lives in Prescott and region in recent decades.
In Arizona, Jennifer John-
represents the area where
the fire is burning. son of Phoenix was driving
into Prescott Valley Tues-
Elsewhere across the west-
ern U.S., a fire in the foothills day for a meeting and no-
ticed smoke on the way in.
north of Los Angeles was
burning right up to homes. By the time the meeting
wrapped up a few hours
Dozens of homes were
under mandatory evacu- later, things had changed
dramatically.
ation orders on the sub-
urban edges of Burbank, George Huang, a Cal Fire Capt. based in Los Osos, reviews the scene of a wildfire near Huer “Getting closer to Mayer, it
looked like we were driving
where flames raced uphill Huero Road in Santa Margarita, Calif., Tuesday, June 27, 2017.
through tinder-dry grass. (Joe Johnston/The Tribune of San Luis Obispo/AP) into some alien sort of inva-
sion, like the whole sky was
No homes have been
reported destroyed but fire destroyed the home In Utah, firefighters braced 13 homes and forced the on fire,” she said.
Video she took along
flames were spotted in or of “Big Bang Theory” star for more high winds as they evacuation of 1,500 peo-
near backyards. Johnny Galecki on a ranch tried to slow a stubborn ple from a ski resort town. the freeway shows huge
clouds of smoke colored
In Central California, a wild- in the San Luis Obispo area. wildfire that has burned Firefighters in Washington
red by flames.q
Supervisors suspended amid NYC subway derailment probe

By KILEY ARMSTRONG Associated Press gators probing the derail- subway train said the acci- properly secured spare rail,
FRANK ELTMAN NEW YORK (AP) — Investi- ment of a New York City dent was caused by an im- left on the tracks to make
it easier to fix breakdowns
quickly. Two supervisors re-
sponsible for oversight of
track maintenance work
were suspended without
pay pending a formal re-
view, the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority
announced Wednesday.
MTA Chairman Joe Lhota
and Interim Executive Di-
rector Ronnie Hakim said
in a statement that storing
equipment between tracks
is a common practice em-
ployed by railroads across
the country to accelerate
repairs. “The key to this be-
ing an effective and safe
practice is making sure
that the extra equipment
is properly bolted down,
which does not appear
to have happened in this
case,” they said.
The derailment on Tuesday
in Harlem caused an A train
to list and scrape along a
tunnel wall, tossing people
to the floor and forcing
hundreds of passengers
to evacuate through dark
tunnels. About three-dozen
people were hurt, though
not seriously.q