A bus in South Africa plunged off a bridge and fell more than 150 feet Thursday, killing 45 people, officials said. Only one passenger, an 8-year-old girl, survived the crash.
The bus was traveling from Botswana to an annual Easter festival at a church in Moria, in South Africa’s northern province of Limpopo.
The driver of the bus reportedly lost control while driving over the bridge, colliding with barriers before falling about 50 meters onto a rocky surface, Limpopo’s Department of Transport and Community Safety said.
Rescue workers at the scene of the bus crash Mamatlakala, South Africa, on March 28, 2024.
Limpopo Department of Transport and Community Safety
Rescue operations continued late Thursday. Some bodies were burned beyond recognition, while others were trapped inside the vehicle’s debris, the department said.
A department spokesperson told CBS News that the 8-year-old survivor is a girl. She was being treated at a nearby hospital, though the department did not provide further details about her condition.
Rescue workers told local media that the bus was pulling a trailer, adding additional weight to the vehicle as it crossed the bridge.
“I am sending my heartfelt condolences to the families affected by the tragic bus crash near Mamatlakala,” Sindisiwe Chikunga, South Africa’s Minister of Transport, said at the crash scene. “We continue to urge responsible driving at all times with heightened alertness as more people are on our roads this Easter weekend.”
HEBBARIYE, Lebanon (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on a paramedics center linked to a Lebanese Sunni Muslim group in south Lebanon killed seven of its members early Wednesday and triggered a rocket attack from Lebanon that killed one person in northern Israel, officials said.
The strike on the village of Hebbariye came after a day of airstrikes and rocket attacks between Israel’s military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group along the Lebanon-Israel border, raising concerns of further escalation along the frontier that has been active for the past five months of the Israel-Hamas war.
The airstrike after midnight Tuesday hit an office of the Islamic Emergency and Relief Corps, according to the Lebanese Ambulance Association. It was one of the deadliest single attacks since violence erupted along the border.
The paramedics association listed the names of seven volunteers who were killed in the strike. It said the strike was “a flagrant violation of humanitarian work.”
Hebbariye resident Ali Noureddine told The Associated Press that the seven dead were pulled out from the rubble before sunrise Wednesday.
The Israeli military said it struck a military building in Hebbariye and killed a member of Lebanon’s Sunni Muslim al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, and several other militants. It said the man was involved in attacks against Israel.
Hours later, Hezbollah said it retaliated against the airstrike by firing dozens of rockets Wednesday morning on the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona and a military base there.
Rescue services in Israel said that a 25 year-old man was killed when a direct hit sparked a fire in an industrial park in Kiryat Shmona. Footage from the scene showed thick black smoke pouring out of a building.
Another person was lightly injured. Around 30 rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel, according to the Israeli military.
Nada Khleif was in her small bakery in Hebbariyeh when the strike heavily damaged her business and a nearby apartment, where two of her relatives were unharmed.
“The bakery was my only means of living. It is gone now,” she said.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group began launching rockets toward Israel one day after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7. The near-daily violence has mostly been confined to the area along the Lebanon-Israel border, and international mediators are scrambling to prevent an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The fighting has killed nine civilians and 11 soldiers in Israel. Nearly 240 Hezbollah fighters and about 40 civilians have died in Lebanon.
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Lidman contributed from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Fire broke out aboard the Carnival Freedom in the Bahamas
Fire broke out aboard the Carnival Freedom in the Bahamas
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A Carnival cruise ship will be out of commission for repairs for at least a week after its exhaust funnel caught fire and partially collapsed Saturday during a trip to the Bahamas. It marked the second time in just under two years that the funnel on this same ship, the Carnival Freedom, went up in flames while carrying passengers.
What caused the most recent incident is still being investigated, according to the cruise company. No one on board the ship was injured, but Carnival said two fire crew members were treated for minor smoke inhalation.
The Carnival Freedom left from Port Canaveral, Florida, on Thursday and was supposed to travel for several days through the Bahamas before returning Monday to Port Canaveral. It was not immediately clear how many passengers and crew were on board the Freedom when the fire erupted, but the cruise ship can accommodate 2,980 guests and 1,150 crew members at capacity. CBS News contacted Carnival for more information.
The ship initially reported a fire at around 3:15 p.m. EDT on Saturday, on the port side of the ship’s exhaust funnel as it sailed 20 miles off of the Bahamas’ Eleuthera Island en route to Freeport, the company said in a statement. It had changed course to turn toward Freeport, at the northern tip of the island chain, after cancelling a stop farther south in Princess Cays because of bad weather. Eyewitnesses said that a lightning strike may have sparked the fire, a claim that Carnival said “is being investigated but cannot yet be confirmed.”
A portion of the Carnival Freedom ship’s exhaust funnel broke off and crashed onto the deck below, after a fire broke out Saturday inside the smokestack.
Carnival / Randalyn Rogers
A fire response team was activated quickly to put out the blaze once it broke out, as the Freedom’s captain shifted the cruise liner toward the heavy rain nearby in hopes that would help. The fire was extinguished by 5:20 p.m., Carnival said, including flames from a portion of the funnel that broke off and fell onto one of the ship decks. Funnels are essentially used as smokestacks or chimneys to expel fumes and engine exhaust.
The U.S. Coast Guard said the Carnival Freedom crew was able to extinguish the fire Saturday without their help. They were aware of the fire, though, and issued a Captain of the Port order to the cruise ship before it was scheduled to enter Port Canaveral, Florida, on Monday. Captain of the Port orders are broad mandates that the Marine Safety and Security Council describes as a tool granting Coast Guard crews “with operational controls over an emergent situation posing safety, security, or environmental risks.”
“We are continuing to monitor the situation,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.
Although Carnival said at first that it did not expect the fire to impact trips on the Freedom cruise set to depart Port Canaveral on Monday and Friday, a technical assessment carried out in Freeport on Sunday revealed more significant damage to the ship than they originally thought. The damage would “require an immediate repair to stabilize the funnel” after disembarking guests in Port Canaveral on Monday, the company said in an updated statement following the assessment.
“The funnel has been stabilized for the ship’s return to Port Canaveral overnight to disembark guests, and then it will go to the Freeport shipyard on Monday afternoon to begin the required repairs,” Carnival said on Sunday. “We sincerely regret the impact to our embarking guests, as we know they have been looking forward to their spring break vacation.”
Both Carnival Freedom cruises scheduled for this week have been cancelled. Carnival said guests who had booked those cruises would receive full refunds and future cruise credits.
The Carnival Freedom’s exhaust funnel last went up in flames less than two years ago, in May 2022. It was in Grand Turk at the time, during a planned five-day trip from Port Canaveral. The ship had 2,504 guests and 972 crew on board, Carnival said at the time. None of the passengers or crew were hurt.
Emily Mae Czachor
Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She covers breaking news, often focusing on crime and extreme weather. Emily Mae has previously written for outlets including the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.
Paris — French authorities say 11 adults are missing after a fire broke out early on Wednesday in a vacation home for people with disabilities in eastern France while 17 others have been evacuated.
Interior minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted that “early this morning, a fire broke out in a facility for disabled people” in the small town of Wintzenheim, close to the border with Germany. “Despite the rapid and courageous intervention of the fire department … several casualties are reported,” he said. Rescue operations were still ongoing.
Firefighters battle a blaze that broke out in a vacation home used by a group of people with disabilities, in Wintzenheim, France, August 9, 2023.
Patrick Kerber/picture alliance/Getty
The local administration of the Haut-Rhin region said the fire broke out at 6:30 a.m. in private accommodation in Wintzenheim. Seventeen people were evacuated, including 1 person sent to hospital in a “relative emergency.”
Eleven people from the group of adults, who usually live in the city of Nancy, in eastern France, are still missing, the statement said.
“The building was being used… for their vacation,” the statement said.
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire that erupted at a home for disabled people in Wintzenheim, eastern France, August 9, 2023.
SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP/Getty
The fire department deployed 76 firefighters, 4 fire engines, 4 ambulances to contain the blaze and treat the victims. Forty police officers were also mobilized.
The fire was quickly brought under control, the statement said.
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HONOLULU (AP) — Several Hawaii communities were forced to evacuate from wildfires that destroyed at least two homes as of Tuesday as a dry season mixed with strong wind gusts made for dangerous fire conditions.
The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which was passing to the south of the island chain at a safe distance of 500 miles (805 kilometers), was only partly to blame for gusts above 60 mph (97 kph) that toppled power lines, rattled homes and grounded firefighting helicopters.
“It’s kind of because of Hurricane Dora, but it’s not a direct result,” said Jeff Powell, a meteorologist in Honolulu. “It’s just a peripheral result.”
Hawaii was sandwiched between high pressure to the north and a low pressure system associated with Dora, he said, noting how it was sunny and very dry.
The dryness and the gusts “make a dangerous fire situation so that fires that do exist can spread out of control very rapidly,” Powell said.
Maui and the Big Island were contending with wildfires. One Maui fire in Lahaina was contained, but firefighters were still dealing with another in the Kula area. Two homes were destroyed in a fire that engulfed about 1,100 acres (1.72 square miles), Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said. About 80 people were evacuated from 40 homes, he said.
“We’re trying to protect homes in the community,” Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth said of evacuating about 400 homes in four communities in the northern part of the island. As of Tuesday, the roof of one house caught on fire, he said.
Because of the wind gusts, helicopters aren’t able to dump water on the fires from the sky — or gauge more precise fire sizes, Roth said.
Downed power lines also left about 13,000 customers in Maui without power, Hawaiian Electric reported Tuesday night.
Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, who is acting governor while Gov. Josh Green is out of state, signed an emergency proclamation authorizing the activation of the Hawaii National Guard.
Fires in Hawaii are unlike many of those burning in the U.S. West. They tend to break out in large grasslands on the dry sides of the islands and are generally much smaller than mainland fires.
Fires were rare in Hawaii and on other tropical islands before humans arrived, and native ecosystems evolved without them. This means great environmental damage can occur when fires erupt. For example, fires remove vegetation. When a fire is followed by heavy rainfall, the rain can carry loose soil into the ocean, where it can smother coral reefs.
The island of Oahu, where Honolulu is located, also was dealing with power outages and traffic problems, said Adam Weintraub, communication director for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
There have been reported of multiple downed power lines, he said.
“Extreme fire danger will continue until these winds subside and we get a little more humidity here,” Weintraub said.
The weather service had in effect a high wind warning and red flag warnings for dangerous fire weather, Powell said.
These conditions were expected through Tuesday, decreasing throughout the day Wednesday and into Thursday. “It’s going to feel windy for a few days,” Powell said.
___ Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report.
Firefighters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have contained a gigantic plastics fire that prompted a health alert about hazardous air pollution. But authorities say the debris could still smolder for days.
Responders were dispatched on Sunday afternoon to a facility that manufactures and recycles plastic pipes. By then, flames had ignited a storage yard filled with at least an acre of material — old and new pipes, semi-trailers and ground-up material ready to be recycled.
A thick cloud of black smoke quickly filled the sky, the result of burning high-density polyethylene, authorities said.
Burning plastic can release toxic chemicals such as dioxins and polyaromatic hydrocarbons into the air. Long-term exposure to those chemicals has been linked to cancer.
“With the sheer volume of what was there, that’s why it was such a massive black plume,” said Robert Arguelles, a lieutenant in the public information office at Bernalillo County Fire and Rescue.
In a health alert on Sunday evening, the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Program warned residents that the smoke was “unhealthy for everyone and people should limit outdoor activity tonight.” Residents were told to shut windows and doors.
The flames also jumped the road just east of the facility, igniting a secondary brush fire that swelled to two acres.
“We’ve had several fires at recycling plants that had been very big fires as well, but this was one of the bigger ones that I can remember in my career,” said Lieutenant Jason Fejer, a public information officer at Albuquerque Fire Rescue.
On Monday, authorities lifted the health alert as the smoke subsided.
“Fire crews are still monitoring hot spots but there is no longer significant smoke. It is safe to be outside,” the air quality program said.
Arguelles said firefighters brought the flames under control at about 7:48 p.m. on Sunday. But Fejer noted that plastics fires can create a hard outer layer of debris with some material smoldering underneath, so Albuquerque Fire Rescue is continuing to monitor the site.
“It’s going to be a while before we actually clear crews out of there,” Fejer said.
Authorities said they were lucky the wind didn’t blow smoke in the direction of any residential areas, the closest of which is roughly a mile away.
“The majority of the smoke and pollutants that came off that fire were pushed into an area of Kirtland Air Force Base that’s primarily unpopulated,” Arguelles said.
Fejer said investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire. Firefighters were initially dispatched to contain a motor vehicle fire that seemed to have spread to the storage yard, he said, but investigators are also considering whether the storage yard ignited first.
“At this point, residents can go about normal business today,” Arguelles said.
Aria Bendix
Aria Bendix is the breaking health reporter for NBC News Digital.
3 killed after mid-air collision of helicopters responding to California wildfire – CBS News
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A mid-air collision of two helicopters dispatched to fight a fire east of Los Angeles Sunday night caused one of the aircraft to crash, killing three people onboard. The other chopper landed safely. CBS News Los Angeles reporter Kara Finnstrom has the latest.
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Three people were killed after two helicopters dispatched to help fight a fire in California collided on Sunday, sending one crashing to the ground.
Firefighters were responding to a blaze in the Southern California community of Cabazon when it was reported that the fire had extended into vegetation, requiring a “full wildland fire dispatch,” including fixed-wing and rotary aircraft, CalFire Southern Region Chief David Fulcher said in a news conference.
Firefighters with both CalFire and the Riverside County Fire Department were involved in the response, he said.
While engaged in the firefight, two helicopters responding to the incident collided, Fulcher said.
The first helicopter was able to land safely nearby, but the second crashed, killing all three people onboard, he said. The three killed were identified only as a CalFire division chief, a CalFire captain and a contracted pilot.
Fulcher said the crash also caused an additional four-acre fire, which firefighters were able to extinguish.
“This was a tragic loss for the community, the fire service committee and Cal Fire Riverside County Fire Department,” Fulcher said.
He said the cause of the collision was still under investigation, with the National Transportation Safety Board investigating the crash.
The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a post on X, the social media platform formally known as Twitter, that it was in “close coordination” with CalFire after the helicopter crash.
Chantal Da Silva
Chantal Da Silva is a breaking news editor for NBC News Digital based in London.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Two women were killed and another woman and two men were hospitalized with burns after a pleasure boat caught fire and exploded at a marina in Long Beach, California, authorities said.
The blaze was reported around 5:15 p.m. Saturday on a 35-foot powerboat at a fuel dock in Alamitos Bay, the Long Beach Fire Department said.
Cory Valdes was on another boat nearby when he heard the explosion and then saw flames consume the vessel.
“It was so loud, it shook us,” he told the Long Beach Press-Telegram. “It went up so fast — you are talking ten, fifteen seconds and it was fully engulfed.”
One man was quickly able to get off the burning boat and onto the dock, Valdes recalled, while the other man and a woman jumped into the water.
Valdes and others grabbed a hose to help fight the flames until a fire boat arrived with a water cannon. Firefighters initially struggled to find the two remaining women on the boat, Valdes said.
“You know there are the other two on board, you are hearing yelling, you think you are hearing screaming — it was just a poor, sad situation,” said Valdes, who’s retired from the U.S. Coast Guard and is a regular at the marina.
The fire sent up a black plume of smoke that could be seen and smelled from throughout the area that is about 30 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
All of those killed and injured were in their 60s, Fire Capt. Jake Heflin told the newspaper. Their identities were not immediately released.
The cause of the fire was under investigation Sunday.
The wreckage of the boat was towed to an isolation dock to prevent environmental damage from leaking fuel, Heflin said.
A barn fire in rural Georgia took the lives of 26 horses Sunday, officials said.
The Forsyth County Fire Department indicated the fire had already ravaged the horses and their homes, a series of stables in the barn, by the time first responders arrived.
“The fire was well advanced, and it was determined that the fire had been burning for a prolonged time before being discovered by the first 911 callers,” the department said in a statement.
No human injuries were reported.
The address corresponds to Blue Springs Farm, a facility that offers training for equestrian competition, hosts horse-riding summer camps and provides boarding for horses, according to its website.
It has 32 stalls, the site says. A principal at the facility did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An engine company was dispatched to area of the barn, in northwest Forsyth County, based on a report of smoke in the area, the Forsyth County Fire Department said.
As the firefighters were en route, the fire department fielded multiple additional calls confirming fire at the location, it said. The blaze was raging when first responders got there, the fire department said.
“The crew encountered a fully involved large barn containing multiple horse stalls,” it said.
Firefighters assumed a defensive stance until the fire burned the structure to the ground, the fire department said.
“Lost in the fire were 26 horses that were boarded at the facility,” it said. “The barn itself is also a total loss.”
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
Dennis Romero
Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
