(BEL AIR, Md.) — At least one person was found dead and two others were injured when an explosion Sunday morning leveled a home and damaged multiple neighboring residences in a suburban Baltimore neighborhood, authorities said.
The blast was reported around 6:42 a.m. on Arthur Woods Drive in the Harford County city of Bel Air, about 32 miles north of Baltimore, according to officials.
A photo posted on X by Harford County Fire and Emergency Medical Services showed firefighters battling a small fire and searching the remains of the home, which was reduced to splintered pieces of wood, insulation and other debris.
“I’ve been on the job for 18 years and this was one of the largest explosions I’ve seen,” Master Deputy State Fire Marshal Oliver Alkire said during a news conference Sunday.
Alkire said firefighters from the Harford County Fire Department were responding to a report of a gas leak in the area when the explosion occurred.
Jeffrey Sexton, a spokesperson for the Harford County Fire and EMS Association, confirmed that one person was found dead in a large debris field caused by the explosion. The name of the deceased person was not immediately released.
Sexton said search-and-rescue crews are still combing the rubble as of mid-morning Sunday.
Alkire said workers from the Baltimore Gas and Electric company had also responded to the area before the explosion to investigate an electrical issue. Alkire said a BG&E worker was injured by the blast.
He said a woman in a neighboring home damaged by the explosion was also hurt and treated at the scene.
Alkire said multiple homes were damaged and that a damage assessment was being conducted. He said no evacuations have been ordered.
Alkire confirmed the house that exploded was for sale.
Residents in the neighborhood reported hearing the loud explosion and feeling their houses shake, authorities said.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation by the Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Office, the Harford County Sheriff’s Department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
ABC News’ Davone Morales contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Hawaii is on alert for Tropical Storm Hone while extreme heat is expected to expand from the South to the Midwest, leaving 25 million Americans under heat alerts this weekend.
A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Big Island of Hawaii as Tropical Storm Hone passes by to the south of the islands.
While it won’t be a direct hit, the storm is still close enough to deliver some potentially dangerous impacts.
The main threat is for heavy rain that could cause flash flooding and landslides, especially on the eastern side of the Big Island where rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches are possible. For the smaller islands, scattered rainfall of 2 to 4 inches is possible this weekend from Hone’s outer bands.
In terms of wind, tropical storm force winds are forecast to begin this evening and throughout the overnight hours into Sunday morning. Gusts will generally be in the 25 to 40 mph range, but there could be some gusts of over 50 mph in some of the higher elevations on the Big Island.
Swells from Hone will also generate high surf and dangerous rip currents for all the islands beginning in the Big Island on Saturday and spreading west to the rest of the islands over the weekend.
Hone may reach hurricane status for a short period of time as it passes south of Hawaii, but it is forecast to stay over open water and eventually weaken back into a Tropical Storm.
Heat alerts for 25 million Americans
This weekend, sweltering heat continues for much of the southern plains, but it will ease up a bit in Texas as the weekend goes on.
The extreme heat drifts north over the next few days, heading through the central plains and into the upper Midwest.
An excessive heat watch is in effect for parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, including Minneapolis on Sunday and Monday.
The heat index could be approaching 110 degrees for several cities in the plains and Midwest on Sunday and Monday.
Extreme heat slides eastward for the beginning to the middle of next week, moving into the Great Lakes and into the south by Tuesday and Wednesday.
Cities like Chicago, Louisville, and Atlanta could be approaching some record high temperatures up to 95 to 100 degrees for the middle of the upcoming week.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is once again brushing aside traditional debate preparations as his first match against Vice President Kamala Harris approaches, reverting to a similar strategy of policy meetings with advisers and a series of interviews and town halls.
In the week leading up to the Sept. 10 ABC News debate, Trump was on campaign trail for a town hall in Pennsylvania, gave an economic address in New York and will hold a rally in Wisconsin this weekend. His campaign said the former president sees talking to voters is a form of debate prep, too.
“Our debate and prep is every day. It’s called Donald Trump talking to voters,” one Trump campaign adviser said.
Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes told ABC News that because Trump gives “dozens of unscripted interviews and can stand with reporters unscripted for hours at a time, he doesn’t need staff cheat codes to go into a debate.”
“He is reviewing policy with advisers,” Hughes said, adding that Trump is “always prepared to discuss his successful time as president.”
During a town hall event Wednesday with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump said he was “gonna let [Harris] talk” in the debate.
“When I had [President Joe] Biden, you and I had the same discussion. And I let him talk. I’m gonna let her talk,” Trump told Hannity when asked how he will respond to Harris when she tries to get under his skin.
In the last three weeks, Trump has only done two events that the campaign has described as rallies out of the nearly dozen campaign stops he has had — a break in the campaign’s traditional style.
The campaign instead has been persistent with scheduling more smaller-scale, policy-focused speeches and participating in moderated discussion panels with allies. During these events, Trump has worked to fine-tune his attacks on Harris, though, at times, he often struggled to stay on topic.
Trump and his campaign have long strayed from mock-style debates, and say that despite having a different challenger, his method remains the same. Rather, in between campaign stops, Trump and his campaign have been focusing on nailing down several different policy areas, a similar strategy to how he approached the June debate against Biden.
Trump had limited outbursts and personal attacks on the debate stage against Biden in June, and his campaign said he will focus on a similar strategy against Harris. Still, Trump has not held back on the trail, lobbing personal attacks at Harris.
The campaign has also tapped former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who recently endorsed Trump, for debate preparations. Campaign advisers took note of Gabbard’s debate performance against Harris and Biden in the 2020 Democratic primary, and made headlines at the time for taking aim at Harris’ record as a prosecutor.
In public comments over the weekend, Gabbard offered insight into the types of tactics she would advise Trump about ahead of next week’s debate, warning that Harris should not be “underestimated.” The former president has previously said he thinks debating Harris will be “easier” than Biden.
“I think Kamala Harris has a lot of experience. She’s not to be underestimated. President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have very different records,” Gabbard said.
She argued that Trump should focus on Harris’ flip-flops, which “will be an opportunity for voters to look at and compare and contrast those records.”
“It really is just sharing the experience that I have with her on that debate stage in 2020 and frankly, helping to point out some ways that Kamala Harris has already shown that she is trying to move away from her record, move away from her positions, and how that contradicts the positions and statements that she is making now that she is the Democratic nominee,” Gabbard said.
Trump also recently sat down for a town hall with Gabbard in Wisconsin, answering questions from voters on issues such as the economy, immigration and national security.
As the Trump campaign tries to focus on Harris’ record, another attack anticipated on the debate stage is the distinction that Harris is currently serving in the White House and can make policy decisions now.
“That’s one of the points that I will make all the time. Do it. You can do it right now,” Trump claimed in an interview with the Daily Mail last month.
The ABC News debate will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 9 p.m ET. A prime-time pre-debate special will air at 8 p.m. ET.
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Francine was forecast to strengthen into a hurricane early Tuesday ahead of its expected landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said.
The storm’s winds remained at about 65 mph just after midnight, the center said in its 1 a.m. CT update on Tuesday.
“Francine will likely become a hurricane today, with significant strengthening expected before it reaches the coast,” the update said.
Weather officials issued a series of hurricane warnings and watches for coastal areas as the storm has churned in the Gulf of Mexico. Strong winds are extending about 140 miles outward from the storm.
Francine is expected to make landfall Wednesday afternoon in southwestern Louisiana as a Category 2 storm with 100 mph winds.
A Storm Surge Warning was in effect for High Island, Texas, to the mouth of the Mississippi River and Vermilion Bay in Louisiana. A Hurricane Warning was in effect for the Louisiana coast from Sabine Pass eastward to Morgan City, officials said.
The storm is expected to bring rain to much of the coast from northeastern Mexico through Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Most areas in the storm’s path will see between 4 inches and 8 inches of rain, with a few areas getting as much as 12 inches.
“This rainfall could lead to considerable flash and urban flooding,” weather officials said.