Two airboats collide in Florida sending over a dozen people to the hospital
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(OCHOPEE, Fla.) — At least 16 people were hospitalized Friday afternoon after two airboats collided in Florida, investigators said.
Officers responded to the 911 call around 3:15 p.m. and found several people injured at the site of the collision near Ochopee, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a statement.
One boat was carrying 13 passengers while the other was carrying 20, the commission said.
The conditions of the injured passengers were not immediately released.
Investigators were working to determine the cause of the collision and the probe was ongoing.
(LOS ANGELES) — Even as four wildfires continued to burn in Los Angeles County on Thursday, the blazes were already rewriting the record books.
Over the last nine days, seven fires have broken out across the nation’s second-largest metropolitan region, ravaging a combined area bigger than the 40 square miles that comprise the city of San Francisco and nearly twice the size of Manhattan, New York. An eighth fire ignited Monday night near Oxnard in neighboring Ventura County, but fire crews held it to 61 acres.
The two biggest infernos, the Palisades and the Eaton fires, are now among the most destructive blazes in California history, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
Tune into “Good Morning America” on Friday, Jan. 17, as ABC News and ABC owned stations kick off “SoCal Strong” (#SoCalStrong) coverage in support of Los Angeles-area communities amid the devastating wildfires. Coverage continues across ABC News programs and platforms.
As of Thursday morning, the Eaton Fire, which has burned 14,117 acres and destroyed more than 7,000 structures, was the second most destructive fire in state history behind the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California’s Butte County, which consumed 153,336 acres and leveled 18,804 structures, according to Cal Fire.
The Palisades Fire has surged to fourth on Cal Fire’s list of most destructive wildfires in the Golden State after destroying more than 5,000 structures and burning 23,713 acres of drought-parched land.
The 62 square miles comprising the fire zones are just a part of the 4,083 square miles that make up all of LA County.
Regarding the death toll from the fires, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner is investigating 16 deaths in connection with the Eaton Fire. That makes it the fifth deadliest wildfire in state history, leaping over three fires that each caused 15 deaths — the Rattlesnake Fire of 1953 in Northern California, the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego, and the 2020 North Complex Fire in Northern California’s Butte, Plumas and Yuba counties.
The medical examiner is investigating nine deaths in connection with the Palisades Fire in the oceanfront community of Pacific Palisades, which ranks 14 on the list of deadliest California wildfires.
The Eaton and Palisades fires combined have burned an area the equivalent of 2,324 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseums, one of the biggest football stadiums in the country.
The Palisades Fire was 22% contained on Thursday, according to Cal Fire. The Eaton Fire was 55% contained.
The fires are expected to cost insurers as much as $30 billion, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs estimated in a report released this week. After accounting for non-insured damages, the total costs will balloon to $40 billion, the report said.
While Wednesday marked the third straight day the National Weather Service (NWS) had issued a rare “particularly dangerous situation” red flag alert for Los Angeles County, the winds were not as strong as expected overnight allowing residents and firefighters to breathe a sigh of relief that no new fires were reported.
Offshore Santa Ana winds will continue to diminish for the majority of Southern California on Thursday, according to the NWS. However, a red flag warning continues for the San Gabriel and Santa Susana mountains until 3 p.m. local time Thursday.
This morning and early afternoon, winds of 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 40 mph will continue for the Western San Gabriel Mountains, Santa Susana Mountains and the I-5 corridor.
However, a red flag warning continues for the San Gabriel Mountains, 50 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, and the Santa Susana Mountains, about 30 miles north of downtown LA, until 3 p.m. local time Thursday.
A marine layer and even some clouds could bring a chance for a sprinkle to Southern California late Thursday and into Friday.
Up to more than 15,000 firefighters, including crews from outside the state and nation, are taking advantage of the calmer weather to increase fire containment lines, pre-position equipment in crews in vulnerable areas and use air tankers to coat hillsides in front of the burn areas with fire retardant in advance of the next Santa Ana wind event, officials said.
The NWS is forecasting a return of strong Santa Ana winds to the region next Monday and Tuesday.
Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Sheila Kelliher told ABC News a big concern continues to be protecting communities where no fires have yet to emerge, saying, “The start that hasn’t happened I think is what kind of keeps us up.”
The causes of the fires remain under investigation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Meanwhile, FEMA is reporting that it has received more than 53,000 applications for emergency disaster aid.
About 80,000 people remain under mandatory evacuation.
Fire victims like Zaire Calvin of Altadena, whose sister Evelyn McClendon perished in a blaze that burned down their family home, shuddered to think of another blaze like the Eaton Fire igniting.
“It looked like a volcano,” Calvin told ABC News. “When you’re mourning your sister’s death, there’s no real understanding. There’s no understanding. There’s no way to even take it in.”
Calvin said residents like him, whose lives have been upturned by the fires, face an uncertain future as they decide whether to rebuild.
“Everyone is fighting,” Calvin said. “Everyone is literally just asking, leaning on each other to say, ‘What’s next? What’s the best thing to do?'”
(NEW ORLEANS, LA) — Witnesses described scenes of carnage in the wake of a car-ramming attack early Wednesday morning on Bourbon Street in New Orleans that left at least 10 dead and 30 injured.
The suspect, who has not yet been identified, was allegedly “hell-bent” on killing as many people as possible when he steered a pickup truck around barricades and plowed into a crowd of people ringing in the New Year, according to New Orleans Superintendent of Police Anne Kirkpatrick.
One witness, Paul S., who asked ABC News to withhold his full name, said he had watched a fireworks display and went back to his hotel, going to bed around 2:00 a.m. CT. A little over an hour later, he woke up to popping sounds.
“We heard a ‘pop, pop, pop, pop’ sound, followed by a sound that sounded like fireworks going off, like a big firework all at once, and it turned out that was the crash,” he said.
Paul said he peeked through the curtains to see what was occurring and saw police officers telling people in buildings to stay inside. He then went onto the balcony and started recording the aftermath of the attack.
“There’s litter all over the sidewalks, and then there were bodies laid up next to garbage cans and people rushing to give aid,” he said. “There were…these really bright lights out on Bourbon Street…and that illuminated the scene where you could look up and down a block and see it completely empty except for the bodies that were on the ground.”
“The one detail that feels the worst was a man who was in a wheelchair, who was clearly knocked out of it and on the ground in pain. It’s just right next to where the carpark ended,” Paul added.
Paul said he did not see the suspect but was able to see four bullet holes in the rear windshield of the pickup truck allegedly used in the attack.
Another witness, Jimmy Cothran, told ABC News’ Morgan Norwood he and his group ducked into a Bourbon Street nightclub when the commotion began.
Shortly after he entered the club, he said five girls ran in “frantically” and hid under chairs.
Cothran said he ran upstairs to the club’s balcony and witnessed “body after body mangled just as far as you could see. We counted 10, and at least six were instantly clearly deceased. Some were very clearly deceased, but others were yelling out. … It’s a lot to process.”
Cothran added that he saw some bodies in the street that bore tire marks.
“It looked like something out of a movie the way the bodies were mangled,” he said. “These people are never going to wake up.”
The suspect was allegedly firing a gun as he mowed people down, law enforcement officials said. He was shot and killed by police when he got out of his vehicle with an assault rifle, the officials said.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A man has sustained serious injuries after leaping to the rescue of his wife who was ambushed by a polar bear in an early morning attack, police said.
Members of the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service working out of the Fort Severn First Nation detachment in Ontario, Canada, were dispatched to a residential address in the early morning hours of Tuesday to reports of gunfire, according to a statement from the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service.
When authorities arrived, they discovered during their investigation that an adult male and adult female “had exited their home before 5 a.m. to find their dogs. While in the driveway of their home, a polar bear lunged at the woman,” police said.
“The woman slipped to ground as her husband leapt onto the animal to prevent its attack. The bear then attacked the male, causing serious but non-life-threatening injuries to his arm and legs,” Nishnawbe Aski Police Service continued.
During the attack, a neighbor reportedly arrived with a firearm and was able to shoot the bear several times before it retreated to a nearby wooded area and subsequently died from its injuries.
When police arrived on scene, they located the deceased polar bear and learned “an adult male had been transported to the community nursing station to have his injuries assessed and treated,” police said.
Officials continued to patrol the area to ensure no other bears were roaming the community following the attack.
The unnamed man is now recovering from serious injuries to his arm and legs, but is expected to survive.
