Fires and Firefighters

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      What Are the Largest Wildfires in U.S. History?

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      The Smokehouse Creek fire in the Texas Panhandle is now one of the largest fires the country has faced. Here are five of the others.Fueled by dry grass, harsh winds and unseasonably warm temperatures, the Smokehouse Creek fire in the Texas Panhandle has now burned more than 1.1 million acres, making it the largest fire in the state’s recorded history.At more than a million acres burned, it is also one of the largest wildfires recorded in the United States.Almost all of the largest wildfires in U.S. history, including the Texas fire, are in fact not one fire with a single point of ignition but a combination of fires burning close together. They are what are known as fire complexes and are attacked by firefighters under a unified command.Here is a look back at five of the largest wildfires ever recorded in the United States.2020 — Northern CaliforniaAugust Complex FireThe largest wildfire in California’s recorded history was a merger of nearly 40 fires, most started by lightning strikes during August in Mendocino County, a rural area about 90 miles north of San Francisco. It burned through 1,032,648 acres and caused the death of a firefighter. Overall, 2020 was a brutal year of wildfires in California, with the state experiencing about 10,000 separate fires. The wildfire season that year consumed 4.3 million acres and killed 33 people, according to scientists.2004 — ALASKATaylor Complex FireLightning also caused this group of fires in August, during a time of dry weather. It consumed about 1.3 million acres in a sparsely populated area of eastern Alaska near the border with Canada. It was part of a record fire season in Alaska that burned more than 6.5 million acres. No deaths were reported.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Bangladesh Fire Kills at Least 43 in Shopping Mall

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      Officials said the deadly fire broke out just before 10 p.m. on Thursday night. Crews took about two hours to extinguish the multistory fire, which left dozens injured and many in critical condition.At least 43 people were killed and dozens were injured when a fire ripped through a shopping mall late Thursday night in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, officials said.“So far, we know that 43 have died,” Dr. Samanta Lal Sen, the health minister, told reporters outside a hospital where some of the injured were being treated. “The condition of those who are wounded is not good,” he added.At least 75 people were injured, fire officials said. Some were being treated at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Mr. Sen said.The fire erupted at about 9:51 p.m. on the mall’s second floor, which features a popular biryani restaurant. It quickly spread to the rest of the seven-story building, fire officials said, ripping through a clothing store on the third floor.It took crews at least two hours to put the fire out, officials said.Videos showed that most of the floors were charred by the flames. A firefighter atop a fire engine ladder could be seen trying to extinguish a small fire that was still burning near one of the upper floors.The shopping mall, on Bailey Road, houses a mix of eateries and stores. Almost every floor has a restaurant and most have gas cylinders, a fire official told a television news reporter. He added that the cylinders may have played a role in the fire spreading so quickly.The mall is a popular spot on Thursdays, the end of the workweek in Bangladesh.Alamgir Hossain, an assistant director at the fire department, told The New York Times that a restaurant called Kacci Bhai had been offering a special on Thursday night.Mass-casualty fires and industrial disasters, particularly in garment factories, have been a recurring problem in Bangladesh. The steady economic growth of the country of 170 million people has been a regional success story in recent years, but human rights and labor organizations have long expressed concern about poor working conditions and workplace safety measures.The worst of the disasters happened in 2013, when the collapse of an eight-story garment factory killed more than 1,100 people. In 2021, a factory fire in the city of Narayanganj killed at least 51 people. More

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      1 Dead and 17 Injured in Harlem Apartment Fire

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      The fire, in the Hamilton Heights section, spread quickly from the third floor, trapped people above and led at least one person to jump for safety.One person died and at least 17 people were injured in a two-alarm fire that tore through an apartment building in the Hamilton Heights area of Harlem on Friday, the authorities said.The Fire Department responded to a call at 2:14 p.m. at 2 St. Nicholas Place, a six-story apartment building with 25 units, officials said. The fire started on the third floor and spread quickly through the floors above, according to the Fire Department.Twelve people were taken to New York Health and Hospitals Harlem, the police said; five were in critical condition. One person died at the hospital, according to Joseph Pfeifer, the Fire Department’s first deputy commissioner.When firefighters arrived, several residents were on the building’s fire escapes and three people were trapped, hanging out of fifth-floor windows. Three firefighters were lowered on ropes from the roof to help them.“I told them not to jump, that we’re coming down to rescue them,” Firefighter Chris Lopez, who was involved in the rescue effort, said at a news conference Friday evening.John Hodgens, the Fire Department’s chief of department, said at the news conference that the firefighters usually conduct one or two rope rescues a year. One person jumped out of a window just before firefighters arrived, Chief Hodgens said. Separately, three people were found unconscious on the sixth floor, he said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Russian Drone Strike on Kharkiv Causes Deadly Fire

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      Seven people from two families died in the inferno in Kharkiv on Friday night, as burning oil flowed like lava. “People were doomed,” an official said.The attack hit a fuel depot, causing a fire that quickly spread to several nearby homes.Lynsey Addario for The New York TimesFirefighters were digging through the burned remains of a house Saturday morning searching for the body of a child, the last member of a family killed in a catastrophic fire caused by a Russian drone attack.Four bodies already lay in bags in the yard. Investigators had found the charred remains of the father in a corridor and the mother and two children in the bathroom.Seven people in total died when Russian drones struck a fuel depot late Friday night in one of the most calamitous attacks yet on Kharkiv, the northeastern city that has suffered a series of missile strikes in recent weeks. Burning fuel poured down the street from the destroyed depot, setting a line of houses ablaze so quickly that two families were burned alive in their homes.“The family was held hostage by the fire inside their own house,” Serhii Bolvinov, chief police investigator of Kharkiv, said after firemen and investigators dug for hours through the smoldering debris. “All of them were very badly burned, and DNA examination will be needed for the final conclusions.”A home destroyed in the fire after a fuel depot was struck on Friday night. Lynsey Addario for The New York TimesOleksandr Kobylev, head of the Kharkiv regional police war-crimes department, said the Russians attacked with Iranian-supplied Shahed drones that struck shortly before 11 p.m.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      6 Bodies Found at Burned Pennsylvania House Where 2 Officers Were Shot

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      The authorities said on Friday that they believed they had recovered the remains of six family members, including the person believed to have shot a young niece and two police officers.The remains of six family members have been recovered from a burned home in southeastern Pennsylvania, including those of a man who is believed to have shot two police officers on Wednesday, the authorities said on Friday.Jack Stollsteimer, the Delaware County district attorney, said at a news conference on Friday afternoon that the recovery of the bodies was “gruesome work” that had lasted into Friday.Mr. Stollsteimer said on Thursday that three adults and three children had been feared dead in a fiery episode that began on Wednesday afternoon when the police responded to a report that an 11-year-old girl had been shot at a home in East Lansdowne, Pa., just west of Philadelphia.When police officers arrived at the home, they were immediately met with gunfire, and two officers were injured, according to Mr. Stollsteimer. Some time after the officers were shot, the home burst into flames, and officials had to wait overnight for the fire to subside before they could begin recovering the bodies, Mr. Stollsteimer said.The names of the dead people were not released by officials on Friday. Mr. Stollsteimer referred to them only as the Le family. Mr. Stollsteimer said that a medical examiner would soon begin the process of positively identifying the victims.“From seeing it firsthand, these are charred remains,” Mr. Stollsteimer said. “They are unrecognizable human beings. Not only was there an intense fire, but the building collapsed on these folks as they were in there.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      At Least 6 Missing After Fire at Pennsylvania Home Where 2 Police Officers Were Shot

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      Officers were responding to a report that an 11-year-old girl had been shot at a house in East Lansdowne, Pa., outside Philadelphia, the authorities said.The fire in East Lansdowne, Pa., broke out where two police officers were shot on Wednesday afternoon. Several people were missing.Charles Fox/The Philadelphia Inquirer, via Associated PressAt least six people, including children, were unaccounted for in a house fire in southeastern Pennsylvania where two police officers were shot on Wednesday afternoon, the authorities said.Jack Stollsteimer, the Delaware County district attorney, said at a news conference that police officers responded to a call at 3:47 p.m. reporting that an 11-year-old girl had been shot at a house in East Lansdowne, Pa., just west of Philadelphia. More

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      Pieces of Jackie Robinson Statue Are Found Burning in Kansas Park

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      The life-size bronze tribute to the legendary baseball player who broke the color barrier was stolen from a different park last week. What was left of it “is beyond repair,” officials said.Parts of a life-size bronze statue that celebrated the legacy of the legendary baseball player and civil rights figure Jackie Robinson were found dismantled and burned early Tuesday after it had been stolen from a Kansas park last week, the authorities said.Remnants of the statue were found after a city worker reported a fire in a trash can at Garvey Park in Wichita at around 8:38 a.m., Andrew Ford, a police spokesman, said in a statement.The Wichita Fire Department responded and, “while assessing the damage, they found pieces of the Jackie Robinson statue that had been stolen.”The Fire Department immediately notified the police, who collected the pieces at the scene, he said, noting that “unfortunately, the statue is beyond repair.”The police are continuing to investigate, Mr. Ford said, and they have “already interviewed over 100 people.” The department is also looking into how the statue was dismantled and how the pieces ended up at the location of the fire. Mr. Ford had previously said that the motive for the theft of the monument was not known.Additionally, the Fire Department’s arson investigators are looking into the trash can fire, he said. In a statement posted on Facebook, the department said that “additional parts of the statue have not been recovered at this time.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

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      Colombia, Normally a Wet Country, Battles Widespread Wildfires

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      Firefighters, many of them volunteers, have been confronting dozens of blazes amid high temperatures this month. The conditions have been linked to climate change.Helicopters hauling buckets of water fly toward the mountains where fires burn, a thick haze periodically covers the sky, and residents have been ordered to wear masks and limit driving because of the poor air quality.For a full week, firefighters have been battling fires in the mountains around Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, as dozens of other blazes have burned across the country, in what officials say is the hottest January in three decades.The president has declared a national disaster and asked for international help fighting the fires, which he says could reach beyond the Andes Mountains and erupt on the Pacific Coast and in the Amazon.Colombia’s fires this month are unusual in a country where people are more accustomed to torrential rain and mudslides than fire and ash. They have been attributed to high temperatures and drought exacerbated by the climate phenomenon known as El Niño.Ricardo Lozano, a geologist and former environment minister of Colombia, said El Niño was a natural phenomenon that occurred cyclically, but that with climate change, “these events are more and more intense and more and more extreme.”Heavy smoke from wildfires near the capital, Bogotá.Federico Rios for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More