CBS News
Evacuations ordered as industrial fire spews “toxic” smoke in Indiana
Residents were told to evacuate after a “large industrial fire” broke out Tuesday in Richmond, Indiana, at an abandoned Hoffco factory that was being used to store plastics, officials said.
“It was fully loaded with unknown type of plastics,” Richmond Fire Department Chief Tim Brown said at a Tuesday evening press conference. “The fire spread from the semi-trailer to other piles of plastics that were around the trailer. We only had one access into where the fire was, all the other access roads were blocked by other piles of plastic and other semi-trailers. So once the fire got out of control, it darkened down on us, we backed out real quick and went into defensive mode.”
Indiana State Fire Marshall Steve Jones said the smoke was “definitely toxic,” and warned residents of the danger of inhaling it.
“If there’s a lot of smoke, they need to get out of it,” Jones said. “They need to find a temporary place to stay and honestly, this fire is gonna burn for a few days. It’s a big enough fire where it’s not just going to be tonight. It’s going to burn awhile.”
Those living within half a mile of the factory were urged to evacuate. Residents outside of the evacuation zone who live downwind of the fire were told to shelter in place and turn off any heating or air conditioning, bring pets inside and close all doors and windows. Jonesl noted that evacuation and shelter-in-place orders may change as wind directions change.
The fire had been contained on three sides as of Tuesday evening, the city of Richmond said on Facebook.
Richmond Mayor Dave Snow said on Facebook that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management were on site and would be “evaluating any potential hazards resulting from the fire.”
It was not immediately clear exactly how dangerous the smoke was or what the long-term effects of the fire could be.
“The exact toxicity of the smoke and debris is still being determined by environmental officials, but they do know it is burning plastic and generally to be avoided if possible,” said David Hosick, Indiana Department of Homeland Security’s director of public affairs. “The immediate concern is for the firefighters in close proximity to the blaze, and the smoke is diluted as it escapes into the air.”
Hosick confirmed firefighters expect to be working to fully extinguish the blaze and monitoring the fire “for the next few days.”
Fire officials said the owner of the building had been cited multiple times for potential fire hazards.
“It’s very frustrating for all of us,” Brown said. “The battalion chief on today, he was very frustrated when he pulled up, because we knew it wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when this was going to happen.”
CBS News
Ukraine says it blew up a Russian naval commander with a car bomb in occupied Crimea
Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukraine orchestrated an attack on the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula that killed a high-ranking Russian naval officer, sources in Ukraine’s security services told the AFP and Reuters news agencies Wednesday. The killing, which was confirmed by Moscow, is the latest in a string of targeted attacks on Russian military officers and pro-Kremlin public figures in occupied Ukrainian territory and within Russia.
A source in the Security Service of Ukraine told AFP it had orchestrated a car bomb attack in the city of Sevastopol that killed senior naval officer Valery Trankovsky, a first rank captain in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
“As a result of the explosion, the Russian captain’s legs were blown off and he died of blood loss,” the source added in written comments. It described Trankovsky as “war criminal” responsible for the launch of cruise missiles from the Black Sea at civilian targets in Ukraine.
The car exploded and caught fire in the city’s eastern Gagarin district around 2 a.m. Eastern, the Russian-installed Sevastopol governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said.
“As a result of an improvised explosive device fixed to the bottom of the car exploding, a Russian armed forces serviceman was killed,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement after the incident, without naming Trankovsky.
They said they had opened an investigation into “the fact of committing a terrorist attack.”
A witness who spoke to the Moskovsky Komsomolets tabloid said the driver was thrown by the impact on to the passenger seat and “everyone realized immediately that he had been blown up.”
“The explosives had been placed on the side of the driver’s seat,” the unnamed woman said, adding that the car had been moving at the time of the blast.
Shrapnel from the explosion hit several other vehicles but no one was injured, the witness added.
In October, Ukraine claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack that killed an official at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. In April, a car bomb in Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine’s eastern Lugansk region killed a Moscow-appointed government official.
Wednesday’s blast in Crimea came as Russia targeted Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with a salvo of dozens of missiles and drones, many of which the Ukrainian military said were it had downed. It also came as the U.S. and South Korea said North Korean soldiers had joined in active combat alongside Russian troops trying to repel Ukraine’s months-old incursion into the far western Russian region of Kursk.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Tuesday that “most” of the roughly 10,000 North Korean soldiers sent to Russia had been deployed in Kursk and “begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces.”
CBS News
Spirit Airlines mulls bankruptcy, sending its stock price into nosedive
Spirit Airlines is considering declaring bankruptcy after a proposed merger with Frontier Airlines fell apart.
The Miramar, Florida-based discount airline is expected to file for bankruptcy protection from its debts in as little as 10 days or within weeks, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News. The Wall Street Journal first reported the looming bankruptcy filing.
Spirit acknowledged in a regulatory filing late Tuesday that it is in “active and constructive discussions” with bondholders to restructure its obligations as its business woes continue. If the talks succeed, the airline expects operations to continue, and for employees and customers to be shielded from any impact.
Spirit declined to comment on the matter.
The company’s stock price cratered after news surfaced of the potential bankruptcy filing, tumbling nearly 55% to $1.46 in morning trade.
In October, Spirit and Frontier revived merger talks after discussions in 2022 ended with JetBlue outbidding Frontier, according to the WSJ. A federal judge blocked the JetBlue merger in January over antitrust concerns.
Spirit, the largest budget airline in the U.S., has lost more than $2.5 billion since the beginning of 2020, driven by a lull in travel during the pandemic era. The airline faces looming debt payments totaling more than $1 billion over the next year, obligations that it’s unlikely to be able to meet.
In the first six months of 2024, Spirit passengers flew 2% more than they did in the same period last year, but spent 10% less per mile. The airline’s revenue per mile from fares was down nearly 20%, contributing to its losses.
At the same time, its labor costs have risen, and legacy carriers have poached some of Spirit’s customers by offering their own versions of bare-bones tickets to budget-conscious fliers.
Spirit said in an October regulatory filing that it has identified about $80 million of cost-cutting measures set to begin early next year, according to CBS News Miami. Those cuts will be driven primarily by a “reduction in workforce,” the Florida-based airline noted. The carrier also disclosed that it had agreed to sell 23 airplanes to GA Telesis, an aviation services company, for about $519 million.
Kris Van Cleave and
contributed to this report.
CBS News
Report: Trump may create “warrior board” to remove “woke” military leaders
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