CBS News
Post Fire and Point Fire maps show where wildfires have spread in California
Firefighters across California are working to extinguish blazes that broke out over the weekend and continued to grow on Monday, as the state contends with a mix of hot, dry weather and powerful, gusty winds. The Post Fire, burning near Gorman, northwest of Los Angeles, spread to more than 14,600 acres, while the Point Fire, in Sonoma, covered 1,190 acres.
Officials have released a series of wildfire maps plotting their expansion. Eleven active wildfires of at least 10 acres or more were burning in California early Monday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, also known as Cal Fire.
The agency registered 1,769 wildfires in total, which had burned more than 41,900 acres and destroyed at least six structures. No deaths have been reported in connection with the wildfires.
CalFire
Northwesterly winds of 10 or 15 miles per hour — and gustin up to 55 mph around some of the worst wildfires — overlapped with an overall dip in humidity over parts of California that together created the arid and blustery conditions that allow fires to rapidly spread, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center warned in a fire weather outlook Monday morning. Meteorologists forecast elevated fire weather concerns for the Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, the western Transverse Ranges and the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range — areas of concern that collectively encompass a massive chunk of California.
A red flag warning was in effect Monday for a large section of the state, covering hundreds of square miles from the Sacramento Valley in Northern California down to Santa Barbara County and Antelope Valley in the south near Los Angeles.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration / National Weather Service
The National Weather Service issues red flag warnings when the combined presence of warm temperatures, low humidity and strong winds fuel an elevated risk of fire danger. Their advisory was set to remain in place for most of the warning area through at least 8 a.m. PT on Tuesday.
Another map from CalFire shows smoke and haze conditions forecast for much of California and portions of other Western states, stretching across southern Nevada and large expanses of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.
CalFire
Post Fire
Of the 11 largest active wildfires reported Monday by Cal Fire, the Post Fire was the most massive by far. It erupted as a brushfire on Saturday and prompted evacuations in Gorman, a rural community in northwestern Los Angeles County. By Monday morning, officials said the Post Fire had enveloped more than 14,000 acres of land in both L.A. County and neighboring Ventura, as it swept over the grassland hills of Hungry Valley State Park and moved in a southeastern direction toward Lake Pyramid.
Crews have so far managed to contain 8% of the blaze, Cal Fire said. More than 1,100 personnel from 34 different crews had been assigned to respond to it, along with 14 water tankers, 11 bulldozers, seven helicopters and hundreds of additional vehicles. Air tankers dispatched from around California were flying over the area to drop fire retardant as conditions allowed, according to Cal Fire, but the extent of the blaze was limiting visibility overhead.
Cal Fire
“Crews are working to establish perimeter fire lines around the fire’s edges,” wrote Cal Fire in its latest status update. “Firefighters will continue working overnight to reinforce the existing perimeter on the fire’s east side, as wind is expected to push the fire further south towards Pyramid Lake.”
The agency noted that 1,200 people had been evacuated from Hungry Valley Park due to the wildfire and Pyramid Lake was closed as the flames headed closer to it. Cal Fire reiterated warnings from the national Weather Service of oncoming winds even more powerful than those already recorded in the region, with forecasters anticipating gusts of up to 20 mph on Monday afternoon that could potentially reach 50 mph around mountain ridges.
Craig Little, of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, told CBS Los Angeles that the wind “has been a major factor” in the fire’s rapid spread “along with the terrain,” which is already dry.
“That’s all a recipe for a very quickly moving flame,” he said.
Firefighters said some buildings in the area around the Post Fire were threatened Monday and two had sustained damage, but none were destroyed, CBS Los Angeles reported.
Point Fire
The Point Fire, burning through the wine country area of Sonoma, north of San Francisco, was 20% contained on Monday morning, according to Cal Fire. At the time, the blaze had spread over 1,190 acres of land extending southeast from the bottom of Lake Sonoma. Twelve crews including 400 firefighting personnel were responding to the fire on Monday, with 10 water tankers and four helicopters as well as air tankers conducting fire suppression as visibility permitted.
Better weather conditions allowed crews to build and strengthen wildfire control lines around the perimeter of the blaze, Cal Fire said. But the agency warned that conditions on Monday could potentially allow the fire to continue to spread. By 11 a.m. PT, the Point Fire had expanded almost 100 acres since Cal Fire’s previous update a few hours before.
Cal Fire
Hundreds of people were evacuated as the Point Fire grew quickly on Sunday, while another 4,000 residents in the area were placed under an evacuation warning, CBS San Francisco reported, citing the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. An evacuation center was established at a high school in Forestville, about 15 miles from Sonoma, according to the station.
At least one firefighter has been injured while battling the Point Fire, Cal Fire said in an incident update issued at around 6 a.m. local time Monday. The update did not give details about the nature of the injury or the circumstances surrounding it.
CBS News
Suspect detained in killing of Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s biological, chemical forces in Moscow blast
Moscow — Russia’s security service said Wednesday that it has detained a suspect in the killing of a senior general in Moscow.
The suspect was described as an Uzbek citizen recruited by Ukrainian intelligence services.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, didn’t name the suspect, but said he was born in 1995. According to an FSB statement, the suspect said he was recruited by Ukrainian special services.
Ukrainian security sources had told CBS News Monday that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) killed Kirillov in a special operation. The claim couldn’t be independently verified, but Russian officials quickly vowed to take revenge against Ukraine’s leaders.
AFPTV / AFP via Getty Images
Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov was killed Tuesday by a bomb hidden in a scooter outside his apartment building in Moscow, a day after Ukraine’s security service leveled criminal charges against him. His assistant also died in the attack. A Ukrainian official said the service carried out the attack.
The FSB said the suspect had been promised a reward of $100,000 and permission to move to a European Union country in exchange for killing Kirillov.
The agency stated that, acting on instructions from Ukraine, the suspect traveled to Moscow, where he picked up a homemade explosive device. He then placed the device on an electric scooter and parked it at the entrance to the residential building where Kirillov lived.
The suspect then rented a car to monitor the location and set up a camera that livestreamed footage from the scene to his handlers in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Once Kirillov was seen leaving the building, the suspect detonated the bomb.
According to the FSB’s statement, the suspect faces “a sentence of up to life imprisonment.”
Kirillov, 54, was the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces and was under sanctions from several countries, including the U.K. and Canada, for his actions in Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. On Monday, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, opened a criminal investigation against him, accusing him of directing the use of banned chemical weapons.
Russia has denied using any chemical weapons in Ukraine and, in turn, has accused Kyiv of using toxic agents in combat.
Kirillov, who took his current job in 2017, was one of the most high-profile figures to level those accusations. He held numerous briefings to accuse the Ukrainian military of using toxic agents and planning to launch attacks with radioactive substances – claims that Ukraine and its Western allies rejected as propaganda.
The bomb used in Tuesday’s attack was triggered remotely, according to Russian news reports. Images from the scene showed shattered windows and scorched brickwork.
Sefa Karacan / Anadolu via Getty Images
Russia’s top state investigative agency said it’s looking into Kirillov’s death as a case of terrorism, and officials in Moscow vowed to punish Ukraine.
Michigan City, Indiana — An Indiana man convicted of killing four people including his brother and his sister’s fiancé decades ago was put to death Wednesday, without any independent witness, marking the state’s first execution in 15 years.
Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. CST at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, the Indiana Department of Correction said in a statement. CBS Indianapolis affiliate WTTV reports that officials said the execution process started just after midnight.
Indiana Department of Corrections via AP
Corcoran was scheduled to be executed with the powerful sedative pentobarbital, but the state agency’s statement did not mention that drug. Corcoran’s execution was the 24th in the U.S. this year.
According to WTTV, the statement said Corcoran told officials his last words were, “Not really. Let’s get this over with.”
He was convicted in the July 1997 shootings of his brother, 30-year-old James Corcoran, his sister’s fiancé, 32-year-old Robert Scott Turner, and two other men, Timothy G. Bricker, 30, and Douglas A. Stillwell, 30.
According to court records, before Corcoran fatally shot the four victims he was under stress because the forthcoming marriage of his sister to Turner would necessitate moving out of the Fort Wayne, Indiana, home he shared with his brother and sister.
While jailed for those killings, Corcoran reportedly bragged about fatally shooting his parents in 1992 in northern Indiana’s Steuben County. He was charged in their killings but acquitted.
Last summer, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced plans to resume state executions following a yearslong hiatus marked by a scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide.
The state provided limited details about the execution process, and no media witnesses were permitted under state law.
Indiana and Wyoming are the only two states that do not allow members of the media to witness state executions, according to a recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
Corcoran’s attorneys had fought his death penalty sentence for years, arguing he was severely mentally ill, which affected his ability to understand and make decisions. This month, his attorneys asked the Indiana Supreme Court to stop his execution but the request was denied.
Corcoran exhausted his federal appeals in 2016. But his attorneys asked the U.S. District Court of Northern Indiana last week to stop his execution and hold a hearing to decide if it would be unconstitutional because Corcoran has a serious mental illness. The court declined to intervene Friday, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit did the same Tuesday.
Corcoran’s attorneys then asked the U.S. Supreme Court issue an emergency order halting his execution, but the high court denied their request for a stay late Tuesday, ending Corcoran’s options with the courts.
His sole remaining hope then became Holcomb, who could have commuted Corcoran’s death sentence. But that commutation never came and the execution proceeded as scheduled.
WTTV says Holcomb issued a statement saying Corcoran’s case “has been reviewed repeatedly over the last 25 years – including 7 times by the Indiana Supreme Court and 3 times by the U.S. Supreme Court, the most recent of which was tonight. His sentence has never been overturned and was carried out as ordered by the court.”
Indiana’s last state execution was in 2009 when Matthew Wrinkles was put to death for killing his wife, her brother and sister-in-law in 1994.
Since then, 13 executions were carried out in Indiana, but those were initiated and performed by federal officials in 2020 and 2021 at a federal prison in Terre Haute.
State officials have said they couldn’t continue executions because a combination of drugs used in lethal injections had become unavailable.
For years, there has been a shortage across the country because pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell their products for that purpose. That’s pushed states, including Indiana, to turn to compounding pharmacies, which manufacture drugs specifically for a client. Some use more accessible drugs such as the sedatives pentobarbital or midazolam, both of which, critics say, can cause intense pain.
Religious groups, disability rights advocates and others have opposed his execution. About a dozen people, some holding candles, held a vigil late Tuesday to pray outside the prison, which is surrounded by barbed wire fences in a residential area about 60 miles east of Chicago.
“We can build a society without giving governmental authorities the right to execute their own citizens,” said Bishop Robert McClory of the Diocese of Gary, who led the prayers.
Other death penalty opponents also demonstrated outside the prison Tuesday night, some holding signs that read “Execution Is Not The Solution” and “Remember The Victims But Not With More Killing.”
“There is no need and no benefit from this execution. It’s all show,” said Abraham Borowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, his organization that protests every execution in the U.S.
Prison officials said in a brief statement Tuesday evening that Corcoran “requested Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for his last meal.”
Corcoran said farewell late Tuesday to relatives, including his wife, Tahina Corcoran, who told reporters outside the prison that they discussed their faith and their memories, including attending high school together. She reiterated her request for Indiana’s governor to commute her husband’s death sentence.
Tahina Corcoran said her husband is “very mentally ill” and she didn’t think he fully grasped what was happening to him.
“He is in shock. He doesn’t understand,” she said.
BALTIMORE — One person was killed and nine others injured in a shooting and fiery crash in the Baltimore suburb of Towson Tuesday night, authorities said.
Law enforcement responded at around 7:15 p.m. in the 8500 block of Loch Raven Boulevard, Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said in a news briefing.
“It appears to be a mass shooting incident,” McCullough told reporters. “We have multiple persons who were shot. Right now, we are determining the circumstances and the conditions in this case.”
The first arriving officer found a vehicle on its side in flames near a funeral home, McCullough said, and then several gunshot victims were found in the area.
“There appears to be some type of incident that led to the vehicle crashing and catching on fire,” McCollough said. “Investigators are looking into the circumstances leading up to that.”
The name of the person killed and the manner of death was not released, nor were the conditions of the nine people injured. McCollough did not specify how many of the nine people injured were gunshot victims.
At this time, investigators believe this was an isolated and targeted incident, with no further threat to the community, he added. It’s unclear if any suspects have been arrested. There was no word on a possible motive.
“We will leave no stone unturned and we will dedicate every resource to this,” McCullough said. “We don’t generally see incidents like this in our community in Baltimore County. I assure you as your police chief that we will put all resources toward trying to clear this case.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was at the scene assisting police, as was the Baltimore County Fire Department.
“This is an incident that is shocking, particularly for those of us in Baltimore County,” said Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski. “These types of incidents are unheard of here, so it really shocks the conscience. However, we want our residents to know that we are, as always, fully committed to ensuring that both our fire and police departments have the full support and all the resources they need from the Baltimore County government to ensure that they bring this investigation to a conclusion.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Baltimore County Police at 410-887-4636.
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Suspect detained in killing of Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s biological, chemical forces in Moscow blast
Indiana conducts first execution in 15 years, puts quadruple killer to death
Woman sues after singer’s stage dive causes injuries at Buffalo concert
Suspect detained in killing of Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s biological, chemical forces in Moscow blast