Images from KARK-TV.

The East Eden fire station in Saline County, Arkansas was one of many buildings suffering heavy damage from severe storms Friday evening. Here’s more from the AP:

Several tornadoes that ripped through central Arkansas killed at least one person and injured two dozen others, destroying homes and leaving officials scrambling to clear debris even as they braced for more severe weather.

Damage assessments were under way in the community of Scotland as day broke in Van Buren County, about 75 miles north of Little Rock, where authorities said at least one person died in Friday night storms. A sheriff’s department dispatcher said details were expected to be released later Saturday.

At least two dozen other people were hurt across Van Buren and several other counties, state Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Renee Preslar said. Officials in many counties referred questions to the state agency, but Preslar said local authorities who provide her with updates hadn’t released details about the severity of the injuries.

More storms — including tornadoes — could hit the state Saturday, said meteorologist Brian Smith with the National Weather Service in Little Rock.

“We have a lot of warm air over the area, warm and moist air. The atmosphere has a very high amount of wind energy available and a lot of instability, and as the day gets warming, that’s all we need,” Smith said.

Search teams Friday night located a person believed missing in the wreckage of a home in Center Ridge, while extensive property damage was reported across central Arkansas, Preslar said.

Tornado sightings were reported just a few miles north in Culpepper, according to Arkansas State Police. A sheriff’s dispatcher said a sighting also was reported in the Oakland area, near the Missouri border. Trees and power lines blocked major roadways in both areas.

South of Little Rock in Saline County, high winds and heavy rains left nearly 3,000 people without power and forced about 100 to take shelter at an elementary school in East End late Friday, officials said.

WOWK-TV first video from scene

Overnight press briefing (3:50 AM) Part 1; Part 2; Part 3 ; Part 4

Earlier live report from WOWK-TV

Register-Herald coverage

Daily Mail coverage

The latest from the AP:

Rescue teams planned to search again for four workers missing in a coal mine where a massive explosion killed 25 in the worst U.S. mining disaster in more than two decades, though officials said Tuesday that the chances were slim that the miners survived.

Click the image for more photos by Rick Barbero at the Register Herald.

The suspended rescue mission would resume after bore holes could be drilled to allow for toxic gases to be ventilated from Massey Energy Co.’s sprawling Upper Big Branch mine about 30 miles south of Charleston, state and federal safety officials said.

“All we have left is hope, and we’re going to continue to do what we can,” Kevin Stricklin, an administrator for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said at a news conference. “But I’m just trying to be honest with everybody and say that the situation does look dire.”

Though the cause of the blast was not known, the operation run by Massey subsidiary Performance Coal Co. has a history of violations for not properly ventilating highly combustible methane gas, safety officials said.

Stricklin said officials had hoped some of the missing survived the blast Monday afternoon and were able to reach airtight chambers stocked with food, water and enough oxygen for them to live for four days. However, rescue teams checked one of two nearby and it was empty. The buildup of toxic methane gas — a constant problem at the mine — and of carbon monoxide prevented teams from reaching other chambers, officials said.

A total of 29 miners were in the area during a shift change when the blast happened, officials said. Some may have died in the blast and others when they breathed in the gas-filled air, Stricklin said. Seven bodies had been recovered and identified, but the other 18 have not, said Gov. Joe Manchin, who returned to the state after being out of town. Names weren’t released publicly.

“Everybody’s just heartbroken over this and the impact on these families,” said mine safety director Joe Main, who was headed to West Virginia.

It is the most people killed in a U.S. mine since 1984, when 27 died in a fire at Emery Mining Corp.’s mine in Orangeville, Utah. If the four missing bring the total to 29, it would be the most killed in a U.S. mine since a 1970 explosion killed 38 at Finley Coal Co., in Hyden, Ky.

After a record low 34 deaths last year, Main said he and others believed coal mining had turned the corner on preventing fatal accidents.

“There’s always danger. There’s so many ways you can get hurt, or your life taken,” said Gary Williams, a miner and pastor of a church near the southern West Virginia mine. “It’s not something you dread every day, but there’s always that danger. But for this area, it’s the only way you’re going to make a living.”

Manchin said the explosion was massive and that the situation looks bleak, but that miracles can happen and pointed to the 2006 Sago Mine explosion that killed 12.

Crews found miner Randal McCloy Jr. alive after he was trapped for more than 40 hours in an atmosphere poisoned with carbon monoxide.

Monday evening story from WUSA9.com.

In Monday’s blast, nine miners were leaving on a vehicle that takes them in and out of the mine’s long shaft when a crew ahead of them felt a blast of air and went back to investigate, Stricklin said.

They found nine workers, seven of whom were dead. Others were hurt or missing about a mile and a half inside the mine, though there was some confusion over how many. Others made it out, Manchin said.

Massey Energy, a publicly traded company based in Richmond, Va., has 2.2 billion tons of coal reserves in southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia and Tennessee. It ranks among the nation’s top five coal producers and is among the industry’s most profitable. It has a spotty safety record.

In the past year, federal inspectors fined the company more than $382,000 for repeated serious violations involving its ventilation plan and equipment at Upper Big Branch. The violations also cover failing to follow the plan, allowing combustible coal dust to pile up, and having improper firefighting equipment.

Methane is one of the great dangers of coal mining, and federal records say the Eagle coal seam releases up to 2 million cubic feet of methane gas into the Upper Big Branch mine every 24 hours, which is a large amount, said Dennis O’Dell, health and safety director for the United Mine Workers labor union.

In mines, giant fans are used to keep the colorless, odorless gas concentrations below certain levels. If concentrations are allowed to build up, the gas can explode with a spark roughly similar to the static charge created by walking across a carpet in winter, as at the Sago mine, also in West Virginia.

Since then, federal and state regulators have required mine operators to store extra oxygen supplies. Upper Big Branch uses containers that can generate about an hour of breathable air, and all miners carry a container on their belts besides the stockpiles inside the mine. Upper Big Branch has had three other fatalities in the last dozen years.

Most families were sequestered in a building at the mine, the entrance guarded by bright lights, state troopers and hordes of ambulances.

Upper Big Branch has 19 openings and roughly 7-foot ceilings. Inside, it’s crisscrossed with railroad tracks used for hauling people and equipment. It is located in a mine-laced swath of Raleigh and Boone counties that is the heart of West Virginia’s coal country.

The seam produced 1.2 million tons of coal in 2009, according to the mine safety agency, and has about 200 employees.

Excerpts from a Gazette-Mail article today by Greg Moore out of Charleston, West Virginia:

A Kanawha County firefighter was lost and presumed dead in Raleigh County overnight, after the boat he was in capsized.

The firefighter, whose name was not released Saturday morning, was in the Bradley area on a rescue mission when a boat that he and several other firefighters were in turned over.

“It appears that he was lost when his boat capsized,” Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper said Saturday morning. “They are hoping they can find him. We’ve got a Blackhawk helicopter, other people from Kanawha County, the National Guard … they’re all out there looking.”

The other firefighters who were in the boat are OK, he said.

View slideshow of pictures from the plane crash & fire from Shenda Allen & others

A small plane crashed into a house in Louisa County around 12:30 this afternoon killing the pilot.

The FAA tells 9NEWS NOW a Cessna 303 twin engine crashed into a home on Quiet Lane at Route 33 shortly after take off from Freeman Field/ Louisa County Airport.

The FAA says the plane’s registered owner is from Reston, however, they have not confirmed who was on board.

The FAA reports that witnesses say the engines appeared to quit.

Police say one person inside the home was in the basement and got out safely.

As you will hear from the audio below by FireSceneAudio.com, Medic 1 in Louisa County called in the report of the plane crash and reported it had struck a house.

Early video from KVUE-TV.

Photos from the crash scene and fire

Listen live to radio traffic from public safety agencies

KEYE-TV live streaming

KVUE-TV live streaming

KXAN-TV live streaming

KTBC-TV

From the AP (updated 3:00 PM EST):

A pilot furious with the Internal Revenue Service crashed his small plane into an office building that houses federal tax employees in Austin, Texas on Thursday, setting off a raging fire that sent workers fleeing as thick plumes of black smoke poured into the air.

A U.S. law official identified the pilot as Joseph Stack and said investigators were looking at an anti-government message on the Web linked to him. The Web site outlines problems with the IRS and says violence “is the only answer.”

Federal law enforcement officials have said they were investigating whether the pilot crashed on purpose in an effort to blow up IRS offices. The Web site featured a long note dated Thursday denouncing the government and the IRS in particular and cited the Austin man’s problems with the agency.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

At least one person who worked in the building was unaccounted for and two people were hospitalized, said Austin Fire Department Division Chief Dawn Clopton. She did not have any information about the pilot. About 190 IRS employees work in the building, and IRS spokesman Richard C. Sanford the agency is trying to account for all employees.

Flames shot out of the building, windows exploded and workers scrambled to safety after the blast. Thick smoke billowed out of the second and third stories hours later as fire crews battled the blaze.

“It felt like a bomb blew off,” said Peggy Walker, an IRS revenue officer who was sitting at her desk in the building when the plane crashed. “The ceiling caved in and windows blew in. We got up and ran.”

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford initially said the plane was identified as a Cirrus SR22, but later said it might be a Piper Cherokee.

“It’s so destroyed that it’s hard to identify,” Lunsford said.

He said FAA has confirmed that the plane that took off from an airport in Georgetown, Texas, and that the pilot didn’t file a flight plan.

In a neighborhood about six miles from the crash site, a home listed as belonging to Stack was on fire earlier Thursday. Authorities in Austin would not comment on the house fire Thursday afternoon.

Helicopter video from WJZ-TV

Slideshow from WMAR-TV

You can listen to the fireground operations live by clicking here

Sykesville Freedom District Fire Department website

Click the image for more pictures from WBAL-TV.

For the fourth time in as many days we are telling you about a firehouse that has been greatly damaged or destroyed due to fire, collapse or both in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. This time it is the Sykesville Freedom District Fire Department in Carroll County, Maryland.

News reports indicate the roof over the social hall collapsed and then sparked a gas fed fire. This happened around 8:45 AM.

By 10:00 AM the fire had gone to a third-alarm plus additional equipment.

Below is the early fireground audio from FireSceneAudio.com.

 Click here for Part 2.

Yesterday, two other firehouses were destroyed. Baltimore County Fire Department Station 6 in Dundalk caught fire around 2:45 AM. That fire went through the roof. The brand new Engine 6 was among the fire and EMS rigs lost in the blaze. Click here for video of the damage and here for our earlier coverage.

Later in the day, heavy snow brought in the roof of the Townsend Fire Company in New Castle County, Delaware. Seeing that the roof was compromised, crews were able to get the apparatus out of the building before the roof came down. Click here if you haven’t seen the video of the roof collapse.

Early Monday morning heavy snow collapsed the flat roof at Fairfax County’s Station 410 in Bailey’s Crossroads. Eighteen firefighters inside escaped without injury. That firehouse is destroyed and a ladder truck, engine, EMS units and a boat were under the rubble. Here is our coverage of that incident.

There is also a sagging roof at Station 408 in Annandale three miles away. For now, at both stations the apparatus is outside in the elements. In Annandale, crews are sleeping in tents inside the bingo hall. 9NEWS NOW’s Greg Guise spent some time during the blizzard yesterday with the crew at Station 408. That story is below.

Concerns about the roof at Alexandria’s Station 206 three miles east of Bailey’s Crossroads resulted in the evacuation of that station Monday night. Snow was removed from the flat roof and a structural engineer gave the okay to return to the firehouse on Tuesday.

Image from WMAR-TV.

Baltimore County website

Another picture of new Engine 6 under collapsed roof

Listen to the dispatch of Fire Box 6-8 for “Station 6″

Damage pictures from Baltimore County Fire Department

An alarm alerted firefighters to a fire in the bay area of Baltimore County Station 6 at 2815 Sollers Point Road around 2:30 this morning. The fire went to two-alarms and there were no injuries. This is the Baltimore County Fire Department’s career station in Dundalk.

A Baltimore County Fire Department spokesperson says the firefghters were able to get one engine out of the firehouse (reported to be Engine 61) and begin attacking the fire. The station had additional personnel because many firefighters scheduled to work the next day were sleeping at the station due to the latest snowstorm.

A new $600,000 fire engine, received last week (apparently not even placed in service yet), was destroyed along with two medic units and a brush truck. WJZ-TV reports a National Guard Humvee assigned to the station for the snowstorm also was damaged.

Here are more details in excerpts from a Baltimore Sun report by Peter Hermann:

Officials said firefighters sleeping in the firehouse’s living quarters, which is next to the fire engine bay, awoke to the sound of a fire alarm. When they opened the bay door, they saw heavy smoke and fire and immediately evacuated, Price said. Numerous explosions were reported from oxygen tanks in the medic units.

Inside were eight firefighters and paramedics assigned to the overnight shift, as well as five firefighters from day work who spent the night and two members of the National Guard who were helping crews respond to calls in the heavy snow storm. Price said one firefighter managed to drive one engine out of the bay and crews were able to train hoses on the fire “to keep it in check.”

Click the image for Google Maps Street View of Station 6.

But the fire quickly spread and dozens of firefighters from other companies were called in to help. Shortly after 4 a.m., fire commanders deemed the building unsafe and crews were ordered to train water on it from the outside. Price said the roof collapsed from the fire, which was placed under control shortly after 4:30 a.m.Three manhole covers then exploded about a block away, at Merritt Boulevard at Sollers Point Road, due to a natural gas leak. No injuries were reported. This morning, a crane was called in to removed debris.

According to the Baltimore County website, Station 6 houses Engine 6, Engine 61, Brush 6, Medic 6 and Medic 106.

Engine 61 at the firehouse from the Station 6 website.

More from WTNH-TV

Kleen Energy Systems

WFSB-TV

NECN

From WCVB-TV

Deaths and a large number of injuries are reported in an explosion at a power plant in Middletown, Connecticut. Most sources are saying about 100 injured, but WFSB-TV is citing sources saying as many as 250 people have been hurt.

Here are a variety of links and news reports from a story that is developing in Middletown, Connecticut.:

From the AP:

Police are reporting a gas explosion and fire at a power plant in Connecticut.

Several ambulances and fire trucks responded to the explosion on at the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown on Sunday, and witnesses say black smoke was visible for miles.

No details were immediately available, but police advised people to avoid the area.

From WVIT-TV:

Reached by phone, plant general manger Gordon Holk said he was enroute to the plant, and did want to speculate on the number of injured.  He said the plant is a 620 megawatt gas-fired power plant.

From the Middletown Press:

We’re hearing reports of an explosion of a gas line by the Kleen Energy plant on River Road. All of Middletown’s fire departments are working at the scene, and Durham, Middlefield, Portland and Cromwell fire departments have been called in to assist.

There are reports of numerous casualties.

Four ambulances and a Life Star helicopter have been called to the scene. Most of River Road has been blocked off. Flames were shooting out of a pipeline at one point, but the gas line has now been shut off.

From WVIT-TV.

The incident, which happened around 11:30 a.m., shook most homes in Middletown and as far as Portland.

From the blog, The Middletown Eye:

Former Common Council member Earle Roberts called and left a message that about 11:15 an explosion nearly rocked his house off of it’s foundation on nearby Bow Lane.  Roberts said that the force of the explosion nearly tore the roof from his house, and sent a cloud of brown debris into the air above the plant which is under construction, and was scheduled to come on line later this year.
I felt the explosion myself at my house on Pearl Street.  It sounded as if something had fallen off of my roof, and onto my porch.

STATter911.com has learned Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department Lt. Col. Victor Stagnaro was presented papers late today saying that his services were no longer needed. Numerous sources within the department indicate Major Tyrone Forby, Chief Eugene Jones’ executive officer, presented Stagnaro with a letter saying Stagnaro’s last day is February 12.

Chief Jones, through a department spokesman, is presenting a different picture of what happened this afternoon. Mark Brady issued the following statement from the chief:

Colonel Stagnaro has indicated this afternoon his intent to retire from the fire and EMS department in the next two weeks. He will be on leave until the official date of his retirement.

Acting Lt. Col. Derrick Lea will move from Administrative Services and transferred to Emergency Operations.

No replacement to fill Colonel Lea’s former position has been determined.

Stagnaro has headed the Emergency Operations Command for about a year.  There has been no information yet on what specifically brought about today’s actions, but  STATter911.com has long been aware of tension between Stagnaro and Jones over staffing and other issues.

Despite the problems, in November, Chief Jones presented Stagnaro with a Distinguished Service Award. In a press release, the honor was described as prestigious and rarely awarded. The release included this letter of commendation by Chief Jones:

The Prince George’s County Fire/Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Department has faced many challenges in 2009. From fiscal challenges to large scale emergencies, the Emergency Operations Command has responded to all of them due in large part to your growth as a leader. As the award suggests, you have distinguished yourself as a leader. You have implemented a new patient care reporting system, a billing system, commanded one of the largest rescues in the history of the Department and operated with a reduced complement and budget.

Your actions and efforts as the Emergency Operations Commander have been remarkable. I have seen your growth as a leader and that growth has enabled your command to maintain and, in some areas of the County, enhance the quality of service that the Fire/EMS Department delivers to the public. This Distinguished Service Award is presented in recognition of the meritorious actions you have taken to keep the Emergency Operations Command operating at peak efficiency despite the resource challenges you and your command have faced.

I appreciate all the hard work and dedication you have exhibited. You are growing into the leader I always believed you had the capacity for. Thank you for your distinguished service.

STATter911.com has attempted to contact Lt. Colonel Stagnaro. Stagnaro has been with PGFD for 24-years.

A Los Angeles Times photo of an LAFD battalion chief’s vehicle that became caught up in the rains and mudslides of this afternoon.

More on the weather from the AP:

Another storm has roared into Southern California, bringing lightning, street flooding and gusty winds that flipped over a car, blew out windows and closed piers. 

No major damage or injuries have been reported, but the National Weather Service says intermittent rain may continue through Tuesday. 

The worst damage came when a thunderstorm with rotating, surging winds moved quickly through southern Los Angeles County and northern Orange County. 

In Seal Beach, the wind knocked a sport utility vehicle on its side, smashed windows in a home and knocked over small trees.