Deaths, Wildfire | featured news

A French man and one of his three children died after they jumped along with his wife off a 164-foot cliff into the sea to flee a raging wildfire that forced them out of their car just as they were about to cross the Spanish border into France at the end of their vacation, officials said Monday.

A woman and her 18-month-old daughter were killed Sunday when their East Texas trailer home was engulfed by flames, and thousands of acres across parts of the state continued to burn from wildfires authorities blamed partly on the high winds caused by Tropical Storm Lee.

Deaths in Moscow have doubled and are now averaging 700 people a day amid a sweltering heat wave and poisonous smog from wildfires, a top Russian health official said Monday.

A verdict has been reached in the penalty phase of the trial of a man convicted of murdering five federal firefighters who were overrun by a wildfire he ignited in Southern California in 2006.

The confirmed death toll from Australia's deadly wildfires reached the grim milestone of 200 Tuesday, and a police official said some bodies reduced to ash in the inferno would never be identified.

The koala moved gingerly on scorched paws, crossing the blackened landscape as the fire patrol passed. Clearly in pain, the animal stopped when it saw firefighter David Tree following behind.