Free Republic

If fire departments on land have problems unleashing the torrent of water needed to extinguish a single burning EV, the crew of a ship doesn't stand a chance against hundreds of flaming lithium-ion batteries. A cargo ship carrying around 3,000 vehicles across the Pacific Ocean caught fire on Tuesday. The Morning Midas, a 600-foot cargo ship, was in the middle of a voyage from Yantai, China to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico when the fire broke out. Zodiac Maritime, the ship's London-based operator, noted that smoke was first spotted on a deck carrying 800 electric vehicles. Once the blaze got out of...

A Florida man has been busted for allegedly threatening to assassinate President Trump and “launch f–king missiles” at New York City in a series of bizarre phone calls to police. Justin Blaxton, 34, of Loxahatchee, made multiple threats against the president on Feb. 26 while repeatedly calling 911 in Palm Beach, where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is located, according to audio released by police, CBS 12 reported. “I need a ride to the airport to be taken to The White House so I can assassinate the president,” Blaxton, who identified himself as “Justin Blaze,” told a dispatcher in one of the...

Nearly 200 New York firefighters are battling a massive five-alarm blaze at a Bronx apartment building Friday morning that has left at least seven people injured. The FDNY responded to the huge blaze at a six-story residential building at 2910 Wallace Ave. in the East Bronx around 1:40 a.m., fire officials said — with alarming video showing the building engulfed with flames billowing from the roof. Within an hour, “heavy wind conditions” elevated the fire to five alarms — the highest alarm level indicating a severe fire, according to the FDNY.

California residents have long been struggling with insurance companies that no longer want to protect their homes, and thousands of policies — including around 1,600 in the now-devastated Pacific Palisades neighborhood — were dropped in the months leading up to this week’s wildfires. Out of the approximately 8,900 occupied housing units in Los Angeles’s Pacific Palisades, nearly 80 percent are owner-occupied, according to 2022 U.S. Census data obtained by Point2Homes. State Farm dropped a staggering 1,600 home insurance policies in the neighborhood in July, equivalent to about 18 percent of the owner-occupied homes, California Department of Insurance (CDI) spokesman Michael...

An apocalyptic video shows two men and a dog in a home surrounded by roaring flames as wildfires spread throughout the Los Angeles area due to extreme winds. The now viral video shows the blaze roaring dangerously close to the home. Huge flames and smoke can be seen outside of the window behind the living room and wrapping around the home. One can hear the winds whipping and whistling in the background. “It’s going to be ok,” the man says to a dog wagging its tail.

Vice President Harris’s neighborhood in Los Angeles was ordered to evacuate Tuesday night as wildfires blazed through the area, her spokesperson said Wednesday. “Last night, the Vice President’s neighborhood in Los Angeles was put under an evacuation order. No one was in her home at the time,” spokesperson Ernie Apreza said on social platform X. “She and the Second Gentleman are praying for the safety of their fellow Californians, the heroic first responders, and Secret Service personnel,” Apreza added. Harris, a lifelong Californian who served as the state’s U.S. senator and attorney general, said in a statement Tuesday that she...

The unnamed Tennessee-based company that the Justice Department alleges was being funded by Russian operatives working as part of a Kremlin-orchestrated influence operation targeting the 2024 US election is Tenet Media, which is linked to right-wing commentators with millions of subscribers on YouTube and other social media platforms, according to a US official briefed on the matter. The indictment unsealed in New York’s Southern District accused two employees of RT, the Kremlin’s media arm, of funneling nearly $10 million to an unidentified company, described only as “Company 1” in court documents. CNN has independently confirmed that “Company 1” is Tenet...

It's not a laptop in first class or a cheap Chinese scooter smoking ominously in the plane's cargo hold. Nor is it a massive commercial ship packed to the gills with cars being transported across an ocean that has had one of the EVs parked onboard light off, and now the whole vessel is hopelessly ablaze. It's not another fiery EV in a driveway or garage or the solar panels on a rooftop, even though I have covered all of those. Comments regular Global Traveler turned me on to an ongoing drama in, of all places, San Diego County that...

The Blaze journalist Steve Baker cuffed and taken into FBI custody allegedly for his reporting on J6. Baker previously said he didn’t know what the charges were against him but was told they were non-violent misdemeanors

Nearly three years after the January 6, 2021 fedsurrection, Blaze reporter Steve Baker reported in December that he will be charged for his actions that day reporting live on the event. Steve wrote in October 2023 that he was under investigation for the past two years by Chris Wray’s FBI for reporting at the historic protests in Washington DC. Steve Baker detailed his experiences that day in an earlier report. Then, in February 2021, he began questioning the role others may have played in the protests and rioting that day. This was clearly off limits. ..... Snip..... Steve Baker announced...

A large cargo ship carrying lithium batteries which caught on fire has reached Alaska but continues to be held two miles offshore while responders attempt to extinguish the blaze. The 19-strong crew managed to make it to shore with no injuries reported, according to the US Coast Guard. The Genius Star XI was carrying a load of lithium-ion batteries across the Pacific Ocean, from Vietnam to San Diego when the cargo caught on fire, the guard's Alaska district said in a release. The fire started on Christmas Day in cargo hold No. 1, a spokesperson for ship owner Wisdom Marine...

U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia) has released video images from Jan. 6, 2021, showing the movements of a Capitol Police officer who Blaze News investigative journalist Steve Baker said appears to have given false testimony regarding his whereabouts that day during a key encounter with members of the Oath Keepers. Loudermilk, chairman of the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said in a statement to Baker that he released the still frames — from closed-circuit TV video with timestamps — of U.S. Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus because "an allegation of a Capitol Police officer lying under oath...

COVID-19 changed everything. The way we live our lives, how we operate our businesses, how we see each other. And now, the federal government is sinking its tendrils even deeper, threatening the fabric not only of our bodily autonomy, but of the republic. Our American way of life may never be the same. To save it, we must understand the key fundamentals of the pandemic that transfigured our society into the nightmare it is today. What is the COVID-19 origin story? Who are its top players in government and science, pulling the strings? What was their REAL response in the...

Quick, somebody check Chris Cuomo's alibi! In the latest act of aggravated vandalism to make headlines in the Big Apple, the New York Post reports that a man has been arrested for allegedly setting fire to the Christmas tree standing outside the News Corp building in midtown Manhattan. The tree, which is notable for being situated outside Fox News' midtown studio (which is inside the building, downstairs from other Rupert Murdoch-controlled media properties like the NY Post and the Wall Street Journal), attracts crowds of holiday gawkers every year since it's located just around the corner from the 30 Rock...

The city's prosecutor Pierre Sennes said: "We've observed this morning that the fire started in three spots. This observation leads us to open an investigation for arson, an investigation to regional judicial police. "The next phase will be working into the investigation, consultations, we will take a lot of statements. We will also verify the technical installations, the fire prevention installations, and again, we are waiting for this expert who could give us interesting elements." Fire Chief Laurent Ferlay told a press briefing in front of the cathedral that the blaze was not as big as the one that engulfed...

<p>“America is the land of firsts. America is the land of pioneers. The old media environment is toxic, destructive and undermining this republic. It is ideologically driven and dressed up as freedom of the press. I’ve talked about it now for a long time, and you see it on your own. You don’t need any help from me. The Jim Acostas, the Jake Tappers, the phony news in The New York Times, where you can’t tell the editorial page from the news page – same with The Washington Post – they’re all alike. They all read alike. The all have the same objective: to advance the progressive agenda.</p>

Authorities in Brandon say the danger that multiple fires burning in the city's downtown will spread to other buildings has likely passed. At least four buildings in Brandon's downtown caught fire Saturday in what the city's mayor said will "likely be one of the largest fires Brandon has ever seen." Around noon, crews began fighting flames billowing out of the Christie's Office Plus building at Seventh and Pacific Avenue in the southwestern Manitoba city. The fire later spread to two additional buildings in the 500 block of Pacific Avenue: Massey Manor, an apartment building across the street from the Christie's...

The fracking billionaire brothers behind Shapiro’s Daily Wire website are looking to expand their conservative media holdings—that seems to include Glenn Beck’s crumbling empire. BETSY WOODRUFF LACHLAN MARKAY 02.12.18 3:35 PM ET The people who head Ben Shapiro’s conservative news site are in talks to buy Glenn Beck’s troubled media empire TheBlaze, The Daily Beast has learned. Two sources familiar with the conversations said this appears quite likely, though the deal isn’t final. Reached for comment, Shapiro—who heads The Daily Wire, which is eyeing TheBlaze—did not dispute this report.

Blaze has engulfed the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road in White City on Wednesday morning Horrifying pictures emerged on social media showing massive flames licking up the side of the block Desperate residents trapped high in the enormous residential tower were heard 'screaming' for help Police are evacuating people and two residents are already being treated for smoke inhalation Desperate residents are building ropes from sheets in an attempt to escape from their windows as a huge inferno is engulfing a tower block in west London. The 'horrendous' blaze has struck the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road, White...

Tomi Lahren, The Blaze TV host who once declared herself “too controversial” for Fox News, is back in the job market today. Page Six is reporting Lahren is “permanently banned” from The Blaze TV, where she hosted “Tomi,” a daily news talk show. The departure does not come as a surprise to most media observers. Lahren, who boasts 4.2 million Facebook fans, was suspended all of last week for comments she made on The View, calling conservatives hypocrites for being for smaller government and pro-life. The Blaze is owned by conservative radio host Glenn Beck, and the company has recently...