(PORTLAND) — A helicopter pilot died Monday while battling the White River Fire in Mount Hood National Forest, officials said Tuesday.
About 20 miles east of Portland, Oregon, the pilot was flying a Type 1 Kmax and conducting bucket drops in rough terrain at the time of the crash, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Suzanne Flory said in a statement. The identity of the pilot has yet to be released.
“The firefighting community is heartbroken to learn of this tragic loss and our condolences go out to the pilot’s family, friends and co-workers,” Flory added. The Wasco County Sheriff’s Office and USDA Forest Service air and ground resources responded immediately to the crash site, and an investigation into the cause of the accident is currently underway, according to Flory.
Caused by lightning on Aug. 17, The White River Fire has burned more than 1,200 acres and is 15% contained. Currently, more than 300 people are battling the inferno, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The White River Fire and other Oregon wildfires are burning alongside the state’s massive Indian Creek Fire, which was human-caused on Aug. 16, and has burned nearly 50,000 acres, according to the Bureau of Land Management.
Fire season is picking up & we have #firefighters working hard to protect local communities & natural resources. Be especially careful when driving around fire activity or vehicles. We’re watching out for you so please watch out for us! pic.twitter.com/JuYgtUGuNZ
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has extended an air quality advisory for potions of southern, central and easter Oregon because of wildfire smoke.
Wildfire smoke can irritate lungs, cause inflammation, affect immune system & make you more prone to lung infections, including the virus that cause #COVID19. Know how #wildfire smoke can affect you & your family & what you can do to protect yourselves. https://t.co/mIm6uIGFy4pic.twitter.com/G58yJ3AATI
(DETROIT) — A 20-year-old Michigan woman who was declared dead by paramedics and placed in a body bag for nearly three hours was discovered alive when a funeral home employee unzipped the bag and found her staring up at him, a lawyer for the woman’s family said.
Timesha Beaucamp, who’s suffered from cerebral palsy since birth, was in critical condition and on a respirator Tuesday afternoon at Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit, her family’s lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, said during a Zoom news conference.
“When the body bag was opened and they were getting ready to embalm the body, Timesha’s eyes were open and she was breathing,” Fieger said.
Fieger said that shortly after Beaucamp was declared dead, her godmother, Savannah Spears, a registered nurse, told paramedics and police officers that she saw Beaucamp move and thought she detected a faint pulse.
“They told her the movements were involuntary, that they were related to the drugs that they had administered to Timesha and it did not change their opinion as to the fact that they felt she was dead,” said Fieger, who once represented controversial Michigan pathologist Dr. Jack Kevorkian against murder charges stemming for physician-assisted suicides.
The incident unfolded on Sunday morning at Beaucamp’s home in Southfield, a suburb of Detroit, when her family called 911 after noticing her lips were pale, that there was secretion around her mouth and she was having trouble breathing, Fieger said.
Southfield Fire Department paramedics arrived at the home around 7:34 a.m. on a call for an unresponsive female, Fire Chief Johnny L. Menifee said in a statement released on Monday. Menifee said the woman was not breathing when paramedics arrived.
“The paramedics performed CPR and other life-reviving methods for 30 minutes,” Menifee said. “Given medical readings and the condition of the patient, it was determined at that time that she did not have signs of life.”
A local emergency department physician pronounced Beaucamp dead based upon information provided by the paramedics, Menifee said.
Since there was no foul play involved, the Southfield Police Department notified the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office of the findings and an on-duty forensic pathologist at the coroner’s office released the body to the woman’s family to make arrangements to have the body picked up by a funeral home of their choosing, Menifee said.
The city of Southfield is conducting an internal investigation along with the Oakland County Medical Control Authority, and the findings of the probe will be turned over to the Michigan Bureau of EMS, Trauma and Preparedness, Menifee said.
Fieger said the four paramedics who worked on Beaucamp placed her in a body bag and left the home around 9 a.m.
Beaucamp’s relatives contacted the John H. Cole Funeral Home in Detroit. Workers from the mortuary came to the home around 11:25 p.m., picked up what they initially thought was a dead person and took it to the nearby funeral home.
Fieger said the family received a frantic call from the funeral home director around 11:45 a.m.
“The embalmer was actually there and was the person who opened the body bag,” Fieger said.
Staff at the funeral home also contacted the Detroit Fire Department, Dave Fornell, deputy commissioner of the Detroit Fire Department, told ABC News. He said the call the fire department received from the funeral home was for a person having difficulty breathing and that an emergency medical services crew didn’t know the full story until they arrived.
“We couldn’t believe it,” Fornell said.
Fieger said he was retained by the family to investigate alleged negligence on the part of the paramedics and police for a possible lawsuit. He said Beaucamp might not be in the condition she’s in now had she immediately been rushed to a hospital instead of being left in a body bag for nearly three hours.
“Our main concern, along with the family, is her survival and her well-being,” Fieger said. “The doctors are unable to give a prognosis right now and have indicated that it’s touch and go.”
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 813,000 people worldwide.
Over 23.6 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks.
Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 5.7 million diagnosed cases and at least 177,279 deaths. Here’s how the news is developing today. All times Eastern.
Aug 25, 1:01 pm Florida county has 158 quarantined since schools opened last week
There are 158 people who have been asked to quarantine in Seminole County, Florida, since schools opened for in-person learning last week.
The Seminole County School District opened schools on Aug. 17.
Nine schools in the district have people who are under quarantine — the district has approximately 12 positive cases, according to public school officials.
Those in quarantine were switched to the remote learning platform until they are cleared to return to the schools, officials said. ABC News’ Rachel Katz contributed to this report.
Aug 25, 12:17 pm New York removes 5 states from travel advisory list, adds Guam
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday that five states — Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Maryland and Montana — have been removed from the Empire State’s coronavirus travel advisory list, while the U.S. territory of Guam has been added.
The advisory mandates a 14-day self-quarantine for travelers arriving from areas “with significant community spread.” That list now includes Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Virgin Islands and Wisconsin.
New York state has had a rate of positive COVID-19 tests below 1% for 18 straight days, according to Cuomo, who warned “this pandemic is not over” and urged residents to “stay vigilant and be careful.”
“New Yorkers made enormous sacrifices to get our numbers as low as they are today, and we don’t want to give up an inch of that hard-earned progress,” Cuomo said at Tuesday’s press briefing. “That’s why these travel advisory precautions are so important — we don’t want people who travel to states with high community spread to bring the virus back here.”
Aug 25, 11:41 am Madrid to make masks mandatory in schools for children
Face masks will be obligatory for children aged 6 and older while at schools in Spain’s central capital.
Madrid’s regional premier, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, announced the new measure at a press conference Tuesday, while presenting a strategy for the safe return to schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. She said class sizes will also be reduced and thousands more teachers will be hired on a temporary basis.
Diaz Ayuso noted that, if Madrid’s epidemiological situation improves, face masks will only be mandatory for students aged 11 and up. The region is planning for the staggered reopening of schools in September.
With over 405,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 so far, Spain has the highest case count of any country in Europe. The day-to-day increase of new cases has been steadily climbing since Spain emerged from a more than three-month national lockdown in late June.
Last week, Spain’s head of health emergencies, Dr. Fernando Simon, warned that “things are not going well” regarding a recent spike of infections.
“Each day, we are seeing more and more transmission,” Simon said.
Aug 25, 10:29 am South Korea closes schools across Seoul amid spike in cases
South Korea has ordered the closure of schools in the capital amid a rise in coronavirus infections there.
South Korean Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said Tuesday that nearly 200 students and teachers have been infected in the Seoul metropolitan region over the past two weeks. Most students at kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools will return to online learning at least until Sept. 11. Those in their final year of high school will continue to take in-person classes so their studies are not disrupted ahead of the national college exams, Yoo said.
South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 280 new cases of COVID-19 and one death on Monday, bringing the country’s total to 17,945 cases and 310 deaths.
South Korea once had the largest COVID-19 outbreak outside China, where the virus first emerged, but health authorities were able to bring it under control with an extensive “trace, test and treat” strategy. Now, infections are on the rise in Seoul, home to over 25 million people, as well as in other parts of the country.
Aug 25, 9:29 am Germany issues travel warning for Paris area
Germany has issued a travel warning for parts of France, including Paris and Marseille, due to high levels of coronavirus infection there.
The German government announced Monday that travelers returning from Ile-de-France and Provence-Alpes-Cote-d’Azur regions will be required to be tested for COVID-19 upon arrival and then must self-quarantine while awaiting the test results.
France’s national public health agency recorded 1,955 new cases of COVID-19 and 15 coronavirus-related fatalities on Monday, bringing the total to 244,854 confirmed cases and 30,528 deaths. The country is among the hardest-hit in Europe. ABC News’ Ibtissem Guenfoud contributed to this report. Aug 25, 7:52 am Gaza Strip under lockdown after 1st cases of community transmission
Palestinian authorities have imposed a 48-hour lockdown on the besieged Gaza Strip after officials said a family of four tested positive for COVID-19 at a refugee camp there.
The Palestinian health ministry said another case was identified Monday at a quarantine center in Gaza, bringing the total count to five.
The cause of the cluster is unclear and authorities are working to trace it. It’s the first known instance of the novel coronavirus spreading through Gaza’s local community.
The full lockdown went into effect Monday night across the entire 140-square-mile-long coastal enclave, which shares borders with Egypt and Israel.
The Gaza Strip, a densely populated area that forms part of the so-called Occupied Palestinian Territories, is inhabited by some 2 million Palestinians, most of whom are registered refugees living in overcrowded camps. Both Egypt and Israel have imposed restrictions on movement in and out of Gaza, citing concerns over the militant group Hamas, which rules the territory and has been designated a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States.
However, a small number of Palestinians still travel to Jerusalem for routine cancer treatments, and Egypt partially lifted its blockade recently to allow Palestinians back in. ABC News’ Nasser Atta and Guy Davies contributed to this report. Aug 25, 6:43 am University of Southern California reports ‘alarming increase’ in cases
The University of Southern California is reporting an “alarming increase in the number of COVID-19 cases” among students living in off-campus housing.
In a letter sent to students Monday, the university’s student health center said it had identified 43 cases in the past seven days. All cases are related to students in off-campus living environments, and more than 100 students are now in a 14-day quarantine due to exposures.
“This increase comes despite the continued state and county health guidance that significantly restricts in-person instruction and on-campus activities for universities located in counties that are on the state’s COVID-19 monitoring list, including Los Angeles County,” the letter states. “We continue to strongly discourage students from returning to the campus area until further notice.”
The private university, located in the heart of Los Angeles, kicked off its fall semester online last week, but many students remain in apartments and off-campus residences near the campus. Aug 25, 5:48 am New cases and deaths in US have decreased substantially, FEMA memo says
The numbers of new COVID-19 cases and new deaths in the United States have both decreased by substantial amounts in week-over-week comparisons, according to an internal memo from the Federal Emergency Management Agency obtained by ABC News Monday night.
Just five U.S. states and territories are currently in an upward trajectory of new cases, while five states are at a plateau and 46 states are going down, the memo said.
There were 300,366 new cases confirmed during the period of Aug. 17-23, a 16.2% decrease from the previous seven-day period. There were also 6,873 new deaths recorded Aug. 17-23, an 8.5% decrease from the previous week, according to the memo.
Meanwhile, the national positivity rate for COVID-19 tests ticked downward slightly from 6.4% to 5.5%, the memo said.
Oregon appears to be coming down from a peak with a 7% decrease in infections, a 19.5% decrease in hospitalizations and a 20% reduction in deaths for the week ending on Aug. 16, compared to the previous week, according to the memo.
Idaho has seen an 8.5% decrease in the seven-day case rate since Aug. 18, but a 12.2% increase in the seven-day death rate, the memo said.
In Montana, the Native American community makes up 7% of the state’s population but accounts for 18% of cases statewide and 34% of deaths, according to the memo.
(NEW YORK) — Residents in Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas, were ordered to evacuate as Hurricane Laura strengthens in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm is forecast to make landfall Wednesday night as a major Category 3 hurricane with winds of up to 115 mph in eastern Texas.
The mandatory evacuation order was signed at 6 a.m. as the storm headed toward Houston. The mandatory evacuations will be ongoing through early Wednesday, island officials said, citing the “uncertainty of the path and the heightened intensity of this storm.”
Officials warned that city services would be suspended at 12 p.m. local time. The state will be staging buses throughout the area for those residents who have signed up for transportation assistance.
“With the uncertainties of this storm and its increasing strength, we need to take all necessary precautions to protect our residents,” Galveston Mayor Craig Brown said. “It’s imperative that you make plans this morning to secure your homes and move you and your family to safety off island.”
He urged residents to secure loose items and leave the island by 12 p.m., adding that it was “urgent that residents heed this mandatory evacuation and leave with all family members and pets.”
Residents in Port Arthur, Texas, located about 110 miles northeast of Galveston, were also under mandatory evacuation orders. The mandate was a “direct result of the imminent dangers” from Laura and Tropical Storm Marco, a separate storm system in the Gulf of Mexico that’s forecast to make landfall on the Southeast Texas coastline mid-day as a tropical depression. It’s expected to produce heavy rainfall and wind gusts up to 30 miles per hour.
City officials in Houston and Harris County urged residents to stay off the roads so people evacuating have access to the freeways. Local officials urged all residents in the storms’ path to fill up their gas tanks and generators now.
“People are going to be evacuated, either from Port Arthur, from Chambers to Galveston County, to the extent that is called for, to allow them to kind of get through on , going into Wednesday,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement.
He added, “Harvey was a rainy event. This one, for example, would be more of a windy day. We are certainly more prepared than we were three years ago. We learned a lot from Hurricane Harvey but you cannot compare Harvey, with what we are dealing in this particular case.”
Galveston County also issued voluntary evacuation orders for residents on the Bolivar Peninsula, including the unincorporated areas of Port Bolivar, Crystal Beach, High Island and Gilchrist, where inundation models currently show a possible 3 feet to 6 feet of flooding on the Bolivar Peninsula.
The voluntary evacuation could become a mandatory evacuation depending on further weather updates, county officials said.
Laura is now moving through very warm water in the Gulf of Mexico with favorable atmospheric environment for strengthening.
Landfall is expected to occur on late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning with possible storm surge of up to 13 feet in parts of eastern Texas and western Louisiana.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesBy BILL HUTCHINSON and SABINA GHEBREMEDHIN, ABC News
(KENOSHA, Wis.) — Defying the governor’s curfew order, hundreds of protesters outraged over police shooting a Black man in the back in front of his children took to the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, again on Monday and into Tuesday, breaking patrol car windows, setting fires to buildings and converging at police headquarters, where officers in riot gear fired tear gas.
The second night of unrest in the city of 100,000 people followed Sunday afternoon’s police shooting of Jacob Blake, who remains hospitalized in serious condition. Blake’s father, also named Jacob, told ABC News on Tuesday morning that the shooting left his 29-year-old son paralyzed from the waist down and that doctors don’t know if he’ll ever walk again. The father said he “prays it’s not permanent.”
In a separate interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, the father said there are now “eight holes” in his son’s body.
“What justified all those shots?” his father told the newspaper. “What justified doing that in front of my grandsons? What are we doing?”
The senior Blake said he’s driving from his home in Charlotte, North Carolina, to be at his son’s bedside at a Milwaukee hospital.
“I want to put my hand on my son’s cheek and kiss him on his forehead, and then I’ll be OK,” he told the Sun-Times. “I’ll kiss him with my mask. The first thing I want to do is touch my son.”
Cell phone video taken by a witness shows three officers following Blake around his SUV and at least one of them is seen shooting Blake multiple times in the back as he opened the driver’s side door and entered the vehicle, in which his three young children, one celebrating his eighth birthday, witnessed the horror and screamed from the backseat.
“It doesn’t make sense to treat someone like that,” Blake’s fiancee, Laquisha Booker, told ABC Milwaukee affiliate WISN. She said police also threatened to shoot her when she asked about the safety of the children.
Booker said Blake did not have weapons on him or in his car, and that she was unsure why police were called to the area in the first place.
The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave, and their names have not been released.
Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, which is leading the probe, said the shooting unfolded after officers responded to a domestic violence call around 5 p.m.
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who’s representing Blake, said his client was attempting to de-escalate a domestic incident when police drew their pistols and stun guns on him. Crump said Blake was walking away to check on his children when police shot him.
“He was shot at seven times in the back. Right now we’re trying to confirm that he was hit four times even though the officer fired seven. So those facts are yet to be verified,” Crump said in an interview Tuesday on Good Morning America.
“His three sons — his 8-year-old, his 5-year-old and his 3-year-old — are absolutely devastated,” Crump said. “You can only imagine the psychological problems that these babies are going to have for the rest of their lives.”
Crump said it’s believed only one officer fired a weapon, and Blake’s family is calling for that officer to be fired immediately.
Asked if he believed there is enough evidence based on the video to charge the officer with a crime, Crump said, “Absolutely.” He said the officer “unnecessarily, unjustifiably and senselessly shot him all those times in the back.”
Other media reports cited several witnesses who said that prior to the shooting Blake scuffled with officers, prompting one of them to yell, “Drop the knife.”
But, Crump said, “We have no indication that he was armed from the witnesses that have come forward to us.”
“Several witnesses said that the police seemed to be the aggressors from the moment they got on the scene. And the video shows what happened,” said Crump, who also represents the families of other Black people killed by police, including the family George Floyd, who died May 25 while in the custody of Minneapolis police. “He was walking away. He wasn’t posing a threat to them or anything like that. So, it seems yet again that we have police officers who are using excessive, unnecessary force in shooting an unarmed Black man in America.”
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, ordered a curfew overnight and called in the National Guard to protect property. Protestors ignored that edict and took to the streets, chanting, “No justice, no peace.”
As night fell Monday, demonstrators marched to the Kenosha County Public Safety Building as police in riot gear attempted to head them off.
Protesters marched amid supporters in cars honking their horns, eventually reaching the rear parking lot of the public safety building. Protesters could be seen breaking the windows of patrol cars and lighting fireworks. Some were seen looting, throwing water bottle at officers and setting fires to vacant buildings nearby. The Kenosha County Courthouse was spray-painted with graffiti and the building’s first floor was set ablaze.
Several people broke off from the demonstration to break windows of cars and set fire to vehicles at an auto dealership. Several men were caught on video bashing a traffic light with a baseball bat. Several garbage trucks were set ablaze.
Outside the police station, protesters faced off with officers, who occasionally pushed people back and fired tear gas canisters in an attempt to disperse the crowd.
The civil unrest comes amid months of protests across the nation — and around the world — over the killings of Black people by police, including Floyd and Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician who was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky home, on March 13.
“That’s why you have people protesting not only in Wisconsin,” Crump said on GMA, “they’re starting to protest all over America, saying, ‘Enough is enough. When will Black lives matter?”
deepblue4you/iStockBy HALEY YAMADA, ABC News
