Firefighters had to dodge exploding fireworks Thursday morning when a storage facility caught fire in South Carolina It happened around 6 a.m. in Fort Mill, South Carolina, just off Interstate 77. Investigators said the fire actually started in containers outside Davey Jones Fireworks Store. The fire never got to the store, but it did ignite all of the fireworks in the container.
- PUB DATE: 7/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WTVD-TV ABC 11 Durham

A new Iowa law will set aside part of the state's lottery revenues to help the families of firefighters and law enforcement officers keep insurance after their deaths. The Des Moines Register reports the law that took effect earlier this week will allow the Iowa Lottery to provide $100,000 to a new Public Safety Survivor Benefits Fund.
- PUB DATE: 7/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIMT-TV CBS 3 Mason City

With much fanfare and no less hand-wringing, state regulators approved plans that for the first time set out how California’s electric utilities intend to prevent their equipment from sparking wildfires. But the plans provide scant details, and little evidence to support the companies’ claims that indiscriminately clear-cutting millions of trees and replacing hundreds of thousands of wooden utility poles with steel ones will actually reduce the risk of wildfires.
- PUB DATE: 7/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Mercury News - Metered Site

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri is facing a volunteer shortage. More than 600 kids are waiting for a mentor — and about 80 percent are African American boys. The local branch of the nonprofit is launching a program in the hopes of filling the volunteer gap and building trust within communities of color.
- PUB DATE: 7/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: St. Louis Public Radio

The federal government wants the owner of a tourist train in Durango to pay $25 million for causing a wildfire that scorched 53,000 acres of Forest Service land last summer. A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office says burning cinders from the exhaust stack of a coal-fired steam train operated by the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Co.
- PUB DATE: 7/5/2019 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Colorado Sun