Authorities combed the rubble left behind by a gas explosion at Motel 6 overnight and all day Wednesday, searching first for bodies and later for clues as to how the gas leak and blast occurred. All but two of the 65 guests at the 11th Street motel were accounted for. Police used cellphone “pinging” technology to find one guest who was well south of the motel, according to Bremerton Police Capt.
- PUB DATE: 8/19/2015 6:44:50 PM - SOURCE: Kitsap Sun

More residents of fire-scarred Eastern Washington were rousted from their beds and evacuated overnight as crews continued to battle countless wildfires burning across hundreds of square miles. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service issued a new red flag warning for the possibility of "extreme fire behavior" Wednesday through Friday in most of central and eastern Washington.
- PUB DATE: 8/19/2015 11:42:18 AM - SOURCE: KEPR-TV CBS 19

As the flames drew closer, the fire chief called and called for help. But three other major wildfires were burning in Stevens County, Wash., and no one was left to respond. Whipped by 40- to 50-mph winds, the new blaze on the Spokane Reservation sent up a column of smoke as it churned north toward a rural community of about 2,000 people east of the Columbia River.
- PUB DATE: 8/19/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

An explosion demolished part of a Motel 6 in Bremerton, critically injuring a gas company worker just minutes after the acting hotel manager had evacuated the building because she could smell and hear a gas leak. Two people were unaccounted for out of the hotel's roughly 65 guests, but they may not have been in the building at the time of the blast Tuesday night, Bremerton Fire Chief Al Duke said.
- PUB DATE: 8/19/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Komo News

A group of firefighters taking the recent lieutenants exam dashed off to the bathroom to access the answer key on their cellphones, The Post has learned. The alleged cheats, taking the promotions test at a Queens high school, clicked a link to pull up answers to all 100 multiple-choice questions via a website that states, “We are very confident in this answer key and believe it to be 100% accurate.
- PUB DATE: 8/19/2015 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: new york post