Two military parachutists were seriously injured Saturday during the Chicago Air & Water Show after colliding midair while performing a stunt

A Navy Leap Frog parachutist receives medical attention on North Avenue Beach on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2015, after a performance at the first day of the annual Chicago Air & Water Show in Chicago. (Michael Noble Jr./Chicago Tribune via AP)

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (AP) — 

Two parachutists were seriously injured Saturday during the Chicago Air & Water Show after colliding midair while performing a stunt, a parachute team spokeswoman said. Witnesses say at least one of the men clipped the top of a high-rise apartment building before falling to the ground in the city's Gold Coast neighborhood.


The two men were taken in serious-to-critical condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital on Saturday morning, Fire Department spokesman Juan Hernandez said.

The Army Golden Knights and Navy Leap Frogs parachute teams were performing a stunt known as a "bomb burst," Golden Knights spokeswoman Donna Dixon told WMAQ-TV (http://bit.ly/1Mub7ve ). During the stunt, parachutists fall with red smoke trailing from packs and then separate, creating a colorful visual in the sky.

Dixon said the men collided during the stunt. She said one man, a member of the Golden Knights for about four years who's in his late 20s, underwent surgery and was in critical condition.

The other man is a member of the Navy Leap Frogs. Dixon said he broke his leg and was expected to be released Saturday.

Witnesses told first responders that at least one of the parachutists hit a building in the upscale lakefront district, but the Fire Department had not confirmed the accounts.

Spectator Heather Mendenhall told the Chicago Tribune she was watching the show from a rooftop and saw one of the parachutists strike the roof next door with his feet and fall, with his parachute trailing behind him.

"His legs caught the tip of the roof, and then he fell over. It was horrible," she told the newspaper.

She said he looked unconscious as he hit the roof. A maintenance worker on the same roof called paramedics, she said.

"If he was only one foot closer to the roof, the maintenance guy could've grabbed him," Mendenhall said.

The other parachutist was found on North Avenue Beach, near the main viewing area for the show, Hernandez said.

He had no other details on the nature of the injuries or what went wrong.

The annual two-day air show draws millions of people to Chicago's Lake Michigan shoreline. Headliners include the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.

Representatives for the Army and Navy parachute teams did not respond to email and voicemail messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.Members of the Navy team are active-duty personnel drawn from forces including the Navy SEALs. Specialists such as the Army and Navy jumpers can reach speeds of up to 180 mph during freefall by pulling their arms to their sides. They typically open their parachutes at around 5,000 feet, joining their canopies together in formation and setting off smoke grenades to send red smoke trailing behind them

BNSF train derailed at a crossing on Pine Street near the intersection with Interstate 10 in Beaumont, Texas

A worker walks along a derailed train on Pine Street on Friday. A train derailed at a crossing on Pine Street near the intersection with Interstate 10 on Friday. The four flatbed cars affected were empty of cargo. Photo taken Friday 8/14/15 Jake Daniels/The Enterprise Photo: Jake Daniels

 
Beaumont, Texas

By Eric Besson
Updated 6:16 pm, Friday, August 14, 2015 

Four empty railroad cars derailed around midday Friday, blocking the Pine Street crossing in Beaumont. No injuries were immediately reported.

The train was on a BNSF rail line headed into the Port of Beaumont to receive cargo, port spokesman John Roby said.

The derailment of the cars, all flatbeds, happened between 11 a.m. and noon, someone employed at a nearby business said.

As of 1:15 p.m., a BNSF crew was on the scene.

Death toll stands at 104, as new small explosions rocked a disaster zone in the Chinese port of Tianjin on Saturday as teams scrambled to clear dangerous chemical contamination

Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press

August 15, 2015

REUTERS/StringerAn aerial picture shows smoke rising from the debris among shipping containers at the site of Wednesday night's explosions at Binhai new district in Tianjin, China, August 15, 2015.









TIANJIN, China (AP) — New small explosions rocked a disaster zone in the Chinese port of Tianjin on Saturday as teams scrambled to clear dangerous chemical contamination and found several more bodies to bring the death toll to 104 in massive blasts earlier in the week.

Angry relatives of missing firefighters stormed a government news conference to demand any information on their loved ones, who have not been seen since a fire and rapid succession of blasts late Wednesday at a warehouse for hazardous chemicals in a mostly industrial area.

The death toll in the ensuing inferno included at least 21 firefighters — making the disaster the deadliest for Chinese firefighters in more than six decades.

An unknown number of firefighters remain missing, and a total of 720 people were injured in the disaster in Tianjin, 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Beijing. One additional survivor was found Saturday.

Two Chinese news outlets, including the state-run The Paper, reported that the warehouse was storing 700 tons of sodium cyanide — 70 times more than it should have been holding at one time — and that authorities were rushing to clean it up.
Here's a photo of the crater, sourced from Reddit. We have yet to confirm its source.
R

Sodium cyanide is a toxic chemical that can form a flammable gas upon contact with water.

Authorities also detected the highly toxic hydrogen cyanide in the air at levels slightly above safety levels at two locations in the afternoon, The Paper cited Tianjin environmental official Wen Wurui as saying. But the contamination was no longer detected later Saturday and there was no obvious impact on anybody in the area, the report said.

APSmoke rises from debris near a crater that was at the center of a series of explosions in Tianjin

The disaster has raised questions about whether dangerous chemicals were being stored too close to residential compounds, and whether firefighters may have triggered the blasts, possibly because they were unaware the warehouse contained chemicals combustible on contact with water.

The massive explosions Wednesday happened about 40 minutes after reports of a fire at the warehouse and after an initial wave of firefighters arrived and, reportedly, doused some of the area with water.

Ng Han Guan/APMen gather on an elevated highway near the smoking remains of an explosion in northeastern China's Tianjin municipality Saturday, Aug. 15, 2015.

Authorities on Saturday pulled out one survivor from a shipping container, state media reported. His identity was not immediately known. Television video showed the man being carried out on a sketcher by a group of soldiers wearing gas masks.

Authorities were keeping residents, journalists and other people not involved in the disaster response outside a 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) radius around the site of the explosions in what media reports said was an operation to clean up the sodium cyanide.

Flames were spotted in the disaster area on Saturday, and explosions were reported by witnesses and state media.

In one case, heavy smoke from a fire engulfing several cars rose as high as 10 meters (yards), accompanied by at least five explosions.

Ng Han Guan/APIn this photo taken Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015, a man walks past the charred remains of new cars at a parking lot near the site of an explosion at a warehouse in northeastern China's Tianjin municipality.

Police and military personnel manned checkpoints on roads leading to the blast sites, and helicopters were seen hovering in the overcast sky. The air had a metallic chemical smell, and there was uneasiness over rain forecasts, although it was warm and windy.

Meanwhile, family members of missing firefighters disrupted the latest news conference about the disaster, demanding to know whether their loved ones were still alive.

“(The authorities) didn’t notify us at all,” said Liu Huan, whose son Liu Chuntao has been missing since late Wednesday. “Our son is a firefighter, and there was a team of firefighters who lost contact. We couldn’t contact him.”

Liu Longwang said she had not heard a word on her son Liu Ziqiao, also a firefighter. “We are extremely worried,” she said. “He just turned 18.”

State media reported that the casualties of the first three squads of firefighters to respond and of a neighborhood police station have not yet been fully determined, suggesting that the death toll could rise further.

Ng Han Guan/APChinese firefighters rest as they wait to be deployed near the site of an explosion in northeastern China's Tianjin municipality Saturday, Aug. 15, 2015.

Tianjin Fire Department head Zhou Tian said at a news conference Friday that the explosions occurred just as reinforcements had arrived on the scene and were getting to work. “There was no chance to escape, and that’s why the casualties were so severe,” he said. “We’re now doing all we can to rescue the missing.”

One surviving firefighter, 19-year-old Zhou Ti, was found Friday morning and taken to a hospital. Zhou Ti and Zhou Tian are unrelated.

Li Yonghan, a doctor at Teda Hospital, called Zhou’s survival “miraculous” and said Zhou escaped death mainly because he was covered by his fallen comrades. Zhou had massive injuries, including burns and leg cuts.

From his hospital bed, Zhou told state broadcaster CCTV that the fire was spreading out of control. “I was knocked onto the ground at the first blast,” recalled Zhou, his eyes swollen and closed. “I covered my head and don’t know what happened after that.”

Lin Yujie, who lives in a nearby residential complex, said when he initially heard the blasts Wednesday night he thought they were a massive air strike.

Ng Han Guan/APChinese emergency crew survey the site of an explosion in northeastern China's Tianjin municipality Saturday, Aug. 15, 2015.

“It was just a sea of fire,” Lin recalled. “We were really worried that there would be a second or third explosion and what we would do then.”



As details of the blasts and the rescue efforts surface, members of the public have been raising questions about whether fire commanders had erred in prematurely sending firefighters into a highly dangerous zone and using water to put out flames on the site known to have stored a variety of hazardous chemicals, including sodium cyanide and calcium carbide, which become flammable on contact with water.

Local officials also have been hard-pressed to explain why authorities permitted hazardous goods warehouses so close to residential complexes and critical infrastructure, clearly in violation of the Chinese rule that hazmat storage should be 1,000 meters (yards) away from homes and public structures.

Pope Francis, meanwhile, offered his prayers to the victims of the disaster. “I assure my prayers for those who lost their lives and for all those persons tried by this disaster,” he said Saturday in remarks to thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

Francis made the remarks despite a tense relationship between Beijing and the Vatican.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of a 1.8-mile zone around the Chinese port city of Tianjin on Saturday as fresh explosions were heard and fires continued to rage — and the death toll rose to 104.

AUGUST 15, 2015

Tianjin, China, Explosion Area Evacuated as Death Toll Rises to At Least 104

by Alastair Jamieson and Reuters



Authorities ordered the evacuation of a 1.8-mile zone around the Chinese port city of Tianjin on Saturday as fresh explosions were heard and fires continued to rage — and the death toll rose to 104.

The new toll from Wednesday's huge blasts, at a warehouse storing hazardous materials, includes at least 21 firefighters, state media said.

Rescuers also found an additional survivor Saturday as authorities evacuated much of the area to clean up dangerous chemical contamination. Several additional small explosions rocked the disaster zone as the clean-up continued.

Police have, for the first time, confirmed the presence of deadly sodium cyanide — fatal when ingested or inhaled, the state-run Beijing News said.

Police and military staff were deployed at checkpoints leading to the explosion site, and helicopters were hovering above.

"I do feel a bit afraid," said construction worker Li Shulan, 49, when asked about the air quality. "It definitely doesn't feel good. As you can see our boss is making us wear masks."
A huge hole is seen at the core area of Tianjin blasts in this aerial photo. Xinhua

A retired environmental official told reporters that air pollution posed no risk. "At the moment, the (air pollution) does not pose much danger to those in the vicinity," said Bao Jingling, a former engineer with the city's environmental protection bureau.

Harmful substances could not be detected in the air from 17 monitors placed around the city, said Bao.

About 6,300 people have been displaced by the blasts, with around 721 injured and 33 in serious condition, Xinhua news agency said. Shockwaves from the explosions were felt by residents in apartment blocks miles kilometers away in the city of 15 million people.

About a dozen family members of missing firefighters tried to storm a news conference, angry at a lack of information about their loved ones.


"We have gone to each and every hospital by ourselves and not found them," said Wang Baoxia, whose elder brother is missing.

"There is no government official willing to meet us. Not even one," she said. Relatives said around 25 fire fighters they said were missing were young contract workers not part of official city fire brigades.

Media have said such fire fighters in China, often only on two-year contracts, lack training as new recruits.

Possible carbon monoxide poisoning on blood donation bus in Houston, Texas

Updated 1 hr 43 mins ago

HOUSTON (KTRK) --

Three staff members on board a Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center bus had to be taken to the hospital after possible carbon monoxide poisoning.

It happened outside the Marq*E Entertainment Center on the Katy Freeway at Silber.

According to Cortney Martin with the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, three workers on board the bus began feeling nauseous and 911 was called. They were all taken to the hospital by ambulance. There is no word on their conditions.

No blood donors were on board at the time of the incident. Workers believe the bus was possibly leaking carbon monoxide, but the carbon monoxide sensor did not go off on the bus