A fire was started in the Makakilo region of Oahu this week when two seven-year-old boys were goofing around with a lighter. The fire took hold and has since run through over 800 acres of brush, grass, and trees. There have been no reported injuries.

A fireworks outlet in Tennessee self-destructed shortly after the biggest day of the year for colorful explosions in the sky, exploding and burning to the ground in one last sad display before the long wait until New Year's Eve.

A fire that ran through eight row homes in South Philadelphia early Saturday has killed four children and displaced over forty people. The fire began shortly before 3 a.m. and was under control by 4 a.m., fire department officials say.

At least 34 people, 23 of them firefighters, were injured early Thursday morning during a five-alarm fire in Staten Island. The FDNY rescued 11 people, including six children; two other children escaped the blaze after their father threw them from one of the burning building's windows to neighbors below.

Who will fight the fire when the firetruck catches on fire? The firefighters from the firetruck (plus three more trucks and engines), with fire extinguishers. "This is one of these things you always hear about, but don't expect to happen," deputy fire chief Kurt Gerfin of Schenectady told the Daily Gazette.

A fire broke out at the National Archives in Kew, London this morning at about 12:30 GMT/7:30 EST. The building is home to over 11 million British treasures, a host of which can be viewed here, and the source of the flame has not yet been revealed. According to the Archives' Twitter, no one has been injured and all documents remain intact, though the fire is still being fought by over twenty firemen.

First the tragic wine spill in Canada and now this: On Saturday, a truck carrying 76,000 pounds of beef ribs caught fire on a highway in southern California, snarling traffic in the area for more than two hours.

The thermometer says it's 15 degrees outside right now. Wind chill of -2. Even inside, I can hardly feel my toes. But you know what I can feel? This nice, warm, crackling fire. Feel that? Mmm. Yes. Hot. I could close my eyes and die of frostbite in its warmth, right now.

A fire that began around 2:15 p.m. EST at Kohr’s Ice Cream in Seaside Park, New Jersey has now spread to other boardwalk buildings and escalated into a six-alarm blaze. These buildings include the Funtown Amusement Pier building, notable for surviving the devastation Hurricane Sandy.

Up in the High Sierra of Yosemite National Park today, a monstrous wildfire is racing through 200 square miles of dense piney forest. The "Rim Fire" is only one of about fifty major wildfires across the American West today, but everyone has at least heard of the majestic Yosemite Valley with its glacier-carved Half Dome and summer traffic jams of vacationers seeking waterfalls and hamburgers, so this is our official Natural Disaster of the week.

More like Fahrenheit 450-dumb. A fake Florida firefighter was arrested after he set fire to a library in the hopes of joining the real firefighters who came to put out the blaze.

Why did 19 elite firefighters die in an Arizona wildfire on Sunday? Not to save lives—no, they died protecting "people’s summer homes and year-round retreats."

An explosion at a chemical plant in Louisiana this morning has injured many—though no reports of fatalities as of yet. Hazmat units are attending to the accident at Williams Olefins Chemical Plant in Geismar, Louisiana. The plant churns out 1.3 billion pounds of ethylene and 90 million pounds of propylene per year. The industrial area is a little over 50 miles northwest from New Orleans, 30 miles southeast of Baton Rouge.

A group of wildfires threaten thousands of residents throughout Colorado and hundreds of inmates from an area prison. The fires have destroyed nearly a hundred homes and nearly seven thousand people have evacuated the area. Officials report that 2,300 homes are directly threatened by the flames. About a thousand prisoners had to be transported from an area prison, mainly as a precaution, as moving prisoners is a long process.

A fire that engulfed a Houston hotel today has killed four firefighters and injured others. Though the blaze has been extinguished, three people are still missing.

Million-dollar homes in Camarillo, Calif. were reduced to nothing yesterday as a wind-stoked fire in Ventura County spread over 8,000 acres, threatening 2,000 homes and causing hundreds of evacuations.

Here's something sad you can bring up and then immediately regret bringing up at dinner tonight: a toy fox terrier beloning to Twilight actress Ashley Greene died in a fire at her apartment this morning.

A huge natural gas explosion—"like an earthquake," one witness said—burned a Kansas City restaurant to the ground yesterday evening, injuring 16, some critically, and leaving one person unaccounted for. Authorities believe a contractor working near JJ's Restaurant, a three-decade institution overlooking Kansas City's iconic Country Club Plaza, hit a natural gas line, and people reported a strong odor of gas in the area—so strong JJ's employees cancelled reservations, shut down the kitchen, and asked patrons to leave the restaurant—hours before the 6 p.m. explosion shattered nearby windows and sent shockwaves nearly a mile through the city. One woman is still missing, and Kansas City police are using cadaver dogs to search for her. Some 100 fire fighters responded to the four-alarm fire; it was under control by 8 p.m. [Kansas City Star | KCTV]

Alleged killer-cop cop-killer Christopher Jordan Dorner is almost positively dead, San Bernardino Sheriff John McMahon told reporters at a press conference late yesterday.