Firefighters in the Sacramento suburb of Lincoln, California are fighting a propane tanker fire for the second day in a raw, attempting to extinguish the blaze before it causes damage to 4,000, possibly as many as 5,000 homes.

The tanker, carrying a 29,000-gallon tank has been building up heat which firefighters worry could cause an explosion which the fire chief has compared to a “small thermal nuclear bomb” that would produce fireballs several hundred yards wide.

The fire chief also warns that the explosion could throw metal shards up to a mile away from the explosion which had led to a mandatory evacuation warning for everyone within a one-mile radius of the tanker.

Under the evacuation order 40,000 people were asked to leave their homes, while 6,000 students were missing their first days of classes.

According to some estimates the fire could blaze for upwards of 21 days, while the area fire chief has ordered his men to have it contained in 24 to 48 hours, while announcing that his men have kept the tanker within cooling guidelines since it burst into flames yesterday.

At this time the fire is under control however fire officials are asking that everyone stay away from the evacuation zone until they are given the go ahead to return home.

Burning Propane Tanker Could Destroy 5,000 Homes is a post from: The Inquisitr

A three-year-old girl from Tennessee has died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen after police say the gun was mislaid near a similarly shaped Wii controller.

Cheyenne Alexis McKeehan of Norene accidentally picked up the loaded handgun while playing a Wii game when the accident occurred:

The child had been playing a Nintendo Wii video game, Ashe said. The game’s controller was shaped like a gun that looked very similar to the real handgun, which her stepfather had put on a table in the living room. Ashe said the girl pulled the gun off the table and it went off.

Police say the handgun was resting on the table after the girl’s stepfather used it to intimidate dogs in the family’s yard. The incident is under investigation, and no charges have been filed in the shooting. Both parents were home at the time of the accident Sunday night.

[Source]

Sad: Toddler mistakes gun for Wii controller, shoots self fatally is a post from: The Inquisitr

A sixteen month old Colorado girl remains hospitalized after receiving a shock from dangling USB cord unplugged from an MP3 player.

One of the pitfalls of technology is that sometimes a few accidents occur before the danger of a certain practice becomes readily apparent. While most parents know to keep knives out of reach and not to leave a curious toddler inside a still-running vehicle, many might not think about USB cords disconnected from peripherals but still hooked up to a power source.

Trinity Anderson was rushed to a hospital in Longmont, Colorado Monday, unconscious and suffering severe burns to the inside of her mouth due to this very danger. Trinity’s grandfather describes the scenario that led to Tiffany’s injuries:

The USB cord for a music player was plugged into a laptop that was being charged on the floor next to the chair where her mother, Rhianna Anderson, was sitting. The music player was a Christmas gift. The laptop is less than a year old.

“Trinity crawled behind the chair her mom was in, and when her mom didn’t see Trinity pop back out the other side, she looked behind the chair and saw Trinity face down,” Jeff Anderson said.

Trinity remains on a ventilator, sedated so she does not disturb the apparatus that has maintained her respiration since Monday night. Her prognosis is not completely clear at this point:

“The burn team here feels her injuries will heal with some cosmetic damage, but we have no idea about her mental function,” he said. “She was probably unconscious for three minutes.”

The hospital indicates that this is the first case of its type involving USB cords they’ve seen. Sadly, it’s highly likely it won’t be the last.

Still not USB compatible- babies is a post from: The Inquisitr

This has to be one of the most powerful public service announcement commercials I have seen yet and it was done by a local police department in England along with local actors. This is not something to watch if you have a weak stomach as the video is quite graphic in its content.

Think twice before texting while driving – not only your life is at risk.

… why won’t mommy and daddy wake up?

hat tip to Gizmodo

So you think texting while driving is okay? [Not for weak stomachs] is a post from: The Inquisitr

People do stupid and dangerous things all the time and thankfully no-one is injured or killed during these moments of idiocy. A good example of this is when Angel Rolon ended up causing a multi-car crash because the snakes he had stuffed in his pocket got out and slithered over the gas and brake pedals of his SUV.

The 20-year-old’s vehicle was then seen swerving as he tried to catch the creatures.

His SUV crashed into some parked cars and overturned in a street in Hartford, Connecticut.

Hartford police sergeant Christene Mertes said Mr Rolon was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

She said officers later recovered the snakes from the car.

Source: SkyNews :: Escaped Snakes Cause Multiple Car Crash

Hmm .. maybe it’s time we ran the strainer through the gene pool again.

Why it’s not a good idea to drive with snakes in your pockets is a post from: The Inquisitr

German cyclist Jens Voigt suffered a serious crash today during a descent from the Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard.

Although the extent of his injuries is not currently clear, witnesses say the crash was brutal and that Voigt lost consciousness for 3-4 minutes after the fall. Team boss Bjarne Riis was quoted by the Associated Press:

“I only saw him after the crash and he looked very, very bad. It’s not nice to lose a rider like this, but these are things which happen in a race and you have to accept them. It is too early to say how bad his injuries are, I didn’t see the crash, I only saw the aftermath and it wasn’t good. I am just concerned with Jens’ health right now.”

Voigt is the second rider on team Saxo Bank to crash out of the Tour de France in the past week. Kurt-Asle Arvesen crashed while trying to avoid a spectator last Tuesday.

German cyclist Jens Voigt critically injured in Tour de France is a post from: The Inquisitr

Speeding admittedly leads to many fatal accidents. Speeding in bad weather can multiple the number of fatalities exponentially. Sure the police can issue speeding tickets as well as dangerous driving tickets but the truth is many people just consider them as part of the cost of driving.

In New Zealand they are trying something totally different to try and get people to slow down during bad weather – public horror. They are doing this through special billboards with pictures of children. They are special in that when it rains the billboard begins to bleed.

hat tip to BuzzFeed

Billboard campaign uses tears of blood. is a post from: The Inquisitr

Around the globe it is estimated that 1.2 million people die in car accidents in one year – that equates to 3200 traffic deaths every day. This figure equals or surpasses some of the more high profile – and newsworthy – events that resulted in large death tolls. As Trevor Reichman at Treehugger points out in some of the following examples

1) Every day more people are killed in auto related deaths than in the 9/11 attacks on America.
2) Every day, about 3 times more woman, children, and men are killed in auto related deaths than in the recent Gaza conflict.
3) Every day, more than twice as many people perish in auto deaths than in Hurricane Katrina.
4) The daily toll from traffic accidents is equivalent to 15 plane crashes, each with 200 passengers aboard.

One would think that saving these kind of number of lives would rate a little higher in our collective concern about human lives. Instead we continue to relegate things like public mass transit and safer vehicles to the fringes. while the number of deaths has waned slightly in the wealthier nations due to higher fuel prices the death tolls in developing nations has increased. As it is though 110 people die every day in the United States which works out to 40,000 people a year.

[pic courtesy of CarAdvice.com.au]

Crash! Boom! 3,000 people die in car accidents daily is a post from: The Inquisitr

Britney Spears just can’t get a break. This fallen star managed to boost ratings for How I Met Your Mother and stay tame with the fam, but good things don’t last forever, now do they?

According to current reports, Britney rear-ended a car at a red light today. Was she distracted? Was she texting, holding a dog, drinking Starbs with cream, or just not paying attention? The mind reels. It doesn’t look like anyone was injured, which is Good. Brit can’t take a hit like that, not with the already-fragile custody deal she has going on.

For anyone familiar with her driving, none of this will be a surprise.

Britney’s Stunning Driving Record Shines On is a post from: The Inquisitr