Train derails near Chicago; no injuries

Train derails near Chicago; no injuries

NORTHBROOK, Ill.

A Union Pacific spokesman says a freight train has derailed and a bridge over a stretch of road has collapsed in the northern Chicago suburbs.

Mark Davis says 27 cars of a 138-car freight train derailed about 1:45 p.m. Wednesday. He says the three-engine train was carrying coal from an eastern Wyoming mine to a utility in Wisconsin. Davis says the bridge was 86 feet long.

Davis says the incident happened on a rail line not used by Chicago commuter services.

Union Pacific is investigating the cause of the derailment.

Rain cools CO fires; other fires grow

DENVER

Rains cooled Colorado wildfires Wednesday, but more than a dozen wildfires elsewhere in the West continued chewing through bone-dry pine and brush as firefighters working through the holiday kept a nervous eye for fireworks and other hazards.

Wildfires in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado sent haze and smoke across Colorado’s Front Range, prompting air-quality health advisories as firefighters warned of growing fires in sparsely populated areas.

In Colorado Springs, there was good news in the fight against the most destructive fire in state history.

Light rains that fell overnight helped calm the Waldo Canyon Fire, which has scorched 28 square miles, killed two and destroyed almost 350 homes. Firefighters predicted full containment of the fire by Sunday, with more rain, cooler temperatures and higher humidity predicted through the weekend.

The forecast wasn’t as kind in eastern Montana, where a mammoth 380-square-mile in Custer National Forest was gobbling up pine, juniper and sage with help from gusty winds. The fire has burned 16 homes.

Firefighters gave the blaze “extreme” growth potential, with wind gusts up to 45 mph predicted. Temperatures were expected to reach the 100s.

Big shark caught off California coast

LOS ANGELES

The fish was so big, it was too heavy for the scales. It was so big, in fact, that it couldn’t be hauled aboard the boat and had to be dragged into the dock by the tail.

So says Craig Campbell, general manager of Del Rey Landing, who watched as a group of fishermen hauled in a mako shark they caught about 15 miles off the coast of Marina del Rey on Monday. The fish — believed to be a shortfin mako, — topped the landing’s 750-pound scales, leading Campbell and others to believe it weighed between 800 and 900 pounds.

Fishing is good right now, Campbell said, halibut especially. He called the monster catch a good sign.

“The big fish are out there and coming in a little closer,” he said.

Bus crash sends 24 to hospital

NEW YORK

Authorities say the casino bus that careened out of control outside New York City, sending 24 people to the hospital with minor injuries, was apparently speeding.

New York State police Sgt. John Maasz says it appears the driver was going too fast for the wet conditions early Wednesday.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, bus company Star Tag Inc. has received four citations for unsafe driving in the last two years and every recorded inspection resulted in vehicle maintenance violations.

The bus was on an early morning route from Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut to Chinatown in Queens. Charges were not immediately filed, pending an investigation.

Wire dispatches