Man accused of starting fire at 'pot' site

REDDING, Calif. -- A 27-year-old man who was purportedly at an illegal marijuana plot is suspected of starting a wildfire that has burned about 6 square miles of forestland in Northern California.

Freddie Alexander Smoke III was arrested Saturday and accused of recklessly causing a fire and with marijuana cultivation, both felonies, according to the California Department of Fire and Forestry Protection.

The agency said he was delivering material to the "pot" site in Shasta County when the exhaust from his truck ignited dry grass.

The so-called Bully fire has since grown to 3,700 acres and destroyed six structures, fire officials said. The blaze, which is burning in steep terrain, was just 10 percent contained Sunday morning.

More than 1,000 firefighters, aided by aircraft, are battling the blaze in hot, dry conditions.

The wildfire had prompted evacuations and road closures, but the agency said all residents have been allowed to return home and all roads have been open to them. Still, the fire is threatening 15 homes and about 50 other structures.

Lightning said cause of 2 Colorado deaths

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, Colo. -- For the second day in a row, lightning has been blamed in the death of a visitor at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Officials were notified late Saturday afternoon of four people being struck by lightning near Trail Ridge Road, park spokesman Kyle Patterson said. The four were rushed to a hospital, but Gregory Cardwell, 52, of Scottsbluff, Neb., died of his injures.

"We didn't see the bolt. It was just a white flash. It just felt like something hit you in the back of the head and just kind of jolted forward," Mary Ivarson, who wasn't far from Cardwell, told KMGH-TV in Denver.

Ivarson said she and others performed CPR on Cardwell for 15 to 20 minutes until rescue crews arrived.

On Friday afternoon, park officials said lightning killed one woman and injured seven other people near Trail Ridge, which is the nation's highest continuously paved road.

Patterson said they are the park's first lightning fatalities since 2000.

A park news release identified the woman who died Friday as Rebecca R. Teilhet, 42, of Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Bus crash kills man driving wrong way

RICHMOND, Ind. -- A car that collided with a Greyhound bus on an Indiana highway, killing the car's driver and injuring 19 people on the bus, had just been stolen and was headed in the wrong direction, authorities said.

Phillip Lloyd, the driver of the stolen 1999 Ford Mustang, died at the scene of the Sunday morning collision on Interstate 70 near Richmond, Wayne County Sheriff Jeff Cappa said. Lloyd was from Richmond, which is about 70 miles east of Indianapolis and near the Ohio border.

Cappa said it was unclear how Lloyd ended up going west in the eastbound lane. He declined to give Lloyd's age.

The bus, which was carrying the driver and 23 passengers when it was struck, was headed from St. Louis to New York City. It also was scheduled to stop in Dayton, Ohio, about 35 miles east of the crash site.

Most of the injured were taken to Reid Memorial Hospital in Richmond for treatment. Most had only scrapes, cuts and bruises and were soon discharged, hospital spokesman Larry Price said.

Greyhound spokesman Alexandria Pedrini said the driver was airlifted to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, but she said she couldn't release any information about the driver, including the nature of the driver's injuries.

Supply ship rockets toward space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A commercial cargo ship rocketed toward the International Space Station on Sunday, carrying food, science samples and new odor-resistant gym clothes for the resident crew.

Orbital Sciences Corp. launched its Cygnus capsule from the Virginia coast, its third space station delivery for NASA.

Daylight and clouds limited visibility, but observers from North Carolina to New Jersey still had a shot at seeing the rising Antares rocket.

Its destination, the space station, was soaring 260 miles above Australia when the Cygnus took flight. The unmanned capsule should arrive there Wednesday.

This newest Cygnus contains more than 3,000 pounds of supplies, much of it food. Also on board: mini-satellites, science samples, equipment and experimental exercise clothes.

The Cygnus will remain at the space station for about a month. It will be filled with trash and cut loose for a fiery re-entry. Unlike the SpaceX Dragon capsule, the Cygnus is not built to return safely to Earth.

Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports

A Section on 07/14/2014