Public Safety

Firefighters are trying to become smarter in how they prepare for the drought- and wind-driven wildfires that have become more dangerous across the American West in recent years. They’re using new technology and better positioning of resources in a bid to keep small blazes from erupting into mega-fires like the nation’s biggest wildfire that has charred a section of Oregon half the size of Rhode Island.

As fires in California threaten homes, crews in Oregon are making progress against the nation’s largest wildfire. The Bootleg Fire is 40% surrounded after burning some 70 homes.

Lower winds and better weather helped crews using bulldozers and helicopters battling the nation’s largest wildfire in southern Oregon while a Northern California wildfire crossed into Nevada, prompting evacuations.

Pacific Gas & Electric plans to bury 10,000 miles of its power lines in an effort to prevent its fraying grid from sparking wildfires when electrical equipment collides with millions of trees and other vegetation.

A couple whose gender reveal ceremony sparked a Southern California wildfire that killed a firefighter last year have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

A judge in California has ruled the insurance commissioner can order the “insurer of last resort” to offer more options for homeowners.

A local program helps seniors and physically disabled persons protect their homes from wildfires for free.

New York prison officials have handed over convicted movie producer Harvey Weinstein for transport to California to face sexual assault charges.

A young man who carried out a hate-motivated shooting at the Chabad of Poway that killed one woman and injured three other people pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder and other state charges.

The threat of thunderstorms and lightning has prompted officials in Oregon to ask for wildfire crews from outside the Pacific Northwest to prepare for additional blazes.