Fire kills 112 at poultry plant in northeast China

Associated Press/Xinhua, Wang Haofei - In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, smoke rises from a poultry farm at the Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Company in Mishazi township of Dehui City, northeast China's Jilin Province Monday, June 3, 2013. At least 43 people were killed on Monday morning in the poultry processing plant fire. Reports say 43 people have died in the fire which broke out Monday morning. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Wang Haofei) NO SALES

Rescue workers and fire trucks are seen outside a site of a fire, at a poultry slaughterhouse in Dehui, Jilin province, June 3, 2013. At least 61 people were killed at a poultry processing plant fire in northeast China on Monday morning, Xinhua News Agency reported. REUTERS/Xinhua/Wang Haofei (CHINA - Tags: DISASTER)

BEIJING (AP) — A massive fire broke out at a poultry plant in northeastern Chinaearly Monday, trapping workers inside a cluttered slaughterhouse and killing at least 112 people, reports and officials said.

Several dozen people also were hurt in the blaze in Jilin province's Mishazi township, which appeared to have been sparked by three early-morning explosions, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The provincial fire department, on its microblog, attributed the blasts to an ammonia leak.

State broadcaster CCTV quoted unidentified workers as saying the fire broke out during a change of shifts at the plant, owned by Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Co., and may have originated in a locker room at a time when about 350 workers were at the site.

The plant's "complicated" interior, narrow exits and a locked front gate made escape difficult, Xinhua quoted survivors as saying. It appeared the death toll could continue to rise as more bodies were recovered from the charred buildings.

Some employees raised the alarm about a fire shortly after a shift began at 6 a.m., and then the lights went out, spiking the level of panic as workers rushed to find an exit, 44-year-old Wang Fengya told Xinhua.

"When I finally ran out and looked back at the plant, I saw high flames," Wang was quoted as saying. Xinhua said she and three other workers were sent to a hospital in the nearby provincial capital of Changchun.

The disaster killed 62 people, and 54 people were being treated in hospitals, the fire department said in its microblog. Calls to fire and rescue services rang unanswered and hospital administrators said they had no information about the injured.

By about noon, the fire had been mostly extinguished and bodies were being recovered from the charred buildings. CCTV footage showed dark smoke billowing up from the prefabricated cement structures topped with corrugated iron roofs.

The fire highlighted the lax safety standards at many Chinese workplaces.

It could also focus renewed scrutiny on China's biggest pork producer, Shuanghui International — unrelated to the poultry plant — as it aims to buy U.S. food giant Smithfield in what would be China's biggest takeover of an American company.

Jason Yan, technical director of the U.S. Grains Council, in Beijing, said safety considerations usually came last in the design of such buildings behind features to maximize production and energy efficiency.

"I'm sure they consider some aspects of safety design. However, I think safety, to me, is not the first priority in their design plan," Yan said.

Jilin Baoyuanfeng produces 67,000 tons of processed chicken per year and employs about 1,200 people. The plant is located outside the city of Dehui, about 800 kilometers (250 miles) northeast of China's capital, Beijing.

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AP writer Gillian Wong contributed to this report.

Drought-fueled wildfires rage in California, New Mexico

A firefighter walks on a road covered in heavy smoke from a wildfire near Lake Hughes, California June 2, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn

A chimney stands amid burned rubble of a structure on Lake Hughes Road near Lake Hughes, California June 2, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn

By Zelie Pollon

SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) - A trio of drought-fueled wildfires raged in New Mexico and California on Sunday, with the biggest blaze forcing the evacuation of more than 2,000 people from their homes north of Los Angeles.

The Powerhouse wildfire in California's Lake Hughes area, about 65 miles outside Los Angeles, destroyed six houses and was threatening more than 1,000 others, police and fire and rescue officials said.

The fire had charred about 25,000 acres by late Sunday and, though it was about 20 percent contained, the officials said it was not expected to be brought fully under control for about a week.

Deputy Luan Dang of the Palmdale Sheriff's Department told Reuters more than 2,000 people had been evacuated from communities threatened by the blaze.

High temperatures and dramatic wind shifts have contributed to the fire, said Ronald Ashdale, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. He said as many as 975 firefighters and other personnel had been struggling to contain the blaze in an area as dry as a tinder-box.

In New Mexico, two other fires also raged out of control on Sunday, one of them consuming 7,476 acres of Ponderosa pine forest in an area known as the Pecos Wilderness, authorities said.

It too was fed by severe drought conditions blanketing 98 percent of the state, weather officials said.

"This is a historic drought. We haven't seen a drought like this since the 1950s," said Dan Ware of New Mexico's State Forestry agency.

Smoke advisories were sent to residents throughout the state after soot and a dense haze filled the air over Santa Fe and neighboring areas.

The other New Mexico fire had consumed 1,745 acres of the Valles Caldera National Preserve by late Sunday, triggering the evacuation of about 50 families, fire officials said.

(Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Tom Brown and David Brunnstrom)

Thousands evacuated as crews fight Calif. wildfire

Map locates Lake Hughes and Lake Elizabeth, Calif., that have been evacuated from a wildfire

A Los Angeles County firefighter approaches a fire along a road in Lake Hughes, Calif., early Sunday, June 2, 2013. Erratic winds fanned a blaze in the Angeles National Forest to nearly 41 square miles early Sunday, after fast-moving flames triggered the evacuation of nearly 1,000 homes in Lake Hughes and Lake Elizabeth, officials said. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

LANCASTER, Calif. (AP) — A wildfire that destroyed at least six homes, damaged 15 others and threatened hundreds more grew quickly Sunday as it triggered evacuations for nearly 3,000 people and burned dangerously close to communities in the parched mountains north of Los Angeles.

The blaze had burned about 35 square miles of very dry brush in the Angeles National Forest mountains and canyons, some of which hadn't burned since 1929. The fire was growing so fast, and the smoke was so thick, that it was difficult to map the size, U.S. Forest Service Incident Commander Norm Walker said.

"This is extremely old, dry fuel," Walker said at an afternoon news conference.

The fire, which was 20 percent contained, appeared to be the fiercest of several burning in the West, including two in New Mexico, where thick smoke covered several communities and set a blanket of haze over Santa Fe on Saturday. Crews fighting the two uncontained wildfires focused Sunday on building protection lines around them amid anticipation that a forecast of storms could bring moisture to help reduce the intensity of the fires.

The fire raging in Southern California had crews fighting the fire on four fronts, with the flames spreading quickest into unoccupied land, authorities said. But populated areas about 50 miles north of downtown LA remained in danger, with more than 2,800 people and 700 homes under evacuation orders in the communities of Lake Hughes and Lake Elizabeth, sheriff's Lt. David Coleman said.

They wouldn't be allowed to return home until at least Monday and possibly Tuesday, Coleman said.

About 2,100 firefighters aided by water-dropping aircraft, some of which were making the rare move of flying through the night, were attacking the blaze.

"We're putting everything that we have into this," Walker said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. Three firefighters had minor injuries, but no one else was hurt.

Winds were blowing 20-25 miles per hour with gusts of more than 40 mph, so fast that speakers at the news conference were difficult to hear with hard winds hitting the microphone.

"That has created havoc," LA County Deputy Chief David Richardson said through the winds. "It's had a huge impact on our operations."

At least six homes burned to the ground overnight, and 15 more were scorched by flames, LA County fire Chief Daryl L. Osby said.

Mark Wadsworth, 64, said he was confident his house in Lake Elizabeth survived. He spent Sunday parked in his truck atop a ridge, watching plumes of smoke rise from the canyons below.

"I've got nowhere to go, so I'm just waiting for them to open the roads again and let me back in," said Wadsworth. "I didn't want to go to a shelter."

The Red Cross opened evacuation centers in Palmdale and Lancaster. At Palmdale's Marie Kerr Park Recreation Center, more than 100 residents awaited word on when they could return home.

Temperatures hovered in the high 90s, but were expected to dip, with humidity rising, later Sunday.

Patty Robitaille, 61, grabbed personal photos and documents before fleeing her Lake Hughes home with her pit bull, Roxie, as flames approached late Saturday. She said her property was in the direct path of the fire.

"Driving away, you could see the town burning up," she told the Los Angeles Times. "I don't think there's going to be much left."

A huge plume of smoke could be seen from much of various parts of northern Los Angeles County, and air-quality officials warned against strenuous outdoor activity.

The blaze broke out Thursday just north of Powerhouse No. 1, a hydroelectric plant near the Los Angeles Aqueduct, forcing about 200 evacuations in the mountain community of Green Valley. Several power lines were downed by the flames.

The wilderness area is a draw for boaters, campers and hikers. Crews and residents were being warned to keep an eye out for rattlesnakes and bears that could be displaced by flames.

Evacuations remained in effect for several campgrounds and two youth probation camps. Several roads were closed.

In New Mexico, the forecast for moisture was not entirely good news. The potential thunderstorms also brought the possibility of lightning that could start new fires and gusty winds that could fan the blazes.

The fire burning in New Mexico's Santa Fe National Forest 25 miles from Santa Fe had grown to nearly 12 square miles Sunday.

Thick smoke from the fire covered Gallinas Canyon and Las Vegas, N.M.

The fire near the communities of Pecos and Tres Lagunas had prompted the evacuations of about 140 homes, most of them summer residences.

Crews also cleared out campgrounds and closed trailheads in the area as they worked to prevent the fire from moving toward the capital city's watershed and more populated areas.

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Weber reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Andrew Dalton also contributed to this story.

Lutheran assembly elects first openly gay bishop

This undated image provided by ReconcilingWorks shows Dr. Guy Erwin, a premier scholar on Martin Luther, who was elected as Lutheran Bishop Saturday June 1, 2013 in Los Angeles. Erwin is Bishop of the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Church in America (ELCA). (AP Photo/ReconcilingWorks)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America elected its first openly gay bishop to a six-year term on Friday at an annual assembly in Southern California, officials said.

The election of Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin comes after the church's controversial rule change in 2009 that allowed gays and lesbians to be ordained in the nation's largest Lutheran denomination. More than 600 congregations have left the denomination since the change.

"The ELCA is a church that belongs to Christ, and in it there is a place for all," said church spokeswoman Melissa Ramirez Cooper. "The election of Pastor Erwin illustrates what many in the 4 million-member church believe: that God calls each of us by name."

Erwin, a resident of the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles, currently serves as a pastor at Faith Lutheran Church and a professor of Lutheran Confessional Theology at California Lutheran University. He has also served on a variety of boards and committees of church-related institutions and agencies.

Ordained in May 2011, Erwin said he waited years for the recognition and he brings a "deep faith in Christ's presence in his church lived out in 20 years of parish experience blended with university and seminary-level teaching."

Officials say the "partnered gay man" is also the first Native American to be elected. Erwin is part Osage Indian.

Erwin earned a doctorate degree, two master degrees and Bachelor of Arts degree at Yale University. He engaged in seminary studies at the University of Tubingen and University of Leipzig, both in Germany.

The ELCA has more than 4 million members in 9,638 congregations across the United States, Caribbean and U.S. Virgin Islands. There are 18,010 leaders on the ELCA roster and, of that, 16,773 ordained clergy.

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