A fire broke out at the Petro Star refinery on Dayville Road in Valdez following an explosion. According to a press release from Valdez Communications Director Ana Hinkle, the fire broke out at 5:04 p.m. and emergency responders had arrived by 5:20. "Fire Chief Raynor contacted Alyeska Pipeline Service Company Fire & Rescue requesting mutual aid and two trucks were dispatched to assist with firefighting efforts," Hinkle wrote. "At approximately 5:50 p.m. traffic along Dayville road reopened as Fire Department personnel deemed the fire under control. Units cleared the scene at 7:33 p.m. No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire is currently under investigation. The fire broke out sometime around p.m. Residents reported seeing a large, thick plume of black smoke and hearing the sound of an explosion. Petro Star is a wholly owned subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corp. Calls to Petro Star went unanswered Monday night.  

Firefighters are continuing to remove hose from the perimeter of the Fish Fire #319 and preparing to remove the basecamp from Arctic Circle Campground so that public camping can resume there. Mop up continues on the fire's interior hot spots. The Fish Fire remains at 231 acres in size. On the Douglas #336 and Curky #318 fires, crews are monitoring and providing point protection for the pipeline and other values. The Douglas Fire is now 8,742 acres. Curky Fire has increased to 6,775 acres. No crews are assigned to the Snowden Fire #330 but the fire is being monitored by air as conditions permit. The region is still experiencing hot, dry conditions. Highs will be in the 70's to 80's. Little to no rain is expected over the next several days, but the chance of thunderstorms will increase on Wednesday as high pressure over the area weakens.  

A fire that burned 13 acres in East Anchorage last week is now 100% contained and controlled, according to the Alaska Division of Forestry. But there's still work to do in the wooded area near Campbell Park. On Monday, a 20-person hotshot crew and three Division of Forestry firefighters continued mopping up and checking that logs and stumps had cooled. They also searched the surrounding area to make sure there were no small fires nearby. The division will wait several days before calling the fire officially "out," said spokesperson Mike McMillan. "It was a good effort by both the state and the city firefighters to come together and stop it," McMillan said. "There were no injuries reported, so it was a successful operation all the way around."  

The fire season in Alaska is on track to become one of the busiest on record. The number of acres burned so far this year, 1.4 million, is already more than the 30-year average of the total burned each year, 1.2 million. The Alaska Division of Forestry (DOF) published an article on their AK Fire Info page saying that with the increased fire activity and the additional firefighting aircraft being used in the state they were having trouble finding lodging near airports for all of the pilots and their flight crews. Facilities were available in other locations throughout the state but the long travel distances between lodging and airports was decreasing flight time, and limiting how much the pilots could assist the firefighters on the ground. The DOF wrote that in the Mat-Su area they were in need of help and were looking for services similar to a hotel or vacation rental.  

A team of National Transportation Safety Board investigators will arrive in Missouri on Tuesday to probe the derailment of an Amtrak train that left at least three people dead and sent surviving passengers scrambling from the wreckage. The derailment occurred as the train, traveling eastbound to Chicago, collided with a dump truck at a crossing near the town of Mendon in north-central Missouri at about 12:42 p.m. Monday, according to Amtrak. Eight of the train's cars and two locomotives left the track, the company said. "We started feeling the train tilting over to the right. That's when it kind of went through my mind that this is life or death. This is very serious," Dax McDonald, who was on the train with his sister Samantha, told CNN's "New Day." Their train car had tipped over and was laying on its side.  

Amtrak's worst wreck in terms of deaths was the Sept. 22, 1993, derailment outside Mobile, Alabama, when the Sunset Limited plunged off a bridge and caught fire in the pre-dawn hours. Forty-seven passengers and crew were killed and 103 injured in what became known as the Big Bayou Canot rail accident. The bridge over that arm of the Mobile River had been damaged by a barge shortly before the passenger train started to cross it. The worst wreck as far as overall casualties was the 1990 collision of an Amtrak train with a Boston commuter train that left 453 injured, but there were no fatalities. There is no record of an Amtrak wreck in Missouri having 20 casualties or more, according to Wikipedia's list of serious accidents. Prior to Monday's wreck, in which at least 50 were reported injured along with multiple deaths, the Southwest Chief and its predecessor, the Southwest Limited, had been involved in three serious wrecks along its 2,265-mile route from Los Angeles to Chicago that met that 20-casualty threshold.  

VIDEO: From the porch of a vacant row house in Northeast D.C., a film director yelled, "We are rolling … and action!" On his cue, several D.C. firefighters jumped out of their fire truck, bounded up the steps, donned protective gear and lunged into thick fumes. It's all a simulation of sorts. For the next three days, those directors' commands will take the place of a real 911 call, as members of D.C. Fire and EMS have been selected to star in a national training video designed to teach firefighters across the country about the dangers of fighting a row house blaze. Firefighters said it's one of the most dangerous structure fires to battle. "We've had injuries and line-of-duty deaths that have been attributed to these types of buildings," said Deputy Fire Chief Anthony Kelleher.  

A celebration was held at Lido Beach Suday for fallen hero Casey Skudin, a New York City firefighter from Long Beach who was killed in a tragic accident while on vacation with his family in North Carolina. More than 200 people headed out into the Atlantic Ocean for a paddle-out memorial in honor of Skudin. The Long Beach father of two was killed last week when a 2,000-pound tree fell on the SUV he was in. He died two days shy of his 46th birthday and Father's Day. Casey and his family were driving up to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina as part of a family vacation. Casey was a long-time lifeguard in the Town of Hempstead and a beloved member of the surfer community in Long Beach. "He was just the bravest, kindest most epic human being and he's going to be really missed," said his widow, Angela Skudin. She and their two sons, Ben and CJ, led the surfers into the ocean off the same beach where Skudin spent many summers working as a lifeguard.  

VIDEO: As a paramedic, nothing would stop Sara Cathey from stepping up to save a life. As it turned out, the Beaufort EMS worker was able to help one of her own family members. "She brightens my day," Sara said of her niece, Natalyn. "Makes any bad day good." It was a devastating day when she found out that 2-year-old Natalyn had a genetic condition that nearly killed her. "She had a double nephrectomy, so both her kidneys got removed June of last year," remembered Sara. The whole family took tests to find out who might be a kidney match. "You never think it's going to be you," Sara said. "I am out here every day with strangers. I love these strangers. I really enjoy being a paramedic, helping people. I get emotionally invested with these complete strangers. So I can't really explain how much it really hits when it's her."