BREAKING NEWS

California's wildfire death toll rises

A firefighter has perished in a blaze that was ignited two weeks at a gender-reveal party, the US Forest Service reported on Friday, as welcomed thundershowers brought some relief to weary fire crews in western Oregon.
The firefighter's death on Thursday in the San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles raised the death toll to at least 35 in the catastrophic spate of wildfires raging across the western United States in recent weeks.
Twenty-six of those victims have died in California, including two other firefighters - a Forest Service contractor killed in a lightning-sparked fire in northern California, and a private helicopter pilot whose chopper crashed on a water-dropping mission in Fresno County last month.
Authorities withheld the identity of the latest firefighter fatality pending notification of next of kin.
No details on the circumstances were immediately released except that the death occurred during the El Dorado Fire, which investigators have determined was triggered by pyrotechnics during a gender-reveal celebration on September 5.