Flames

An Anne Arundel County woman owes her life to a Maryland State Police corporal and cadet who pulled her from a burning minivan this morning, moments before it was engulfed in flames. About 6:30 a.m., a Hyundai minivan driven by Melody Grimm, 57, of Crofton went off the road at U.S. 301 near Leeland Drive in Prince George's County, state police said. An off-duty corrections officer saw the accident and stopped at the Upper Marlboro Scale House, where Cpl. John P. Griffin and Cadet Andrew Neall were on duty checking trucks for safety violations.

The Orioles need to find several starting pitchers and a shortstop. They're expected to seek trade partners for catcher Ramon Hernandez and enigmatic starter Daniel Cabrera. They'll likely be in on at least the early bidding for marquee free agents Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett, and less high-profile ones, such as Paul Byrd and Jon Garland. The unofficial start of the hot stove season will begin today at baseball's general managers meetings in Dana Point, Calif. Orioles president Andy MacPhail will arrive with an extensive to-do list.

"We're the s'mores house," says Luke Harlan, referring to his home's fame in the Anneslie community for its outdoor fire pit, with its warm treats and ambience. Every Halloween, the metal fire pit serves as a glowing invitation to costumed youngsters and the rest of the folks in the Baltimore County neighborhood to stop by after trick-or-treating has ended and enjoy gooey sweets, a drink and conversation with Luke and Liz Harlan. "When they come back, they could take a stick, roast a marshmallow and make a s'more," says Luke Harlan, president of the Anneslie Community Association.

No one was injured when a parked car burst into flames yesterday at The Mall in Columbia, police and fire officials said. Just before 1:30 p.m., smoke began to pour from a 2000 Nissan Altima that was parked outside the food court area of the mall, according to fire and police officials at the scene. The owner of the car, Donald Gerbrick, said he parked at 1:21 p.m. Fire investigators said the cause of the fire was under investigation but said it appeared to be accidental. They added that that video surveillance footage shows that no one was around the car near the time of the blaze.

Yesterday, a reader of my blog, reacting to an item I wrote about the pea-and-shell game that San Francisco city officials played with the Olympic torch Wednesday, posed this question: With all the problems that are popping up with the Olympics - illegal drugs, new Speedo swimsuit illegal or legal, then all the energy to guard the flame - at some point, it is time to get rid of the Olympic Games altogether? Look at the staggering financial cost to host them. He gave me something to ponder.

From dramatic cell phone camera images of flames as they choked off neighborhood escape routes to chilling online narratives of evacuation, citizen journalists covering the wildfires in California this week gave new meaning to the concept of reporting a natural disaster from the ground up. "I'm not knocking what we do in the mainstream media, but citizens are bringing the highly personal, close-up nature of these fires home to viewers in a way that traditional...

SAN DIEGO -- Through a dirty fog of ash and soot, a sport utility vehicle dashed up one street and then another, turning back again and again as it met police barricades, firetrucks and then a wall of glowing, billowing smoke. Just beyond, on the other side of the hill where the smoke boiled up, sat the home of Ben and Marla Martin, who finally pulled over, defeated. "Look, there's a helicopter, Ben," Marla Martin said. "That's a good sign, right?" Four firetrucks raced past, and a police officer began closing this street off, too, in an area where the main fire had passed but a sinister arm reached out, proving that - three days in - the destructive work of one of the biggest wildfires in state history was not quite done.

Dorothy Grewe looks back on 2005 as a year of life-altering changes, and in the telling of her story, she finds herself wondering how she got through it. "In one year, I lost my husband, sold our house, moved back to [Baltimore], bought a house and watched it burn," she said calmly as she poured a glass of ice tea. A little over two years ago, Grewe lived with her husband on a 9-acre farm on Brooms Island in Calvert County. After his death, she found that the property needed more upkeep and attention than she was able to provide.

A fire swept through a Baltimore rowhouse early yesterday morning, killing one man and injuring a woman, according to Fire Department officials. Witnesses said that a mattress caught fire on the second floor of the building in the 2100 block of N. Calvert St. and that flames quickly spread to other rooms and floors. When fire crews arrived about 3 a.m., they found the second and third floors of the building engulfed in flames, said Kevin Cartwright, chief public information officer for the Baltimore City Fire Department.

An epidemic of thyroid disease among pet cats could be caused by toxic flame retardants that are widely found in household dust and some pet food, government scientists reported last week. The often-lethal disease was rare in cats until the 1980s, when it began appearing widely. A the time, industry started using large volumes of brominated flame retardants in products, including furniture cushions, electronics, mattresses and carpet padding. Scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency noted a possible connection between hyperthyroidism and flame retardants.