13 injured in school bus crash

HOUSTON (KPRC) -- More than a dozen people were injured Tuesday when a school bus was involved in a multivehicle crash in northwest Harris County.

Houston police said a privately-owned school bus hit the back of a pickup truck stopped at a red light on the North Beltway 8 feeder road at Ella Boulevard, causing a chain-reaction wreck at 8 a.m. Five vehicles, including the bus, were involved in the collision.

"They were all stopped here and the next thing you know, there was a chain reaction. We haven't interviewed everybody yet to find out what happened," said V. Rogers with the Houston Police Department.

Investigators said 10 students, the bus driver and two drivers from other vehicles were taken to Northwest Memorial Hermann Hospital, Doctors Hospital and Houston Northwest Medical Center. Police said all the victims are in stable condition.

Rhonda Collins' 19-year-old son, Amos, was one of the students on the bus. He told his mother it was terrifying.

"Right now, they got him in X-ray because he's complaining about his back and neck," Collins said. "(The bus driver) was trying to stop, but she couldn't."

The school bus was owned by AFC Transportation. The students were on their way to JJAEP Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program, an alternative school.

The Houston Police Department is investigating the cause of the crash.

Lone Star College-University Park Imploded - cool!

By Jennifer Bell

NORTHWEST HOUSTON - Smoke and dust filled the air as two buildings at Lone Star College-University Park were imploded Sunday morning, making way for the site to be used as green space.
The buildings pulsed a few times, implosive devices going off like shots inside of them, before falling to the ground.

The college purchased the buildings last year from Hewlett-Packard for $12.6 million, intending for them to be parking garages, LSC System Executive Communications Director Jed T. Young said. The current price to build a garage in today’s market is around $12 million, Young said, so instead of letting the buildings sit in a “mothball state” until it was more cost-effective to build a garage, the college decided on demolition.

“It just wasn’t something Lone Star College could use right now,” Young said. “We’d be paying $1.25 million just to keep it up every year.”

The parking garage and land purchased with it encompass 21 acres, Young said, and when the garage is built, there will be 1,200 parking spaces.
NCM Demolition & Remediation LP and Controlled Demolition Inc. worked together to implode the buildings, a decision that was based on the height of the buildings and their proximity to homes, contractors said.
“This building was just too tall and robust to take it apart piece by piece,” Bill Rose, NCM’s vice president of industrial services, said. “A crane and ball or explosive demolition would have been too noisy.”

Rose said that he and other contractors talked to nearby Lakewood Forest residents, some of which live 200 feet behind the building. Imploding the building was a good choice, he said, to make sure residents weren’t exposed or harmed by the debris.

“This went exactly as we had planned, the building broke up very well,” Rose said.
In the fliers passed around to nearby homes, contractors stated that dust would linger in the area for about four to six minutes. For Young, minutes are nothing compared to the 15-20 weeks a wrecking ball takes to tear down a building.

Bastrop is burning ...

BASTROP

- The most destructive wildfire on record in Texas showed no signs of slowing down Monday, destroying 25,000 acres in Bastrop County and 476 homes, more houses than any single wildfire before and more than all other fires this year combined, according to the Texas Forest Service.

With more than 60 new wildfires raging across the state, Gov. Rick Perry left the campaign trail Monday in South Carolina to address the public and organize requests for more federal aid.

Closer to Houston, a fire in Magnolia burned 20 homes and more than 1,600 acres, and was threatening subdivisions in Montgomery and Grimes counties late Monday. It had moved southwest into Waller County last Monday.

It was one of several fires to hit the area, straining state and local resources as officials focused on the most dangerous blazes. One firefighter was injured and one fire engine burned in blazes in the Magnolia area, said Lt. Dan Norris, spokesman for the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities did not yet know how much of the most dangerous fire had been contained Monday, but planned to continue fighting it "as long as necessary," Norris said.

Strong winds and dry conditions fanned the flames and aided the blaze's rapid growth, forcing the evacuation of more than 150 homes. Montgomery County officials were encouraging evacuations from the intersection of FM 1774 and FM 1488, about 42 miles northwest of Houston, up to the Grimes County line, an official said.

Magnolia fire

The Magnolia fire, located off FM 1774 and FM 1488, jumped FM 1488 late Monday and forced further evacuations, although some families were being allowed back to their homes. The Magnolia Independent School District canceled classes today because of the fires. Evacuation shelters were being set up throughout the area, including at Magnolia High School.

Another fire in the area had burned 100 acres and was 80 percent contained, Norris said. It had destroyed one structure and caused no injuries after 50 homes were evacuated.

A fire covering about 100 acres was burning in Oak Ridge North late Monday.

A fire near Nacogdoches that started Sunday night raged to 300 acres Monday and forced 60 families to evacuate their homes, said Ralph Cullom, a spokesman for the Texas Forrest Service. That fires grew with strong gusts of winds and fed off of dry conditions on the ground.

"This drought we're having is just unprecedented," Cullom said.

No injuries have been reported in Bastrop, but two people were reported killed in a North Texas fire Monday. A woman and her 18-month-old child died when a fast-moving fire near Gladewater, east of Dallas, set their mobile home on fire and they were unable to escape.

The Bastrop County Complex Fire, pushed by strong winds and fed by plenty of dry grasses, shrubs and trees, steadily moved south Monday and expanded throughout the day. It jumped the Colorado River twice.

"We will be working days on end," said Mike Fisher, the Bastrop County Emergency Management Coordinator. "The fire is so dynamic we really have no idea where it is."

'Lives at stake'

Perry said the wildfire burning in the central part of the state is "as mean looking" as he's ever seen.

NW Houston shopping center burns ...

KHOU:
HOUSTON—Several stores at a northwest Houston shopping center were damaged Thursday in an early morning fire, according to the Houston Fire Department.
Houston firefighters arrived to the shopping center on 43rd at Ella around 4:30 a.m. and found heavy smoke coming from several stores.
The quickly began to attack the fire, which seemed to have started at an H & R Block store.


A Baskin Robbins received fire damage, and several other stores, including a donut shop, GMC and a cleaners were affected by smoke.
All businesses were closed and no injuries were reported.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.