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‘It was everything we worked for, and now it’s gone’: Family heartbroken after fire destroys home, kills 3 dogs 

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‘It was everything we worked for, and now it’s gone’: Family heartbroken after fire destroys home, kills 3 dogs 

A vegetation fire in San Bernardino burned multiple hillside homes to the ground on Monday, devastating multiple families including one who lost their three beloved dogs. 

The fast-moving blaze, dubbed the Edgehill Fire, broke out at 2:40 p.m. near the 3000 block of Beverly Drive and forced evacuations for all residents living on the south side of Ridge Line Drive, San Bernardino County Fire Department spokesperson Eric Sherwin said Monday. 

Residents living on the north side of Edgehill Road west to Beverly Drive and east to Circle Road were also ordered to evacuate, according to Cal Fire. 

  • Edgehill Fire
  • Edgehill Fire
  • Edgehill Fire
  • Edgehill Fire
  • Edge Hill Fire

The community most affected by the blaze, Little Mountain, is “not unaccustomed” to fire, Sherwin said, adding that by the time fire crews arrived on scene, many people were already evacuating. 

Sky5 video showed several homes burned down to their foundations, including the residence of the Hernandez family, whose three dogs – Arnie, Vinnie and Mookie – were home alone when the blaze broke out. 

“My husband and I bought this house almost three-and-a-half years ago,” Erika Hernandez said.  “We were first-time homebuyers, and we were so happy about this house.” 

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“It was everything we worked for, and now it’s gone,” she added. 

The Hernandez family’s three dogs that perished when a wildfire tore through their San Bernardino home on Aug. 5, 2024.

As of early Tuesday morning, the 100-acre fire was 75% contained, fire officials said. More than 200 firefighters were assigned to the blaze on Monday afternoon, and crews remained in the area overnight to extinguish the flames. 

KTLA 5’s Carlos Herrera spoke with Sherwin on Tuesday morning, who emphasized the importance of the overnight firefight.

“That was our goal last night knowing that we were going to have some recovery in the overnight hours with lower temperatures,” Sherwin said. “And the fact that we got our containment from 25 up to 75% speaks not only to the work of the firefighters but taking advantage of those low temperatures.”

Evacuation orders remained in effect for all residents Tuesday except those living on Ridge Line Drive, but in an update issued shortly before 9 p.m. Monday, the San Bernardino Police Department said that the fire was “very much under control.” 

An evacuation center for impacted residents was set up at Cajon High School. A person was detained and then released in connection to the fire, police added. 

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The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

The interview with San Bernardino County Fire Department spokesperson Eric Sherwin can be viewed below.

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Los Angeles, Ca

Car flies off 5 Freeway in Castaic, killing 3 occupants

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Car flies off 5 Freeway in Castaic, killing 3 occupants

A car flew off of I-5 on Monday afternoon, leaving three of the four occupants dead in the collision.

According to stringer service RMG News, what appeared to be a white sedan drove off of the 5 Freeway about 2 miles south of Templin Highway in Castaic at about 4:30 p.m.. It then crashed into a tree on the side of the road.

Three of the four occupants killed. Their identities were not yet released as of Monday night.

The surviving occupant was extricated from the vehicle and was transported to a local hospital. They were in critical condition as of Monday night.

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No cause of the crash has been revealed. It’s unknown if drugs or alcohol were a factor.

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Los Angeles, Ca

Southern California skydiver killed in weather-related mishap

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Southern California skydiver killed in weather-related mishap

A professional skydiving instructor died, and her student was seriously injured in a tandem skydiving accident in Southern California’s Inland Empire.

Devrey LaRiccia Chase, 28, and her student were descending toward the ground during a routine jump in Perris last Tuesday when they ran into a pair of “dust devils,” Devrey’s husband, Freddy Chase, told KTLA 5 News.

“She missed the first one, and when she maneuvered around it, she hit the second one,” said Chase, who is also a skydiver and has hundreds of thousands of social media followers. At that point, she was about 25 to 30 feet in the air… It sent her canopy in a downward spiral.”

Devrey LaRiccia Chase (Marcie LaRiccia)

With no time to react, Devrey and her student slammed into the ground. Both were rushed to a local hospital, where Devrey succumbed to her injuries.

Dust devils are small, rotating columns of air that pick up dust and debris from the ground on hot days. They resemble tornadoes but are generally harmless.

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Freddy Chase says his wife was not only a passionate skydiver but also the main videographer for his social media videos, some of which have racked up more than a million views.

“She was beautiful in the sport and in her passion for skydiving,” Freddy recalled. “It was what she talked about every day. She loved doing what she did.”

Chase says Devrey moved to California from Maine roughly eight years ago, and now her family is raising money to bring her home. Tap here to donate.

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Dow drops 864 points, and Japanese stocks suffer worst crash since 1987 amid U.S. economy worries

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Dow drops 864 points, and Japanese stocks suffer worst crash since 1987 amid U.S. economy worries

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly everything on Wall Street is tumbling Monday as fear about a slowing U.S. economy worsens and sets off another sell-off for financial markets around the world.

The S&P 500 was down by 2.4% in afternoon trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was reeling by 864 points, or 2.2%, as of 1:25 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite slid 2.8%.

The drops were just the latest in a global sell-off that began last week. Japan’s Nikkei 225 helped start Monday by plunging 12.4% for its worst day since the Black Monday crash of 1987.

It was the first chance for traders in Tokyo to react to Friday’s report showing U.S. employers slowed their hiring last month by much more than economists expected. That was the latest piece of data on the U.S. economy to come in weaker than expected, and it’s all raised fear the Federal Reserve has pressed the brakes on the U.S. economy by too much for too long through high interest rates in hopes of stifling inflation.

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Professional investors cautioned that some technical factors could be amplifying the action in markets, but the losses were still neck-snapping. South Korea’s Kospi index careened 8.8% lower, stock markets across Europe sank more than 1% and bitcoin dropped below $55,000 from more than $61,000 on Friday.

Even gold, which has a reputation for offering safety during tumultuous times, slipped 1%.

That’s in part because traders began wondering if the damage has been so severe that the Federal Reserve will have to cut interest rates in an emergency meeting, before its next scheduled decision on Sept. 18. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which closely tracks expectations for the Fed, briefly sank below 3.70% during the morning from 3.88% late Friday and from 5% in April. It later recovered and pulled back to 3.93%.

“The Fed could ride in on a white horse to save the day with a big rate cut, but the case for an inter-meeting cut seems flimsy,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “Those are usually reserved for emergencies, like COVID, and an unemployment rate of 4.3% doesn’t really seem like an emergency.”

The U.S. economy is still growing, and a recession is far from a certainty. The Fed has been clear about the tightrope it began walking when it started hiking rates sharply in March 2022: Being too aggressive would choke the economy, but going too soft would give inflation more oxygen and hurt everyone.

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Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle sees a higher chance of a recession within the next 12 months following Friday’s jobs report. But he still sees only a 25% probability of that, up from 15%, in part “because the data look fine overall” and he does not “see major financial imbalances.”

Some of Wall Street’s recent declines may also simply be air coming out of a stock market that romped to dozens of all-time highs this year, in part on a frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology and hopes for coming cuts to interest rates. Critics have been saying for a while that the stock market looked expensive after prices rose faster than corporate profits.

“Markets tend to move higher like they’re climbing stairs, and they go down like they’re falling out a window,” according to JJ Kinahan, CEO of IG North America. He chalks much of the recent worries to euphoria around AI subsiding and “a market that was ahead of itself.”

Professional investors also pointed to the Bank of Japan’s move last week to raise its main interest rate from nearly zero. Such a move helps boost the value of the Japanese yen, but it could also force traders to scramble out of deals where they borrowed money for virtually no cost in Japan and invested it elsewhere around the world.

U.S. stocks pared their losses Monday after a report said growth for U.S. services businesses was a touch stronger than expected. Growth was led by businesses in the arts, entertainment and recreation businesses, along with accommodations and food services, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Treasury yields also pared their drops following the better-than-expected data.

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Still, stocks of companies whose profits are most closely tied to the economy’s strength took sharp losses on the fears about a slowdown. The small companies in the Russell 2000 index dropped 2.8%, further dousing what had been a revival for it and other beaten-down areas of the market.

Making things worse for Wall Street, Big Tech stocks also tumbled as the market’s most popular trade for much of this year continued to unravel. Apple, Nvidia and a handful of other Big Tech stocks known as the “ Magnificent Seven ” had propelled the S&P 500 to records this year, even as high interest rates weighed down much of the rest of the stock market.

But Big Tech’s momentum turned last month on worries investors had taken their prices too high and expectations for future growth are becoming too difficult to meet. A set of underwhelming profit reports that began with updates from Tesla and Alphabet added to the pessimism and accelerated the declines.

Apple fell 3.9% Monday after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it had slashed its ownership stake in the iPhone maker.

Nvidia, the chip company that’s become the poster child of Wall Street’s AI bonanza, fell even more, 5.5%. Analysts cut their profit forecasts over the weekend for the company after a report from The Information said Nvidia’s new AI chip is delayed. The recent selling has trimmed Nvidia’s gain for the year to 104% from 170% in the middle of June.

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Because the Magnificent Seven companies are the market’s biggest by market value, the movements for their stocks carry much more weight on the S&P 500 and other indexes.

Worries outside corporate profits, interest rates and the economy are also weighing on the market. The Israel-Hamas war may be worsening, which beyond its human toll could also cause sharp swings for the price of oil. That’s adding to broader worries about potential hotspots around the world, while upcoming U.S. elections could further scramble things.

Wall Street has been concerned about how policies coming out of November could impact markets, but the sharp swings for stock prices could affect the election itself.

The threat of a recession is likely to put Vice President Kamala Harris on the defensive. But slower growth could also further reduce inflation and force former President Donald Trump to pivot from his current focus on higher prices to outlining ways to revive the economy.

A strong jobs market supports consumer spending, which drives economic growth. The link between employment and spending will remain a key focus heading into the U.S. presidential election, said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist for LPL Financial.

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“It comes down to jobs,” she said. “When we get to election day, the unemployment rate is going to be extremely important.”

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AP Business Writers Elaine Kurtenbach, Matt Ott, Christopher Rugaber and Damian J. Troise contributed.

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