Fires Florida

More than 2,500 passengers who boarded Carnival Cruise Lines' luxury ship Ecstasy for a four-day "Fun Ship" vacation quickly found themselves strapped into life jackets, huddled on the top deck and having no fun at all Monday after a shipboard fire stopped the vessel dead in the water just 1 1/2 miles off shore.

Rapper Rick Ross has noted in lyrics that he's often " Talkin' to the Holy Ghost in my Bugatti ," but early this morning, he was more likely praying inside his Rolls-Royce. Ross, a.k.a. William Leonard Roberts, was at the center of a shooting and crash  this morning  after celebrating his 37th birthday at the Miami nightclub LIV.  Unknown assailants fired "dozens" of rounds at a Rolls-Royce he was driving just outside the city, Fort Lauderdale police said. In attempting to get away,  Ross crashed into an apartment building, police said, adding that neither Ross nor his passenger, Shateria L. Moragne-el, was injured.

Church congregations in Florida are going against the advice of police and breaking out sleeping bags for guard duty after a rash of fires. Churches in Gainesville and Ocala are letting parishioners sleep in sanctuaries following five church fires in four days. "That should be a job for trained security personnel or law enforcement," said Lynn Cyprian, a spokeswoman for the Ocala Police Department. "It could be very dangerous.

In tight financial times, many cities save money by outsourcing municipal services such as clerical work to private companies. But there is no service more central to government and the people it serves than public safety, which should remain the responsibility of public agencies. The case of a fired lifeguard in Florida shows why. Beachgoers brought lifeguard Tomas Lopez's attention to a man floundering in shallow water. He raced to the scene; by then, the man had been pulled to the beach but had water in his lungs.

The flames that have roared through the Everglades, cutting off the region's main east-west highway and casting smoke over Miami, are part of a natural cycle that forestry officials say will actually help renourish the ecosystem. "This is actually like a rebirth process," said John Fish, a spokesman for the state Division of Forestry. "Three months from now you probably won't even be able to tell this burned."

Crews worked to assemble a pipeline to carry a constant stream of water to a pair of swamp wildfires in central Florida that have closed a major highway and interrupted major league baseball spring training. The two blazes had charred about 10,500 acres. Neither fire had gained ground since Thursday, and the larger one, a 10,000-acre blaze, was 85% contained. Authorities believe that fire was started by a resident illegally burning trash.

Wildfires forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people Wednesday as blazes burned several houses and closed 125 miles of Interstate 95, the major north-south highway along the East Coast. A fire west of Ormond Beach in Volusia County continued to grow throughout the day until authorities announced a mandatory evacuation for about 10,000 of the city's 35,000 residents. Ormond Beach is north of Daytona Beach.

A parade in downtown Miami honoring the Miami Hurricanes' fourth national championship was disrupted when four vehicles sparked a fire of some of the 15,000 pounds of confetti on the streets. The flames were extinguished within 10 minutes, and no injuries were reported among the players or approximately 50,000 spectators.

The largest blaze in South Florida in three years has burned more than 8,500 acres and threatened to cut off the main road to the Florida Keys. Eight state crews used bulldozers and all-terrain vehicles to make firebreaks while a helicopter and an air tanker dropped water. In some places, flames shot 50 to 100 feet in the air.

Searchers using dogs and heavy equipment found two more bodies and looked for others in the charred hulk of the Fontana Hotel in Miami Beach. The death toll from the fast-moving fire that swept through the 39-year-old, 102-room hotel Friday rose to six with the two discoveries, which officials said apparently lowered to eight the number of tenants unaccounted for. Miami Beach Police Detective Jim Hyde said it may be three or four weeks before the cause of the fire is known.

Forget Miami. The Lakers might be starting a rivalry with Orlando too. Sure, the teams played in the 2009 NBA Finals, but there hasn't been much fervor between them since then?until Wednesday, when Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy said he didn't like Phil Jackson's comments on the Miami Heat coaching situation. Jackson on Tuesday said he could eventually see Pat Riley coming down from the front office to coach the Heat if Erik Spoelstra can't reverse Miami's surprisingly poor start with LeBron James.

After months of criticizing Mayor James K. Hahn for accepting questionable political donations, mayoral challenger Antonio Villaraigosa found himself answering questions Wednesday about $31,000 in donations to his campaign from workers at two affiliated Florida-based companies. Although some employees said they supported Villaraigosa, others struggled to explain the donations, sounded confused when told of their donations or declined to answer questions.

A 17-year-old German shepherd that saved his owner and three other people from a trailer fire is scheduled to be euthanized in Florida along with his 17-year-old brother within days. In June, Boomer was credited with barking and nipping his owner, Tascha Haskell, her mother and others while they slept as the fire burned. But the fire forced Haskell to place Boomer and his brother, Precious, at the Fort Pierce, Fla., Humane Society shelter.

An 800-acre fire in central Florida closed five major Orlando-area highways and contributed to a nine-car pileup on the Florida Turnpike. No serious injuries were reported. Meanwhile, more than 200 firefighters were trying to contain a swamp fire in northern Florida that has burned nearly 61,000 acres. A fire that began Saturday near Orlando covered the area in smoke and combined with fog to close highways in Orange and Osceola counties for several hours Sunday morning.

At least nine large fires burned across drought-stricken Florida on Saturday, sending smoke over Disney World, and there was still no soaking rain in the forecast. The fires burning Saturday included one in central Florida that has sent smoke drifting across Walt Disney World Resort at Orlando since Thursday. The 450-acre blaze, two miles from Disney, was 35% contained Saturday. Disney officials said all theme parks would remain open.

An arsonist set a dozen fires that threatened homes on Florida's parched Gulf Coast on Thursday, further taxing firefighters who are trying to tame a 6,000-acre wildfire. One home was destroyed and dozens of homes and vehicles were damaged by arson fires that burned 500 acres south of Tampa. Scores of residents were evacuated. "It started shortly after noon and it is of suspicious origin," said North Port Fire Capt. Ellen Kehoe.

A fire that authorities believe was deliberately set swept through a townhouse before dawn Wednesday, killing two teen-age girls and their younger brother and critically injuring their mother. A man believed to be the children's father or grandfather and suspected of setting the blaze also was severely burned, police and fire officials said.

Crews worked to assemble a pipeline to carry a constant stream of water to a pair of swamp wildfires in central Florida that have closed a major highway and interrupted major league baseball spring training. The two blazes had charred about 10,500 acres. Neither fire had gained ground since Thursday, and the larger one, a 10,000-acre blaze, was 85% contained. Authorities believe that fire was started by a resident illegally burning trash.

The flames that have roared through the Everglades, cutting off the region's main east-west highway and casting smoke over Miami, are part of a natural cycle that forestry officials say will actually help renourish the ecosystem. "This is actually like a rebirth process," said John Fish, a spokesman for the state Division of Forestry. "Three months from now you probably won't even be able to tell this burned."