Injuries

Massachusetts photographers have unearthed the only known image of legendary brain-injury patient Phineas Gage, a daguerreotype showing the former railroad worker sitting in repose and holding the nearly 4-foot-long iron rod that pierced his brain without killing him.

Cpl. Anthony Alegre's unit knew the Humvees they drove through the streets of Ramadi, Iraq, were woefully under-armored. They stuffed sandbags in the doors, but when roadside bombs turned the sand into shrapnel, they began wedging pieces of metal and wood around their seats. No use. The car bomb that hit Alegre's patrol on May 29, 2004, killed three of his fellow Marines and left four pieces of metal in his brain. No one expected the 20-year-old infantryman to survive.

A train car loaded with lumber rolled from a side track onto a main line and hit a commuter train during rush hour, sending dozens of people to hospitals, authorities said. About 150 people were treated at the scene, and about 80 of those were sent on to hospitals, said Lt. John Hutchinson of the Canton Fire Department. None of the injuries was life-threatening, he said.

The unstoppable Angeles National Forest fire threatened 10,000 homes Saturday night as it more than tripled in size and chewed through a rapidly widening swath of the Crescenta Valley, where flames closed in on backyards and at least 1,000 homes were ordered evacuated. Sending an ominous plume of smoke above the Los Angeles Basin, the fire was fueled by unrelenting hot weather and dense brush that has not burned in 60 years. It took off Saturday afternoon in all directions, forcing residents out of homes from Big Tujunga Canyon to Pasadena, and reached toward Mt. Wilson.

The sick bay at the Metropolitan Opera is reaching a crescendo. A knee injury has forced top Wagnerian soprano Christine Brewer to withdraw from her performances as Bruennhilde in the Met's "Ring" cycle, the company said.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Less than two years ago, Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal were hoisting the NBA championship trophy and the Miami Heat was the toast of the town. That seems so long ago now. Despite a valiant effort from Wade on Tuesday night, the Shaq-less Heat trailed the worst team in the league by 19 points in the second half en route to their eighth consecutive loss, 101-91, to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Scott Anthony Gomez Jr. made his first break from the Pueblo County Jail two years ago. He pushed up a ceiling tile, hoisted himself into the ventilation system and climbed until he reached a roof. Then he shinnied down the wall on bedsheets fashioned into a rope. Caught two days later, he was back in his cell. The next time, Gomez again pried loose a ceiling tile and vanished into the guts of the building. But as he tried to rappel on bedsheets down the side of the 85-foot building, he fell.

John Daly, who had withdrawn from 11 PGA Tour events the last two years, made it an even dozen Saturday morning when he withdrew from the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. Daly told tour officials he had a rib injury. Through 54 holes, Daly was tied for 75th at four-under-par 212 after rounds of 71-70-71. Daly's couldn't make his 9:33 a.m. tee time in the celebrity field at the Classic Club, where he was to play in a group with actors Cheech Marin and Don Cheadle.

An LAPD officer was injured slightly by an underground explosion that sent two manhole covers into the air in downtown L.A. on Monday. The explosion, which was apparently triggered by a short-circuit in an electrical vault under the street, occurred just after 2 p.m. in Little Tokyo near a shopping center and two apartment complexes. Officer Craig Allen, 34, was responding to reports of smoke coming from a manhole cover near the intersection of 3rd and Alameda streets, authorities said.

Amerco's U-Haul International Inc. must pay $84 million to a man who was injured when the truck he rented ran over him, a Texas jury said Friday. The man, Talmadge Waldrip, 74, parked the truck on a "slight incline" and the parking brake failed, said his attorney, Ted Lyon. Waldrip said U-Haul failed to maintain the truck, causing the accident. "The truck's parking brake did not work at all," Lyon said. "He stepped out of the truck and it rolled right over him."