At Least 9 Dead and Others Missing After a Massive Fire Rips Through Buiding During Party in Oakland, CA

9 DEAD AS FIRE RIPS THRU PARTY IN OAKLAND, CA …

At least nine people died as a fire raged through a warehouse in Oakland, California’s Fruitvale neighborhood where a party was underway late Friday night. It is also being reported that there are another 25 people who are missing and unaccounted for. The fire started about 11:30 p.m. Friday at 1305 31st Ave. It tore through the building during an event featuring musician Golden Donna’s 100% Silk West Coast tour.

In what may be the deadliest structure fire in Oakland’s history, at least nine people died in a blaze that broke out late Friday at an electronic music party at a Fruitvale district live-work space, officials said.

The fire tore through the two-story building in the 1300 block of 31st Avenue at about 11:30 p.m. Friday during an event featuring musician Golden Donna’s 100% Silk West Coast tour.

Most of the nine dead were found on the second floor, and another 25 people are unaccounted for, Fire Chief Teresa Deloach-Reed said.

Firefighters said it appeared that no smoke detectors were activated during the fire and there was no sprinkler system in the  structure, the chief said.

“We still have to do a more thorough search of the building and we don’t know the potential number of other victims,” Deloach-Reed said. No firefighters were reported injured while battling the blaze.

The blaze is already being called one of the deadliest single-structure fires in Oakland’s history, if not the deadliest.

UPDATE I: Sheriff says officials prepared to deal with up to 40 deaths in Oakland, California nightclub fire.

2 Year Old Toddler Missing After Alligator Drags Boy Away into the Water at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa (Update: Toddler Lane Graves Body Recovered)

HORRIFYING …

A 2 year old boy is still missing after he was attacked and dragged into the water by an alligator at the Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa Tuesday night around 9:20 pm. According to accounts, the Nebraska family of five was relaxing on the shoreline when the alligator attacked the boy. The father entered the water and tried to pry the child from the gator, but was unsuccessful.  Orange County Sheriff’s deputies are using sonar to search the man-made lake, with help from a helicopter and 10-person dive team. The alligator was said to be between 4 and 7 feet long.  The search continues for the child in the Seven Seas Lagoon for hours in a search and recovery effort but had not found him.

Jeff Williamson with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office stated, “We just want to keep searching and searching and searching until we can’t search anymore.” According to the press conference this morning, officials are still treating this as a search and rescue. Sadly, this does not look good at all.

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A 2-year-old boy who was attacked and dragged into the water by an alligator on the shores of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa Tuesday night was still missing early Wednesday morning.

Jeff Williamson with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said the child had not been located. Deputies are in the water and air, calling it a search and rescue operation.

“Right now we’re going to bring in some fresh eyes and continue with the search,” Williamson said. “Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.”

UPDATE I: 4 Alligators Found in nearby waters overnight … none involved with attack on missing boy.

UPDATE II: The Body of 2 Year Old Lane Graves recovered by Divers.

Heart-breaking, simply unimaginably heart-breaking. The body of 2 year old Lane Graves was found by divers Wednesday about 6 feet beneath the water in the man made lagoon where the boy had been attacked by an alligator the night before.

The body of a 2-year-old boy snatched by an alligator at a Disney resort was found underwater, ending a desperate search that began as a rescue operation and eventually became a grim recovery effort, officials in Florida said.

Divers found the boy’s body “completely intact” Wednesday about six feet beneath the surface of the massive, man-made lagoon, not far from the area where he was attacked the previous night, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said Wednesday afternoon.

The sheriff identified the toddler as Lane Graves of Elkhorn, Neb. While a formal identification is pending, “there is no reason to believe that the body that was recovered is not that of Lane Graves,” Demings said.

EgyptAir Flight 804 Vanishes From Radar with 66 People Aboard … Terrorism or Mechanical Failure? (Update: Plane “Swerved and then Plunged”)

EgyptAir Flight 804 vanished from radar.

CNN is reporting that EgyptAir Flight 804 vanished from radar on its way from Paris to Cairo with 66 people aboard. There were 56 passengers, including one child two babies and 10 crew members. The plane disappeared from radar about 10 miles after entering Egyptian airspace. Search teams have been sent to last recorded location of the plane about 30-40 miles north of Egtpt’s coast. According to reports, weather conditions were clear and calm when the plane crossed over the Mediterranean Sea.

EgyptAir Flight 804 vanished from radar on its way from Paris to Cairo with 66 people aboard, the airline said Thursday.

The plane was flying at 37,000 feet when it lost contact overnight above the Mediterranean Sea, the airline tweeted. French President Francois Hollande said he had been told the flight crashed.

It’s too early in the investigation to say for sure what caused the disaster, and at this point experts say anything from mechanical failure to the terrorism is a possibility.

UPDATE I: Greece’s defense minister says, the plane “swerved and then plunged.”

A distress signal was detected in the general vicinity where the flight disappeared, said Capt. Ahmed Adel, a vice chairman at EgyptAir. The signal was detected at 4:26 a.m. — about 2 hours after the jet vanished, he said. Adel said the distress signal could have come from another vessel in the Mediterranean. But the Egyptian armed forces stressed that they had not received a distress call. There’s no confirmed information on the status of the missing plane, Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said.

The EgyptAir flight “swerved and then plunged” before its descent into the Mediterranean, the Greek Defense Minister said during a news conference.

“At 3:37am local time, immediately after the aircraft entered Cairo airspace at 37,000 feet, the aircraft swerved 90 degrees left and then 360 degrees to the right and descended from 37,000 feet to 15,000 feet and then 10,000 feet, when we lost the signal,” Panos Kammenos told reporters in Athens.

UPDATE II: French President Says, Egyptair Jet From Paris to Cairo Crashed.

French President Francois Hollande told a press conference that the plane had crashed, but said it was too soon to speculate as to the cause.

“No hypothesis can be ruled out,” he said.

Egyptian and Greek authorities are searching for the plane, which was flying at an altitude of nearly 37,000 feet when it disappeared from radar shortly before it was due to land.

Almost immediately after entering Egyptian airspace the plane swerved sharply and then lost altitude before it dropped off radar, Greece’s Defense Minister Panos Kammenos told a press conference.

When the plane vanished it was about 175 miles away from Egypt’s coast, according to officials. [...]

Airbus — the maker of the plane — said in a statement that it regretted to confirm that “an A320 operated by Egyptair was lost” over the Mediterranean Sea.

French and Egyptian officials stressed they were closely cooperating to determine what caused the crash. Radar showed no adverse weather in the area at the time of the jet’s disappearance.

Egyptian and Greek authorities were focusing search efforts in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Greek military confirmed that one of its frigates and two of its aircraft were assisting in the operation about 130 nautical miles south-southeast of the island of Karpathos.

Was Terrorism to blame?

UPDATE III: Egypt’s prime minister says he can’t “rule out” the possibility that a terrorism.

Egypt’s prime minister says he can’t “rule out” the possibility that a terrorist attack brought the plane down. He says there was no “distress call” but there was a “signal” from the plane.

A search was launched to find the downed aircraft, but an Israeli newspaper quoted witnesses as saying they saw a fireball in the sky around the time the plane disappeared.

The Greek Defense Minister said the flight abrupt turns, suddenly lost altitude and then vanished from radar.

UPDATE IV: Egyptian minister says plane crash search widens.

Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi said Egypt-Greek search for debris of crashed EgyptAir plane off Greek island of Karpathos is expanding.

Hours after the plane disappeared on Thursday, Fathi told reporters in Cairo that the diameter of the search area will widen, moving further south of the island.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s chief prosecutor Nabil Sadek says he has ordered an “urgent investigation” into crash of EgyptAir plane. Sadek instructed the National Security Prosecutor to open an “extensive investigation” in the incident.
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2:15 p.m.
Greece’s defense minister, Panos Kammenos, says Greece has a submarine on standby which is participating in a NATO exercise about 100 miles (160 kms) away from the presumed crash area, while F-16 fighter jets stationed on Crete could also be used if necessary. The country already has a navy frigate, two military transport planes and a radar plane participating in the search and rescue operation, while he said Egypt had sent a C-130 military transport plane and two F-16s.

France is providing Falcon navy support aircraft, he said, while Greece has contacted the US and Russia, and the American side has offered and Greece has accepted the help of a maritime support aircraft.

31 Year Old Nicole Mittendorff Missing Since 4/13/16 Update: Car Found in Shenandoah National Park Over the Weekend)

31 year old Nicole Mittendorff of Woodbridge, VA has been missing since Wednesday, April 13, 2016, however, she was reported missing Friday, when she failed to show up for her scheduled shift as a Fairfax County Fire and Rescue. Her last known contact with friends and family was Wednesday, April 13, when she sent a text message at about 10:50 a.m., according to the Facebook page, Find Nicole. Mittendorff has blonde hair, green eyes, is 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighs about 125 pounds.

Authorities in Virginia are searching for a missing woman whose abandoned car was found in Shenandoah National Park over the weekend.

Nicole Mittendorff, 31, of Woodbridge, Va., was reported missing on Friday, two days after her last contact with her family. Her 2009 Mini Cooper was found Saturday evening in a parking lot located in a remote area of the park.

Virginia State Police and U.S. Park Police suspended the ground and air search for Mittendorff Sunday evening after a second day without success. Operations will resume Monday morning.

Police say Mittendorff’s disappearance is not considered suspicious at this time.

Family members told The Washington Post that they reported Mittendorff missing after she failed to show up for her scheduled shift as a Fairfax County Fire and Rescue first responder, an action they described as highly unusual.

UPDATE I: Mittendorff’s Mini Cooper was found abandoned just before 8 p.m. Saturday in a parking lot in Shenandoah National Park, in MadisonCounty.

VSP SEARCHING FOR MISSING WOODBRIDGE, VA WOMAN

VSP is searching for a missing Woodbridge, Va., woman whose vehicle was discovered Saturday (April 16, 2016) evening in Madison County. Nicole K. Mittendorff, 31, was reported missing to the Virginia State Police April 15, 2016. Her 2009 Mini Cooper was found abandoned shortly before 8 p.m. Saturday in in the Shenandoah National Park.

State police and U.S. Park Police spent the night searching by ground and air for Mittendorff. Search efforts are still underway Sunday (April 17, 2016)

UPDATE II: Search resumes in Shenandoah National Park for missing Woodbridge woman.

Anyone with information about Mittendorff is asked to call the Virginia State Police at 703-803-0026, dial #77 on a cell phone, call 911 or email questions@vsp.virginia.gov.

36 Year Old Jeremy Cross Missing on Percy Priest Lake While Boating With His Son & Family Friend at Anderson Road Campground & Recreation Area on 4/2/16 in Nashville, TN

36 year old Jeremy Cross has gone missing Saturday, April 2, 2016 while boating with his 10 year old son and a family friend in Nashville, Tennessee. Firefighters were called to Percy Priest Lake just before 7 p.m. Saturday to the Anderson Road Campground & Recreation Area. According to  Tennessee Wildlife officer Kaleb Stratton, the 10-year-old boy and the family friend were able to get away from the boat. They last saw the boy’s father clinging to the upturned canoe and trying to put on a life vest. The three extremely high winds and waves near Hole in the Wall island.

Search efforts continued Sunday for a 36-year-old man who went missing on Percy Priest Lake while boating with his son and a family friend, according to the Nashville Fire Department.

Firefighters were called to the lake just before 7 p.m. Saturday, but as of 3:30 p.m. Sunday, the man remained missing, spokesman Brian Haas said.

The three had been out on the lake most of the day when they encountered extremely high winds and waves on the lake near Hole in the Wall island, Haas said.  The group, who had been out in a canoe and a kayak, tied the kayak to the canoe and tried to get to land, but high waves capsized the canoe.

The 10-year-old boy and the family friend were able to get away from the boat, Haas said. They last saw the boy’s father clinging to the upturned canoe and trying to put on a life vest. Tennessee Wildlife officer Kaleb Stratton identified the man as Jeremy Cross.

UPDATE I: Father missing after canoe capsizes on Percy Priest Lake.

The rescue effort began around 7 p.m. Saturday night. Two boats from the Office of Emergency Management, one boat from the Nashville Fire Department, one boat from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Metro Police’s Air 1 helicopter all assisted in the search.

Thermal imaging, sonar and search and rescue dogs were utilized in the search.

Due to increasing winds and dangerous conditions on the water, the search was called off around Midnight before Cross could be found.

The search continued at the Anderson Road recreation area beginning at 9 a.m.