An electric school bus caught fire in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood. Fortunately, all five children aboard, along with the driver, were unharmed, reported CBC News.

The incident reportedly occurred Sept. 9 near, sparking concern among parents and local authorities.

The Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM) stated via the article that the children were being transported to one of the city’s schools when the driver noticed an unusual odor coming from the bus. Realizing something was wrong, the driver quickly parked the vehicle, evacuated the children, and called for help. A separate bus arrived shortly afterward to pick up the students.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, with no official conclusions drawn yet. However, a Montreal Fire Department spokesperson confirmed via the news report that the fire began after the driver turned off the bus’ heating system and noticed smoke rising from the vents. The fire spread rapidly but did not damage the vehicle’s battery system. Firefighters were able to put out the flames with four crew members on the scene.

According to the news report, a statement from CSSDM assured parents that the transportation company’s vehicles undergo rigorous mechanical checks, which had recently been completed.

“As per our contracts, the transportation company’s vehicles are subject to strict mechanical verification requirements, and those verifications are recent,” the statement said via the article. The school service center has been in close contact with the company to determine the cause of the fire.

The bus was reportedly manufactured by Lion Electric, now known as LION Bus after being acquired out of bankruptcy earlier this year. In a statement via the article, LION confirmed it is conducting an internal analysis to better understand the circumstances surrounding the fire. However, as STN has reported, LION has ceased all operations in the U.S. after being purchased by a private company in Canada. The bus involved in the fire was owned by First Studen. In a statement, First Student commended the school bus driver for acting swiftly and praised the local fire department for their prompt response.

“The bus driver responded swiftly and appropriately, ensuring the safety of everyone on board. We also want to thank the local fire department for their prompt and professional response,” the company said via the article.

According to the news report, this incident is similar to one occurring last November, when another electric school bus caught fire in Ascot Corner, Quebec. In that case, the fire also started in the vehicle’s heating system but, like Tuesday’s incident, did not affect the battery. The driver in that case was the only one on board and escaped unharmed.

Parents of students on board the bus were informed of the incident, and while there was some delay in getting the children home, the quick response from the driver and emergency services ensured the situation was handled without injury.

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A firefighter moves hazard fuel while working on the Bear Gulch fire this summer. Many in the wildland fire community believe the leadership team managing the fire sent crews into an ambush by federal immigration agents. (Facebook/Bear Gulch Fire 2025)

Wildland firefighters were stunned when federal immigration authorities last week raided an active wildfire response in Washington state, arresting two firefighters and sidelining crews for hours.

Wildfire veterans say the operation was nearly unprecedented, a breach in longstanding protocol that federal agents don’t disrupt emergency responders to check immigration status.

Worse, many wildfire veterans believe the management team overseeing the fire crews played a key role in handing over the firefighters to immigration authorities.

Stateline spoke to nearly a dozen firefighters, agency staffers and contractors familiar with the incident, who shared their belief that the top officials assigned to the fire deployed the crews to a remote location under false pretenses so federal agents could check their immigration status. Most of them spoke privately for fear of retaliation.

The raid has reverberated among fire crews, agency leaders and contractors. Wildfire veterans say the arrests have stoked fear and distrust among firefighters on the ground. They worry that crews may be scared to deploy if they may become a target for immigration raids.

“There’s really no way [the wildfire management team] could not have been involved,” said Riva Duncan, a former wildland fire chief who served more than 30 years with the U.S. Forest Service. “We’re all talking about it. People are wondering if they go on a fire with this team, if that could happen to them.”

Since the incident became public, the wildfire world has been abuzz with anger at that team — California Interagency Incident Management Team 7. Made up of federal, state and local fire professionals, the team was assigned to oversee the response to the Bear Gulch fire, which has burned 9,000 acres in and around Olympic National Park in Washington state.

One firefighter who was present at the raid said he is convinced that Team 7 leaders sent their crews into a trap.

“I felt beyond betrayed,” said the firefighter, who requested anonymity to protect his career. “What they did was messed up. They’d been talking in their briefings about building relationships and trust. For them to say that and then go do this is mind-boggling. It boiled my blood.”

Team 7 Incident Commander Tom Clemo, in an email, declined to comment, citing an active investigation. Tom Stokesberry, the team’s public information officer, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to daily Incident Action Plans filed by Team 7 and posted online, the crews had previously been digging holding lines, working to protect structures and conducting mop-up work. The two crews targeted by federal agents had not been assigned to work together in the days leading up to the raid.

Then, on Aug. 27, both crews — workers from private companies contracted to help fight the fire — were told to deploy to a staging area where they would cut firewood for the local community. The firefighter who was present at the raid told Stateline that a division supervisor told the crews he would meet them at the site, but never showed up.

After arriving at the site, the firefighter said, the crews found piles of logs, seemingly from a timber operation. Not wanting to damage a logging company’s property, they waited for a management team leader to show up with further instructions.

After an hour, unmarked law enforcement vehicles pulled up to the site and federal officials began questioning the firefighters. Duncan, the former Forest Service firefighter, said immigration agents would not have been able to access the site without help from Team 7 leaders.

“Fire areas are officially closed, very secure and there are roadblocks,” she said. “Somebody would have had to tell these agents how to get there.”

In a news release, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said its agents assisted with an investigation led by the federal Bureau of Land Management. While the agency’s release did not mention the nature of the investigation, multiple wildfire sources said the feds claimed they had uncovered fraud on time cards submitted by the crews.

Table Rock Forestry Inc., an Oregon-based company whose crew was one of the two at the scene, was allegedly subjected to the raid due to a half-hour discrepancy on a time sheet, said Scott Polhamus, secretary of the Organization of Fire Contractors and Affiliates. Table Rock Forestry is a member of the fire contractors’ group.

Multiple wildfire veterans said that time card discrepancies are not uncommon at wildfires, where crews work long days and it’s not always clear if lunch breaks or errands in town count toward working hours. Such mix-ups are typically sorted out between organizational leaders. Calling law enforcement in such a scenario is almost unheard of.

“This is not the first time a crew has been called on the carpet for maybe padding their time a bit,” Duncan said. “You deal directly with the company. It’s just absolutely mind-boggling to treat it as a criminal issue.”

After about five minutes discussing the time card issue, according to the firefighter who was present at the raid, federal agents spent the next three hours checking each firefighter’s immigration status.

The Customs and Border Protection news release announcing the immigration arrests made no mention of time sheets or any evidence that the investigation had turned up fraud. It did state that the two companies whose crews were raided had their contracts terminated by the government.

Polhamus, with the fire contractors’ group, said that claim is false. While the crews were demobilized and sent home, the feds have not actually ended the companies’ contracts or ability to accept future deployments.

A Customs and Border Protection public affairs specialist did not immediately respond to questions about the investigation, the alleged fraud or federal agents’ coordination with Team 7.

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources, the state’s lead wildfire response agency, said federal officials did not notify their state counterparts about the investigation.

“DNR was not informed of the incident until well after the fact,” said Ryan Rodruck, wildfire on-call public information officer with the agency.

Rodruck noted that the fire response was under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service. Press officers with the Forest Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Multiple wildfire sources said the crews would not have been sent to the staging area where they were ambushed without the knowledge of top leaders on the fire’s management team.

The two crews that were raided have a diverse mix of firefighters, many of them Hispanic. One of the crews has many foreign workers who are legally in the country on H-2B visas. Duncan, the former Forest Service firefighter, said it was likely not a coincidence that two crews with many brown-skinned members were targeted in the raid.

Two of the firefighters were arrested, federal officials said, for being in the country illegally.

One of the firefighters who was arrested is represented by Innovation Law Lab, an Oregon-based legal group that defends refugees and immigrants. Isa Peña, the group’s director of strategy, said the Department of Homeland Security has not revealed the whereabouts of their client.

The firefighter, who Peña declined to name, has been in the U.S. since he was four years old and served as a firefighter for the past three years. Immigration advocates are alarmed that the raid was potentially arranged by California Interagency Incident Management Team 7, the leaders charged with overseeing the wildfire response.

“There certainly is concern if that is the case that individuals are being handed over to immigration as they’re trying to keep our communities safe,” Peña said. “Conducting immigration enforcement while brave members of our community are risking their lives to protect us is really disgusting.”

Several wildland fire veterans also noted that the raid took place on Team 7’s final day in charge of the fire response, hours before a Washington team rotated in to take command. The California team headed home and left the new team to face the media scrutiny and angry firefighters in camp.

“If you’ve got ICE teams pulling your contractors out, you’d want to cut and run as soon as you can,” Polhamus said.

On a forum for wildland fire professionals on the social media platform Reddit, many expressed anger at Team 7. Firefighters also took issue with the assertion, shared by federal immigration officials, that the raid did not disrupt firefighting operations.

“It’s total bulls***,” said Duncan, the former Forest Service firefighter. “Whoever made that statement doesn’t understand the work. To take two crews off of a fire that’s only 13% contained, that seems ridiculous at that point in a fire. That does seem very unusual.”

Many wildfire veterans said that conducting a raid at the site of an active wildfire was reckless and irresponsible.

“Having people on the line that you don’t expect to be there is an issue,” said Polhamus, with the fire contractors’ group. “When you need crews and you are taking resources to check them for immigration status, we can all think of better ways to address that.”

Duncan said she’s spoken with firefighters still assigned to the Bear Gulch fire who are disgusted with the situation and want to leave.

“The three principal wildland fire values are duty, respect, integrity,” she said. “Utmost in that is taking care of your people. If you can’t trust the people you’re working with when things get hairy, that’s a concern.”

In Washington and Oregon, elected leaders have decried the raids and are pushing for more information on the status of the firefighters who were arrested. Federal immigration officials have said little since the news release announcing the arrests.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.

For Koele, the work is not only about science and safety but also about community.

The post Wisconsin wildfire prevention efforts adapt as risks evolve appeared first on WPR.

Experts say that more severe wildfire seasons — and the smoke that comes with them — are a product of climate change. That means there will likely be more summers like this one on the horizon.

The post Is air pollution from wildfire smoke the new normal for Wisconsin? appeared first on WPR.

As the air quality reached unhealthy levels in Wisconsin recently, some summer camp leaders opted to move children inside. 

The post Days of wildfire smoke forced Wisconsin summer camps to pivot appeared first on WPR.

STN EXPO hosted a visceral experience to train student transporters in emergency school bus evacuations. A bus loaned by Washoe County Schools was set up in the parking lot of the Peppermill Hotel Resort and filled with fog machines for attendees to traverse as they attempted to “rescue” a predetermined number of dolls standing in for students.

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Images by Nashawn Craig / 0312 Photography.

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Homer Blow, a well-known radio personality and producer in Milwaukee, saw more than fireworks shoot off outside his North Side home on the Fourth of July. 

He witnessed flames from a fire that damaged homes, destroyed at least one garage and engulfed two vehicles – the result of illegal fireworks. 

“There were multiple people on multiple blocks setting off those really big fireworks,” Blow said. 

Blow filmed firefighters working to put out flames just four houses down from his home on the 2900 block of North 53rd Street near Sherman Park.  

Growing problem in Milwaukee

The incident is part of a growing trend in Milwaukee: fires caused by illegal fireworks on the Fourth of July. This year, there were seven fireworks-related fires on July 4, according to data provided by Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski.  

In 2020, there was one. Five of the seven fires this year – including the fire on North 53rd Street – occurred on the north or northwest sides of the city, according to fire department reports.  

Since 2020, there have been 17 fires on the Fourth of July linked to fireworks. That total could be higher because determining the precise cause of a fire is difficult, Lipski said. 

“We do not always either know or have available to us the exact cause just based upon the realities of fire damaging/destroying evidence for all of these fires,” Lipski wrote in an email to NNS. 

‘I just needed to make sure my family was safe’

Shanise Sanders knows all too well the damage fireworks can cause. Her Northwest Side home erupted in flames last year on the Fourth of July. 

Sanders said she and four family members were in their apartment at 6279 N. 84^th St.  when it caught fire. 

“At the time, I had no fear – I just needed to make sure my family was safe,” Sanders said. “But it was definitely scary.”

Everyone made it out safely, Sanders said, but she and her family lost their home and all their possessions.

Illegal fireworks were used near the rear of the building, one of which reportedly lodged behind the electrical meter and exploded, according to information from the fire department. 

Two years before Sanders’ fire, Christina Blake said her North Side home burned down on July 4 – with her daughter and grandchildren inside. 

“They called me and said they see smoke coming from the wall,” Blake said. 

According to Blake, a firework went between the sun porch and the house, where a socket was on the other side of the wall, resulting in an electrical fire. 

“I wish people could know firsthand the damage it causes,” Blake said. “There should be more consequences.” 

Fireworks banned in the city

The sale, possession and use of fireworks is illegal in the city without a permit approved by the fire chief, according to a city ordinance. Violators can face fines ranging from $500 to $1,000, and those who fail to pay may be jailed for up to 40 days.

The ban on fireworks came after the Milwaukee Common Council created a fireworks task force in 2006 to examine the impact of fireworks on public safety after a Milwaukee home was destroyed. 

Ald. Mark Chambers Jr., who represents the district Sanders lived in, said in a statement that the fire that destroyed her home was entirely preventable, suggesting the Legislature revisit regulations surrounding these “commercial, high-grade explosives.” 

Undeterred by the fire on July 4, people on North 53rd Street were setting off fireworks the next day, Blow said.

“I understand people want to light fireworks, but, I mean, you have to understand fire safety,” Blow said. “My whole thing is – what goes up must come down,” he said. “When those fireworks come down, they’re going to be hot.”

Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

‘What goes up must come down’: Illegal fireworks linked to rising number of Milwaukee fires is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Pelican River area in Wisconsin (Jay Brittain | Courtesy of the photographer)

When Gov. Tony Evers made his 2025-27 budget proposal in February, it included an annual $100 million appropriation to fund the broadly popular Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Grant program for another 10 years. The budget he signed after 1 a.m. Thursday included zero money for the program, which is set to lapse next summer. 

While a separate piece of legislation to re-authorize the program has been introduced by Rep. Tony Kurtz (R-Wonewoc) and Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point), the failure to provide added money in the budget has raised concerns that the program — which allows the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to provide grant funding to acquire, conserve and maintain public lands — could fail to survive the political tumult of divided government and die. 

Even though the conservation of public lands is widely popular among both Democratic and Republican voters in the state, a handful of Republican legislators have grown increasingly hostile to the program, particularly since the state Supreme Court ruled last year that the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance doesn’t have the authority to hold up grants issued by the DNR through the program. Republicans complain that the acquisition of public land takes parcels off the property tax roles and prevents development projects. 

The Kurtz and Testin proposal aims to reach a compromise by re-authorizing the program while adding more legislative oversight by requiring that any land purchases over $1 million be approved through legislation. 

“While I recognize all that has gone into reaching this compromise budget, I must share that I am deeply disappointed that Republican leaders would not agree to reauthorize the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program — even for just one more year through 2027,” Sen. Jodi Habush Sinykin (D-Whitefish Bay) said in a statement. “Here’s the situation now: Knowles-Nelson reauthorization expires on June 20, 2026, giving the Legislature one year to take action before the deadline, and Republicans have indicated they will bring this back to the agenda this fall. Trust that I will keep up the pressure on Republicans and hold them to their word. I will continue to be a strong advocate for this long-standing bipartisan promise.” 

The lack of stewardship program funds in the final state budget led Evers to use his partial veto authority to prevent spending money on five individual public lands projects that legislators had earmarked in the bill. 

“I object to providing an earmark for a natural resources project when the Legislature has abandoned its responsibility to reauthorize and ensure the continuation of the immensely popular Warren Knowles-Gaylord Nelson Stewardship program,” Evers stated in his veto message.  “Instead of renewing the program and helping the many, the Legislature has opted to benefit the politically connected few. The Legislature must do its job and renew the Warren Knowles-Gaylord Nelson Stewardship program.”

Timber strategic plan 

The DNR budget also includes funds for a $1 million grant to the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association (GLTPA) and the Wisconsin Paper Council to craft a Forestry Industrywide Strategic Plan. 

This provision was included by the Joint Committee on Finance in its late night session last Friday and has raised concerns from some environmental groups that it is a giveaway to industry groups to push for increased extraction of resources from the state’s forest lands. 

“Taxpayers should not be made to underwrite private industry studies with no public benefit or input. Would they decide how to manage local, state, and federal forests in this study? Would it be published?” Andy Olsen, senior policy advocate at the Environmental Law and Policy Center, said. “One million dollars is very generous with taxpayer dollars for a sketchy study  with no public benefit.”

The GLTPA has been involved in efforts in Wisconsin’s Northwoods to oppose conservation projects and move local land use policies to be more pro-extraction by encouraging increased logging and the expansion of the state’s mining industry. 

The association’s director, Henry Schienebeck, has been influential in Oneida County’s effort to rewrite its comprehensive plan to be friendlier to industry and worked with American Stewards of Liberty, a Texas-based right-wing anti-conservation group, to oppose land conservation such as the Pelican River Forest. 

DNR spokesperson Andrea Sedlacek said the department is “monitoring this and all other relevant DNR budget motions as the process plays out” but did not yet have information on what the development of the strategic plan would look like or if other people or groups would be involved in its development. 

But despite the grant being given only to industry groups, some environmental advocates say it’s a win. 

Fred Clark, former executive director of Wisconsin Green Fire, said the development of such a plan is something the organization has been advocating for over the past several years. Clark pointed to a study of the health of the state’s forests Green Fire published last year and said that because the state’s paper mills have largely been shuttered, there are fewer  places for the state’s foresters to bring their timber, destabilizing the industry. 

Without a plan to find new uses for the state’s timber, the economics of Wisconsin’s working forest lands could change, resulting in land sales and development that results in forests being cut down to use the land for other purposes — ultimately harming the health of Wisconsin’s forests. 

“The focus that we would like to see there is not necessarily on producing more timber, because we already grow a lot more timber than we harvest,” Clark said. “What we really think the state needs is a strategic focus on developing new forest products and helping expand and refine forest products markets so that we’ve got places for our wood to go.”

Clark said he foresees the development of the plan working through the state’s Council on Forestry, which includes members representing industry, environmental groups, state and federal agencies, legislators and landowners. He added that for the project to succeed it needs input from all those groups, including those with records such as the GLTPA. 

“We need everybody at the table for this, and there’s a wide range of points of view in the forestry community,” Clark said. “Great Lakes Timber Professionals have been an active member of the Council on Forestry almost since day one. We won’t succeed if we don’t have a pretty strong consensus all the way from the environmental groups to groups like Great Lakes Timber Professionals. So I think there’s a lot of common ground there. The most important next step for us is to see that there’s a really broad based committee within the Council on forestry that’s helping guide this work.”

New Poll: American Voters Support Federal Investments in Electric Vehicles Broad, Bipartisan Support for EV Investments and Incentives that Lower Costs, Expand Access, and Help the U.S. Beat China in the Race for Auto Manufacturing WASHINGTON, D.C. – A new bipartisan national poll conducted by Meeting Street Insights and Hart Research finds broad public support …

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