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Firefighter battling SoCal wildfire dies from ‘thermal injuries, smoke inhalation’ SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A firefighter died Thursday while working a colossal wildfire burning in coastal mountains northwest of Los Angeles that has become the fourth largest in California history. Cory Iverson was an engineer with a state fire engine strike team based in San Diego. Iverson, 32, is survived by his pregnant wife and a 2-year-old daughter, said Fire Chief Ken Pimlott of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

In the unlikely event that anyone out there was thinking that workplace fatalities were fading into the past, check out the newest Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries that was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today. According to BLS, 5,190 fatal work injuries died on the job in 2016, a 7-percent increase from the 4,836 fatal injuries reported in 2015 and the third year in a row the number has increased.

While opioid overdose rates remain high among adults, American teens are misusing opioid pain medications less than they did a decade ago. That’s the good news from the 2017 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey of eighth, 10th and 12th graders in schools nationwide. The bad news? More kids are “vaping” – and they’re not really sure what’s in that mist that they’re inhaling.

At the request of U.S. national security and law enforcement agencies, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is using its existing authority under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations § 99.7 – “Special Security Instructions” – to address concerns about unauthorized drone operations over seven Department of Energy (DOE) facilities.

The train that derailed outside Tacoma, Washington early yesterday, killing three people and injuring scores more, was going 80 miles an hour in a section of track designed for 30-mile-an-hour speeds, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the incident. News sources say that while rounding a corner and heading toward a bridge, the train jumped the tracks and slammed into a ditch, spewing some of its 12 cars across a highway where they came into contact with five cars and two trucks.

OSHA has announced that it will continue accepting 2016 OSHA Form 300A data through the Injury Tracking Application (ITA) until midnight on December 31, 2017. The agency says it will not take enforcement action against those employers who submit their reports after the December 15, 2017, deadline but before December 31, 2017, final entry date.

A jury and judge have ordered Albany-based asbestos abatement and demolition company Champagne Demolition, LLC and its owner, Joseph A. Champagne, to pay $173,793.84 to a former employee who was fired in June 2010 after reporting improper asbestos removal practices at a school worksite in Gloversville, New York. On June 10, 2010, an employee of Champagne Demolition, LLC informed company management of the improper practices. The employee was fired the next day and subjected to verbal threats and legal action.

Workers who were dismantling a mercury boiler in Portsmith, New Hampshire were exposed to high levels of mercury, according to OSHA inspectors who took action following workers’ complaints. In response, OSHA cited Manafort Brothers, Inc. of Plainville, Connecticut for two willful and six serious violations concerning mercury, respirators, protective clothing, and sanitary conditions. The construction contractor faces penalties of $329,548.

A Tulsa, Oklahoma safety services company doesn’t just talk the talk. Having just achieved one million man-hours without a recordable injury, JCL Service Company apparently walks the walk, too. Both divisions of the JCL company—JCL Safety Services and JCL Risk Services—reached this safety milestone by completing over one million man-hours without any of the following injury-related incidents occurring: days off work, restricted work, transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness, or an injury resulting in death.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has determined that the operator of a drone that collided with an U.S. Army helicopter failed to see and avoid the helicopter because he was intentionally flying the drone out of visual range and did not have adequate knowledge of regulations and safe operating practices.