| Afternoon update: Man in critical condition after trailer fire
HEBRON -- A man was seriously burned Monday night when the trailer in which he was living caught fire, officials said.Robert A. Whiting, 75, was being treated Tuesday morning at Westchester Medical Center's burn unit after the 7:15 p.m. blaze at a trailer at 78 Old Castle Green Lane, said Hebron Fire Chief Floyd Pratt.He suffered third-degree burns to his head and a leg during the fire, which destroyed the 30-foot travel trailer where he had been living, the chief said.Pratt said the injuries initially weren't considered life-threatening. But David Billig, a spokesman for Westchester Medical Center, said Whiting was listed in critical condition Tuesday afternoon.Hebron firefighters managed to salvage a trailer parked next to the destroyed trailer, Pratt said. .
In crises, they're the go-to groups
These widening circles of "neighbor helping neighbor," as Maguire put it, are known as Community Emergency Response Teams. This was Radnor Township's first try. The program was introduced in Los Angeles in 1993, and caught on nationwide after experts learned from Hurricane Katrina that they had to plan for, not react to, major disasters. Since 2003, Delaware County has trained 16 experts to give the disaster-training course, which lasts 12 to 16 hours over four sessions. By late next month, teams will be organized in Aldan, Clifton Heights, Marcus Hook, Middletown, Radnor, Swarthmore, Thornbury, Upper Darby and Yeadon. More communities are on a waiting list for the training. Chester County, in tandem with the American Red Cross, offers citizen training classes each year, in March, May, August and November, former coordinator Neil Lovekin said.
How a small step for Yao can become a giant leap for China
"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." The words of Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher, adorn the locker-room of the Los Angeles Lakers at the beginning of every basketball season, but if they relate to any NBA superstar, surely it is Lao’s countryman, Yao Ming. The first step of Yao’s painful, extraordinary and highly profitable journey took him on to the jet that flew him to Houston from Shanghai in 2002 and set him on the path to becoming, conceivably, the world’s biggest sports star. The 7ft 6in Houston Rockets player needs look up to no one in the modern game and, while the non-Chinese, non-basketball fan may have little idea who Yao is, the staging of the Olympic Games in his homeland next summer ensures that that is about to change.
Fatality might be linked to snow
A light coating of snow yesterday closed or delayed the opening of area schools - to the delight of children - but left roads slick and might have contributed to a fatal accident in Harford County.
The Baltimore area received 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service.
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