DETROIT – Chrysler is recalling nearly 87,000 Jeep Wranglers in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere due to a risk of fires.

The recall affects only Wranglers from the 2010 model year that have automatic transmissions and were built before July 14, 2010, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in documents posted Saturday on its website.

Debris can get caught between a plate that protects the transmission and the catalytic converter, causing a fire. A catalytic converter is part of the exhaust system and uses heat and precious metals to control pollution.

Chrysler knows of at least 14 complaints of fires caused by the problem with 2010 Wranglers. The company says it doesn’t know of any injuries. It said debris can get trapped when the SUVs are driven off-road or through tall brush.

HOPE MILLS, N.C. – A Green Beret recently home from Afghanistan died trying to rescue his two young daughters from their burning home near Fort Bragg in North Carolina early Tuesday. The girls were also killed in the blaze.

Edward Cantrell and his wife escaped from the 2 a.m. blaze by jumping from the home’s second floor, the Cumberland County sheriff’s office said. Cantrell then wrapped himself in a blanket and re-entered the burning home in Hope Mills, about 10 miles from the Army base that is home to the Green Berets and other Special Forces units, sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Tanna said.

Cantrell, 36, was trying to reach 6-year-old Isabella and 4-year-old Natalia, who were trapped in second-floor bedrooms, Tanna said.
“He never made it back out,” Tanna said. Firefighters found their bodies inside the home, Tanna said.

WAXAHACHIE, Texas — A fire at a chemical plant south of Dallas shot massive plumes of black smoke and bright orange flames into the sky Monday, forcing schoolchildren and residents to evacuate or take cover indoors to avoid possible exposure to dangerous gases.
Flames engulfed what appeared to be several areas of a large complex at a
Magnablend, Inc., facility in Waxahachie, about 30 miles south of
Dallas. Images from local television stations showed the fast-moving
blaze consuming a fire truck at the scene and flames nearing railroad
tracks alongside the property.

CLEVELAND – A family with seven children escaped an early-morning fire thanks to the quick thinking of one of the children

The fire began early Friday morning in a bedroom of a home along Fidelity Avenue in Cleveland’s West Side.

Jamahr Larkin was sleeping when the fire alarm woke him up. “I was sleeping then I hear a little beep noise, and then I woke up. Then, I looked around the room and there was smoke everywhere,” he said.

Wildfires have consumed more than 4.2 million acres of land across the U.S. so far this year, a number more than double the most recent 10-year average, but there’s still hope that 2011 won’t be a record year — all that winter snow in the Rockies, Sierras and Cascades should keep Western areas green long enough to get through the summer heat.

A fourth child died today as a result of a fire in a Houston home day care center, a local television station reported, and investigators are trying to determine whether the center’s owner was out shopping when the deadly blaze ignited.

Eighteen-month-old Elias Castillo died this morning, Houston television station KTRK reported. Two other children who had been transferred to Shriners Hospital for Children in Galveston — which specializes in burn care — remain in critical but stable condition. A third child was released from Houston’s Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital on Friday.

If someone had told Victor Perez at the beginning of the year that he’d soon find fame because of a heroic act, he would have laughed. He couldn’t even find a job.

But the events of Oct. 5 were so unbelievable that the 30-year-old unemployed construction worker was left shaking and speechless.

“Never, ever in my wildest dreams would I think something like this would happen,” said Perez, who is credited with saving the life of an abducted 8-year-old girl. “I’m trying to make sense of all this hero stuff.”

BERLIN — More than 200 passengers and crew were evacuated after a ferry caught fire near the German island of Fehmarn in the Baltic Sea, German authorities said Saturday.

The Lithuanian passenger and car ferry Lisco Gloria was en route from the northern city of Kiel to the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda when an explosion occurred around midnight local time, the German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies said.

“There are currently no indications at all that this could have been a terror attack,” a spokesman said. “Of course the police will investigate this further, but it seems to have been an accident.”

NEW ORLEANS – Stark differences exist between the oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico and the blast that led to the massive BP spill. Mostly notably, no one was killed and no crude was gushing into the water, but the distinctions don’t end there.

Even though the Mariner Energy-owned platform that erupted in flames Thursday was just 200 miles west of the site of the spill, everything from the structures to the operations to the safety devices were different.

Los Angeles, California (CNN) — Hundreds of firefighters battled a third wildfire in the Los Angeles area early Friday as two more raged within 60 miles of one another.

The latest — known as the Crown Fire — has ignited more than 5,000 acres, fire officials said.

About 500 firefighters were at the scene, with mandatory evacuations in effect for nearly 2,000 residences.

Areas affected included some parts of Leona Valley, Ritter Ranch, Anaverde and Palmdale in northern Los Angeles County.