"A Louisiana environmental group said on Tuesday that ExxonMobil Corp's Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery, where four workers were burned in a November 22 fire, has been poorly maintained for years."

"Local officials said on Tuesday that 'the worst is over' for two small Tennessee resort towns in the Great Smoky Mountains where wildfires killed three people, destroyed or damaged more than 100 homes, forced thousands to flee and threatened country music star Dolly Parton's theme park, Dollywood."

"Authorities say 2,500 firefighters and other personnel are making progress on containing some of the biggest wildfires in western North Carolina, and rain could help in the coming days."

"In the debate over fracking of oil and gas wells, opponents often cite the risk that the process can set off nearby earthquakes. But scientists say that in the United States, fracking-induced earthquakes are not common."

"A powerful earthquake rocked northern Japan early on Tuesday, briefly disrupting cooling functions at a nuclear plant and generating a small tsunami that hit the same Fukushima region devastated by a 2011 quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster."

"More than 200 people have been hospitalized with breathing difficulties in Tennessee as wildfires scorched the Southeast. Over 30 large fires have burned more than 80,000 acres in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky, according to the US Forest Service."

"On April 17, 2013, an explosion and fire at the West Fertilizer Company plant in West, Texas, killed 15 people and injured hundreds. It also destroyed more than 150 buildings around the plant. Among these were the West Intermediate School for 4th and 5th graders, located about 550 feet (170 meters) away from the fertilizer plant, and West High School, about 1,150 feet (350 meters) away."

"Evacuations are now taking place in five North Carolina mountain counties as nearly 20 wildfires totaling more than 10,000 acres continue to spread."

"Are the many hog and poultry farms of eastern North Carolina creating 'fields of filth,' as two groups of environmental activists put it last summer? And if they are, what happens when a hurricane comes along and dumps a foot and a half of water on them?"