1 . Home fires can happen quickly, destroying lives and property, but unlike other disasters, most home fires can be prevented. Read on to learn 4 unexpected home fire dangers.

Having old smoke alarms

An effective smoke alarm can make much difference when it comes to surviving a house fire. It’s not enough to change the batteries twice a year, you also need to replace your alarms every decade. “You should test your smoke alarms every month,” says Lorraine Carli, vice president of the National Fire Protection Association. “But also don’t forget to check the dates and replace an alarm that is more than 10 years old.”

Leaving the kitchen while you cook

One in five Americans admitted leaving food cooking unattended on the stove, which was found an American Red Cross survey. Walking away from food cooking in the kitchen is a serious fire risk. “The leading cause of home fires is cooking and the leading cause of those fires is unattended cooking,” says Carli. “If you need to use the stove or oven, be sure to keep an eye on it.”

Turning the heat too high when you cook

Turning up the heat too high can be deadly, even if you’re in the kitchen while you cook. Kevin Kelley, senior director of the American Red Cross, recommends paying close attention and turning off the burner if you see smoke or grease (油脂) starting to boil while frying food.

Having a dirty stove while you cook

If your stove is covered with grease, a small kitchen fire can get out of hand quickly. Clean and clear the area around the stove before turning on the heat, or the result will be dangerous.

2 . Mount Hood is the highest mountain in Oregon, a state in the western United States. At 3, 400 meters it is attractive to many people, some of whom, of course, run into trouble. Each year 25 to 50 people have accidents or get lost on Mount Hood and need rescue（营救）. Although most of these are understandable accidents, a few result from careless risk-taking.

In one recent case, three experienced climbers went hiking in the middle of a snowstorm in December. Most hikers climb Mount Hood in May or June when the weather conditions are good. But in December, the mountain is covered in snow and ice. Winds up to 135 kilometers per hour blow the snow around, making it difficult to see. Temperatures can drop below freezing. As one rescue worker put it, "What were they thinking? They were just asking for it. "

During a rescue a few years ago, a helicopter full of rescue workers crashed and the rescue workers were almost killed. Linda Carle, who lives in the Mount Hood area, asks, If someone made a muddled decision, why should rescue teams have to risk their lives to save them? Why do people take unnecessary risks and do things that aren't right if they know that they can get into trouble? "

Most of the Mount Hood rescue workers are either volunteers or part of the local police department There is no charge for these rescues. It is the taxpayers who pay the bill. Linda Carle suggests that people who take careless risks and need rescue should ay for the rescue. She fees it is only fir that costs for things like damaged helicopters and medical care for rescuers should be paid for by the people who take the risks. What would you do if you were the local police officer at Mount Hood?

3 . It was late, about 10:15 p. m. Janice Esposito got off the train at Bellport, New York, went to her car and started driving home. She was so familiar with the route that she almost drove automatically. However, when Esposito's car had just crossed the railroad tracks—bam!, it hit another vehicle and was pushed back onto the tracks. Injured but mostly shocked by the crash and by the airbags that popped up, she was stuck in the vehicle.

As it happened, Pete DiPinto was just about to go to sleep when he heard a sharp noise. As a volunteer firefighter, he fetched a flashlight and rushed out without hesitation. “Any firefighter would have done what I did,” he said. “We're always on duty.”

After making sure that the driver was all right, DiPinto discovered Esposito's car straddling the railway tracks. And then he heard the bell ring, which signaled a train's arrival.

DiPinto rushed to Esposito's car and broke the window on the driver's side. Esposito looked up at him, with her eyes glazing over. “I don't know where 1 am,” she said.

“I have to get you off right now!” DiPinto yelled. The train was running toward them at a high speed. The driver's door cannot be opened due to the collision (硬撞), so DiPinto quickly ran to the other side and managed to open the door. He pulled her toward him across the passenger seat until finally got her out to safety. Several seconds later, the train crashed into the vehicle. “It was like a Hollywood movie,” DiPinto told reporters the next day.

“Last night,” said Gregory Miglino Jr, Chief of the Department in South Country Ambulance, “the hero arrived in pajamas (睡衣裤), not in a fire truck.”

4 . As 17-year-old Norwood drove through St. Petersburg, Florida, last February, the laughter and chatter from the four teenage girls inside her car quickly gave way to sharp cries. A car behind heavily hit them, sending their black car into a tree five meters away. As smoke rose from the other car, a bystander (旁观者) shouted, “It’s about to blow up! Get out!”

Terrified but not hurt, she got out through the window. Along with two of her friends, who’d also managed to free themselves, she ran for her life. But halfway down the street, she realized that her best friend, Simmons, wasn’t with them. Norwood ran back and found Simmons stuck in the back seat. “She wasn’t moving,” Norwood told Inside Edition. She threw open the back door and pulled her friend out, trying to avoid the broken glass.

She dragged Simmons to safety and placed her on the ground. “I put my head against her chest. No sign of life. That’s when I started CPR (心肺复苏术).” Norwood, who longed to have a career in medicine, had passed the national CPR test just the day before.

Looking down at her dying friend, Norwood knew she had only a little time to practice what she’d learned. She started pumping Simmons’s chest and breathing into her friend’s mouth. No response. She tried again and again. Slowly, Simmons began coughing and opening her mouth for air. The CPR worked! Soon, doctors arrived and rushed Simmons to the hospital. And then she heard how her best friend had saved her life. “I wasn’t shocked,” Simmons told CNN. “She will always help any way she can.”

5 . Mr. Peter Johnson, aged twenty-three, battled for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water. Mr. Johnson took the only escape route—through the boot(行李箱).

Mr. Johnson’s car had finished up in a ditch(沟渠) at Romney Marsin, Kent after skidding on ice and hitting a bank. “Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly,” Mr. Johnson said. “I couldn’t force the doors because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in.”

Mr. Johnson, a sweet salesman of Sitting Home, Kent, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot. Then he began his struggle to escape.

Later he said, “It was really a half penny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew the back seat to get into the boot. I hammered desperately with a hammer trying to make someone hear, but no help came.”

It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot. Then Mr. Johnson found a wrench(扳子) and began to work on the boot lock. Fifteen minutes passed by. “It was the only chance I had. Finally it gave, but as soon as I moved the boot lid, the water and mud poured in. I forced the lid down into the mud and scrambled clear as the car filled up.”

His hands and arms cut and bruised(擦伤), Mr. Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmer’s wife, Mrs. Lucy Bates. Huddled in a blanket, he said, “That thirty minutes seemed like hours.” Only the tips of the car wheels were visible, police said last night. The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.

I'm afraid I have some very bad news for you. I have been very naughty and the school master is very angry with me. She is going to write to you. You must come and take me away from here. She does not want me in the school any longer. The trouble started last night when I was smoking a cigarette in bed. As I was smoking, I heard footsteps coming towards the room. I did not want a teacher to catch me smoking, so I threw the cigarette away. Unfortunately, the cigarette fell into the waste-paper basket. It caught fire. There was a curtain near the waste-paper basket. It caught fire too. Soon the whole room was burning. The master phoned the fire brigade. The school is a long way from the town and before the fire brigade arrived, the whole school was on fire. The master said that the fire was all my fault and I must pay for the damage. She will send you a bill for about a million dollars.

I'm very sorry for this.

Much love,

Sarah

8 . An Australian couple has been rescued from a crocodile-ridden part of Australia's remote north after lighting a fire and writing the word "help" in mud to attract the attention of search crews.

Colen Nulgit, 20, and his girlfriend Shantelle Johnson, 18, went fishing on Sunday in Keep River National Park near Western Australia. There are saltwater crocodiles in all waterways around the park.

Nulgit said their day of fishing tuned into a freezing, sleepless overnight stay when their truck got stuck in mud. "Our hearts sank," Nulgit said, Nulgit said they had seen crocodile tracks in the area earlier and, as the waters rose and sun set, because afraid of being swept away by a large tide—or being attacked by crocodiles. "These crocodiles are not afraid of humans. They're not afraid of anything." he said. "Food's food for them. Anything is food."

In their home town of Kununurra, Johnson's mother called the police when they failed to return that night. Nulgit said they huddled(蜷缩) under a blanket away from the river, but couldn't get any sleep. They wrote "help" in large letters in the dry mud with a stick at about 4 a. m. Monday, hoping to attract attention from a passing plane. However Nulgit admitted he was worried about being stranded for a long time, adding: "Hardly anyone goes out that way."

On Monday, Kununurra police organized a search party using a plane from a local company to find the pair, the Western Australia Police Force said in a statement. Nulgit and Johnson lit a fire as soon as they heard the plane to help draw attention.

"If they had not lit the fire and advised family members details of when they were leaving and an expected return time, the couple may not have been located," the police statement added.

Nulgit said the adventure wouldn't stop the pair from heading out again—although next time they'll make better preparations beforehand. "I'm just grateful for everyone who helped and came out to look for us," he said. "We're pretty lucky surviving and getting out of that."

9 . Road traffic crashes kill 1.25 million people each year worldwide. The statistics are part of the   “Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015”. The report surveyed 180 countries, and it shows the number of annual deaths from traffic crashes is stabilizing（稳定）.And that is good news as the number of motor vehicles grow worldwide. But the data also show that road crashes are the NO.1cause of death among young people aged 15 to 29. Young adults around the world are the worst driving risks. Even in the U.S..drivers aged 15 to 24. account for about 30 percent of all driving-elated accidents .But the World Health Organization(WHO) says they are preventable.

The WHO report also finds a big gap in road safety and deaths between poor and rich countries Poor countries have only 54 percent of the world’s vehicles. But those countries have some of the worst safety statistics in the report. “Africa has only two percent of the world’s vehicles, but has the highest death rate on the road,” says Etienne Krug. The head of the WHO Department of Non-communicable Diseases. Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are leaders in preventing traffic deaths.

Stronger road safety laws and stricter vehicle safety requirements in developing countries would prevent many accidents .Laws can quickly influence driving behavior. In only three years. 17 countries became safer by putting tougher road safety laws into effect. Some of those laws include banning drunk driving ,requiring cyclists and motorcycle drivers to wear helmets and making safety belts mandatory（强制性的）in all vehicles. Good injury care after a crash can cut the number of deaths from road injuries in half. Of course, there are also many other ways to make roads safer.

10 . Six Flags and another amusement park company shut down eight more thrill rides on Friday around the US after a teenage girl had her feet cut off at the ankle on a Superman Tower of Power.

State inspectors, meanwhile, returned to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom where the accident happened to examine the ride, which lifts passengers 54 metres straight up, then drops them nearly the same distance at speeds reaching 87kph.

It was unclear at what point during the ride the 13-year-old was injured on Thursday, said Wendy Goldberg, a Six Flags spokesperson.

The girl was taken to a hospital. Details of her condition were not immediately available on Friday.

Six Flags has shut down similar rides at parks in St. Louis, Gurnee, Illinois, and near Washington as a safety precaution, Goldberg said. Six Flags Over Texas, near Dallas, also has a Superman Tower of Power, but it is not the same ride, Goldberg said.

There were no reports of injuries on the ride before Thursday, she said.

“Millions of people have safely ridden this ride in our parks,” Goldberg said.

The accident led Cedar Fair Entertainment to shut down and inspect drop tower rides at five of its amusement parks as a precaution, company spokesperson Stacy Frole said.

Intamin, a Swiss company, made all the rides that were closed by both companies, said Craig Ross, a spokesperson for Cedar Fair.

“We're going to keep these things down until we're certain it’s safe," Ross said. "We'll wait and see.”

An email message sent to Intamin was not immediately returned on Friday.

The five Cedar Fair rides that will be shut down are at Kings Island near Cincinnati; Canada's Wonderland, in Toronto； Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia; Carowinds, in Charlotte, North Carolina; and Great America in Santa Clara, California.