Kenosha County house fire; likely caused by batteries, pets missing
The Brief
A Kenosha County home was destroyed in a fire likely caused by lithium-ion batteries on Thursday, May 22.
Multiple pets were unaccounted for.
Nobody was inside the home and there were no injuries.
TOWN OF BRIGHTON, Wis. - A Kenosha County home was destroyed in a fire on Thursday afternoon, May 22.
What we know
The fire broke just before 1 p.m. on 18th Street in the Town of Brighton.
According to Kansasville Fire and Rescue Department Chief Ron Molnar, the likely cause of the fire was lithium-ion batteries in a charging unit and had exploded.
FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android
Nobody was inside the home and there were no injuries. However, Molnar said multiple pets were unaccounted for, and he believes they are dead.
There were no fire hydrants nearby, so fire crews had to bring in around 100,000 gallons of water. It took multiple crews, even departments from Illinois, several hours to put out hot spots.
At one point, responders had to bring in an excavator to dismantle the home.
Molnar called it a "very significant fire."
"There were reports that flames were already coming through the roof," he said.
Molnar said there were reports of a "dangerous" amount of ammunition in the home, but there was no threat to the area.
SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News
"Pretty much everyone has ammunition in their homes," he said. "This is God's country out here."
What we don't know
There is no damage cost estimate available at this time.
Local perspective
"I'm emotional. It was an emotional experience to come alongside a family that has endured a trauma like this," neighbor Chris Strash said. "The silver lining is God is in control and that's just a promise that I rest on because he is in control, and he has a plan and a purpose."
The Source
Kansasville Fire and Rescue Department Chief Ron Molnar provided information.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
American iPhones Maybe Targeted In Spyware Attacks
Were iPhones really attacked? A new report from the team at iVerify warns that a 'previously unknown' vulnerability in iOS maybe enabled a highly targeted attack on iPhones in the U.S. as well as Europe. This flaw was not in the core messaging architecture itself, but in its nickname feature. 'Any increase in the size of a codebase is going to introduce attack opportunities,' iVerify told me. And that's the case here. When a user updates their profile, 'nickname, photo, or wallpaper,' this triggers "a 'Nickname Update' on a recipient's device." Trivial though it might seem, that nickname update process is a data transmission from one device to another, it's implicitly trusted data and it's within the secure enclave. 'This vulnerability was present in iOS versions up to 18.1.1 and fixed in iOS 18.3.1.' While there's no doubting the flaw and the fix, there is no concrete proof it was exploited in the wild. 'We analyzed crash data from nearly 50,000 devices," iVerify says, "and found that the imagent crashes related to Nickname Updates are exceedingly rare, comprising less than 0.001% of all crash logs collected.' But those rare instances appeared only on 'devices belonging to individuals likely to be targeted by sophisticated threat actors.' Sometimes, Occam's Razor really does apply. Those high-risk individuals were affiliated with 'political campaigns, media organizations, tech companies, and governments in the EU and U.S.' Delete All Texts On Your Phone That Look Like This These are exactly the type of individuals Apple says should use its Lockdown Mode, which restricts a raft of iPhone features and is intended to shutdown attacks that might otherwise get through. It's unclear whether that would have mitigated this risk — and irrelevant now as it's patched. But it certainly makes an iPhone more secure. 'iOS remains a robust and secure operating system,' iVerify told me. 'iMessage is likely targeted not because it's insecure but instead because it's popular." That said, it's toeing a tricky line between feature-rich messenger and secure comms tool. Signal is better, iVerify says, if you want to really secure your comms with a COTS platform. That said, as we've seen before, iMessage is on all iPhones and is almost never disabled, and so if there is a working zero-click attack, it will likely get through. On that note, 'Signal is open source,' iVerify says, "which does have security advantages in the sense that it's transparent and therefore easier for researchers to examine. And it's a simple code base, which does reduce the potential attack surface.' Google Confirms Most Gmail Users Must Upgrade Accounts iVerify reports that forensic examination of one affected device "provided evidence suggesting exploitation: several directories related to SMS attachments and message metadata were modified and then emptied just 20 seconds after the imagent crash occurred. This pattern of deleting potential evidence mirrors techniques observed in confirmed spyware attacks where attackers 'clean up' after themselves." But again, this is speculation ands there's no confirmation or attribution, as Apple will be keen to emphasize. While there's 'no smoking gun,' iVerify says, 'definitively proving exploitation exists, when taken together, this body of evidence gives us moderate confidence these crashes indicate targeted exploitation attempts.' I have reached out to Apple for any comments on this report. iMessage has been exploited before and whether or not that's what has happened here, it will remain a target — as will WhatsApp and all other apps and platforms that run on most devices. Exploiting such a vulnerability is the easiest way to compromise an endpoint, as is especially relevant at the moment when it comes to encrypted data. For most users though, your biggest iMessage risks remains texts with malicious lures and crafty links that trick you into clicking. These highly targeted attacks — real or not — should not be a concern. Unpaid tolls and undelivered packages, though…
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Truck and tractor-trailer ignite into flames during deadly crash on I-70 in Howard County, police say
HOWARD COUNTY, Md. () — Maryland State Police (MSP) said all lanes on Interstate 70 East were closed on Thursday morning following a deadly fiery crash. State police told DC News Now that the collision happened just after 4:15 a.m. on I-70 near Sand Hill Road. A preliminary investigation determined that a tractor-trailer and a pickup truck, hauling a trailer, crashed and caught on fire. Cleanup underway after 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel leaks in Baltimore marina The driver of the pickup truck was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the driver of the tractor-trailer was not injured. As of 7 a.m., all lanes on I-70 East remained closed as state troopers continued their investigation. Check for updates. To keep up with the latest news and weather updates, download our Mobile App on iPhone or Android. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
5 hours ago
- Forbes
Never Answer These Calls On Your Smartphone, Google Warns
Beware the UNC6040 smartphone threat. Google's Threat Intelligence Group has issued a new warning about a dangerous cyberattack group known only as UNC6040, which is succeeding in stealing data, including your credentials, by getting victims to answer a call on their smartphone. There are no vulnerabilities to exploit, unless you include yourself: these attackers 'abuse end-user trust,' a Google spokesperson said, adding that the UNC6040 campaign 'began months ago and remains active.' Here's what you need to know and do. TL;DR: Don't answer that call, and if you do, don't act upon it. If you still need me to warn you about the growing threat from AI-powered cyberattacks, particularly those involving calls to your smartphone — regardless of whether it's an Android or iPhone — then you really haven't been paying attention. It's this lack of attention, on the broadest global cross-industry scale, that has left attackers emboldened and allowed the 'vishing' threat to evolve and become ever-increasingly more dangerous. If you won't listen to me, perhaps you'll take notice of the cybersecurity and hacking experts who form the Google Threat Intelligence Group. A June 4 posting by GTIG, which has a motto of providing visibility and context on the threats that matter most, has detailed how it's been tracking a threat group known only as UNC6040. This group is financially motivated and very dangerous indeed. 'UNC6040's operators impersonate IT support via phone,' the GTIG report stated, 'tricking employees into installing modified (not authorized by Salesforce) Salesforce connected apps, often Data Loader variants.' The payload? Access to sensitive data and onward lateral movement to other cloud services beyond the original intrusion for the UNC67040 hackers. Google's threat intelligence analysts have designated UNC6040 as opportunistic attackers, and the broad spectrum of that opportunity has been seen across hospitality, retail and education in the U.S. and Europe. One thought is that the original attackers are working in conjunction with a second group that acts to monetize the infiltrated networks and stolen data, as the extortion itself often doesn't start for some months following the initial intrusion itself. To mitigate the UNC6040 attack risk, GITG said that organisations should consider the following steps: And, of course, as Google has advised in previous scam warnings, don't answer those phone calls from unknown sources. If you do, and it's someone claiming to be an IT support person, hang up and use the established methods within your organization to contact them for verification.
