U.S. President Donald Trump greets guests during the Congressional picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on May 19, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge in Virginia on Friday ordered a temporary freeze on any payments coming from the Trump administration’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund” as she considers arguments in a lawsuit brought by a former Jan. 6 prosecutor to block the fund permanently.
The order from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema specifically bars the administration “from taking any further action pursuant to the creation or operation of the Anti-Weaponization Fund,” including transfers of money or consideration of claims from individuals who may argue they are victims of political persecution.
The $1.776 billion fund, announced last week, was established by the Justice Department to compensate those who allege they were wrongly targeted under the Biden administration.
It was created in exchange for President Donald Trump agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS as well as two civil claims for $230 million related to the Russia collusion investigation he faced during his first term in office and the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate — sparking accusations of self-dealing and a bipartisan uproar over the possible use of taxpayer money to pay rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, pressed about the fund earlier this month, said, “Anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they’re a victim of weaponization.”
Friday’s order did not weigh in on the legal merits of the case brought by former Jan. 6 prosecutor Andrew Floyd and other plaintiffs suing under the basis that the fund is unlawfully discriminatory under claims that it would only presumably benefit political allies of President Trump.
Judge Brinkema ordered an expedited briefing schedule in the lawsuit and a hearing set for Friday, June 12, to consider whether to grant a longer term freeze barring the administration from moving forward with the fund.
A view of the highest mountain peak in North America. (Lance King/Getty Images)
(DENALI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE, Ala.) — A search and rescue mission is underway after four people fell while climbing Mount McKinley at 18,200 feet, according to the National Park Service.
Mount McKinley — located in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve — is the tallest peak in North America, according to the NPS.
The climbers, part of a seven-member climbing team, fell in the vicinity of Denali Pass, according to the NPS.
The NPS received a report of the incident at around midnight Thursday after two other climbers were evacuated by helicopter from the mountain at around 11 p.m. Wednesday, as part of a separate incident, the NPS said.
Three members of the climbing team returned to High Camp at 17,000 feet after attending to their fallen partners, the NPS said.
The NPS said it is actively responding to the incident. Weather conditions on the mountain are improving and will soon enable helicopter operations, the NPS said.
The extent of the climbers’ injuries and their condition remains unknown, the NPS said.
A Virginia State Police car. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
(STAFFORD COUNTY, Va.) — Five people were killed and 34 were injured in a massive crash between a bus and six vehicles on Interstate 95 in Virginia early Friday morning, according to state authorities.
The accident unfolded at about 2:35 a.m. on I-95 south in Stafford County, about 45 miles south of Washington, D.C., the Virginia State Police said.
As traffic slowed for a work zone, a bus did not slow down and struck six vehicles, killing five people in the cars, police said.
Thirty-four people were taken to hospitals, including three with critical injuries, police said.
The crash initially closed all lanes of I-95, Virginia’s Department of Transportation said, causing massive delays for the Friday commute. Northbound lanes have since reopened.
Charges are pending, police said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Stock image of court gavel. (STOCK IMAGE/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — An immigration law attorney whose career has spanned over two decades said he has never experienced a hearing like the one he had in Annandale, Virginia.
“Normally, these master calendars will have 10 people, maybe sometimes 15, but usually in that range. The judge opened the hearing and said well, we have 100 cases on today’s docket,” attorney Joseph M. Perez told ABC News.
Master calendar hearings are when immigrants in deportation proceedings first appear before a judge and are informed of their rights and the charges they may be facing. It’s a crucial first step in deportation proceedings that can occur on an individual basis or in groups of a few people.
But in recent weeks, attorneys like Perez said they are seeing as many as 100 people slotted for the same time with little to no notice in advance, prompting them to call these hearings “mega masters,” which they say could be a new tactic by the Trump administration aimed at deporting as many people as quickly as possible.
Multiple attorneys told ABC News that, in some cases, scheduled master calendar hearings are being abruptly canceled and consolidated into larger proceedings.
On Monday, attorney Briana Carlson represented a client in Virginia at one of the hearings and the judge announced she had 80 cases on the docket, she said. Her client’s hearing had originally been scheduled for July.
“He was scheduled for a hearing in July, which we knew about, but we were preparing an application for relief, and so my paralegal happened to check the portal for that relief, and that’s when she found the new hearing date that had been advanced to today, which no one received notice of,” she said.
Carlson said that when she reached out to an immigration court in Sterling, Virginia, for a different case that had also been rescheduled, a clerk notified her that the court had received a nationwide directive to advance master calendar hearings if they’re scheduled in July or later.
A spokesperson for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an agency within the Department of Justice that oversees immigration courts, did not deny the existence of the directive, and in part, said the agency “prioritizes the timely completion of all cases.”
“Unnecessary delay hurts both aliens with meritorious claims and the American public who wish to see aliens with non-meritorious claims removed as quickly as possible. As it continues to add new immigration judges, EOIR will continue to make scheduling adjustments to ensure all cases are handled in a timely and lawful manner,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
NPR was first to report on the so-called “mega masters” hearings.
Reports of the massive hearings across the country have prompted the American Immigration Lawyers Association to issue guidance to lawyers, urging them to constantly check their online calendars to see if their cases have been rescheduled.
Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, Practice and Policy Counsel at AILA, says there’s growing concern that the Trump administration is placing individuals who do not have attorneys in these consolidated hearings in an attempt to force them to miss a hearing, which can automatically trigger a final order of removal.
“The goal is for people that are not showing up, they’re going to get an in absentia removal order, and that is going to help the court kind of clear their backlog, as we know, is one of the main goals of this administration,” Dojaquez-Torres said.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration proposed a rule that, if approved, would increase the fee for migrants ordered removed in absentia from $5,130 to $18,000. Critics of the fee increase say it’s an attempt to force undocumented immigrants to self-deport.
In the notice announcing the proposed rule, the administration said the fee is meant to help reimburse ICE for the costs of immigration enforcement.
Perez said that the shift to larger master calendar hearings is shortsighted.
“They want to accelerate things, but there’s also existing scheduling orders. Scheduling orders are issued by every court; they lay out how the case is going to proceed, what days you have to send the documents for. They’re advancing these cases to a date upon which you do not have enough time to comply with the scheduling order, so they really haven’t thought about the whole thing here,” he said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks with ABC News, Apr. 25, 2025. (ABC News)
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — After a tumultuous year at the Department of Justice largely defined by her controversial handling of the Epstein files, former Attorney General Pam Bondi is set to participate in a transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee on Friday.
The second Trump cabinet official to testify behind closed doors as part of the Oversight Committee’s yearlong Epstein probe, Bondi is expected to face questions about reneging on her promise to publicly release the DOJ’s files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which ultimately prompted Congress to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act forcing the release of millions of documents.
Trump removed Bondi as attorney general in April after sources said he grew frustrated with her handling of the Epstein files and the unsuccessful prosecutions of his perceived political opponents.
“Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year,” Trump wrote on social media announcing her departure. “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future.”
Earlier this week, Axios reported that Trump had appointed Bondi to serve on an advisory panel on AI policy, tasked with coordinating cooperation between the government and tech leaders.
In an unusual arrangement, a DOJ spokesperson said that Bondi will be accompanied during Friday’s transcribed interview by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon and other DOJ personnel, in order to “assist the Committee in understanding the Department’s role in implementing and complying with the Epstein Files Transparency Act during her tenure.”
“Because former Attorney General Bondi oversaw the Department at the time the Act was enacted and carried out, DOJ’s presence is solely to ensure accurate representation of Department processes, facilitate any necessary clarifications, and support a complete factual record for the Committee,” a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement earlier this week.
The DOJ originally sought to have Bondi avoid appearing by arguing that the subpoena the committee issued “no longer obligates her to appear” since she left the role of attorney general. Bondi ultimately agreed to testify voluntarily after the top Democrat on the committee introduced a resolution to hold her in contempt for failing to appear.
Shortly after beginning her tenure as attorney general last year, Bondi faced immediate pressure from Trump’s MAGA followers and others to begin releasing the DOJ’s files from its investigations of Epstein and his associates. Speaking to Fox News in February 2025, Bondi said Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review” and said the release of the files was a “directive by President Trump.”
However, when the DOJ released the “first phase” of the Epstein files that month — inviting, with great fanfare, conservative influencers to receive the files — it was determined that nearly every document released was already public. By July, the Department of Justice and FBI said in a joint memo that no further documents would be released, citing victim privacy and the assertion that the documents warranted no further investigations — a decision that sparked backlash from much of the MAGA base.
“To that end, while we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein and ensured examination of any evidence in the government’s possession, it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the memo said.
Bondi later defended her statement about Epstein’s client list by clarifying she was referring to the Epstein files generally along with other files released by the Trump administration, including documents related to JFK and MLK Jr. The DOJ/FBI memo also said that their review of the files “revealed no incriminating ‘client list'” and no evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals.
Despite the memo stating that no further investigation was warranted, Trump in November ordered Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to Bill Clinton and other prominent Democrats. At the time, Bondi said the DOJ would “pursue this with urgency and integrity” and assigned the matter to the U.S. attorney in Manhattan.
The Justice Department’s subsequent release of Epstein files following the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act prompted bipartisan criticism when the DOJ improperly redacted files — both exposing victim identities while concealing other information — and declined to release millions of additional files by claiming they were duplicative, privileged or contained sensitive victim information.
Bondi’s deputy and successor, now-acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, acknowledged the release of sensitive victim information was “horrible” and “inexcusable.”
He said the DOJ is finished investigating Epstein.
“And so I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward,” Blanche said in April.
Volunteers help distribute food with the Atlanta Community Food Bank on March 27, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A new economic report identified a “remarkable” rise in food insecurity, potentially explaining gloomy consumer outlooks despite strong economic fundamentals.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report on Wednesday identifying uncertain access to adequate food and consumer pessimism on the rise in certain vulnerable groups across the country.
The report, which relies on newly collected data from the Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE), found a “remarkable increase in food insecurity, particularly among lower-educated and lower-income households and households with young children.”
It also identified “a contemporaneous increase in pessimism among the same groups, along with a sharp decline in job-finding expectations.”
The report found that between late 2025 and early 2026, there was an increase in households reporting they had to skip meals, use food banks, rely on SNAP benefits or dip into savings to cover groceries, which are up 2.9% from a year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics noted earlier this month.The survey showed that the percentage of those who didn’t have enough food or kids missed a meal more than doubled from June 2020 to early 2026.
More specifically, it found that, of households with income under $50,000 a year, 16% reported not enough food or kids missing meals in late 2025 and 19.7% recorded those circumstances in early 2026. That’s up from just 6.7% in mid 2020.
The survey noted that 40.1% of the same subset of respondents reported dipping into their savings in early 2026 versus 37.8% in late 2025 and 29% in mid-2020.
Among respondents with a high school diploma, the survey found 10.7% had received food donations in mid-2020, compared to 18.8% in late 205 and 20.9% in early 2026.
Food insecurity, the SCE report notes, “is associated with poor health outcomes as well as lower educational attainment, worker productivity, and lifetime earnings.”
The report also highlighted the existence of “solid economic fundamentals,” such as “low unemployment, historically high household net wealth, and resilient consumer spending” despite a growing sense of consumer pessimism, suggesting “a ‘K-shaped’ economy, in which consumption growth in recent years has been driven largely by higher-income and college-educated households while lower-income households have seen fewer gains.”
It says the findings concerning food insecurity are likely a helpful guide to understanding generally low consumer sentiment, despite an economy with “solid economic fundamentals.”
“While not necessarily causal, the observed positive association between food insecurity and overall consumer pessimism, together with the increase in the incidence of food insecurity, especially among households at the bottom of the K-shape, point to a potential explanation for the unusually low recent levels of consumer sentiment at a time when the hard economic data paint a more positive picture,” the report reads.
The vast empty plains stretch to the horizon in Springfield, Colorado, the county seat of Baca County, on May 10, 2026. Baca County has received only .78 inches of rain since Jan. 1, 2026. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Farms all over the country are bracing for the impact of drought after months of little precipitation, experts told ABC News.
More than 60% of the continental United States has been under moderate drought or worse conditions since April 7, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The nation as a whole has experienced a dry, warm period that began in the early autumn of 2025 and has pushed into recent weeks, Brad Rippey, a U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist, told ABC News.
Long-term drought trends have put Midwest crops at risk
Farms in the Midwest that produce winter wheat have been especially impacted, Rippey said. The largest region that produces winter wheat — the Great Plains stretching from Montana to Texas — has been hit the hardest by drought as well as some spring freezes, Rippey added.
Up to 44% of this year’s winter wheat is rated as very poor to poor, according to the latest data from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), released on Tuesday. Nebraska is at the top of the list, with 82% of its winter wheat crop rated very poor to poor, but states like Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas are experiencing high rates of poor crop as well, according to the NASS.
While there was good moisture when the winter wheat was planted in the fall, extremely dry conditions from the beginning of March through the first half of May prevented optimal growing conditions, Brad Fuller, president of the Western Horizons Corporation and a consulting agronomist to many farms in Kansas, told ABC News.
Agriculture experts are expecting a 32% abandonment of winter wheat in the U.S. this year, according to the USDA’s Wheat Outlook. Such a high abandonment rate has only happened once since the Dust Bowl era in 1933 — in 2022 when drought conditions were at record highs, Riddey said.
The issues have also extended to the cattle industry due to poor rangeland and pasture conditions as a result of the dry conditions, Riddey said.
“A lot of the rangeland and pastures out in the middle section of the country are also in pretty rough shape heading into the key hay production season,” Riddey said.
Farmers in the Midwest are holding out hope for the spring-planted crops. But conditions were so dry in recent weeks that some growers skipped planting crops like corn or sorghum, Fuller said.
“We’ve had places in southwest Kansas that have gone well over 200 days without more than a half an inch of rain,” he said.
Farms in the West could be at risk as well
The West is facing dry, hot conditions in the near future, coming off “devastatingly” warm months in March and April, Riddey said. To exacerbate the situation, some reservoirs — especially Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the largest in the country — are experiencing low water levels due to the lack of snowpack during the winter.
These reservoirs are crucial for farms in the West that supply the rest of the country, Steven Fassnacht, a professor of snow hydrology at Colorado State University, told ABC News. About 75% of the nation’s lettuce and leafy greens are grown in California, according to the state’s Department of Food and Agriculture.
When there’s less surface water, farmers in California will turn to groundwater, Amanda Fencl, director of climate science for the Union of Concerned Scientists, told ABC News. But overuse of groundwater can decrease the water quality and lower the groundwater table, causing the land above it to sink. Overuse of groundwater can also alter the soil moisture, making it drier and lower, Fassnacht said.
Lake Mead could reach a record-low level of 1,036 feet of elevation in 2026, according to the 24-month study released by the Bureau of Reclamation last week. Lake Powell is also projected to drop to a new record-low level in the coming months, surpassing the previous record of around 3,520 feet set in 2023, Cody Moser, senior hydrologist at the Colorado River Basin Forecast Center, said during a webinar on May 7. The Colorado River basin as a whole is currently sitting at 49% of storage of its historic average, Riddey said.
“There are a lot of pieces of pie for that limited Western water,” Riddey said.
Small, family-run farms would be most impacted by water shortages, Fencl said. They may be faced with having to take certain crops out of production or changing which crops they decide to harvest.
Drought conditions typically lead to lower yields and loss in profits, Fencl added.
What will climate conditions be like in the near future?
While it has been raining in the Midwest in recent days, it’s not nearly enough to make up for the dry conditions over the last eight months, Riddey said.
“It’s not going to recover from just a couple of rain events,” he said. “It will take some time.”
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Monsoon season is expected to start in early July and last through August and September. After that, the development of El Niño conditions in October will bring more drought relief into the fall, winter and spring of 2027, Riddey said.
“All indications are we should see a pretty active monsoon that could provide some relief, but we have to get between now and monsoon onset,” he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump dances on stage after delivering remarks during a campaign and economic policy event in the Eugene Levy Fieldhouse at SUNY Rockland Community College on May 22, 2026 in Suffern, New York. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Trump administration officials have pushed the office tasked with printing the nation’s money to move forward with designing a commemorative $250 bill with President Donald Trump’s portrait and signature, should legislation to create the new currency pass, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.
It would mark the first time a living person has appeared on U.S. currency in more than 150 years. As of now, federal law explicitly states only deceased people can appear on United States currency.
But some Republicans in Congress are working to change that.
Republican Rep. Joe Wilson, of South Carolina, has introduced a bill ordering the Treasury Department to print $250 Federal Reserve notes featuring a portrait of Trump.
The bill has 15 Republican cosponsors, a small sum for legislation that was introduced more than a year ago.
The bill has not passed — stuck in the House Financial Services committee for more than a year — but in a statement to ABC News, the Treasury Department acknowledged the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is “conducting appropriate planning and due diligence” should the legislation be signed into law.
It would still have to pass the Senate as well before it hits Trump’s desk, requiring a bipartisan majority of 60 votes for passage. Democrats are expected to try to block the effort.
If the bill doesn’t become law, it expires at the end of the 119th Congress. After that, Wilson or another member can try to reintroduce it in the 120th session.
A Treasury Department spokesperson called the bill a “proactive” measure.
“Should this legislative mandate be signed into law, the BEP is moving proactively to produce a $250 commemorative note which will appropriately recognize the 250th Anniversary of our great nation,” the spokesperson said.
The number 250 reflects the nation’s upcoming anniversary.
There’s been no word from Republican leadership on whether they would support Wilson’s bill, though none of its party leaders have signed on as cosponsors.
Two people familiar with the discussions told ABC News that U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have pushed for the president’s signature to be added to the $250 bill.
The Treasury Department did not dispute the reporting.
“Based on the recommendation of U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, Secretary Bessent will recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Trump by adding his signature to the currency,” a spokesperson stated.
The Treasury Department insisted no taxpayer dollars will be used to produce the new bill, noting Bureau of Engraving and Printing finances its operations entirely through product sales and billings rather than relying on annual congressional appropriations.
The State Department announced it would begin issuing special edition passports featuring Trump’s portrait and signature to commemorate the anniversary.
The Washington Post was the first to report the news.
ABC News’ John Parkinson contributed to this report.
Markwayne Mullin, secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEWARK, N.J.) — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin amped up his threats Thursday to pull Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents who process international passengers at Newark Liberty International Airport to help control protesters outside of New Jersey’s Delaney Hall detention center.
Mullin continued to slam the protests, now in their seventh day, outside the Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention center over reports of poor living conditions and poor health among its 300 detainees. DHS has denied the allegations.
ICE agents have clashed with protesters who attempted to block vehicles from entering, prompting the federal agents to use pepper spray and batons against them.
Mullin told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that DHS needed to “prioritize federal police officers” in response to the protests and is considering pulling CBP agents from the airport to help agents outside the detention facility, which would delay processing international travelers and cargo.
“That may effect international flights coming in and out of their airport because I’m going to have to pull Customs and Border Protection officers out of being able to process international flights and put them helping our ICE agents,” he said.
“By the way, if you can’t process international flights because Customs is closed, you can’t obviously process international flights coming in from out of country,” he added.
Mullin said on Fox News that if “things don’t change” he’ll have to make the move “pretty quick.”
“We are not going to halt the flights, we won’t be able to process them because we won’t have officers there,” he said. “We will have to pull out our Customs and Border Patrol officers that process these flights and put them in these [detention] facilities to help protect our employees coming out to work.”
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty International, did not immediately comment on Mullin’s proposal.
Mullin has long been teasing a plan to pull CBP officers from airports that are in so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions.” On Wednesday, he said he is “drawing up plans.”
However, Mullin’s controversial proposal has received pushback from travel groups.
U.S. Travel Association, a group representing the country’s travel industry, met with Mullin last week and expressed concerns about the plan to withdraw CBP officers from several cities.
“U.S. Travel believes such a move would have devastating consequences for the travel industry and communities that depend on international visitation,” the group said in a statement Friday.
At least one Trump administration official has questioned such a policy.
Asked about the proposal in a congressional hearing last week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he wasn’t familiar with Mullin’s comments but said it wouldn’t be a good idea to implement such a policy based on politics.
“I’d like to take a look at [Mullin’s] comments and get the context and I’d even ask him a question of what he meant by that, but we have people from around the world and around the country that need to be able to fly into all different kinds of places. We shouldn’t shut down air travel in a state that doesn’t agree with our politics,” Duffy said.
The demonstrations at Delaney Hall continued Wednesday night and protesters again clashed with federal law enforcement.
Several Democratic Congress members, including New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker, have visited the detention center over the last week and say they have seen the decrepit conditions first hand.
“The stories I’ve gotten, especially from women inmates, about the access to medical attention, seemed unsatisfactory, if not downright dangerous to their conditions,” Booker said Wednesday.
That same day, Mullin denied the allegations and the reports of a hunger strike inside the facility contending that there were “only a handful of individuals that was refusing to eat” because they allegedly wanted their “ethnic right food.”
“Well, they can go back to their country and get whatever food they want,” he told reporters.
A man is dead and a woman is injured after a house exploded in Michigan in an attempted murder-suicide, in Kent County, Michigan, on May 26, 2026. (Kent County Sheriff’s Office)
(PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich.) — A man is dead and a woman was critically injured after a home exploded in Plainfield Township, Michigan, on Tuesday, according to the sheriff’s office.
The home was completely destroyed with debris on fire when deputies and fire personnel responded to the scene after nearly 50 calls reported an explosion and house fire around 4 a.m., according to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office.
“The fire was intentionally set, we believe, by the husband at this point, intending to be a murder-suicide at the residence,” Kent County Undersheriff Bryan Muir told reporters.
Officials have not released the names of the man and woman in the explosion, but said they believe “the husband” set the fire, Muir said. The woman was associated with the address, according to authorities.
Two neighbors — a teenager who lived next door and another man who lived nearby — pulled the injured woman from the home after the explosion, according to the sheriff’s office. She was treated on the scene and taken to the hospital in critical condition, the sheriff’s office said.
“We are very proud of them for stepping up and helping someone in need during an extremely dangerous situation,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
“Without their actions, it is likely she would have perished in the fire. She has some significant medical-related issues right now and we are hoping for a recovery,” Muir said.
Hours later, a dead man, believed to be the person registered to the address, was found at the scene, the sheriff’s office said.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but investigators preliminarily believe a source of natural gas was released in the basement and used to start the fire, Alpine Township Fire Chief Jeremy Kelly said.
Investigators believe the explosion was a “domestic-related situation at the home,” Muir told reporters.
There are no concerns of any gas leaks or other home explosions in the area, Muir said.
“We want to relay to the family affected by this our deepest sorrows for having to deal with a situation so tragic,” Muir said.
