Maine’s state fire marshal says a man burned down his parents’ house and killed three pets while trying to exterminate ants in his basement with matches.

On Friday, the meteorology community was riding a major high as stunningly high-definition images came in from the nation’s newest and much-anticipated earth observation satellite. The high came crashing down that evening, though, as the first hints of significant cuts to the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began to emerge.

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times: You don’t want your vehicle to catch on fire. For that reason, Mercedes-Benz is recalling more than 354,000 vehicles.

An annual state-by-state analysis of auto insurance reveals rates continue to increase after filing just a single claim. According to a fourth annual study by insuranceQuotes, drivers now pay an average of 44 percent more for car insurance after making a single claim of $2,000 or more.

People sparked most US wildfires in recent decades, causing longer fire seasons and increasing the amount of scorched earth, according to a new study published Monday. Researchers found that humans caused 84 percent -- or four out of five -- of the total 1.5 million wildfires studied between 1992 and 2012.



In addition, human actions tripled the length of the fire season during those two decades and were responsible for 44 percent of the total acreage burned, researchers reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

United Technologies Corp’s (UTX.N) Carrier unit expanded a recall of some air conditioners and heat pumps as their power cord plugs can overheat, posing a fire risk, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Thursday.

The possible listeria contamination affecting a number of cheese brands continues to grow, as Sargento and MDS Foods announced over the weekend the recall of more than a dozen additional products that may have come into contact with the listeria-tainted cheeses from supplier Deutsch Kase Haus.

Your greatest SodaStream fears have been realized: tens of thousands of SodaStream’s plastic bottles may not be able to withstand quite as much pressure as the company thought, causing the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission to issue a recall because they pose an injury risk to carbonation-happy consumers.

It may not come as a surprise that bruises and open wounds are the most common injuries in every state across America — with the one exception of Colorado, where you’re more likely to have be injured by a ‘fall’. But did you know that ‘over-exertion’ is disproportionately common in North Dakota, and a ‘near-drowning’ experience six-times more likely in Hawaii?

It’s a topic that gets much buzz — how will the cloud of legislation surrounding recreational and medical marijuana use affect businesses, specifically when it comes to compensability for workers’ compensation?

Putting smokeless tobacco in your mouth is one thing, putting smokeless tobacco containing metal fragments in your mouth is another. After receiving several reports of customers finding metal objects in their tobacco cans, tobacco giant Altria is recalling several of its most popular brands.

Putting the injured worker first is key to the “advocacy-based claims model,” which puts the worker at the center of all activity. “It focuses on improving the injured worker’s experience. Until now, most employers have focused on corporate outcomes.

The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry in 2016 will likely post an underwriting loss for the first time in four years due to higher catastrophe losses, competitive market conditions and auto liability challenges, A.M. Best Co. Inc. said Monday.

German carmaker Volkswagen will recall nearly 600,000 vehicles in the United States, most of them its premium Audi brand, over defects that could lead to fires or airbag malfunctions.

Ford just issued two new recalls, covering two wildly different vehicle segments. In fact, these two recalls exist on opposite ends of a number of spectrums.