Winter Weather and Public Safety

Officials warned of an approaching winter storm while the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission detailed heightened home-heating fire and carbon-monoxide risks, noting electric space heaters are involved in about 1,600 fires a year and fireplaces and chimneys in roughly 15,400 fires annually. The CPSC advises keeping space heaters three feet from flammables and plugged directly into wall outlets (and turned off when sleeping), using gasoline generators only outdoors at least 20 feet from the home, installing and testing smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms on every level and in each bedroom, and having furnaces, boilers, fireplaces, wood stoves and chimneys professionally inspected and maintained.

More than 100 vehicles — including up to 40 tractor‑trailers — were involved in a pileup on I‑196 near Zeeland Township, Michigan, amid blizzard‑like whiteout conditions from an intense snow squall, resulting in multiple non‑life‑threatening injuries and an hours‑long closure for removal and cleanup as motorists and bystanders tried to help ambulances navigate the wreckage. The crash was part of a sprawling Arctic blast affecting roughly 200 million people with wind chills as low as −40 in parts of the North, widespread winter‑storm warnings across the Midwest and Northeast, and rare measurable snow or flurries reaching as far south as Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.