Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. New LAFD chief won't look into who watered down Palisades fire report Deputy Chief Jaime Moore fields questions from city council members before being confirmed as the new LAFD chief after a unanimous vote by the L.A. City Council on Nov. 14. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . LAFD Chief Jaime Moore said he is taking a forward-looking approach and not seeking to assign blame for changes to the report.

A husband and wife have died after being trapped in a private sauna room that caught fire in Japan on Monday. Tokyo police are investigating whether a faulty doorknob trapped the couple inside the room at Sauna Tiger, in the city's Akasaka district, local media has reported. Investigators also found that the facility's emergency alarm system was switched off, and allegedly had been for two years. We offer our deepest condolences... and our heartfelt sympathies for the deep grief and pain that cannot be expressed in words, Sauna Tiger said in a statement on its website. The victims have been named by local media as Yoko Matsuda, a 37-year-old nail artist, and her husband Masanari, 36, who ran a beauty salon.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency plans to deploy unmanned water-cannon robots to emergency fire assistance teams nationwide, aiming to enhance disaster response and firefighter safety. The initiative follows lessons learned from the Jan.1 Noto Peninsula earthquake, where delayed firefighting efforts in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, exacerbated damage due to a major tsunami warning. The robots, remotely operated, can navigate fire sites even during earthquakes or tsunami warnings. They will receive water from fire engines to suppress flames and are equipped with water curtain nozzles to prevent the spread of fire by creating a barrier against flying embers. The plan is for the robots to be used in hazardous situations where firefighters cannot safely approach the scene.

A pair of Teslas caught fire and were destroyed in San Francisco over the weekend just weeks after a self-driving electric vehicle was torched in a nearby neighborhood, according to authorities. Over a 30-minute period early Saturday morning, the San Francisco Fire Department responded to two separate vehicle fires in close proximity, on Bonifacio Street near Mabini Street and Shipley Street between 4th and 5th streets, officials said. The department extinguished the fires and began investigating at least one as a suspected arson. Video obtained by CBS News Bay Area showed the origins of the second fire: a person setting the white Tesla Model Y ablaze around 12:45 a.m. The unidentified person ignited a fire in one of the wheel wells, causing the entire vehicle to go up in flames within minutes, the video shows.

Fighting fires was always dangerous. But with climate change, there have been more wildfires, which means even more risky rescue missions for local firefighting squads. That's why multiple different companies and teams of scientists are working to develop robots that can scope out burning buildings before human firefighters have to enter. The latest entrant is FireBot, a remote-controlled robot that can withstand temperatures as high as 650 degrees Celsius. At that scalding temperature, a firefighter wearing a protective suit can only withstand about 15 minutes of exposure.

Just before 3 a.m. one night this month, Scott Slumpff was awakened by the ding of a text message. "An ALERTCalifornia anomaly has been confirmed in your area of interest," the message said. Slumpff, a battalion chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, sprang into action. The message meant the agency's new artificial intelligence system had identified signs of a wildfire with a remote mountaintop camera in San Diego County. Within minutes, crews were dispatched to the burgeoning blaze on Mount Laguna -- squelching it before it grew any larger than a 10-foot-by-10-foot spot.

San Francisco is in an uproar over robotaxis' persistent interference with firefighters, police officers and other emergency medical personnel. The city's fire chief called attention Thursday to the potentially dangerous encounters between driverless cabs and first responders, telling The Times in an interview that she was "fed up" with the incidents, which include driving into active emergency scenes and parking on a fire hose. Now San Francisco's police union has joined city officials in urging regulators to postpone a vote, scheduled for Thursday, on a measure that would allow Waymo, Cruise and other robotaxi companies to expand in San Francisco. "While we all applaud the advancements in technology, we must not be in such a rush that we forget the human element and the effects such technology unchecked can create dangerous situations," union President Tracy McCray said. As robotaxi companies plan to provide service in Los Angeles, San Francisco officials battle with state regulators over robotaxi safety.

Robotaxis keep tangling with firefighters on the streets of San Francisco, and the fire chief is fed up. "They're not ready for prime time," Chief Jeanine Nicholson said. Nicholson is talking about the driverless taxis from Waymo and Cruise that are picking up passengers and dropping them off in designated sections of the city. Now those companies want to rapidly expand service throughout the entire city, in unlimited numbers, in any kind of weather, day or night. And state regulators appear ready to approve their request.

The waters in Venice's main canal have turned fluorescent green in the area near Italy's renowned Rialto Bridge, as authorities seek to determine the cause. Italy's fire department posted a video on Sunday as one of its boats sailed on phosphorescent waters. "The Grand Canal coloured in green is what the fire department found this morning as we intervened together with ARPAV to collect samples and analyse this abnormal colour," it said. ARPAV, Veneto's regional environmental protection agency, said it received samples of the altered waters and was working to identify the substance that changed their colour. The Venice prefect has called an emergency meeting of police forces to understand what happened and study possible countermeasures, the ANSA news agency reported.

A journalist who covers wildfires responds to Premee Mohamed's "All That Burns Unseen." In "All That Burns Unseen," set in a dystopian but not-too-distant future, we finally get the drone sidekick we didn't know we needed. Premee Mohamed's heroine, Vaughn Collins, is a government worker gone rogue as a wildfire burns. Along the way, she rescues a dazed, glitchy fire extinguisher drone. When a funnel of flames heads for Vaughn's truck, threatening everything, her new friend dives into the blaze and sprays.