The board this morning

Medical helicopter down off Catalina — two dead and one still missing, authorities say, as NWS flood warnings run across Iowa, Kansas and Missouri

By The FirstResponders Desk

Good morning. A medical helicopter crashed off Catalina Island near Los Angeles, killing two people and leaving two hospitalized, with one person still missing, authorities said, as reported by The Guardian. Those counts are the authorities' early figures and are likely to move. For EMS and rescue readers, this is a water search and recovery off an island — treat the missing-person figure as provisional until the responding agency updates it. No names have been released and none appear here.

Weather is the active pressure for this shift. The National Weather Service has severe Flood Warnings running: NWS Des Moines for Polk, Iowa; and NWS Kansas City/Pleasant Hill for Leavenworth (KS) and Platte (MO); Doniphan (KS), Andrew and Buchanan (MO); Carroll, Lafayette and Saline (MO); Jackson, Lafayette and Ray (MO); and Carroll and Chariton (MO). Expect river and low-water-crossing calls across those counties and swiftwater demand on the Missouri corridor.

Fire: SFGATE reports an underground electrical fire broke out at multiple PG&E vaults in San Francisco's Financial District, prompting evacuations. A response was under way as reported. Separately, satellite systems reported fire detections across eight states — 148 over Oregon, 96 over Nevada, 46 over Arkansas, 44 over New Mexico, 42 over California, 41 over South Carolina, 28 over North Dakota and 25 over Idaho — none of which has been confirmed by any agency. Treat all of these as unconfirmed detections, not confirmed fires.

Law enforcement and EMS: The Oregonian reports a teen driver fled police and crashed into Beaverton homes; officials said the homes were badly damaged but residents were unharmed. NJ.com reports a 911 caller reported multiple shots fired, drawing a SWAT response before a wanted man surrendered, police said. Fox News reports Oxford, Miss., police responded to a suspected overdose in which a 22-year-old was revived, and said it was not student-related.

Follow-ups worth noting from the day's reporting: the Tampa Bay Times reports federal investigators released a first report into the deadly Amazon/21 Air cargo plane crash at Miami airport; ABC News reports two men were sentenced to probation and fined over a fireworks explosion inside an empty Harvard Medical School building; and NBC News reports a former Dallas officer was granted parole.