A large fire broke out at a Quaker Oats facility in Iowa on Saturday following what officials described as a possible explosion. Despite the scale of the incident, no one was injured.

Thick smoke and flames rose from the northern section of the plant as firefighters arrived at about 4:45 p.m., according to the Cedar Rapids Fire Department. The facility is considered the largest of its kind in the world.

Fire officials said the blaze began after an explosion inside the building.

Every worker at the site was able to get out safely, and no injuries were reported, Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said in a Facebook post.

O’Donnell explained that the fire started in a section used to handle products where relatively few employees work. “Which of course in this case was a blessing,” she said.

Officials have not said how many people were inside the building when the explosion and fire occurred.

“Firefighting operations were successful in extinguishing most of the fire,” the Cedar Rapids Fire Department said in a statement posted to Facebook.

By approximately 6:25 p.m. local time, crews were still conducting limited interior operations, including final fire suppression and overhaul work.

The cause of the explosion and subsequent fire had not been determined by Saturday night, fire officials said.

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No firefighters were hurt while working to bring the blaze under control.

A witness said the sight of smoke pouring from the plant brought feelings of “terror, sadness [and] worry.”

“Explosions are bad, fires are bad,” Dan Gardner told KCRG.

“Quaker Oats is a staple of this town,” he said. “So we don’t want to see them blow up.”

Emilio Esquivel, who was visiting from Texas, compared the dramatic scene to something from a film.

“Seeing something like that was just like eye opening,” Esquivel told the local station. “It was eyebrow raising. It was crazy.”

According to the company’s website, the Quaker Oats plant is the world’s largest milling facility, processing more than 2 million pounds of oats every day.

The Quaker Oats Company, owned by PepsiCo, is best known for products including its old-fashioned oats.

With Post wires.

A 105-year-old Ohio woman known for her fun-loving, fiery personality has shared the habits she believes helped her live a long life.

Helen Sophis celebrated her 105th birthday on October 10 at Sunrise Senior Living in Cuyahoga Falls, near Cleveland.

Surrounded by friends, Sophis entertained them with jokes, stories from her remarkable life and advice on reaching old age with energy and joy.

Sophis, whose parents were Greek immigrants, told the Akron Beacon Journal that a Mediterranean diet and an active lifestyle were key to her longevity.

“Clean living,” she said, while also crediting her strong sense of humor for helping her through the years.

Her approach to healthy eating began in childhood, when her mother prepared traditional Greek dishes such as moussaka and pastitsio at home.

“Everything was from scratch,” she told the outlet.

Her family also owned a Coney Island restaurant that served hot dogs. Sophis recalled growing tired of serving drunk customers late at night and eagerly waiting for the moment she could send them out, lock the doors and turn the key.

“I sure did,” she said.

Physical activity remained a constant throughout Sophis’ life. In high school, she played basketball and volleyball at West High School, which no longer exists.

She also became the school newspaper’s sports editor—an unusual role for a girl to hold at the time.

Sophis continued playing sports at the University of Akron, taking part in basketball, volleyball and tennis, she told the outlet.

She did not complete her studies, however. Sophis left college after her sister, Amelia, died at age 17, she told the outlet.

She remained active in her working life as well. During World War II, Sophis was employed at a rubber plant, where she helped keep track of inventories.

“I had a man’s job during the war,” she said. “All my work was out in the factory.”

After the war, Sophis moved into an office role at the factory, operating a comptometer—a key-driven mechanical calculator.

She was also a star golfer on the company’s team, where she won several tournaments, she told The Journal. 

However, the one time she hit a hole-in-one, instead of going back to buy a round of drinks, she kept playing the holes. 

‘I said to myself: “How am I going to do that? I can’t afford to buy everybody a drink.” I kept playing and playing, and finally we went in, and everybody had gone home,’ she laughed. 

After retiring from the factory, she got a job at the mall to help supplement her income.  

Sophis’ nursing home friends described the centenarian as a ‘fiesta’ and ‘determined spitfire,’ as well as a ‘wealth of knowledge.’ 

‘But most importantly, she’s a very giving person,’ friend Paul Cincotta told The Journal. 

‘She’s amazing,’ another friend, Jamie Wood, told the outlet. ‘Just a beautiful person … 105? That’s a blessing. And she is a blessing.’ 

Sophis, who was born in 1921, never married, although she did have one boyfriend she dated for many years, so she told the outlet. 

She is the sole survivor of her family, as her brother, John, passed away in 2017 at the age of 94, and her nephew, Stephen, died in 2024 at the age of 60. 

However, the 105-year-old doesn’t consider herself lonely. 

‘I’ve got a lot of good friends, and they include me in a lot of things,’ she told The Journal. 

She plays bingo and makes crafts at the nursing home with her friends, she said. 

As for her old age, she said she feels better than when she was a teenager. 

‘I feel really good. I feel better now than I did when I was 16,’ she said. 

Sophis is one of the oldest women in America, just a smidge behind Naomi Whitehead, who is 116 years old. 

The Pennsylvania woman is believed to be the oldest person living in North America. 

Whitehead has never drunk or smoked, and credits her longevity to good genes and enjoying her hobbies, like baking and cooking.  

Parents and police officials are calling on Los Angeles schools to restore full-time campus police staffing after officers were replaced in part by “climate coaches” — as new data shows reports of physical bullying have more than doubled.

The union representing Los Angeles School Police officers has backed parents demanding that dedicated officers return to every campus. The push follows the death of 17-year-old Xavier Nungaray-Martinez, who jumped from a fourth-floor balcony at Franklin High School in Highland Park after a classroom fight was captured on video.

The renewed calls come five years after the Los Angeles Unified School District cut $25 million from its school police budget. The reduction eliminated 133 positions — about 28% of the force — while funding was redirected toward a $36.5 million Black Student Achievement Plan that included the hiring of “climate coaches” to help address student behavior.

LAUSD still employs 262 sworn school police officers, but they patrol groups of campuses instead of being permanently assigned to individual schools.

The controversial staffing reduction, approved in February 2021, followed pressure from activist organizations including Black Lives Matter and the California Association of Black School Educators. Those groups had called for an end to what they described as the “criminalization and over-policing” of Black students.

“Recent tragedies involving violence, self-harm and weapons on and around school campuses underscore the urgent need to strengthen — not diminish — our school safety resources,” Anthony Stafford, president of the Los Angeles School Police Management Association, told the California Post.

“We understand why parents are calling for greater police presence. Every family deserves the peace of mind that their child will return home safely at the end of each school day.”

Xavier died on Sept. 30 after jumping from the school amid allegations that he had been bullied.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner determined that Xavier died by suicide, citing multiple blunt-force injuries to his head and torso.

However, Xavier’s family said the teenager was not suicidal and believes bullying contributed to his death. Police have said they have not established a connection between the reported bullying and the fatal fall.

In LAUSD’s latest student survey, 17% of students said they had experienced bullying — the highest rate recorded since the 2021-22 school year.

Data provided to the California Post showed that reports of physical bullying, including shoving, hitting and kicking, rose from 6% in 2024-25 to 15% in 2025-26.

At Franklin High School, 11% of students said they had been bullied, including 8% of seniors. Among senior students, 5% reported experiencing physical bullying.

The district recorded 5,636 fights and other aggressive incidents during the 2024-25 school year, according to data presented in November 2025. That was slightly below the 5,707 incidents recorded the previous year.

LAUSD did not respond to The Post’s request for updated statistics. A district spokesperson said LAUSD remains “committed” to working with parents and students.

“Los Angeles Unified remains committed to engaging students, families, staff, and community partners as it addresses broader fiscal challenges while maintaining safe and supportive schools,” the spokesperson said.

“While the district has proposed further reductions as part of its fiscal stabilization efforts, decisions about specific positions, assignments and programs are developed through the district’s budget and operational planning process.”

Video from Xavier’s confrontation on Sept. 30 appears to show another student hitting him inside a classroom while a teacher intervened.

Xavier then entered a fourth-floor corridor, where he jumped from a railing.

The Los Angeles Police Department and school police are investigating the circumstances of the incident. Charges have been filed.

His grieving family has launched a Change.org petition demanding tougher security, alleging he was assaulted without timely intervention from security staff and that students filmed both the attack and his fall.

The petition calls for campus police, security cameras, better-trained staff and safer railings.

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“I don’t think no one in their right mind would jump off the fourth floor,” Xavier’s father, William Amaya, 40, told the California Post. “This would have been prevented if enforcement was on campus.”

Amaya, who also graduated from Franklin High School, said conditions had deteriorated since his time there in the early 2000s.

“Things are worse at Franklin now,” he said.

He recalled that at least two police officers were on duty at the school when he attended, breaking up fights, handcuffing students and enforcing discipline. He said that level of police presence needs to return.

“Right now it’s not just bring back the police, it’s bring back the police and have them be on campus every time our kids are on campus right now,” Xavier’s aunt, Stephanie Amaya, 37, told The Post.

Stafford said school police do far more than respond to emergencies — they also help prevent violence by mentoring students and intervening before trouble escalates.

The 2021 police cuts sparked fierce opposition at the time, with school police leaders warning the reductions would leave students and staff vulnerable.

“Make no mistake, this will impact student and staff safety,” Rob Taylor, then-president of the Los Angeles School Police Management Association, warned in February 2021.

“This is likely to create a liability for the district when the inevitable tragedy occurs that could have been prevented or mitigated.”

Supporters of the overhaul insisted they were responding to complaints from black students who felt unfairly targeted by school police.

Now the district is considering another round of cuts.

As part of a broader Fiscal Stabilization Plan, the LAUSD board is expected to vote on a proposed additional $3.5 million cut to the school police budget for fiscal year 2027-28 — with a potential $7 million reduction the following year.

“We are deeply concerned that LAUSD is considering further cuts to the Los Angeles School Police Department at a time when student safety has never been more critical,” Stafford said.

“We have not recovered from those cuts and now face even more cuts. Yet, the demand for our services has increased exponentially over the last 5-6 years — even as our resources (training, equipment, personnel) continue to be decreased.”

For Norma Chávez, a mother of two LAUSD students, Nungaray-Martinez’s death was the breaking point.“Police officers represent authority,” she said.

“They are reminders of what is not permissible. Most people behave better when they see an officer, even adults. I support campus police.

“There has definitely been more violence since school police were removed from campus. What is worse is that fights have become more dangerous because they involve knives and guns.”

Chávez also blasted the district for failing to consult parents before the original police cuts.

“We, the parents, did not vote to remove school police. We weren’t even asked,” Chávez said.

But not every parent organization believes bringing cops back is the answer.

“We understand why families are concerned about safety and why recent incidents may lead to calls for greater security,” said Nancy Villarreal, executive director of the Parent Organization Network, a public schools advocacy group.

“At the same time, PON does not believe that increasing police presence alone addresses the deeper issues affecting school safety.”

The group supports some security measures alongside greater investments in mental-health services, conflict resolution, parental involvement and student input.

“School safety is the foundation of student attendance, achievement, and success,” Stafford added. “Cutting the very personnel and programs designed to protect our children is an unnecessary and preventable risk we simply cannot afford to take.”