News Roundup: Boston Links Kilduff Fire to Lithium-Ion Batteries, Peltola Leads Alaska Senate Race, and WHO Adds Two Ebola Vaccines to DRC Trial

Here is your Wednesday evening roundup, with one story from Massachusetts, one from across the United States and one from overseas — the cause of a fatal Boston fire, a too-close-to-call Alaska Senate race, and new Ebola vaccine candidates entering a trial in Central Africa.

Massachusetts: Officials say lithium-ion batteries caused the fire that killed firefighter Bobby Kilduff

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Fire Commissioner Rodney Marshall said Wednesday that the May 23 fire at 18 Treadway Road in Dorchester, Massachusetts, began with “thermal runaway involving multiple lithium-ion batteries stored inside plastic tool boxes” on a third-floor enclosed porch. Thermal runaway happens when a battery produces more heat than it can shed. Firefighter Robert “Bobby” Kilduff Jr., a 24-year Boston Fire Department veteran, third-generation firefighter and former U.S. Marine, died after falling from that porch while fighting the blaze.

Marshall said the origin-and-cause finding is complete, but broader inquiries into Kilduff’s line-of-duty death continue through the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the department’s Board of Inquiry. Wu called Kilduff’s sacrifice a loss for the city and said officials are still working to honor his legacy and support his family. District Fire Chief Keith Kelley urged residents to use UL-certified batteries, charge them with the original charger on a hard surface, and store them at room temperature, warning that more household batteries mean more accidents.

The Boston Globe, citing the state Department of Fire Services, reported that Massachusetts firefighters have already fought 112 lithium-ion battery fires this year, and that since 2023 the state has logged 362 such fires with at least 49 injuries and four deaths. Scooters, e-bikes and other micromobility devices are the most common source. NBC Boston and Boston.com both confirmed Wednesday’s lithium-ion finding and the continuing death investigations.

United States: Peltola leads Sullivan by hundreds of votes in Alaska’s unfinished Senate race

With more than 98% of Alaska precincts reporting, Democrat Mary Peltola held a narrow lead over incumbent Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan in the state’s U.S. Senate contest, Alaska Public Media and Alaska News reported Wednesday. Unofficial Division of Elections totals put Peltola at 102,701 first-choice votes (about 48%) and Sullivan at 102,075 (about 47.7%), a gap of 626 votes. Republican Gerald Heikes had 4,821 votes and Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., a retired Petersburg teacher who shares the senator’s name, had 3,583.

Neither major candidate has reached 50% of first-choice votes. Alaska will keep accepting absentee ballots for days, and if no one clears a majority, ranked-choice tabulation is scheduled for Nov. 18. The Associated Press has covered both campaigns projecting confidence while remaining early, absentee and questioned ballots are counted. Sullivan led Election Day precinct voting; Peltola led early and absentee tallies counted so far.

The race has been shadowed by controversy over the second Sullivan on the ballot. The Justice Department sued to delay certification if Sen. Sullivan loses under certain theories about mistaken votes; a federal judge dismissed the case Sunday and the department appealed. Peltola, if she prevails, would be the first Alaska Native in the U.S. Senate and the first Democrat to win an Alaska Senate seat since Mark Begich in 2008. With Democrats already taking control of both chambers of Congress elsewhere, Alaska remains one of the last unresolved Senate contests.

World: WHO recommends two new Bundibugyo Ebola vaccines for DRC trial

Expert groups convened by the World Health Organization recommended adding two new Ebola vaccine candidates to the Tumaini clinical trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — the first vaccines designed specifically against Bundibugyo virus to be evaluated during an outbreak of that disease, WHO said Nov. 4. The candidates are ChAdOx1 BDBV from the University of Oxford and the Serum Institute of India, and Moderna’s mRNA-1469. WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Candidate Vaccine Prioritization backed both for further clinical evaluation; they will enter the trial after national approvals.

Tumaini uses a ring-vaccination design that enrolls contacts of confirmed Bundibugyo cases. It is co-led by the DRC’s Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale with support from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp and Africa CDC. Ervebo, licensed against Zaire ebolavirus, was already the first candidate in the trial; four vaccination rings were in place when WHO announced the new recommendations, with more being prepared. Results from the vaccine arm are expected in early 2027.

There is still no approved vaccine against Bundibugyo virus. The Institute of Tropical Medicine noted that the outbreak, declared May 15, 2026, is the largest recorded Bundibugyo outbreak and that as of Oct. 21 the DRC had confirmed 9,552 cases and 4,602 deaths. WHO is also backing treatment studies of monoclonal antibodies and antivirals. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked trial participants and said vaccines alone will not end the outbreak but could become a powerful new tool to help control it.

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That’s the Wednesday evening roundup. For community gatherings, talks and family events happening around Massachusetts this week, see the Mass Halal events calendar.