live from the channel 4 studios in boston wbz news at 11:00 starts right now. cities around the world on high alert, the threat of terrorism casting a shadow on new year's eve from germany to new york city and even boston. security is tight to make sure people celebrating are safe. >> and we are taking you live to first night in boston where thousands are packing into the heart of the city to count down to midnight and the fireworks overboston harbor. >> and in times square tonight more than 6,000 police officers are on duty armed checking the air for radiation and using bomb sniffing dogs as we look at these live pictures of the entertainment, those police officers protecting people at the nation's biggest new year's eve party.

of our first night celebration. >> we begin live in boston tonight. >> reporter: hi, guys, crowds are growing here at the square, first night in full swing as you can see. we are less than an hour away from 2016 and while many are not celebrating publicly due to terror threats accident not the case here. a much quiet new year's eve in brussels in belgium, this amid terror threats following the deadly attacks in paris and san bernardino, california. the fbi is boosting the number of agents and staff in the u.s. including in new york, washington and los angeles. some 6,000 new york city police officers are scattered across times square for the annual new year's eve celebration. rochester, new york, joins a small number of cities festivities.

halted plans to kill new year's eve participants in the name of isis at a local bar and restaurant. brussels and paris also announced cancellations of their fireworks shows. belgian police arrested two people and detained six on suspicion of being involved in a plot to attack landmarks in the capital. in munich, germany, police have halted train service and warned the public to avoid certain areas over a possible terrorist attack on new year's eve. police across the globe continue to search for those terror plot suspects. reporting live in boston. counting down to new year's eve in boston, earlier many took in the family fireworks snow on boston commons. >> it was great in. in last hour of 2015, though, perhaps the biggest crowd celebrating first night is right there in copley square. julie loncich joins us live with the partiers.

>> reporter: just a few of my friends, what a crowd, leo and lisa. i haven't heard any complaints. it may have been smaller than in years past, but judging by the enthusiastic crowds -- >> happy new year! >> reporter: -- boston still knows how to put on a show. >> it seems to be a bigger buzz this year. there's more of a buzz in the streets, which is great. >> i think it's night. it's a little more contained, so you don't have to travel around as much to see everything. >> very nice. the weather is not too bad. >> reporter: from the light display to the procession to fireworks on the commons, the new year's eve celebration was a crowd please are and for the very first time was free. >> i just wanted them to experience all this boston has to offer. the sculptures are beautiful and we're just enjoying the night. >> reporter: so what was your favorite part? >> that. >> reporter: security was tight.

i don't want people to see it and be intimidated. we have plenty of resources working the crowd. >> reporter: a crowd that was just happy to be here even without a button. >> we love washington and new year's and it's been a great year for us, looking forward to next year. >> reporter: okay. so moving on to resolutions, mayor walsh told me he's going to drink less soda in 2016. commissioner evans says he's actually going to try to put on a few more pound. minutes? down. happy new year. you. it's a beautiful night for it. >> there have been years in the past where the ice sculptures started to melt. tonight they are pristine. >> there are also years where people have started to become ice sculptures. tonight. 40 degrees now in the city, most towns in the 30s, a

temperatures from dropping back too quickly. all told we've got a front moving offshore and a big sprawling area of high pressure moving in. dry weather tonight and the start of 2016. overnight lows 25 to 30 most of the suburbs, close to freezing in downtown. tomorrow most of us again are above 40 degrees, so a comfortable day to kick off the brand-new year and a pretty good weekend, but after that the bottom drops out and winter reality sets in next week. the forecast is for some snow coming up in a few minutes. breaking news now at 11:00 emergency crews are at the scene of a serious atv accident in fitchburg that happened just after 10:00 tonight. the fire department is telling us three people were seriously hurt including two victims who had to be med flighted. we do have a crew on the way to that scene in fitchburg. we will bring you any new information as soon as we get it. also in from spencer right now a massive five alarm fire breaking on main street. this viewer video shows the

a anybody tells wbz everyone made it out safely, but crews are having a tough time battling the flames because of water pressure issues. dubai's huge new year's fireworks show lit up the skies despite a massive fire at a nearby luxury hotel. >> one person died from a all right attack during a stampede while that building -- from a heart attack during a stampede while that building was evacuate the. >> reporter: flames lit the outside of the address hotel in dubai. the united arab emirates did not let the fire stop the fireworks just doors away at the world's tallest building. >> everybody is calmed down and then we saw the flames on the other side of the building, but they were coming around this side. >> reporter: the address hotel is a luxury 63 story hotel and condominium. the fire started a couple hours before the new year. some of those inside say fire alarms did not go off immediately. >> it was a little nerve

>> reporter: the fire consumed 20 floors in minutes. officials evacuated everyone from the building. firefighters raced to capable the fire and they say the hotel -- contain the fire and they say the hotel sprinklers and internal firefighting systems helped prevent the flames from spreading. witnesses heard several explosions from inside the building. >> i just heard a big bang. is it a fire? >> reporter: as the high rise burned, tens of thousands turned their attention to the fireworks display. 1million people were expected to gather to up 0 the new year's eve show. -- to watch the new year's eve show. one of the prime viewing spots was the address hotel. >> 53 people suffered minor injuries and there is no word yet on the cause of that fire. state police working to identify a body pulled from the charles river. northeastern university police were also called to this scene. a student from northeastern has been missing more than a month, but tonight police are not releasing the identity of the person who died or the cause of

umass amherst offering condolences to the family of a local student who fell to his death from a building in new york city of 20-year-old connor cummings was climbing scaffolding outside the four seasons hotel when he fell 9 stories. police believe he and a friend may have been scaling that building to take pictures. connor was a sophomore psychology major and a member of the alpha sigma pi fraternity. tonight the ceiling of this building fell into the old carriage home. three workers were inside when the roof started to come down. luckily they escaped without injuries. an andover man is free on bail after pointing a gun at a plow driver in a case of snow rage. wbz was there when a judge released michael mccull local on bail. police say -- mccullom on bail.

unloaded gun at the snowplow driver's head. mccullom's lawyer said it was self-defense. >> his intent was to protect himself. he put it in his pocket. it's not like he got out of the car brandishing the weapon. >> mccullom was released on $2,000 cash bail. he must stay away from the plow driver and stay away from guns. police releasing new images of two bank robbers in franklin. these two ordered everyone, even children, to hit the floor at the middlesex savings bank, then took off with the money. investigators believe they got away in a dark colored bmw3 the state department needs to do a better job of meeting its resolutions in 2016. it failed to meet a court ordered release of 82% of hillary clinton's e-mail as secretary of state. they blame it on the number of holiday schedule. republicans criticized clinton's use of a private e- mail account for official use security. president obama apparently plans to take on gun control

orders. white house sources tell cnn the goal is to close the so- called gun show loophole. that allows certain gun sellers to skip buyer background checks. the president is also expected to approve additional funding to local law enforcement to enforce existing gun laws. one of the busiest nights for uber drivers could be one of the most expensive for passengers. the ride sharing service is using surge pricing tonight which means between midnight and 2 a.m. expect to pay double or even triple the normal price for a ride home. talk about a scary ride, the dangers of winter driving caught on camera. >> imagine seeing this coming right at you on the road, the lesson police want you to learn by watching this tape. >> bill cosby is facing charges and now his loyal supporter finding out she may have to give testimony about the accusation, his wife's legal battle when we come back. >> and a kitten found abandoned and abused, the disturbing reason police believe someone

>> as we head to the break with less than 50 minutes in 2015, we take a look at new year's fireworks at copacabana beach earlier in rio dejaneiro, brazil.

a dangerous drive, all new at 10:00, a massachusetts man captured that sheet of ice smashing his windshield and tonight he spoke to wbz's louisa moller about the wild ride. >> yeah. my initial thought was that's going to hit the road in front of me and i'm just going to drive over some crumpled ice and go on with my day. >> reporter: even as the rock hard sheet catapulted through the air towards jeff cote's saab, he couldn't imagine this. now take a look again. it felt like slow motion but took just seconds for the block of ice and snow to slip off the top of the black suv in front of him and torpedo into his windshield. >> kind of just a flash.

windshield and just watching it come straight at me. >> reporter: thankfully cote was unharmed as he calmly drove to the side of the road. but it's not what the new hampshire man expected as he made his routine drive to work on 495 in haverhill wednesday. the whole ordeal captured on a dash camera cote said he got for scenarios just like this. unfortunately not clearly enough to record the license plate number of the black car that just drove away. >> wish they'd cleaned off their car more. i'm pretty frustrated. >> reporter: cote said it was a carefreing experience that could have been much -- a terrifying experience that could have been much worse and so easily avoided. >> a few seconds and just tried to slam as much ice off the roof as possible. it could have gone a lot worse and it could save someone's life if you do a better job cleaning it. >> reporter: louisa moller, wbz news. we want to bring you back to the breaking news we told

>> three people badly injured in an atv accident. katie brace is there live with the latest. >> reporter: lisa and liam, we just arrived here on ashburn hill road in fitchburg. i'm going to get out of the way so you can see what investigators are dealing with. we have two atvs involved in an accident. one is on the side in some snow, the other in the middle of the road. i can tell you three people were taken to umass medical. two of them had to be med flighted and that we do know at least one of the victims is a small child. investigators on the scene as they figure out exactly what happened, but again two atvs involved in an accident, three people taken to umass medical, two by med flight and at least one of them is the small child. reporting live in fitchburg katie brace, wbz news. >> thank you. new tonight bill cosby's wife may be on the hot seat. a massachusetts judge denied her request to avoid a deposition. that means she may have to

about the sexual assault accusations against her husband. right now cosby is at his pennsylvania home free on $1 million bail. prosecutors in that state charged him with drugging and sexually assaulting a woman 12 years ago. tonight this cat is on the mend and will soon be up for adoption. his story is not free from heartache. the cat nicknamed smurf is recovering from multiple bite wounds. california rescuers say someone dyed the cat purple and then allowed someone's dog to maul him like a chew toy. we didn't have a winner in last night's powerball drawing, so by saturday this will be the 12th largest powerball jackpot in history. our number of the night, one in 292 million. yup, if you buy a ticket, those are your odd of winning the jackpot. when you went outside today, it was so nice. the snow was melting, a beautiful december day. >> yeah. there was even like a little

house as the snow and ice were melting. >> the beat of nature, kind of felt like march outside, snow melting and the sun, felt pretty comfortable and ended the warmest december every recorded in the history of boston, in fact, for every single state east of the mississippi. every one of them had their warmest december on record. many it wasn't even close. we beat ours by over 4 degrees and that's never happened, a margin of victory that large over the previous record. we had 20 days this hit 50 degrees or warmer, that, too, a record and also a new one set for the least amount of time below freezing. only six days even hit below 32 degrees and today wasn't one of them. worster had only 11 days that hit freezing. quiet out there tonight, no weather issues, temperatures eventually falling back to the upper 20s to lower 30s. a cool start tomorrow but not a bad beginning to 2016. we're watching a nice mix of

could be a couple snow showers or flurries with the cold front tomorrow evening. it's now january and you might say festive flakes. looking at sunrise 7:13, winds west, southwest tomorrow, a nice mix of sun and clouds, fairly mild day, many towns topping 40 degrees and a chance towards evening. for the winter classic great day, maybe a up it warm for the ice, but i don't think -- touch warm for the ice, but i don't think it will melt all this fast, high 41 degrees, 42 boston, worcester 46, nantucket 49. for the weekend not too much activity, snow showers in the mountains of northern new england, really all weekend long. then toward the start of next week pretty strong and a potent arctic front will approach and change our weather. before then upper 30s saturday and sunday, a few towns hitting 40 degrees. if you're running down doing errands enjoying early winter,

where things will be excellent, certainly no complaints here, fresh snow coming down. most ski areas will not climb above freezing for the next few days which means not only some fresh snow but the snow guns are working very efficiently, best weekend so far of the season. then as we look toward the start of next week, in comes the arctic cold, something we haven't talked about yet so far this season. so cold that the wind coming off the warm ocean should produce ocean effect snow on monday, best chance plymouth county toward the cape and the islands. this could be a plowable snow in a few towns, isolated but weekend. here's your accuweather seven- day, 20s monday and tuesday, first time that's happened back to back days since the end of oh, so fondly. stretch. we warm up again by wednesday. lisa and liam, back to you. >> thank you, eric. this looks great, too live

first night where thousands of people are getting ready to

no way. savor an egg mcmuffin any time a fresh cracked egg, canadian bacon and an english muffin mcdonald's all day

okay. we are 37 1/2 minutes away from 2016 and the energy is boston. >> an estimated 1 million people packed into times square waiting for the famous ball to drop where we find weigia jiang live at the middle of it all at the crossroads of the world.

they don't call it the biggest party in the world for nothing. you can feel the excitement coming from the crowd. a lot of people have been here since before the crack of dawn getting their spot. so you can imagine what their day has been like because once they're in they can't go out. so they made friends. you can just see people dancing and celebrating together already even before the strike of midnight and so you can imagine what kind of celebration it will be when that ball actually drops. in addition to all the people you see, you can't miss the 6,000 police officers who are here making sure everyone knows that they are ready to respond to an emergency and they've been planning for any kind of event that might arise. so far it's been very smooth and people tell us they feel very safe because again it's very visible. so everyone just focused on having a good time. back to you. >> all right, thank you and happy new year to you. there's a party continuing

even after we strike midnight. >> we have the winter classic. let's go over to steve for more on that. these teams do not like each other. >> no. the bruins and canadiens do not like each other. bruins took a team photo on the gillette stadium ice today and then had a practice. some of these have played on the biggest stages like the olympics or stanley cup finals, but nothing will compare to the crowd they'll see in foxborough tomorrow. >> it's a special moment. i mean especially here at gillette stadium with 60,000 plus fans. i mean it's something that we don't get to experience at all, so we're going to try to take everything in and enjoy the moment. >> the bruins weren't the only ones to test the rink out. pats head coach bill belichick and claude yulian had their own

little skate this morning as well. >> what i saw from him to be honest is from the second he put his skates on to how he finished, he improved quite a bit. i wish my players could improve that quickly. >> i love claude. he's a great guy. i think that we problem have a lot in common just in the way we koch and look at the game and look -- coach and look at the game and team and things like that. how cool is the special classic goalie match? great images of tom brady, ron gronkowski, julian edelman. hopefully the b's will be as tough to beat in foxborough as the patriots are. >> we wanted to pay tribute to some of their success and their players and make the biggest part of the mask about the pats, i guess, with some bruins colors. so pretty happy with the result. and tom brady and company practiced in foxborough today before heading to miami early

classic that has taken over gillette stadium. believe it or not, rob gronkowski used to play hockey as a youngster. gronk said if he still played, he'd want to be a forward. >> i need the action, so left wing i'd want to be. >> reporter: you weren't aggressive? >> no. i was super aggressive, fights, goal scores, checks. >> reporter: to what age did you play hockey? >> till 9th grade. then i started playing basketball. >> that is so gronk. in the winter classic alumni game today it went into a shootout. one of jai miller's teeth got broken. >> looking at ray borak hi, ding right in the mouth bleeding everywhere. i could feel the chicklet go skating across the ice, but it's hockey, 56 years old. i'll make it. i'll live.

in the college football playoffs tonight clemson beat oklahoma and alabama is trouncing michigan state 38-0. happy new year, everyone. >> hockey player even in retirement a big smile with the blood coming out. >> they are so tough. >> unreal. happy new year, steve, appreciate it. a sob story with a happy ending. >> coming up next how one woman helped a single mom who was in major need of car repairs. chicken apple sausage sandwich. enjoy sweet apple and savory sausage together for under 400 calories.

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michigan gave one woman a very happy new year. >> her saab was not safe to drive and as a single mom she could not afford to fix it. another woman in the shop overheard the conversation and she then offered to help. >> i just started praying. i said lord, i really don't have the money for. this i don't know where it's going to come from. >> i said i don't know what story. i don't know what it is, but here all here on this earth and i feel like i need to help her out. >> lovely. the dealership cut the bill in half and amy, that good samaritan took care of the rest, $430. >> what a fantastic perspective. good to hear ahead of 2016. up next eric will update the forecast. >> and we'll be back as we look at these pictures from the celebration in the last minutes

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>> yeah. >> it's okay.

the next couple days around 40