going on for weeks was suddenly stopped today when we started asking questions. >> we showed you documents that shows there's asbestos in the buildings. it's an abandoned apartment complex. steve, what happened to all of the hazardous stuff pulled from the building? >> reporter: a firefighter told me today that it was simply thrown into dumpsters and taken away somewhere. the materials they're talking about are listed in this report right here about the asbestos in this apartment complex. here is what we're talking about specifically. these floor tiles a firefighter told me he was on his hands and knees scraping floor tiles out of this building so they could burn it and drain with that fire. well, this building specifically is also listed in this report.

>> i did what they asked. >> reporter: well, apparently having a little bit of trouble with the tape there. let me explain to you what has happened here. therapy sensually getting these ready, pulling up the floor tiles. and this firefighter tells us that he essentially had no idea there was asbestos. he did research and found a report that says it's in there. i believe we have a graphic to show you with the response that we just got a little bit ago from the fire department. they say in their statement that firefighters were never directed to remove asbestos. they also say to give us an opportunity to ensure that we have identified all locations and materials that might contain asbestos and further ensure appropriate handling procedures are followed, we

exercises at this location. the location being this apartment complex off of mercy drive with lots of asbestos problems. they are trying to sort this out. we understand that the fire department had a meeting on this today. we will stay on top of this as we figure out how these firefighters might have been exposed and who made the decisions to let that happen. steve barrett, channel 9 eyewitness news. breaking tonight at 6:00, the zika scare has spread into central florida. someone inas cola county has tested positive for the virus. julie has been monitoring the at 4:00. at this hour, julie, there's an online chart where officials in florida. >> bob, health officials say they will update the chart at 2:00 p.m. each day. the cases in florida do not involve pregnant women. instead it involves all people who traveled. now, the department of health is updating a chart on its

so far there's a total of 14 zika cases in the state, with miami-dade having the highest number at 5. now there's one confirmed case in central florida in osceola county. county officials plan to put out traps and monitor the mosquito population closely. the illness started in brazil and in pregnant women it can babies. the cdc plans to have a conference call in the next two weeks to train hospital workers, especially ob-gyn doctors and those who care for pregnant women. back to you. >> the alert was just sent to a high school warning parents that students may have been exposed to whooping cough. the student came to school on january 21st. around 250 students may have come in contact with him. once the district found out, they notified the health department and called parents.

>> she was like asking me if i had any classes with the kid. >> officials say so far no other students have showed symptoms and the sick student hasn't been back to school since. the daughter of orlando city council woman hill. last week we told you that she had bleach on her body. the report says that police questioned a man at the apartment complex she had been visiting but he found her on the bedroom floor not breathing. he also told police that she had been in a fight earlier at a nightclub and that's where she came in contact with the bleach. investigators are still working the case right now. so far they don't have any suspects. hill told channel 9 she will be going to tallahassee to demand more answers. also new at 6:00, 9 investigates discovered a lady lake police officer resigned before he could be fired for

patrol car. phil has been digging for details since the beginning of the year and found that the officer was advertising the sex on craigslist. >> reporter: it has been over a month since i first learned that former officer kevin thompson was under investigation for sexual misconduct involving both his uniform and his patrol car. all of this connected to an ad on craigslist. he filed this letter of resignation at the end of last year. it reads with a heavy heart i resign my position. he goes on to thank the police understanding in this matter. he never mentions the investigation that ended up drawing in the lake county sheriff's office and the state attorney's office. 9 investigates confirms the findings of that investigation. they include allegations that thompson ran an ad on craigslist promising women with his patrol car. it's not clear how many women took advantage of the offer. but one did.

exposing himself in uniform in the city vehicle and she tried to get him to leave his wife. when he wouldn't, the woman took her evidence to police and ended his career with lady lake pd. we learned the state attorney's office had been exploring an assault charge against the police officer. the lake county sheriff's office did not find probable cause that the suspect committed any crime and the state cannot go forward with prosecution of this matter. our repeated attempts of contacting thompson have been unsuccessful so far and i'm working to find out the status of his law enforcement license. >> we also learned that the woman who took that evidence to police ended up asking for the charges to be dropped. we're expecting to get photos and video connected to the case in ex week. an orange county jury has convicted a registered sex offender of exposing himself around children at a tennis court. watson was sentenced to two

probation on the charges. courthouse sources say watson was attacked on the way to the courthouse by inmates after he told them about the charges involving children. new technology helped track down four people trying to run from orlando police. an officer tried pulling over a white car yesterday for having opportunities that were too dark. when the driver sped away, the officer shot the vehicle with a tracking dart. the seminole county sheriff's office helicopter followed the vehicle near i-4 in sanford where four people bailed out and the pilot was able to see which exact apartment they ran into. all four people were arrested, including the driver, lemon. a former marion county deputy has pleaded not guilty right now to excessive force charges. jessie terrell and his lauren entered the charge yesterday. we told you when he was indicted by a grand jury last month. he is one of the five deputies accused of violating this unarmed suspect's civil rights by beating him during an arrest in 2014.

later this month. the superintendent who oversees mateland middle school has sent out a letter to parents to ease worries about a fight on campus. we were there for a packed pta meeting earlier this week. that letter reassures parents there are no known gangs on campus and the threats of violence were unsubstantiated. we're waiting for reports from the mateland pd. work has already begun on the relief school. we discovered the project is still in jeopardy. the site has been cleared and crews are weeks away from raising the first walls on the site. we have been covering the ongoing fight for years. jeff is live there tonight. there is a push to shut down construction. >> reporter: the homeowners filed this motion for a temporary injunction. they want it shut down. the land has been cleared and patted out.

let's stop this until a judge makes a decision on whether the county had the right to allow the school to be built out here. people moved to this rural settlement area to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. so when the county granted the school district a special exemption to build a high school they were not happy. ricardo is part of homeowners suing the county for the exception. he is concerned about increased traffic and noise that he has seen increase as the lot has been cleared. in the past day or so, this construction trailer went up with the fencing blocking this auction banner. the homeowner is trying to auction off the home and move away from here. it's hard to see as people drive by. with fears of construction starting, the homeowners filed a new injunction, hoping the judge will halt activity until trial. >> we feel taxpayers' dollars

if you continue doing construction and you lose in court, who is going to pay for those funds? >> the only thing that can help the homeowners is this injunction. >> reporter: legal experts say they will have an uphill battle. to get the injunction, homeowners will have to show they can inwin the case and show that they will suffer harm. >> the quality of life will be impacted significantly. >> reporter: and the school district doesn't foresee this slowing down construction at all. the walls around the property should be going up in the next month or so. they expect to have the buildings up in the next 6 to 8 months. they hope to have it open at the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year. jeff field, channel 9 eyewitness news. the next student school report for the fsa should be easier to understand. the department of education revealing the new system today.

an explanation of what level means and a comparison of performance between the school district and the state level. monday the orlando city council will give a thumbs up for millions of dollars to the creative village. the city is expected to okay 6 # million dollars. the developer will give $7 million towards the project. it will be built in the place of the old arena. a deputy wants to make a special unit to curb crime you may not be aware of on i drive, prostitution. most of the calls of service are for thefts and burglaries but deputies say if they get rid of that element, the other will follow. they are proposing to have an undercover unit for i drive and just for the prostitution.

>> more police, more -- more police where i live. like stings. >> the sheriff's office has worked diligently to stop crime in the area. the sheriff's office has not told us if they plan to put this idea into place. investigators say legally purchased marijuana was just seized in app upscale orange county neighborhood. >> new at 6:00, how laws in other states are making it easier for drug dealers here to bring pot into central florida. >> plus the problems we uncovered today with trash service.

>> local drug agents are working with investigators in washington state tonight to find the person who legally purchased large amounts of high grade marijuana there and then

florida to drug dealers. karla ray was told that more high quality weed is being brought in to be sold on your streets. >> reporter: one of the suspects were carry three boxes of marijuana into this upscale orlando neighborhood. and we found out that the weed inside was high grade and worth a lot of money. shipped in by air inside identical two feet by three feet boxes much investigators found vacuum sealed high grade marijuana they say stephen brown and sean secura planned to turn for a profit. >> they had the two boys zip lock tied on the grass over here. >> reporter: neighbors saw the takedown after the boxes were flagged by a k-9 at oia. they believe it was purchased legally in washington state

>> they were going in and out of the garage. >> reporter: they are seeing more marijuana come from legalized states. this strain tahoe og is considered very strong. agents are still trying to identify exactly where it was purchased and who shipped it here. >> i didn't associate with them. >> i did see quite a few cars coming and going. >> reporter: investigators told us just these three boxes of the bud are worth $100,000. and officials at this ups store told agents the men had received identical boxes, 26 of them, since mid november. >> we don't want it here. we're glad it's over. >> reporter: now, because the two men only lived inside this home for a short time and both originally from out of state, they are being held without bond, considered flight risks. karla ray, channel 9 eyewitness news. >> inside the home was a stolen

you can see some of the other marijuana, money and guns confiscated during the raid at wftv.com/slideshows. a natural gas pipeline will run through central florida. the transmission was authorized to build a line to south florida. it will reduce energy costs. construction is set to begin in a few months and will be completed by summer of 2017. on week five of the automated trash pickup system we found another yard with no pickup all year. neighbors tell us they have been calling about it for weeks. >> what would you like to tell the new haulers. >> a number of things. please come get it. >> we called the county and the pickup occurred within two hours.

e-mail to support solid waste pickup problems on wftv.com/weblinks. covering news where you live county by county. in orange county, a teacher is in the classroom despite allegations she hit some of her students. this complaint also accused linda calter of pulling a lollipop out of a student's mouth, damaging dental work. but the administration still has not taking any action against her teaching certificate. that's because she wanted to settle but the negotiations failed so she is taking this case to court. >> they're humans. of course they're not perfect. they're going to do things they shouldn't do. >> she says she denies the allegations but we could not reach her for comment. the bellevue avenue bridge will be back open for daytona beach's busiest times of the year. officials will have a series of soft openings for the bridge between february 17th and the 23rd for speed weeks.

then the bridge will be permanently open in april. it's been shut down since august due to a widening project along i-95. in marion county, workers are finally making progress on a huge washout. here is what the hole looked like on 83 avenue last month. at the time the local neighborhood association said it was having problems getting permission to get work done on one homeowner's property. this week neighbors told us that it's finally been filled in. the weekend can't get here fast enough and you're giving us nice weather. >> i'm watching the sun peak over the horizon. almost the weekend. 80s for three straight days. now we're back to reality here. february generally in my opinion, i've been here 20 years, february is one of the colder months. we have fronts that rush through here one after another. 55 degrees now.

last 24 hours representative of our cold front that marched through last night. and you certainly felt it this morning if you were out and around. temperatures are falling fast now but we have clouds already at the coast. they will move inland overnight and we will see them in our sky gradually throughout the evening and especially in the early morning. that will hold our temperatures on the steady side in the lower 50s. i still think we will make it down to the upper 40s briefly. we will warm up towards daybreak with the clouds rolling through. i will be in mount dora tomorrow for the 41st annual art festival. join me. you will need a light jacket and breezy. not too bad of a day. isolated showers also as daytime highs get into the mid to upper 60s for most of us tomorrow. future track shows rainfall coming in from the low clouds along the coast. primarily just cloud cover overnight tonight.

beaches. a couple sprinkles over the anterior. then a storm system develops east of the state. that will drag another cold front through here. we will say good-bye to the rain for sunday for your look at sunday. 59 to 60 degrees. and that's it for super bowl festivities outdoors. but it will be nice. sunshine. there's your five-day forecast, weekend always in view. 60 on sunday. another cooldown.

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>> after winning just two games in january, february has not started any better for the orlando magic. they lost the first two this month. another tough one tonight as they host the clippers. there won't be any easy games for the orlando magic over the final two and a half months of the season. of their final 34 games, 21 are against teams over .500. that's the most in the nba. now, as for tonight's game, the clippers enter the showdown 15 games over .500, toting the western conference fourth best record. the magic won't have to deal with griffin. he is out with a broken hand.

don't have to deal with blake griffin. the bad news, more chris paul. they play small quite a bit. and chris controls the game. and they keep it simple. >> reporter: gordon will be part of the dunk contest. this will be the second straight year that a magic player will take part in the eighth time overall. february 20th. meanwhile the orlando city soccer club took the day off and played tourist in brevard county. they watched the rocket launch and visited the space center. they have been training in melbourne ahead of the preseason opener against eastern florida state college. tipoff is about 30 minutes away between the magic and the clippers. jay jay is back in town. we will tell you how he did tonight at 11:00. >> see you then, christian. we're staying on top of the breaking news in osceola county where a traveler has tested

>> we're checking in with disney and universal to see what they're doing to keep guests safe. abc news with david muer is up next. for more check out wftv.com.

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