a horrific wreck in hyattsville. the crash killed three people in the church van and the driver of the pickup. we have learned that the man had a history of dangerous living. kevin lewis is live with what he found out. kevin? kevin: police tell us 30-year-old flores was fleeing from another accident scene when he lost control of his pickup truck and he hit that church van. why was florida fleeing -- why was flores fleeing? if it was because of alcohol, police say it would not have been the first time. >> prince george's county 911. what is the address of the emergency? >> there are two vehicles across the street engulfed in flames. children on a van. kevin: 911 calls describe the carnage that police say medardo flores caused. two wrecks in two minutes leaving five dead. >> hit a car in front of a shopping center. it kept going.

it went up and all you heard was another crash. and heard an explosion. kevin: flores lived in the hyattsville home with his wife and four children. andrew blocker says he would hang out with him and drink beer. >> what he enjoyed doing was working. working. coming home to take care of his family. >> yet, maryland court records show that the police arrested flores in 2011 for second-degree arson and disinstruction of property. then -- destruction of property. then he was cited for drunk driving, driving on the wrong side of the road. flores' son. >> he didn't seem like that kind of guy. >> the lingering question. was flores under the influence sunday night? >> there is a huge accident here. a car is on fire. there are so many people hurt. kevin: just hard to listen to. tonight three teddy bears sit

behind a telephone pole where the crash happened. flores' toxicology result could take days to process. if not weeks. live in hyattsville, i'm kevin lewis, abc7 news. maureen: thank you, kevin. our coverage of the deadly crash in hyattsville continues on wjla.com. there you can hear all the calls to 911 and you can see how members of the victim's church are coming together to mourn and help the crash survivors. it's all under the top stories. leon: frightening scene in the morning rush on i-70 in frederick. take a look at the tractor trailer that came within feet to going off an embankment. i took cranes two hours to remove the vehicle. no one was hurt fortunately. ureen: update to a story we brought you as breaking news. prince george's county detectives are canvassing a springdale neighborhood in the hunt for a kyesterday afternoone shot bernard parker as he walked from his house to the

car. he died last night. it appears that parker was a random victim of an attempted robbery. leon: tonight we are hearing from a father who put his life on the line to get to his children when the home caught fire. this started when carlos pettigrew was racing home to his children. he flipped his car. what he did next is nothing short of extraordinary. stephen tschida spoke with the father. he has quite a story to tell. stephen: oh, yeah. incredible story. this is what is left of the family home. burned out shell at this point. about 10:30 this morning, carlos got a phone call from his daughter. he was in a parent-teacher conference. this is what happened when he was racing home. we have a photo of the survivor. it flipped a half a mile away. witnesses raced to the scene. they got him out and called 911. they said sit still. we have an ambulance on the way. but he took off on foot. got in another vehicle.

someone drove him to a block of his home. he got out and he couldn't wait and he ran to the house to see that the children were all right. this is what he told me about 45 minutes ago when we tald about what we went through this morning. >> i got a phone call that there was a fire in the house. i told them get out of the house. the phone went dead. i didn't know if they were still in the house or not. i got in the car and drove as fast as i could to get here. i was worried about my children. stephen: both carlos and his wife were not at home. the couple's three children and their niece were in the house. all of the children got out all right. one more bit of good news the dog was trapped in the basement. but when the firefighters got here, they kicked open the basement doors and the dog got out and is safe as well. a happy ending but a total loss of the house. reporting live, stephen tschida, abc7 news. maureen: thank you. today was veterans day.

the nation paused to honor the 19 million living american veterans and those who came before them. president obama: you are part of an unbroken chain of patriots who have served the country with honor through the life of our nation. maureen: at the wreath-laying at arlington national cemetery, president obama promised more improvement to the veterans administration and at the world war ii memorial, bob dole. dole served in the army in a war and awarded a bronze medal and two purple hearts. leon: tomorrow bethesda army veteran will receive a medal of honor for herorism on what he calls the worst day of his life. it was three years ago captain growburg and his team were part of a security detail escorting a brigadier general. that's when the danger truck in the form of two suicide bombers. he and his comrades pushed the

first bomber to the ground. >> hit him. you know, my rifle. grabbed him by the suicide vest. throw him down to the ground. detonated. eight seconds. you don't have time to think. you react. >> on thursday at the white house groberg will receive the military's highest i ward. he says the real heros are those in the group that died that day and says he will be thinking of them. we have more of kellye lynn's interview with captain groberg online at wjla.com. of course, watch for live coverage of the medal of honor ceremony. we will have it tomorrow morning on the cyst erstation newschannel8. maureen: coming up on "abc7 news at 6:00". the mystery has been solved. abc7 is there as a woman is reunited with cherished family members that had become lost in time. leon: what is on this tree? this is not a typical christmas tree. we will show you where it is turning heads next.

doug: a cold front hooking up to a storm center will give us a chance at showers and thunderstorms even though it's quiet outside the belfort furniture weather center right now. leon: abc7 is a luting america's veterans today with pictures that you have been sharing with us at pics@wjla.com. we'll be right back.

leon: it might be mid-november but it is looking like christmas in silver spring. maureen: in the tall structure decorated there, today is not a christmas tree. mike carter-conneen reporting it's afestevus tree and is getting a lot of attention. >> trying to figure it out. mike: in downtown silver spring, visitors are baffled by the 35-foot fall behemoth. >> i don't know what to say. it's crazy. >> each year, they commission a tree art instimulation. minnesota artist carl unish call it well-seasoned greetings. >> the sculptureal storm i play with. >> this was for toys that were donated to children. last year it had musical instruments donated to students. the theme this year is foodie festivus encouraging donations to the food bank. >> it will be here all season long and at the whole foods market as well.

>> when complete it will feature 200 feet of the utensil tinsel. flowsnakes. 30 giant take-out containers that serve as lanterns. >> the bottle topper is made from the 80 beer bottles. >> so far the reviews are positive. >> once they figure it out, most like the tree. the nontraditional holiday tradition. >> it's so diverse i think it fits. >> tree-lighting ceremony held saturday night. leon: up next at "abc7 news at 6:00" -- reunited with her father's memories she thought had been lost.

maureen: doug hill breaks down when we could see storms tomorrow. erin: coming up in sportses we talk about the cluster headaches. the wizards' head coach randy wittman sounds off and calls his team soft. leon: abc7 saluting heroes on the veterans day. thank you for the service. the ve[ female announcer ] business travel isn't just about the going.

it's also about the going home. and being connected all along the way. whether you're working or recharging, do biness travel on your terms. acela. take off. maureen: there are calls for donald trump to restore trees he chopped down along the potomac river. more than 6,300 people signed a petition on change.org. they want trump to donate 500 trees to the northern virginia regional park. trump had 500 trees cut down to improve river views from the loudoun county golf course. leon: major matthew rode for 13 hours in the marine corp base quantico.

it raised money ill service member in the family. maureen: here is suzanne kennedy. suzanne: a reunion she wasn't anticipating. this box of world war ii momentos was found in the attic of the district height home where the mother and the father once lived. they were handed over to lauren police who received a citizen tip and was able to locate the family of amando

custodio the navy steward shown in many of the pictures. >> i feel deeply touched. like my father is here again. he has been gone for a long time. suzanne: stacked in a box were naturalization papers war rations and letters dating back to the 1940's. he served in the navy for 32 years. >> dadly loved being in the service. that was his life. >> shane says it was just like her mother to carefully preserve the wartime keepsakes for future generations. >> it's special to reunite people with their property but a daughter of a veteran and

reclaiming the property from world war ii is special. suzanne: they will probably send hours going through each and every item. around holiday season they plan to share it with other members of the family. in laurel, suzanne kennedy, abc7 news. maureen: thank you. all day we asked you to honor the veteran in your life by sharing photos with us. you can see the pictures and share your own right now in a special photo gallery on wjla.com. leon: we had great weather for the holiday. maure: movely day. doug: it was cloudy but worked out well. sunshine. a lot of changes weather wise. over the weekend definitely going to feel like november. let's get started with the numbers. nowhere near the record. but we have partly cloudy skies across the region.

54 in aspen hills. southeast washington and northeast is 58. typical temperatures by the region. tomorrow we have areas in the 40's. fairfax at 46. manassas 44. germantown is 45. asp hill is 46. largo is 46. inside the district is 49 degrees. the big story is storm from nebraska and iowa. there has been heavy snow. southern end of this system a cold front to pull moisture along. come through our area. late morning and early afternoon tomorrow. we have the potential to see the showers and the isolated thunderstorm. but unrelated to this.

we will have an isolated thunderstorm or two. the future cast model shows tomorrow morning with the area of rain possible. you get the idea of the timing. later in the aternoon it will clear out and a change of the wind direction brings us drier air. we get through the day on friday and it is downright chilly with the gusty winds at 25 to 30 miles per hour gusts. 60 for a high. saturday and sunday, breezy and chilly. monday we warm up. but a lot of sunshine getting through friday and tuesday of next week. remind you that this saturday evening at national harbor 6:15 i'm helping santa claus light the christmas tree at the national harbor at 6:15. bundle up. it's going to be breezy and chilly. sunday is chilly in alexandria for the u.s. national 12k. temperatures in the 30's early in the morning. warming through the 40's. that is the latest. leon, maureen, erin? maureen: thank you, doug. leon: speaking of santa, erin

has been talking to a round jolly fellow. erin: yes. that is right. he is dealing with an issue that many folks have to deal with. the redskins nose tackle terrance knighton opens up about his excruciating migraines. but the wizards are struggling. and randy wittman has seen enough. n: the wizards dropomments

their third straight game. erin: it was a loss to the thunder. randy wittman was so angry he called team and you better believe their main focus moving forward is defense. that was the foundation of washington success in the past two playoff runs, the defense. but right now, in the losing streak they are giving up 119 points per game. >> guys can play 120 minutes for one defensive rebound. i can get a rebound. we're not manning up. that is what it boils down to. we didn't have anybody play good. erin: maybe we should get leon out there. he could get a rebound. leon: one. one. erin: defense is one of the redskins' strongest areas and the d-line hope to welcome

back terrance knighton who didn't make the trip to new england because of migraine headaches. he has been dealing with this when he was a kid. he is dealing with on set of migraines and he tweeted sunday night he spent two days in a dark room. today pot roast spoke candidly about what doctors call "cluster headaches." >> it's something you have to deal with for a certain period of time. on 1 to 10 the pain is a 50, it's something i have to tolerate. leon: henrik lundqvist wanted to reward a fan ast last night's victory so he threw a stick in the crowd. but that rangers' fan wants that stick pretty bad. the all-out battle breaks out. security got involved. guess what? nobody went home with the stick. before we go, former nationals manager matt williams will

returning to the diamondbacks and their third base coach. that is the position he held before he came to the nationals. he landed on his feet and went back to where he came from. leon: right where he came from in the first place. maureen: get ready for rain. doug: take a look at the forecast as we head through the overnight hours. dy. 39-49 degrees. tomorrow is breezy. mild and low 60's. look for showers and the isolated thunderstorms late morning early afternoon with a cold front coming through and clearing late in the day. steve rudin has more on the timing of the cold front and the rain and the isolated thunder and the milder air next week. we'll tell you about the colder air this weekend. maureen: okay. "world news tonight" with david muir is next. he will tell you about the severe weather around the country. as states are bracing for tornadoes, blizzards and rain coming up. leon: stay

tonight, the major storm hitting right now. blizzard conditions and tornado warnings at this hour. the system moving east, multiple car crashes, millions will get hit tonight and tomorrow and we're in the middle of it. new video tonight of that plane crash into an american neighborhood. we now know nine people killed on board. the fight night fallout. trump doubles down today. would he employ a deportation force to send millions of undocumented immigrants home? the deadly explosion. more than a dozen injured. some critically. and the warning as americans turn on the heat again. the simple test you can do at home. the major lawsuit tonight. the birth control mixup. the pills and the packages mistake blamed for more than 100 surprise pregnancies. and on this veterans day, the world war ii heroes about to sing a song you won't forget.