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this is wjz tv, wjz hd and wjz.com. baltimore. >> from the city, to the counties to your neighborhood, now it's complete coverage. it's wjz, maryland's news station. >> you might want to hurry. there's houses next door burning fast. the wind is blowing hard. >> calls as people routt reach out for help as winds whip up a fire leaving several firefighters hurt. >> i'm adam may. tonight, those firefighters are recovering and we're getting access inside frantic 9 # 11 calls as the blaze broke out. wndle live on the story tonight. here is the latest. >> those recordings were just released tonight. you could hear fear in the neighbors' voices as they brace for the wind to spread the

flames. take a listen. >> it's about to start spread. >> reporter: frantic 911 callers got it right when they warneddispatchers wind was fueling a fire. >> the wind is belloing. >> it is windy outside. >> you might want to hurry. the wind is blowing hard. >> reporter: when firefighters burst inside the riverdale heights house, the gust turned the flames into a fire ball too create add blow torch effect. the fire was in the basement. that blow torch comes up the steps and creates a chimney out the front door. >> reporter: several firefighters were engulfed and rushed to the hospital. by saturday, five had been treated and released, but two men remain in critical condition at the washington medical center. 21-year-old ethan soarle and 22- year-old kevin o'toole. they were both inside the first trucks to arrived to the scene where the mood is somber. fire personnel have been visiting the hospital

throughout the day. >> everyone knows what this is like and it's very difficult, but they are hold are their own. >> soarle has respiratory burns to his airway and o'toole has burns to his body. questions remain. the house is vacant, but there was a car in the driveway when the fire broke out. investigators have not determined its origin or cause. the fire chief tells us both victims at the hospital are awake and responsive. he says the next 48 hours are critical engaging how they will ultimately recover. >> a special foundation for injured firefighters is paying for victims' loved ones to stay in the dc area as those firefighters recover. a construction worker is killed on a maryland work site. it happened near solomon in calvert county earlier today. few details have been released so far. we know rescue crews worked for hours trying to recover an

unidentified body. state officials are investigating to try to find out what happened. a gunman infiltrates a government building in afghanistan, shoots two american officers and thenfull -- flees. the violent demonstrations across that country. >> reporter: a gunman got i side a heavily guarded -- inside a heavily guarded government building on saturday and at close range killed two high-ranking american military officers. >> in the video, opened fire, pulled his weapon and opened fire on members of the international security assistance force. >> reporter: the dead men are believed to be a colonel and a major. the taliban claims responsibility calling it retaliation for burning thekoran. angry protesters around afghanistan took to the streets for if i have ath day outraged over what -- fifth day outraged

over korans were burned at an air base. president obama has done little to stop the uprising. dozens of afghanis have been killed and hundreds wounded since word gout out tuesday -- got out tuesday. >> it's very regretful to see the loss of life again on this day. this is a very, very tragic incident. >> reporter: two afghan offeringses say the shooting inside the -- officials say the shooting did not vod involve any of a -- did not involve any afghanis. reports say it was not a western shooter. with protests still raging, they said he recalled all nato personnel for their own safety and the alliance remains committed to its partnership with the afghan government and helping it gain control when u.s. forces leave in 2014. drew levinson, wjz eyewitness

news. >> a spokesman for the taliban says the shooter had an accomplice that helped him get into the compound. violence continues to rip through syria. [ shouting] this new video shows wounded people running from a building in the town of idlib width been shelled by syrian government forces. the international red cross is work to go evacuate the first of the wounded and six women and children. international pressure continues mounting on the syrian government to call for a cease-fire. south african apartheid nelson mandela is recovering from a hospital undergoing a hereina surgery -- hernia surgery this morning. he will likely be sent home in a couple of days. he's considered the founding father and hero of south afterria's -- south africa's

dewho crassy. police are investigating a deadly accident when he was killed while trying to cross a busy road in sav roccaville. police say rodriguez was in a car with two friends when they stopped along the road. rodriguez got out of the car and the car left. police are still looking for the vehicle that hit him. the pain at the pump continues across the country. the national average for a gallon of unleaded regular rose three more cents overnight. according to aaa. , the national average is now $3.67 and in some parts of the country they're seeing more than $4. this is up 30 cents from just last month. here is a look at the gas prices in baltimore right now. last month we were paying $3.41. today, the average is now up to $3.64. in michigan, the battle among gop hopefuls is boiling down to a two-man race. mitt romney and rick santorum are crisscrossing michigan try trying to win over the --

trying to win over the undecided voters. >> reporter: for mitt romney, michigan is personal. it's where he was born and raised and now looking for another primary win. >> this is a critical time. i think i'm the only guy in this race that will be able to beat barack obama. >> reporter: romney also attacked his chief rival rick santorum trying to portray him as a washington insider with an iffy record. >> this is not time for a life long policy to explain why they vote for this or that based on what they were asked to do by fellow colleagues. >> referee: santorum -- >> reporter: san for yum fired back -- san for yum fired back saying he could win as the only conservative in the race. >> you can vote for someone who says one thing one day or the next day what's necessary to win or are you going to vote for somebody you trust? >> reporter: the economy is the number one issue on their minds helping them to narrow down that i choice at the polls. linda lost her job at gm and

likes santorum and romney, but thinks romney has what it takes to turn around the economy. >> he's demonstrated he can solve issues. >> reporter: romney won the michigan primary in 2008 a victory he's looking to repeat on tuesday. in lansing, michigan, danielle nottingham, wjz eyewitness news. >> neither newt gingrich nor ron paul are actively competing in michigan. they're focusing on states where they're more likely to pick up delegates at the gop convention coming up in august. mta's program to give people with disabilities a ride is coming under fire. a maryland state audit is criticizing the $60 million program saying rides were given to people who didn't need them or didn't meet the requirements. the mta mobility program provided 1.7 million rides last year. mta officials say they're now screening their applications better. if you like gambling, listen up. in week the final structural

beam was set into the place at arundel mills a new destination restaurant has been announced and will bring with it more traffic. >> reporter: the baltimore institution the prime rib unveiled what their newest restaurant will look like once the american can a queeno -- casino is opened. >> we have a broad audience for the casino interat the same time complex -- entertainment complex. >> reporter: also here a bobby play it restaurant, cheese cake factory and floims -- fill yoip -- phillip's seafood. >> great restaurants may be great for the casino, but travel back and listen to those who opposed the project. >> i'm an avid gambler, but the traffic, i'm against it. >> reporter: people who work in the mall and don't have to live around it and live with it, you

don't understand what we're going through. >> reporter: there is no doubt the traffic will now increase. the developer has long held that the traffic plan is adequate and the area around the mall is designed to handle the gambling and dining guests who come to the casino. the project will mean 1,500 jobs. at arundel mills, wjz eyewitness news. back to you on tv hill. >> just drove by the other day. construction is moving along pretty fast. the casino is set to open this summer and fully completed by october. still to come, blast off. china launches a satellite into outer space. find out what its mission is. >> rat poison, whatever you want to call it, it will kill. it's listed on there. >> it's a poison plot and teachers are reacting after elementary school students tried to take out their teacher. also, wicked winds, strong gusts tear through maryland. we'll show you some of the damage coming up. black history month ends in a couple of days, but there's still time to learn about

maryland's african-american contributions. the events that gave people a free pass to do it. i'm meteorologist berndette woods. these gusty winds are starting to back up. we have big changes coming your way the rest of the weekend. more after this break. complete coverage continues with adam may and meteorologist berndette woods and sports with dan saunders. it's wjz, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

it's only 34 degrees out there. cold and windy in central maryland tonight. berndette will have the complete first warning weather forecast coming up. beautiful liftoff. successful satellite launch for china. this is the 11th launch for the country's indigenous position location network. they started beginning building in 2000 with the goal of breaking its dependence on the u.s. global positions system. a couple of california fifth graders plotted to poison their teachers. three students tried to put rat poison in their teach's coffee. the teacher didn't drink t one of the students knocked it over after having a change of heart. the students have been suspendedment others say it's

not enough. >> they find out you can hatch a plan to kill a teacher and the worst that's going to happen to you is you'll get expelled to an elementary school. what is that saying? >> fresno police are investigating, but so far no criminal charges have been filed in the case. nike's newest shoe is crating chaos -- creating chaosacross the country. police called out for crowd control when people tried cutting in line. all the craziness over that nike foam -- i knew i was going to mess up the name of this shoe. it's the foam posit. that's it. sorry. i just don't have any interest in getting one. they retail for $220, but they can be sold for more than that. >> the retail is $240. the resell is between $15 maybe up to $4,500. if you're going to pay me a couple thousand to sit outside for a couple hours, i'll sit right out here. doctors not make money like

this right now. >> the shoe craze is headed to here in maryland. this is a look outside the prince george's county plaza in hyattsville days before the shoe went on sale yesterday morning. black history month ends in a couple of days and that's still enough time to celebrate african-american heroes especially those from maryland. today, the state eaft largest african-american museum opened their doors for free. >> reporter: much of maryland's african-american history sits in the halls of the museum in baltimore city. this weekend, it's celebrating black history month and offered visitors a chance to learn something new. >> i was just taking a look at the exhibit here with mccreedy who was a nurse and thought about my own mom who is a nurse. >> reporter: inside the museum's atrium and theater, visitors got a chance to learn about community service organizationsment for others like jason taylor, he wanted a tour of the three galleries for his boys. >> they have to see a lot of

different things and be exposed to everything that they can possibly be exposed to i feel. >> reporter: the admission was waved today. for some folks, that meant no excuses not to visit. >> it's free, so i came on down. >> reporter: and maybe come back again next month. in baltimore, i'm gigiette. >> it was sponsored by verizon. high winds wreaked havoc in parts of maryland. they left behind downed powerlines and a couple of damaged buildings. the winds were so strong some people thought it was a tornado. one store had bricks blown off the side of the building and in addition to the damage, there was massive power outages in that area. here in baltimore, the height high winds did cause damage outside the baltimore convention center downtown. you can see right here the strong gusts are to blame for bringing down this pole right there on pratt street. you could see crews had to come

out and get it out of the street. it did cause some traffic delays for a little while. the ravens banner seems to beholding up ok in all of that. it was really, really uncomfortably windy out there today too started last night when that cold front went through. winds usually called by the difference of pressure, so when you have a really deep low pressure and strong high pressure building in, that's what kicks up all the winds. we're just starting to see them let up right now. >> it's got to be creating a wind chill tonight. >> it is. we'll dwetd to that in a -- get to in a in a moment. peak wind gusts, 64 miles per hour in frederick county. that is approaching hurricane status. 74 miles per hour would make a hurricane status wind. obviously, we're not talk about that type of weather right now, but wind gusts over 50 miles per hour for a lot of maryland even middle river at 49 miles per hour and sparrows point at 44 miles per hour. take a look at the temperatures right now. it's 34 degrees around here. what we're going to do is take you back to the winds and show you that they are still up

somewhat between 15-5 miles per hour with -- 15-25 miles per hour with gusts higher than that, but look at the temperatures. we were in the 30s. it makes it feel like the 20s. oakland feels like 11 degrees outside. look at all the 20 5es across the state. -- 20s across the state. here is actual air temperature this afternoon. we did get to 45 for our high. below average. 34, that's our current temperature and that's the low on the date. with that average being 47, we're going to be close to it tomorrow. that's only for tomorrow because like most rounds of cold air this year, they're not lasting very long. we are going way up in the next couple of days once again. right now though, here is that cold air just carved out over the northern part of the country. it's not going to last long. you also see these rounds of snowshowers. did pile up snow in the western slopes here in garrett and allegheny county and any of the ski resorts. pennsylvania down into west virginia but all of that is going to shut off as those winds shut off and they turn around to the southwest and

here comes the warmer air. tomorrow in the upper 40s. by the time we hit monday, we're back up in the 60s. here is how the forecast comes together. on the water, small craft advisory still in affect. the winds die down and turn around to the southwest. here is that forecast. tonight, it's still wind yusmeiro petit -- windy out there. going back to 20 degrees, tomorrow a calmer day. a lot of sunshine. we're going up to 48 and it will feel cool, but that's pretty much our average. look at the rest of the week. once again, way above average. drops to 61 on monday. a front passes by to the north. it looks like it's going to die out. the next front comes wednesday. clouds and some rain and pushes us up to 65 degrees. it will be slow to clear on thursday which is march 1th already. can you believe that? >> we'll take it. i'm ready to fire up the grill. thank you so much. next, sports tonight. the orioles infield take shape in florida. your spring ,,,,

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stan here with our wjz fans sport report. we're already taking spring training. >> we have more to talk about. let's start with baseball from our gulf coast. features birds first and third baseman mark reynolds, a healthy mark reynolds getting acclimated to his second o's spring camp insarasota compared to this time last year among other things he battled a bothersome hand injury. this year -- >> coming in a lot more confident this year knowing what to expect. it's looking like a promising year. hopefully i can stay healthy and keep working hard in spring training and translate into a good year in baltimore. >> last year reynolds led the majors with 3 # 1 errors and -- 31 errors and led in strikeouts with 96 and he was fourth in american league homers with 37.

college hoops now. maryland on the road led georgia tech 37-31 at halftime and then went stone cold offensively in the second half except for stoglin. that makes it 66-65 #-rbgs maryland with 2:00 -- 66-65, maryland, with 2:00 left in the contest. the closing sects. tech leading, but that shot goes for naught from maryland freshman nick faust and georgia tech beats maryland. local college lacrosse now. big game today for a pair -- pardon me, yes, oh, yes, this just finished. now we can show you all kind of slam dunks tonight in the nba slam dunk competition. tomorrow's all-star game tomorrow. there's evans from the utah jazz. he's your new dunk king after dunking two basketballs at one time. moving right along now, we've got more highlights. here we are. loyola, big game today from

mike sawyer. he had four goals. so did his teammate sean o'sullivan against towson. the greyhounds two guys combined for eight goals. that's the first time that happened since 2010 and for the fifth straight time it's loyola over towson 13-6 the final score. this series overall tied at 27- 27 apiece. john hopkins coach meantime taking on siena and their coach. he's a loyola grad. siena came out confident of winning, but he says not under my watch. he made it 4-2, hopkins. then came stanwhich can that name so familiar in circles. he's a freshman out of boys latin shooting and scoring. hopkins winning 9-5. moving right along, prelude to tomorrow's daytona 500 at the big oval. scary wreck.

all under justin for a few anxious moments. here on the final lap, sheet metal everywhere. all those guys bumping into each other, but james buelstra qeezs by and -- squeezes by and wins amid a lot of flying debris. we'll have a lot for you tomorrow, so see you then. >> he's a good driver or he was lucky to get through. >> kind of both. >> stan, thanks. still to come on eyewitness news, lin-sanity for dessert. how you can enjoy a piece of the basketball star next. mine was earned over the south pacific in 1943.

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ben and jerry's the new flavor available only in boston. check it out. it's all in honor of the harvard grad and been sensation jeremy lin. it has frozen yogurt, swirls of honey and a waffle cookie you can dunk in it. we'll ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,