with our top story at 6:00. reporter: good evening. there is some sadness and sentimentality in the port city tonight, the gas light company scarred by a ferocious fire, the devastating. so many here in the city have only wonderful things to say about this market street restaurant, famous for its pizza. everyone hoping the owner will rebuild and open again soon. >> seems like a creosote fire because you could see the yellow smoke and smell it. reporter: dennis mcintyre is a contractor who had just grabbed a cup of coffee this morning at breaking ground when he saw smoke. he stood next to some of the kitchen crew from the gas light company restaurant and from the top of a parking garage next-door watched fire crews battle the blaze. >> can't tell you how many times i've eaten at the gas light and it was great food, great employees, and great service, year for it. reporter: portsmouth firefighters training on the

over market street wednesday morning at the same time the 911 calls came pouring in. >> crews arrived to find fire on the first floor that extended up around the chimney out on the roof, with heavy black smoke and brown smoke coming from the rear of the building. reporter: the building is 170 years old, according to the restaurant's website, and survived the great fire in 1880 unscathed. today it was not so lucky. >> they found the fire had traversed the third floor and subsequently a second, third and finally a fourth alarm was transmitted, which you see behind me. reporter: the portsmouth gas light company is famous for its wood fired pizzas. the fire broke out just as surrounding businesses were opening up shop for the day. thankfully, no one was hurt. >> we had a lot of, we had access to the roof quickly, attack lines underneath the fire almost immediately.

reporter: fire officials tell us that investigators believe they have determined the cause of this fire, they aren't quite yet. it is not believed to be suspicious. live in portsmouth, amy coveno, wmur news 9. josh: a former camp counselor who admitted to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in august of 2012 will serve time in prison after pleading guilty to three felony counts of sexual assault, and tonight officials say david johansen will also plead guilty to similar charges in massachusetts. kristen carosa joins us now with more. reporter: david johansen will serve two to six years the prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy. in front of the victim and his family, david johansen pleaded guilty for sexually assaulting the then 15-year-old boy in august of 2012 in nashua. according to prosecutors, the two met while at a christian camp in hillsboro, where johansen was a counselor.

was coming through the area and wanted to see if he could stay at his place for the night. reporter: the victim told investigators johansen sexually assaulted him during the night. at the court hearing, he spoke about how that has affected him. >> i have a hard time trusting people. i do not believe in god any more. i don't go to church. reporter: prosecutors say the victim did come forward and when police questioned johansen he admitted to what he had done. >> i'm a bigger man now because i'm up here. you're going somewhere, and i do feel bad for you, but you do need, you have need a lot of help. reporter: he will serve two to six years in prison and prosecutors say he faces similar charges in massachusetts. >> at least three other charges for similar conduct are pending

will plead to on december 14. reporter: prosecutors say he'll be sentenced to four to six years for those charges. the victim's mother says she's proud of her son for having the courage to tell his story. >> he says he's lost faith, but i know deep down how he was brought up and i think that's still there and hopefully will come back again. reporter: once johansen completes his sentence in both new hampshire and massachusetts, he will register as a sex offender. josh: a not guilty verdict tonight in a deadly crash case, a jury found kyle witty not guilty this afternoon of negligent homicide. he was accused of running a red light at the intersection of route 101a in merrimack and striking a vehicle broadside, killing 60-year-old elizabeth mcquinn. the jury deliberated for about an hour. jennifer: the new hampshire attorney general says drug dealers who sell deadly doses of heroin or fentanyl should be prosecuted to the highest degree and face charges up to second

attorney general foster says that overdoses are still skyrocketing in the state with predictions that they will surpass 400 by year's end. he says a handful of cases have already been prosecuted in this enhanced way. but he now wants this to be a more concerted effort and he's working with law enforcement across the state to make it happen. >> overdose scenes have not been thought of as crime scenes, but they are really crime scenes. with things like cell phones, social media and so forth, there's enhanced ways to track down where this person got the drug, did they know what they were selling and how deadly it was. reporter: this week foster talked about the approach to a task force dealing with bills focused on tackling the heroin epidemic. he wants lawmakers to approve a new drug prosecutor to help carry the increasing case load. josh: moving now to commitment 2016 coverage, new poll numbers tonight in the democratic race for the white house here in new hampshire show that bernie sanders has a double digit lead

granite state. but when it comes to who new hampshire democratic primary voters think will ultimately win the general election, the ben did you lum swings. western by sanders is a -- bernie sanders is a big draw in new hampshire. >> i'm not going to deny to you that today if the election were held nationally we would lose. josh: if the new hampshire primary were held today, the numbers say that sanders would win, perhaps by the 10-point margin our new poll indicates, with sanders at 50%, clinton at 40, o'malley still struggling badly. >> we need to make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. reporter: but in this poll it's sanders who democratic voters believe is best equipped to handle the income gap. and best to deal with wall street. and even gun control. he's also remarkably well liked with a positive favorite ability rating of 83%, and he holds a big end when it comes to integrity.

honest, 46% for clinton, 3% for sanders. reporter: while sanders has built a campaign around the fight for the middle class, right now that's not the discussion. >> this is now a foreign policy election. and when asked which candidate is best able to handle isis, 58% for clinton, 25% for sanders. josh: clinton is also viewed as the most likely to win the primary, the most experienced candidate and the best bet for the democrats to win the white house. andy smith says that's a tough hill to climb for her opponent. >> clinton does have the perception that she's going to win the primary and she's the most electable in the general election. she's -- josh: 55% are still undecided, according to this poll. you can take a closer look at all these numbers by logging onto wmur.com. straight ahead, with popularity

jennifer: airport officials have rules that owners must follow. mike: weather wise, tonight it's a light display and this stop is in penacook. coming up we'll show you this stunning display. >> we may be into the holidays, but the weather doesn't seem to know about that, we take a look at milder temperatures yet to come. jamie: in sports, patriots are getting ready to play sunday night football against the texans. for lynn's family, the big stress is paying four hundred dollars a month in medical and drug costs for aidan. for other families it's higher deductibles, premiums and co-pays that keep adding up. that's why we've got to crack down on price gouging, cap out-of-pocket costs, and fast track approval of less expensive

health care costs under control for lynn's family and for yours. i'm hillary clinton and i

josh: welcome back. the manchester boston regional airport releasing a new policy on drones. jennifer: today officials at the airport issued an advisory saying anyone who wants to operate an unmanned aircraft

must contact the air traffic control tower. the deputy airport director says there hasn't been any incidents yet, however they do expect more than a few people to have recreational drones under their christmas trees this year. and they simply want to be pro-active. >> we bail want to get the word out that, number one, if you're operating within 5 miles of the airport you need to get permission from the airport air traffic control tower to operate that drone. jennifer: this advisory will go into effect immediately and that more than one million unmanned aircraft systems are expected to be in use here in the u.s. next year. speaking of the airport, a special flight landed there today. instead of passengers, it was filled with thousands of pounds of food, all bound for the new hampshire food bank. it's the second year this company has made such a generous donation and this year's donations will provide more than 5800 meals. josh: don't forget the spirit of giving continues, starting

help those in need with our spirit of giving food drive, kicking off this friday december 11, we'll be collecting the nonperishable food donations at all hannaford, shaw's and wal-mart locations. all the food collect willed go to the new hampshire food bank. >> this is not what we're used to for december and the warming trend continues. we'll tell you how long this latest incoming warm air mass will stick around. junior tonight at 10:00 on me tv, fish and game taking one more step towards allowing the trapping of bobcats. we'll tell you the number of cat

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on a new jetta p and othernselect models. jennifer: with just over two weeks until christmas, holiday light displays are shining all over the state. josh: tonight mike haddad headed up to penacook where they neighbor rivalry has turned into a town tradition. mike: yes, it has and right now this rivalry appears to have been won by the folks here, don and nancy moore. thanks for joining me tonight. >> you're welcome. thanks for coming up. mike: from 5:00 to 9:30 the display is out here. we did talk about your favorite.

stage coach, it's the first year it's been out here, it's within converted over to led's. mike: terrific. but there are so many other great displays out here. how long does this take to you set up? >> i started the process on november 1st and finished last saturday. so it was a month and a week. mike: and you're hoping to keep it up past christmas? >> probably a few days after depending on the weather, yes. mike: terrific. also if people tune in to a particular radio station they will be able to hear the music and it's all cued to that. right. 107.9, if they get in front of the house, put their radios to that, they'll pick up the music, lights synced to the music. mike: that's here on borrow road in penacook, thanks for having us and have a great holiday season. >> you too, merry christmas. mike: weather wise couldn't ask for anything better to get out and enjoy this beautiful display.

hold on. for skiers and riders, is there any snow in our near future? josh? >> yes, there's some warm air on the way, and watch out they may put you to work on installing more lights, i think. the warmer air is here, and only getting warmer over the next few days. today we were above average, the average is 39 degrees. concord made it up to 43 and a lot of places got into the 40's today. in fact, we've been tell you that december is warmer than of the nine days, that includes today, all eight of them except for the very first one have been above average. some of them well above average and some just a couple of degrees. but only one day of this entire month so far, and that was december 1st, did we see the temperatures below average. and that day maxed out at 34 degrees, the average 39. let's see where we stand at the moment. temperatures obviously fallen a little in some locations, but more so some than others.

seen the temperatures drop to the upper 20's because there's breaks in the clouds in the northern part of the state allowing temperatures to drop more quickly than areas farther south where the clouds have locked in those temperatures. but even still, these temperatures to the north and everywhere will drop off a bit and then our lows will be realized early this evening because warmer air is streaming on in. will likely raise the temperatures up during the overnight hours into tomorrow morning. so those 20's in northern new 30's by morning. there's a lot of those clouds and they're starting to fill in in northern new hampshire. the feature we're watching closely is a weak impulse, a warm front, and as it approaches it bringses the threat of drizzle and fog overnight. and a couple scattered showers as it rolls through. the bigger impact though is that behind it it brings much milder air, then moves in tomorrow and kind of just sets up shop here in the state for several days. it doesn't want to go anywhere

so clouds out there right now, and they stick around most of the night. as i mentioned. and a little bit of precipitation starts to develop late tonight, toward midnight or a little after. particularly in the mountains, which may start to wring it out sooner and there could be a little mixing with cooler temperatures, especially in some of the mountain tops and freezing rain, maybe a few snow flakes. early tomorrow morning more scattered sprinkles, showers and drizzle. could be thick fog tomorrow morning for the commute. then watch the showers pull on through, as the warm front does in the afternoon we'll see breaks of sunshine trying to develop. it may be stubborn in some areas, but clouds will thin enough to see peeks of the sun tomorrow afternoon and temperatures will be milder. then friday into saturday we see the clouds clear away, partly sunny skies on tap. that's because of the jet stream here, this big bulge or ridge in the jet stream bringing up the milder air, right into the weekend and for the most part a good portion of next week as

expect for tonight, it drops down and then starts to raise back up all over again. and let's count them, one, two, three, four, five days with temperatures in the 50's, that's your five for 50's right through week. well above average. i guess it's good for getting out and doing decorating, errands or shopping, anything like that, but bad news for skiers. josh: raking leaves if you've been putting it off. jamie: we're going to hear from tom brady coming up, we'll also

jamie: two straight losses for the patriots, they look to rebound as they play at the houston texans on sunday night football. patriots only favored by three points over the 6-6 texans. houston has a great defense. >> we got a good plan this week, hopefully we can execute it. we as players will go out there and do a great job of execution because it's a good defense. they've played really well the last five games, so there's not going to be much margin for error for us this week. >> i think coach o'brien has done obviously an outstanding job with the team given where they were, 2-5 after the miami game. and won four of their last five games. jamie: should be a fun night of watching the boston teams.

bruins skate at the montreal canadiens. celtics host one of the better teams, the chicago bulls. monarchs played this morning, they win over the brampton beast. doug carr got his first win in net for the monarchs. it's time for the river stone game, dartmouth and u.n.h. meet on the ice saturday night in durham, the bringing green and wildcats coming off a win in a tie over over maine. dartmouth would love to knock them off on the road. >> it will be our christmas gift hopefully, if we can do that we'll enjoy the holidays, knowing we're coming off a win as we go into the break. >> i think it's huge, we haven't had the best start, so any time you get a win and get the momentum going, unbeat then the last three here, go into christmas break all happy. >> the fans are great, they come out and support the wildcats.

always awesome, so it will be a fun game for our guys to get on the big ice surface. >> it's an unbelievable building. it's a humongous rink. the offense being bigger and the corners wider. jamie: that game is always a good one. more high school seniors from new hampshire going to division one for college next year, both of these are new hampton prep students, carter dillon is a football player and he will go to brown. teddy beaudet a baseball player will compete for northeastern. so good luck to carter and teddy next year. >> thank you. right now on wmur.com have you ever noticed that you miss what people are saying to you while you're reading something on your phone? a study has figured out why looking at your phone is making you temporarily deaf. josh: plus the arrival of christmas means that elves have shown up a lot in homes here in new hampshire. show us where the elf on the

house. jennifer: tune in for "new hampshire chronicle."

people are working harder than ever, but the everyday cost of perscriptions, child care, or even just buying groceries can be a stretch for too many families. hillary's plan: raise the minimum wage, get equal pay for women, cut taxes for the middle class, and new incentives for business to share profits with employees instead of just rewarding ceos. those at the top are doing just fine. it's your family that needs a raise. i'm hillary clinton, and i