"action news" delaware valley's leading news program. with rick williams, sara bloomquist, and meteorologist, david murphy.

>> good afternoon rick and sara are off, i'm matt o'donnell, we begin with breaking news in the old city section of philadelphia chopper 6 hd is live over walnut street a transform he erupped underground and power is out in some of these buildings in the area and we know of at least one residential build that was evacuated. firefighters and peco crews are on the scene right now lets go to a picture an "action news" viewer sent us clearly showing the smoke from the transformer fire. peco believes they will have the power restored in an hour from now and the fire looks to be out and they are underground trying to fix things and hopefully getting people back online in about an hour. now to accuweather, we could be in for a stormy afternoon sky 6 hd taking a look the the philadelphia waterfront from our

temple university camera and light rains moved through our area it can be a preview of what comes later and we'll feel the first true relief from the heat and humidity david murphy is tracking it on the big board. stormtracker 6 live double scan showing you that the morning showers are gone, as we take a wider view from the west and on the way to the west showers and thunderstorms beginning to develop and as this front pushed towards the east so will this instability and thunderstorm action that we expect to roll into the region late this afternoon and this evening. as we look at future tracker, the model wants to keep the area dry and as we go past 5:00, up to 6:00, 7:30, this line of thunderstorms rolls in from the west we expect strong gusty winds and downpours and lots of

lightning there may be buried within this line in some places a small tornado pops, it's never a good thing even without that the strong straight line winds are expected to be good with that. and our entire risk has a severe risk of weather, and in this orange part it's a bigger risk are. wind gusts from any gusts that form in the orange area and in the yellow would have a chang of producing 60 miles per hour gusts and other severe parameters that would cause you potential property damage and some problems if you hear the rumble of thunder or see the skies growing ominous especially this afternoon and this evening, take cover indoors on the lower floors and it's warm and steamy out there, and that will change

in the exclusive accuweather forecast, and matt we have another look at future tracker 6 and a look at the weekend ahead. stay ahead of the weather, with our mobile 6 app on your mobile device when you see severe weather happening, send your pictures to jointheaction@6abc.com, or post on social media using #6abcaction. we are following breaking news here in upper darby where police have just announced new information about the huge fire that damaged several businesses in upper darby including the arrest of someone that was inside of the building when it started. "action news" reporter john rawlins live at the scene of the fire at 69th street to explain. >> hi matt, a peculiar story to say the least, not for arson but for trespass and theft.

there was a second floor in the building and believed to be shut off and it was there that the fire started. >> upper darby officials say they believe that 54-year-old james morris was one of several squatters that lived in the second abandoned floor of the pay less shoe store unknown by the manager. it is alleged we was tearing out metal shelving and trading it to this unidentified medical scrapper carting it away in a shopping cart. >> morris for alcohol, beer and vodka, agreed to give this guy the scrapings of the shelving inside of the second floor of pay less. so right now, the fire chief said we are trying to find a cause and origin of the fire but we give that we have the people that were on location. >> reporter: and morris has been

arrested, his bail set aat $50,000 cash and the scrapper is with police now and he is being described as an important witness. >> thanks john. a teenager is under arrest in southwest philadelphia charged with trying to set a child on fire. it happened near the corner of 60th street and hazel avenue last night. investigators say that the 17-year-old boy threw hand sanitizer on an 11-year-old boy and placed a cigarette lighter on him causing second degree burns. the police arrested the teen and is he being charged as an adult. the confederate flag will be removed from the south carolina capital and governor nikki haley plans to sign the bill this after none.

marcy gonzales joins us live with that story. >> many people say this would never happen but after first passing the state senate it has to pass the state house after emotional arguments from both sides, a historic day in south carolina. >> house come to order and gallery come to order, the convebl confederate flag will come down from the state capital. it passed overnight after 14 hours of passionate debate. >> for the widow of senator pinckney and his two young daughters that would be adding insult to injury and i will not be a part of it. >> others maintain that the battle flag is a symbol of history. >> i have done and taken people that respect their southern heritage and we will have kicked them in the teeth. >> but it was out of respect for the nine people shot to death

that moved this vote, the chilling images of chilling images of the accused gunman posing with the confederate flag and senator pinckney's desk shrouded in black. >> we stand here giving thanks to all of these people that crossed party lines and recognized that south carolina needs to be in a better place and we believe we are in that better place. >> governor nikki haley is expected to sign the bill into law this afternoon the office says the flag will be taken down at 10:00 tomorrow morning and moved to a confederate relic rom. marcy gonzales channel 6 "action news." >> thank you. a family charged in connection with the deadly courthouse shooting in delaware could learn their fate at any moment. they are charged with the

federal charge of cyber stalking resulting in a death. prosecutors claim that they stalked and harassed christine's ex-wife, belford and his father, matusiewicz killed them and then killed himself. they do ni knowing of his deadly plan. a school on the main line says she was fired for being in a same sex marriage. margie winters walked into a closed door meeting, they discuss the decision not to renew her contract. the principal releases a letter recognizing the archbishop of philadelphia to continue as a catholic school mercy must comply with the teachings but that is a private school and

decisions must be made without the oversight of the archdiocese now a selfie stick was the reason a man and his daughter was not the reason they were swept out to sea. meteorologist, david murphy has his eagle eyes on stormtracker 6 live double scan looking for storms and relief later.

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a massive search is underway in the wyoming wilderness for three missing sisters from the ables of 16 to 25 and were reported missing on tuesday, the three are from wisconsin and planned to hike for a few days, police found their suv after a ping from one of their cell phones narrowed their search authorities say the sisters are experienced hikers and were prepared for the trip. a warning from isis, that the group's social media campaign is becoming more sophisticated and making its followers harder to track isis pushes its message through twitter and sends them to a mobile app that is encrypted making it immune to surveillance. >> i aam not saying that it's

certain for people to die but i am saying that my ability is materially diminished. >> isis has followers around the world including here in the united states. charges are filed over a deadly hay ride accidents in maine, 12 months after a teenager was killed a 17-year-old girl died and others were hurt, and they cited mechanical problems and they leveled manslaughter and reckless charges against the jeep driver and the farmer that hosted the ride. a family from texas is lucky to be alive after being swept away by i rip current along the massachusetts rip tide, they were saved in part by a selfie stick. the current pulled them out to

sea in nantucket. >> i never felt that type of fatigue or fear. erin was holding a video camera attached to a selfie stick and they held on to that stick until someone was able to pull her to shore. lifeguards in that same rescuer were able to save her parents. a gator found in a new jersey waterway is looking for a new home. they captured the 45 pound reptile, a fisherman found it yesterday authorities believe it was somebody's abandoned pet they are looking for a zoo or educational center to adopt it. >> a study that links medications to birth defects and the benefits of including meatless meals in your diets.

jp morgan chase will pay more than $136 million on how they handled claims on dealing with credit card debts they sold debts that were inaccurate or already settled to third party creditors, they ordered them to stop collections on more

than 30000 accounts. and they will pay restitution to the customers. women that take certain anti-depressants may increase their risk of having a baby with birth defects. during the first trimester but researchers did not find higher risk from other anti-depressants like zoloft. they continue to grow in popularity but like the gym membership many purchasers lose interest in them once the novelty wears off about a third of fitness trackers get abandoned after six months and only half of fit bits registered users were still active in the beginning of the year. >> doctors will tell you that healthy eating can stop the risk of all sorts of infectious

diseases and now the benefits of a plant based diet. >> i try to eat at least two meals a day with no animal products. >> anna is part of a growing friend people that are part-time vegetarians. >> it's why more and more restaurants are searching up meatless meals like city veg they specialize in fast foods that are completely plant based like sweet potato fries and veggie burgers. >> my dad is why i got into this, in his 50s he was overweight and had high blood pressure when he cut meat from his diet the benefits were clear. >> i was able to get off all of my blood pressure medication. >> the greatest health risk for older people is heart disease, higher blood pressure and high cholesterol and diabetes and numerous studies show that these

medical conditions are less prev prevalent with a plant based diet. >> giving a shot is the biggest challenge. >> what will convince people is the results when they feel better. erin o'hearn, channel 6 "action news." >> the "action news" team is out working on news stories beginning at 4:00 including another edition of down at the shore live from ocean city and wedding planning is stressful enough imagine if your venue suddenly shut down, it happened to a family and they turned to "action news" for help. and their offense was refusing to have lunch with their dad in michigan we'll explain at 4:00. accuweather is coming up as we take a live lock at the jersey shore, cape may new jersey.

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dade sometimes you have to pay the price to get row leaf. >> are you right stormtracker 6 live double scan shows us that we are basically just sitting around with sun mixing with clouds and watching the humidity go up there is no rain, as we look outside we have the action cam out earlier in fairmount park before the clouds cleared all that much and even though it's warm and humid, temperatures were not bad earlier in the 70s and someone took advantage in the zoo and went for a ride in the 6 abc zoo balloon temperature right now 79 degrees we were stuck in the mid-70s for a while and now that the sun is beginning to break out well see the temperatures zoom and dew point 68 and a lot of areas are in the 70s and that is oppressive humidity and winds are light at this point.

temperatures still in the 70s in allentown and trenton and out to the west we see the numbers pop up into the 80s where the sun is out longer and philadelphia will be there before too much longer. you are as you go around and about this afternoon going to need cool drinks and that appropriately clothed idea loose fitting and clothing because it is humid there are the dew points in the 70s, as the front gets closer to us it will top pick up to 70 it is looking at oppressive humidity, future tracker 6 playing with the idea that we are mainly dry through the afternoon maybe a pop-up shower but nothing of consequence. this is slowing down the arrival of heavier weather, it's around 6:00 6:30 we see this getting on the edge of chester and berks

county and then this is only a model interpretation it's not exact but it's the idea, you see this line pop through and where it does hit it has the chance to hit us with gusty winds and lots of lightning and gusty winds. it looks to get off the coast at 10:00. dangerous lightning and winds gusting as high as 60 and maybe higher flooding downpours are part of the pack taj there is only a small chance of a torn and there could be weak tornadoes that could twigger a brief funnel cloud or tornado and the best ni new hampshirics are north and west of philadelphia lightning and downpours are a big part of problem and probably not so much on the large hail, a tornado a low chance but still a chance. your exclusive accuweather seven-day forecast, today's how is a warm and humid 89 degrees,

steamy again and most storms west to east some could be of the damaging variety the sky is gray, get inside lower floors. tomorrow warm and 86 but with that front off the coast, we get lower humidity and that is going to be a nice july afternoon pretty much the same on saturday, warm and 9 and sunnier and lower humidity and it looks to stay dry with a high of 90 and monday, tuesday and wednesday we are looking at higher humidity again and renewed chance of thunderstorms. >> thanks david. more coming up in the next half hour off "action news" at noon, the white house orders changes in the aftermath of the deadly amtrak train crash. johnny depp surprised children in the hospital in full costume from the film.

>> we have breaking news here on "action news," the power is out in many businesses in old city philadelphia where an underground transformer fire sent smoke to the surface, let go to 2nd and walnut streets. >> reporter: hi matt, it's an active scene right now, you can smell the fire, peco is working on the problem and this area of society hill is blocked off as they try to put out the fire and get the power restored in this area lets look at the photo

from this morning when this all started at 10:30, the smoke poured out of the manhole, snowflake was going into the add of south 42nd street. and this is the view from chopper 6 hd over the scene this morning, emergency crews discovered the smoke on walnut between 2nd and 3rd streets, it caused a power outage from front to 6th and chestnut to lore street. as we come back out live, officials say they did not make any official evacuations they did however get many calls about stuck elevators and fortunately nobody was found in any of those