bob, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, rick and monica. just a bad fire all around, millions of dollars worth of damage. some of these buses burned down to the frame, there's nothing left and they are just behind me right there. you can see 16 again burned down to their frames. another 14 damaged. luckily, no injures and it was a bad fire with lots of explosions in there. the flames lit up the early morning sky. parkland east school district. on fire with plenty of fuel inside 16 buses. crews did their best to contain it. explosions were routinely heard. luckily no one was hurt. but what a mess it has made. the district had to cancel school. according to the school superintendent, at least 30 buses are now either destroyed or out of service. >> 16 obviously were lost in the fire and another 14 had ancillary damage. >> reporter: between the buses and property the estimated cost and damage in the millions. >> i could see it being well

in excess of $2 million. >> reporter: middle schooler brock came to look at the damage with his grandfather. >> in the morning i got up i looked at my alarm clock and i was just like, wow, it's past my time that i should be at school. >> reporter: his grandfather had some experience with fire to say the least. >> i was the fire marshal here for 21 years. then we went across a couple different items that could have happened, you know, nobody knows for sure. >> reporter: in fact if damage isn't bad enough the school superintendent says all the buses burned to the frame they were new. >> had a 10 year warranty on the buses if they were new buses and all 16 of them in that garage were. >> reporter: we also spoke with former bus driver rose moyer who says she has a lot of great memories coming to work here. >> this is what i used to do. this is like my second family and it's crazy. i'm just glad nobody was in there. >> reporter: now, the state fire marshal just sort of wrapped things up. it appears the initial investigation out here is over. i can tell you the school

superintendent tells us there is no foul play expected. school is set to resume on monday. the school said they are working on leasing some buses to make up for the 30 damaged. for now reporting live in orfield, bob brooks channel6 "action news." rick. >> all right, bob, thank you. two men have been charged in connection to armed robberies in thefts at wal-mart stores across seven local counties. police say 28-year-old john beverly and 26-year-old marquise foreman face 40 felony accounts. the pair is expected of stealing more than $52,000 in merchandise during 10 instances between july 23rd to january 7th. some of the crimes occurred at the wal-mart stores in pottstown, king of prussia, norristown and hilltown township. during one of the holdups police say they put a gun to an employee's head. a water main break is causing headaches for residents and drivers in northeast philadelphia tonight "action news" viewer ryan fahey sent us this video at the situation at fairdale and

farm dale roads. this started around two. ooh 30 this afternoon. you can see a large pipe sticking out of the ground and water gushing out and down the street. fire police and the philadelphia water department are on the scene. >> demolition will soon begin on one of the fire damaged buildings in olde city. officials announced plans today for 239 chestnut street the address where sunday's blaze broke out. upon further inspection they determined only the first floor facade is salvageable. crews will start working next week to tear down the rest of the structure. they will document the exact dimensions to help determine the design for future reconstruction. multiple road closures will remain in effect throughout the demolition. it is expected to take about a week. "action news" has also learned the little lion restaurant which is next to the fire scene will be closed for the next two months for cleanup. >> ♪ >> former trump campaign adviser rick gates pled guilty to federal conspiracy and false statement charges today. he says he will now cooperate

in robert mueller's russia investigation. gates admitted he lied to federal authorities on a recent interview and conducted unregistered foreign lobbying. the 45-year-old is now a willing witness who can provide details on former campaign manager paul manifort who is charged yesterday with more than two dozen federal counts including bank fraud. well, president trump spoke at the conservative political action conference today. and he focused on school safety in the wake of the florida school shooting. the president called for stronger background checks especially for the mentally ill. and he once again argued for allowing some teachers to car concealed firearms. >> i don't want to have a hundred guards standing with rifles all over the school. you do a conceal carry permit. like if this guy thought that other people would be shooting bullets back at him, he wouldn't have gone to that school.

he wouldn't have gone there. >> well, the president also took time today to appeal to his conservative supporters to get out to vote in this year's upcoming midterm elections. world news tonight with david muir will have much more on the rick gates guilty plea as well as president trump's comments at cpac. you can watch that tonight at 6:30 following "action news" at 6:00. >> high school students in west chester gathered today to call for more gun control. >> we are fed up and tired of the nra continuing to lobby for less gun laws and for more guns on our streets. >> a rally was held outside the westtown school along with student speakers. they heard from ceasefire pa's program, director jeff dempsey and state representative carolyn camita. they held a moment of silence for the 17 people who died in the school shooting. "action news" reporter jeanette reyes tells us they went the extra mile by

stepping up their presence on campus. >> not another one, another situation. >> reporter: this morning arriving students and parents at gloucester county institute of technology were met with a strong police presence. >> its scary. it's a scary situation but it happens. >> reporter: the deptford township criminal investigations division looked into social media posts last night from someone warning that there would be a school shooting today. susan ferreira's daughter saw the unsettling messages on a popular social media app. >> she saw it on snapchat. she came up and told me about it. >> reporter: later that evening, the school district sent out alerts and e-mails notifying parents that they were working with law enforcement to look into the matter. this morning parents were told that the source of the threats was identified and immediate action was taken. but deptford township isn't the only district dealing with rumors and threats of violence during a time when most are already on edge after the mass shooting in southern florida. the pen wick school district in bucks county sent out this

e-mail to parents yesterday saying in part, in the last several days, we have investigated and quickly deemed noncredible a number of rumors surrounding threats of violence at the high school. the same day a similar scare just 45 miles away in bristol township. a statement reads in part, we were notified by a student of a rumor that another student was planning to either shoot up the school or shoot him or herself during one of the assemblies tomorrow, friday. through an investigation we were able to identify the student that started the rumor and verify that that rumor was started as a result avenue dare during lunch. though immediate action was taken it's forcing parents to have tough but necessary conversations with their children. >> i have a little one that's doing drills at schools that's asking questions. >> reporter: the investigation into this threat is still ongoing at this hour. in the meantime deptford police reassuring parents and students that they will remain aggressive in their approach to these matters. reporting in gloucester county, jeanette reyes

channel6 "action news." >> and we finally made to it friday but the weather isn't as nice as many folks had wished. will it improve over the weekend? meteorologist cecily tynan at the "action news" big board with the latest from accuweather. hi, cecily. >> hi, monica. temperatures will be warming up over the weekend but we have more rain on the way. double scan live showing the showers are moving out of our region. kind of the exact same situation we were yesterday, however, there's yet another wave of low pressure waiting in the wings and this will bring us a steady rain over part of your weekend. and some of it could be heavy at times. and when it's not raining, we're dealing with this. sky6 is live taking a look at philadelphia international airport where we've got the low clouds and the fog. visibility has been reduced and we have delays of about an hour at the airport. so, if you're heading out or if you're planning on picking somebody up you do want to call your carrier ahead and that's going to be the case right through the weekend. temperatures definitely raw and chilly. it's 43 degrees in philadelphia right now but if

you look out to the west, temperatures in the 60's and this is a warm front that will be pushing in. overnight tonight temperatures will actually be rising but we keep the damp, the clouds and the dreary weather right through the weekend. so, this is what to expect through the weekend. i wish i had a better forecast. more periods of rain and drizzle. the heaviest will be tomorrow night through the first half of the day on sunday. and we're looking at generally about a half inch to an inch of rain over the weekend. but again, temperatures will be warming up. tomorrow we're in the 50's. by sunday close to that 60 degrees. but i do have some bright sunshine in the forecast. i'll let you know when it finally returns. i think we forgot what it looks like in the accuweather forecast coming up rick. >> we'll be running this weekend for me. >> you can still run. >> too wet for me all right. get the latest on the forecast on the weekend plus check storm tracker6 live any time right on your phone or tablet. the 6abc app is a free download for your mobile device.

>> time for a check of the "action news" traffic report on a dreary friday night. >> matt pelman in the "action news" traffic center. at least we made it, matt. >> we made it to friday and traffic is running unlike you, rick, it's just running very slowly here in the northbound lanes of 95 in delco, coming away from the delaware state line heading up toward 322 travel times about double what it should be if you're headed up to the kid rock concert in south philadelphia tonight along 95 northbound in delco. what you don't want to do instead is head for 322, conchester highway. not only the construction there but earlier this afternoon there was an accident in the westbound lanes by hub cap jack's. so maybe think about using concorde road namaans creek road even 202 the concorde pike as alternates. some people are slipping and sliding because the roads are wet. here in king of prussia someone in a minivan slid off the ramp from 202 northbound to 422 westbound. luckily traffic is still squeezing by here and things are improving in bucks county on the southbound side of one, that crash by the turnpike is gone. also had a crash along 95, the

on-ramp from allegheny avenue. that just cleared as well but still plenty of slow speeds on 95 and the schuylkill expressway. in tabernacle burlington county watch out for a bad crash along fly yet road near 206. medford lakes road to be a alternate. hockessin one to avoid along baltimore road at valley road. we'll check it again in the next half hour. >> busy night. thank you, matt. if you haven't caught the flu yourself chances are you probably know someone or work with someone who has. and there may be hope on the horizon. still to come on "action news" tonight there's talk of a universal flu vaccine. just how close is it to becoming a reality. ali gorman will sort it out for us coming up. >> what a way to say so long. a fond farewell in delaware for a member of the wilmington police department who started a very important journey there two decades ago. her story when "action news" comes right back. >> ♪