>> reporter: november 9th, 24-year-old jose perez found nearly decapitated in beverly park. a popular play place for children known in the neighborhood as the pit. police are not saying the motive for the murder, but they say the victim, jose perez was not a gang member. three people in custody in connection with that murder. a 17-year-old teenage boy, an adult male and a 16-year-old teenage girl. all three said to have ties to ms-13. >> are you surprised that a teenage girl is involved in this murder? >> unfortunately, teenagers are involved in all kinds of crimes. so am i surprised? no. is it tragic? yes. >> reporter: december 4th, 22-year-old edward onnal mend aris stabbed to death in the

eight mile run park. police charged an 18-year-old in connection with that murder. the respect is an ms-13 member. they say the victim was not in a gang. police say in both cases the suspects and the victims were not here legally. coming up at 6:00, reaction to these murder arrests from residents of alexandria. jim, back to you. pat collins, thank you, pat. it's a story you learned first from a push alert. metro employees stealing from their own transit agency. station managers and others were involved in an elaborate scheme to sell fraudulent smart trip cards worth some big bucks. transportation reporter adam tuss uncovered this issue and he join us live from metro headquarters with a look at how they pulled it off. adam? >> reporter: that's right. seven station managers, two custodians all from around the

dmv and all of them were stealing from metro and it all ininvested the smart trip card. >> it was flat-out theft. seven metro station managers and two custodians had been collecting cards from riders and allowing them to exit the system for free. after the employees collected a sizeable stack which still contained value the employees would transfer the balance to plastic smart trip cards and resell the smart trip cards at a discounted price. >> the seven station managers were all arrested and will face charges. >> the way the metro payment system is redesigned and they can load it on to the fare card, they're directed into an exit fare machine to load the correct fair, but the station managers and custodians were turning a blind eye. >> they would say give the fair card to me and they would be let

out. it's great customer service, but what was really happening is at least the seven managers were retaining a card, and trading several of them all morning long anding -- >> how much money did metro lose in all of this and how are they making sure it doesn't happen again? reporting live at metro headquarters, adam tuss, news 4. and now your storm team 4 forecast. you saw adam had those big gloves on today. a very cold day across our areas. today was the coldest day we've seen so far this season with the high temperature of only 32 degrees in the city and 28 in frederick and 34 in warrenton and the first day that we did not get above freezing inside the city. the windchill is still a big factor down to 22 right now and 18 in frederick and 14 in

martinsburg and the winds will start to die and look at that suns sunset. as the winds die temperatures will fall by early tomorrow morning and then warmer temperatures throughout the day tomorrow. we get back in the 40s tomorrow and another blast of arctic air and even colder than today? yeah. that moves in later. i'll have that forecast in just a bit. >> thank you, doug. cable news network al jazeera america will shut down operations in april less than three years after its launch. the network began in 2013 with a plan to offer more serious-minded news. it won several awards, but never picked up a large audience. the network recently made headlines for its report that linked several high-profile athletes including the nats' rye zimmerman to performance of

enhancing drugs and they had sexist and antisemitic behavior. it has a bureau here in washington. we are combing through newly released court documents in the hannah graham murder case and they reveal more interaction between the suspect, jesse math and you the investigators. police searched matthew's apartment and a car less than a week after graham disappeared in 2014. matthew was there, but police didn't have probable cause to arrest him. a ared cording to unsealed search warrants, detectives told matthew he was seen on video with graham the night she disappeared and they asked what was he doing with her? he said he didn't know becausely was drunk. he wasth issing he might need an attorney. a recent crackdown on illegal immigrants across the country is having a huge impact on prince george's county school classrooms. some parents say they're scared

to send their kids to school. tracee wilkins is live where she spoke to a parent about her fears and a search for resolution. >> reporter: activists in langlepark tell me they only know of two of the deportation rates happening in langley park. nonetheless, folks have been scared to death and in fact, scared to move, to go to work or to even go to school j this mother of two who did not want to be identified is livering in the u.s. illegally. she tells us through a translator that she's also living in fear. >> i really hope that if i go to the store or if i go drop off, that's something that can happen to me. >> they began to report raids and there's been -- many are aren't leaving their homes and that includes going to work and school. >> i pray every night for this to stop. >> yesterday, prince george's

county school ceo dr. kevin maxwell released a statement saying we urge federal authorities to see schools and other public gathering places and ask them to strongly consider the devastating impacts of their actions on the academic, social and emotional well-being of all of our students. county executive rasean baker also released a statement making it clear that prince george's is a friendly county. >> we asked the homeland security to hold off on doing these raids because all they're doing is rushing those -- advocate as are saying if they're right they'll try to ease the fears of an entire community. >> parents need to know what their rights are and if they have any questions we are here to provide help for them and their whole family. it has a 24-hour hotline and

they're calling it the immigration hotline and asking folks to call saying if they don't have person, and the number to call pi low me, and coming up on news 4 at 6:00, and they're trying to do the work to get the kids who stopped going to school, back in school. i'm tracee wilkins, news 4. the ten american sailors briefly detained in iran are in qatar. this video shows the woman nine men and one woman was taken into custody. this happened after it floated into iranian waters, they were released this morning and there was no seen and they will get medical check-ups before they're

debriefed. in the exspvended, this program would targeting me rants frommel refugee isn't a sir problem and the scope of it cannot beinger inned. it is a global challenge of historic proportions and dimensions and it tests our values, our self-confidence and our very humanity. >> following his speech kerry met with refugeesa the a resettlement center in silver spring. the day after the state of the union and there's drama on the campaign trail today. donald trump was criticized by both the president and during the gop response given by south carolina republican governor nikki haley. trump retaliated on msnbc today. >> i'm leading in the polls and people agree with me. i'm very strong on illegal immigration and she's weak on

illegal immigration. >> there's also drama on the democrats' side where the race between millry clinton and burdeny sanders is tightening in both iowa and new hampshire. well, we got ours. did you get your tickets why the? tonight that $2 purchase could pay millions of times over. >> a lot of zeros, people. >> printers have been spitting out powerball tickets for that record $1.5 billion jackpot and that jackpot could grow further if sails the drawing and continue to -- one in $tween,000,s and what would they do with all of that cash? >> just share with everybody because it's a great amount of money. >> open up another business. >> i have seven kid, so college, number one. >> i could buy my whole family houses. >> that lump sum payout for

tonight's jackpot, $930 million, but if there's no grnd prize the next drawing will be on saturday and that could get up to $bell on. >> most of you are gambling with anywhere between one and five tickets and 30% of you still haven't bought one just yet. everyone is talking about the powerball jackpot. we're in what they call the lucky corridor here in northern virginia. ahead at 5:00, i'll tell you why it starts with this market. next, why drivers in the district may soon have fewer parking spaces to choose from. these cots are empty right now, but tonight they'll be filled. i'm mark segraves. coming up, hundreds of homeless youth on the streets of d.c. and why t

developing right now at 5:00, turkish arrested. anti-terrorism police launched the raids one day after an isis suicide bomber detonated in the historic district of istanbul. that bomb killed ten foreigners and most of them were german

tourists. a top russian official says the suspects were allegedly in contact with isis militants and had provided logistical support to isis. back close to home, it's back to work for lawmakers and the maryland general assembly kicked off the new legislative session. they're expected to tackle a wide range of issues from taxes to transportation to police reform. news 4's chris gordon live now at the statehouse in annapolis. chris? >> reporter: the citizen journalists will be meeting for the last 90 days and last yore they voted to spend $1 billion on new school construction in baltimore city and now they're realizing that's only the beginning and they must address police distrust by some of the people who live in the poorest sections of the city. the maryland general assembly met for the first time since riots ravaged parts of baltimore after the death of freddie gray while he was being transported

in a police van last april. >> we're creating new jobs and we're working with johns hopkins university to create new jobs for baltimore. at the same time the governor's plan and the speakers' plan are demolishing empty buildings in baltimore and creating recreational space. >> there are legislative suggestions for police reforms the way citizens filed complaints and how often officers may have to undergo mental evaluations. the state is working closely with the federal government to help baltimore. >> we've seen the department of housing provide assistance and the justice department's provided help. so, yes, the federal government will be a strong partner working with the state and, woing with baltimore and the private sector to help our city continue to grow. larry hogan says he wants to cut taxes and he'll need the cooperation of the democratic majority in the state legislature. >> i don't care what side of the aisle the ideas come from.

we want to come together with common-sense solutions to solve some of the problems that face our state. >> republican leaders say tax relief is necessary to make maryland more competitive with neighboring states. >> maryland has been disadvantaged by heavy taxes and it hits low-income people and hits retirees and the business. our climate has suffered because of it and many states around us are taking advantage of it. >> reporter: ahead i'll tell you about the critical financial needs facing montgomery and prince george's countet and money they need from the general assembly this session. wendy, back to you. >> thank you, chris. recent death of of a montgomery county police officer could lead to a change in dui laws in maryland. ben cramer today introduced a bill that would expand the use of ignition locks to anyone convicted of driving drunk. this was proposed in honor of officer noah leotta. leotta died last month after

being struck by a suspected drunk driver while manning a dui checkpoint. >> we will get this bill passed this year with officer leotta's death, we hope this will be what gets it through. >> this is the one drunk driving measure that has been demonstrated time and time again to actuallyork. >> current maryland law requires ignition locks when drivers are con vinvicted with a blood alco level of .15 and that is twice the legal limit. new at 5:00 tonight, youth homelessness, a growing problem around the country and here in the region. half of the homeless teenagers in the district are lgbt and as news 4's mark segraves shows us their sexual identity is putting them at risk. >> reporter: at age 14, tanisha had runaway from her foster home where she said she just doesn't fit in because she's transgender. she ended up homeless and selling her body in order to survive. >> people aren't very receptive

or understanding of what a transgender person is. >> reporter: tanisha's story is not unique. district officials say their most recent count found 318 homeless youths under the age of 24 living on the streets of d.c. the youngest, 12 years old. nearly half of them are lgbt. >> we know that these young people face the most bullying and discrimination, assault, you name it, and it's not just an outside world and it's sometimes and unfortunately from their own family. >> despite the hundreds of homeless families in the street, there are only 25 beds dedicated to homeless lgbt youths in the district. most of them are here in shelters run by casa ruby. >> there are many more youth that tonight will not have a place to live. >> today mayor muriel bowser announced additional funding for groups that support homeless

teens including $45,000 from verizon. as for tanisha, at age 20, she's found a place to live and a family of friends who accept her and it all started at casa ruby. >> if i didn't come here i wouldn't be alive. i really wouldn't. >> reporter: these are just a few of the cots at casa ruby. they'll be filled tonight. they have a waiting list of more than 100 people waiting to get off the streets. mark segraves, news 4. new details in the search for the notorious mexican drug lord. we'll tell you what prison guards have planned for him now that he's in custody. northern virginia school districts already starting to wrestle with projected budget shortfalls, but decisions made here in the general assembly this session could provide some help. >> coming up, i'll tell you where those education dollars might be invested. a standoff in texas after a suspect

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getting good pictures out there of the sunset across the region. a very nice sunset. the sun setting on the coldest day so far this year. this is the tower cam shot and look at that sun set, and yes, the cloud cover helping to make that sun set more on the orange side. and how about another vantage point and looking at the capital

and some cloud cover there and a very nice shot and one more down towards downtown. the one thing you notice. here we are at 5:25 and we still have at least some light out there. not much, but yes, our days continue to get longer. that is the good news. this is the bad news, only 30 degrees. the windchill of 22 degrees and the coldest day we've seen so far this season and we'll start to moderate the next couple of days and 32 in fredericksburg and we'll drop by another five to ten degrees in some areas and it will be a very cold night tonight and you won't need the umbrellas and the snow shovels. >> and even with last night's burst of snow and they're using them back toward chicago and the storm system look at the snow trying to move our way, right? it's not going to get an impact on the weather except when it passes us it will bring in milder weather. >> and the cold start.

25 and the overnight low. 24 down toward the fredericksburg area. not too worried about the wind tomorrow so windchills shouldn't be too much of a factor. these are the numbers when you step outside and bring in some milder temperatures and above average temperatures and around 43 degrees and a cold start to the day and starting off, you'll need the coat, the gloves, the scarf, the hat and tomorrow when the kids come home from school and they may forget this stuff and they won't need them tomorrow afternoon. recess also looking pretty good there, too. next four days, 47 tomorrow. not a bad day. most of the day friday looking really, really nice and dry, i think. friday night if you're heading out going to dinner and after dinner we'll start to see showers move in and take the

umbrella and temperatures falling 21 to 44 degrees around 8:00, 9:0010:00 and it could be shower activity and it's over on saturday and saturday is a dry day and that will make things rather windy late saturday afternoon and saturday night will be a cold night and a high of only 40 on sunday and it puts most of you in the upper 30s and we're talking about flurries and there had been some talk and chatter of snow on sunday, not happening. just some flurries. >> the irs admits to making a mistake on something you put in the mail and plus breaking news. a former day care worker found guilty of abuse and how the defendant's testimony may have impacted that decision.

right now at 5:30 police are questioning the man who stole this 18-wheeler and led them on a chase across texas. that standoff is over and we'll tell you how it ended. some employers in the district will soon have to start setting their workers' schedules much earlier or pay them more money if they don't. and powerball's big $1.5 billion drawing is tonight. we're live in one lucky town in

virginia where a lot of people are getting their tickets. now at 5:30, some breaking news involving a former day care worker in northern virginia. sarah jordan has just been convicted for the abuse of several children in her care in woodbridge. news 4's meagan fitzgerald is live now at the prince william county courthouse with testimony from jordan's bosses and details on the charges. meagan? >> reporter: jim, after three days of hearing testimony a judge found sarah jordan guilty of 13 of the 17 charges. seven of those charges are felonies. they include things like cruelty to children and contributing to the blink witnedelinquency of a. many parents who are in court today started to cry. >> for the last two years, parents like blake buckner say they've been waiting for justice. buckner's son was 2 years old in 2013 when he was in sarah jordan's toddler class in

minnieland academy in woodbridge. >> he was made the class bully and also saw his friends -- dunked in the pool, as well. >> over the last three days a prince william county judge heard witness testimony from parents like buckner saying jordan physically abused and forcing them to bite and fight each other. five therapists who saw five of the children shortly after jordan was charged said some type of trauma likely occur period today in court, two of jordan's supervisors at the time said hoses shouldn't have been used on children and it was referred to as the monkey room. a prosecutor questioned the program manager saying according to minnieland policy, teachers should not use a hose on monkey room kids. why? the program manager said, quote, because that would be too much water for them, that would be dangerous. jordan took the stand and denied

any wrongdoing, but hours later the judge disagreed, finding her guilty of child abuse charges. >> a judge denied bond for jordan and set sentencing for may 6th. she faces up to four decades in prison. coming up at 6:00, hear how the comments she made in court today contradicted that of her supervisors and how it impacted the case. meagan fitzgerald, news 4. thanks, meagan. chris lawrence at the live desk. we want to get you right out to chopper 4 video. we're over the scene of a two-alarm apartment fire. what you're looking at there are fire rescue crews on a ladder trying to pull people out of that apartment building as we widen out there. you can see that fire is centered and it looks like on one unit near the top floor. this is a six-story building and let me give you some perspective here andme this is on new

hampshire avenue and near montserrat road. prince george's county firefighters are handling the scene. within about the last ten minutes or so we saw them extend that ladder into the apartment complex and now they have slowly been making their way out and you can see some of the folks who are on that ladder getting pulled out of there right now. that is some distance from where the ladder is extended to where the truck is actually parked right across the front courtyard there as that fire continues to burn in that top floor. there we go, we're zooming in now and you can see some of the firefighters making their way out and just behind them, you can see some of the embers falling off that top floor as that fire is raging there at the top floor, and i can tell you in the last few minutes as we have been watching this. we can tell that the fire is starting to spread back in the

building. at first it was very much concentrated right at the front there and you can see it pouring out of the balcony and you can see some of the flames start pushing back and engulfing some of the back of the building. we know people were inside at the time because they've got the ladder out and they were trying to get those folks off and trying to walk them down to the ground safely and even as they're getting down to the ground you can still see some of the embers and things that have caught fire falling off of that balcony. again, this is on new hampshire avenue and it's south of the beltway in prince george's county and the town of a delphi and montgomery county has sent some of its units to assist and the two-alarm fire and again, right now, burning very, very hot. >> maybe because of where

chopper 4, where are the hoses? are they on the other side of the building? do we know? it's quite possible. >> it looks to me that most of the fire was concentrated into the back of the building and it was only in the last five minutes when we've seen the fire push back to the other side, and we have just seen the ladder and trying to get the people out. i can't tell if perhaps putting water on it would compromise the effort to try to get the people down the ladder and perhaps they're waiting to try to get them down and then put more water from that direction. hard to say at this point. >> you can see that those flames are feeding off being on the top floor there. the oxygen up there and it is a windy day. it's 29 degrees and it's cold and anybody coming out of that building will be hit with a blast of cold air, as well. it's interesting that the chopper 4 camera is paused right

there in the middle. it looks like there is one or two people on that ladder there. >> and those ladders are very awkward to climb down and we don't know if the people they're trying to rescue from that building, what their ages are. some of them could be older coming down. for an able-bodied person and someone in great shape is awkward and they're bringing this person down step by step so they could be dealing with someone who might have some physical limits. >> i can tell you from talking with firefighters over the years. they would much rather walk someone out of the building than have to bring them out this way. they put that ladder out there because that is the only safe way to get them out of the building. >> they would much rather walk them out the front door and in this case, it does not look to be possible. >> as you mentioned, wendy, that is a pretty steep incline and that is why firefighters are

trying to guide them down the ladder. >> that's how desperate the situation is. we want to bring in meteorologist amelia segal, how windy is it? >> that's the good thing, jim. we're not talking about gusty winds and it is still breezy out there. right now those people headed out of the building are dealing with temperatures of 22 degrees and the wind gusts are only 10 miles an hour it is breezy out there and firefighters having to deal with a bit of a breeze and as those people head out of the building and about 22 degrees and at least we're not tracking rain or snow and they having to deal with dry conditions across the area and we've been below 32 degrees and still tracking breezy conditions and at least it isn't windy, but winds still about 10 to 15 miles an hour out

there right now. >> thanks, amelia. i i'm wondering, is it because the air is so dry. you're the scientist. does that in any way make it harder or make it feed the flames because there is no moisture in the air because it is so dry. >> when the air is as dry as this, we are talking about very little moisture in the air right now and that's not going to help out the situation right there, but i think more than that, too, it will be the winds that they're dealing and even a little bit of wind and that always comes up in the report. any sort of wind does not help firefighters in this situation and we can see all of the apparatuses there and we were talking about why we feel like we're not seeing water poured out on this. that would create a tremendous amount of back smoke that could engulf them in smoke that could endanger the people on the ladder. >> this is just south of the

beltway, folks. steer clear of the area. you can see traffic backed up. we are in adelphi, live over the scene. it seemed to be a six-story building that one, but it looked as though there were two apartment buildings at least in this copplex. >> this looks like they have a gurney up there that they're using to help this person get down, and then i wonder if after they get this person to safety fe they're going to head back up and i wonder how many people are up there and again because it's the afternoon and people are at work that the building might have been not occupied and as much as it would be on a saturday evening or something like that. >> let's bring you back in here from the live desk. your vantage point and are we hearing anything yet from fire officials on what they're seeing and facing? >> yeah. we're just hearing that firefighters have told people to evacuate the building if they are still inside.

they're telling people to get out as soon as possible and to piggyback on what amelia was saying about the winds still gusting 10 to 15 miles an hour. looking at the position of that ladder in relation to the flames, you have to think if they were putting a lot of water on those flames from that angle, some of that water will end up blowing across that ladder which may make a precarious situation of trying to get people down a lot more slippery, a lot more difficult and that may be one reason why they're not putting water on the fire from this angle as we see them now on the ground with the gurney and it looks like getting some of the last people off that ladder and into some of the ambulances and the vehicles that we saw a few minutes ago. >> again, there is in adelphi on new hampshire avenue. the top floor. at one point it looked like it

was just confined to this apartment, but as you see as we pull out that is spreading quickly. that is quite a blaze that is taking root there that is burning and we have not only prince george's county and montgomery county and it was two alarms and montgomery county is responding with this to help. >> there's that wide picture there and numerous fire trucks on the scene. emergency personnel and ambulances, as well and we have not gotten word yet of injuries from this, but we saw the slow crawl slide down and the large ladder up to the fifth or sixth floor there and that person being taken down by what you described as a gurney. >> and it looked like the firefighters are going in now and is that a hose they were carrying over? maybe that was the last person that they got out because i don't -- maybe they will start pouring some water on this. interesting, you see some of the lights on and some of the apartments are dark and you

pointed out a lot of people could still be at work. there was a ladder leaning up against the part that was burning and i wonder if that was before we got there if they were taking people down from that. >> wow! and as chris pointed out, that's just how desperate a situation this has been that they could not enter that building to remove that person. they had to go down five or six floors which took a great deal of time. you can imagine if they had to rescue a lot of people because you're up high and you don't want to hurt the person or risk the person falling off that ladder and they were really inching them down slowly, but this thing is quite hot and it's starting to spread across the roof and the roof with all of that up there and the paper and

all of that stuff that's used, the materials and the asphalt and shingles and it's just fuel for a fire. >> chris, coming up at 5:45. >> i just want to call your attention. we saw fairly big pieces of debris falling off the top and there we go. this is the first water that we're seeing start shooting up there, and i can tell you, with that fire spreading out across the roof there would be a significant danger of part of that roof collapsing. it is burning very hot off a good section of that roof and for the first time now we're seeing them start to put some water on it from the front of the building. >> we want to bring in mark brady from prince george's fire rescue. mark, tell us what you know now and we're looking at this live picture and this looks to be a brick structure, perhaps some wood in there, as well and mark, you're joining us there. tell us what happened and what is going on on the scene there? >> at about 5:20, we received a call and units arrived from the

scene from the top floor of this four-story apartment building with made of people who had retreated to their balconies and they were unable to escape through the hallways just due to the intense -- several people had been rescued. we do have crews up on the top floor searching for anyone else that may still be trapped. they also have hose lines and they have since retreated back into the stairwell while we attempt to knock down the bulk of the fire from the extear year. we do have firefighters on the inside and they're performing search and rescue as well as suppression efforts. >> mark, we saw your people bringing rescuing someone and we notice that there wasn't any water being put on the fire at that time. was that on purpose and could that possibly hamper or in any way compromise the rescue if you did start hitting it with water while you had people coming down on ladders? >> not really.

one of those people you saw being rescued from the exterior with the ladder went out through their balconies to wait for firefighters, and at the same time another crew was upstairs on that fourth floor extinguishing that fire and also performing search and rescue. what search and rescue methods we can use to extinguish the fire and that's what we can do as watching the video, you can see that the fire grew in intensity very quickly and we needed to back out our firefighters from that top floor and they are now suffering in place while we use exterior hand lines and water and it's not our preferred way of extinguishing fire and it's what we need to do to extinguish the bulk of this fire and the firefighters will go back to work. >> it looks like it is growing as we speak now from the roof up. what do we know about injuries? >> we do have several people

being evaluated by medics at this time. i've not heard any reports of any serious injuries and one thing about this particular building is that it's a flat roof apartment building as to one with an attic area where the fire could grow in intensity even more very rapidly. this is a flat roof apartment building and that is very well involved and that hose line appeared to do a significant knock in knocking down the bulk of the fire. >> yes, it did. being four floors, the design of this, does that give you any kind of advantage in fighting it? >> we were very fortunate that it is on the top floor. the only thing burned is the roof where had it been on the lower floors you would have multiple apartments involved with the fire. >> we're only dealing with the apartment on fire as well as the roof structure. >> we've been talking about the cold conditions and wind, too, mark, but time of day could be a

benefit to this and a lot of people not home because of work, perhaps? >> that's true. they're either not home or at a minimum they all should be awake. hopefully the alarm systems in that building activated and alerted everyone to get out of the building prior to our arr e arriv arrival. >> obviously some did not as you can see the rescues we're making. wind does not appear to be much of i factor and other than some ice and some slippery spots, it doesn't really affect firefighters that much until after the fire goes out and firefighters have to take off all their wet gear and that's when the cold weather starts to take a toll on our firefighters. >> mark, i know if this was my apartment building and i was watching it now, and i had my animals inside there i would be pretty hysterical. i understand the important thing is getting people out and the safety toe your people, but if

they hear a dog barking inside, do they make any effort to get them out at this point or do they have to wait for that? if we have additional firefighters performing search and rescue and they happen to find an animal or someone's pet, that pet is removed. we do have a set of priorities and that's human life first and extinguishing that fire and we do our best to save as many pets as possible. >> talk a little bit about where this is. we're in adelphi here and how close we are to the beltway and traffic impact, perhaps. >> it's not very far from the beltway at all and it's the 250 intersection of new hampshire avenue and rock road. i would say a mile or a mile and a half is the new hampshire avenue and the capital beltway and half a mile in the other

direction takes you back into montgomery county. >> what is that doing to traffic right now? is it in an area that people arn't being impacted? >> it's blocked traffic on new hampshire avenue. we do have apparatus and hose lines stretched across the roadway. so, yes, that will impact traffic and traveling around new hampshire up to the beltway. >> mark, we are now seeing flashlights and we're seeing people with their lights searching around inside what looked like the burnt apartment and we can see their lights and not as much flame. >> exactly right. the firefighters are using high-intensity flashlights and they're doing a cursory search of that apartment to ensure there's nobody inside of there as you can see the roof area is burned and the smoke and the heat is making it's ventilation out of that burned-off roof area and that is a good sign that the

bulk of that fire is out. i see we still have hot spots along the way that need to be taken care of, but that is not a real big concern for us at this point as we need to search all of the apartments on the top floor. >> do we know from the apartment unit that we're focused on if that person has made it out or was rescued or what do we know? >> no. not at this point. >> much too early to say before we can check and verify who lives in that apartment or where that person is at. >> will this go on into the night? say the flames are knocked down. how long do you have to stay on a scene to make sure it is secured? >> well, we need to make sure the fire is completely extinguished and that it will not reignite and some of the firefighters will need to remain on scene after the fire is extinguished to help them go throughout the apartment to

determine the cause of the fire. >> can you tell us a little bit about, is this a complex and how many units in all, do we know, mark? >> yes. it's an apartment complex that has three or four of these buildings that are four stories and stretch a lot longer than your standard garden-style apartments and just behind this apartment complex is another larger apartment complex that runs the 1800 block of messeroff road. >> you have been so lovely to walk us through there and we are glad to see your people have knocked this down for the most part, but thank you for sort of giving us an education on just how risky the job is and how professional your people are, and thanks for helping us walk through this this afternoon. >> not a problem at all. >> you know, he mentioned their job is far from over. >> they'll be there all night. >> and the transition back into the cold. that's a long process for them. >> and then the people who live

there, no one is getting back in there even if yours isn't -- that smoke is everywhere and you can't get back in the building and you have a lot of people who will have to find a place to live and that's never pleasant. >> you can believe the red cross and fire officials are there or en route to provide shelter for them tonight and a warm place to stay and a meal or two. >> chopper 4. it looks like a person on a gurney there perhaps taken in an ambulance, but th were on a stretcher there. >> right. amelia, what kind of conditions are these firefighters and people who live there will want to stand and stare in this cold. >> wendy, dealing with breezy conditions and we've been talking about temperatures all day below freezing. at this time it feels like 22 degrees and at least they're not dealing with gfty winds and the air is very dry and that will

not help the situation and more importantly it's the temperatures and the binneds and still tracking breezy conditions and those winds will diminish tomorrow morning and not as cold as it was this morning and temperatures regardless tomorrow morning still in the teens and 20s across the area. guys? >> amelia, thank you so much and on the screen there, as she's been mentioning all evening it feels like the low 20s and it's only going to get colder. we talked about -- we saw it balloon, but the first call came in about 5:20. here we are more than a half hour later, several people, that's the number that's been used. >> i think mark is trying to get a hard number on that. if you're just joining us, this is an apartment complex on new hampshire avenue and adelphi and near montserrat road and it was confined to one apartment in the top floor and it was quite a

blaze for a good 30 minutes and the firefighters, you can see, the prince george's and montgomery county both responding to this two-alarm blaze are now in that unit and using their flashlights to put out any hot spots and secure that building and they are still going floor to floor to make sure everyone got out and if someone is not able to come out they can get them out and we saw a rescue from a ladder that took an awful long time just to show you how pain staking and gingerly they have to bring people down from those heights. it is four stories, but still, you don't want to injure anyone while you're rescuing them. >> all because the flames were just shooting through the hallways and no one could get out through the interior. this was a desperate situation and we saw three or four firefighters through that unit and initially they were yelling and calling for anybody or any

signs of life. that's how they had to kind of make their way. it's dark. they've got flashlights and they have made it up to the top and mark had pointed out that it's a good thing this fire was on the top floor, otherwise other floors would have been in jep arty. >> what i learned from talking to mark brady is because the building has a flat roof there isn't an attic space or a crawl space that creates an ability for the fire to be spread. ? so because it was a flat roof and it didn't have anywhere to go and they were able to get to it. >> we weren't seeing them shooting water onto it from the exterior that the firemen were inside battling and that was the technique we're used to in the old days. they pull up and start hitting it with water. >> let's bring amelia back in. we were talking about the cold and you said that the wind had died down a little bit so it could have been worse.

>> absolutely, jim. throughout the day we were tracking wind gusts anywhere from 20 to 30 miles an hour, sustained wind speeds about 15 miles an hour and the great news right now, the wind speed out of washington in that area only at about 6 miles an hour and that's kind of a slight breeze that you'd notice, but nothing that you'd really be talking about. today we were talking about the winds, but at this point the winds have died down and we'll continue to see the winds diminish overnight and that's good news because you're dealing with less of a windchill and what the thermometer is feeling like 32 degrees and temperatures there in a delphi will fall into the upper 20s and it won't be until tomorrow morning so it could certainly be worse and that's also something to keep in mind and we're below freezing there. as that apartment building is exposed toddle ements you could be exposed to freezing to

continue to contain and put out that fire. chris lawrence here from the live desk picking it up from what amelia said. nothing encapsulates the danger that we've been seeing and this scene right here of the firefighters standing inside the apartment that was blazing just a few minutes ago. we saw them in there with their flashlights and their hoses putting water on that fire even as it was still burning around them and in the last few minutes we heard from mark brady from the prince george's county fire department. he said that as we were watching that ladder extend and as they were bringing people down he sort of filled in the blanks as to what we weren't seeing that people saw, heard and felt this fire inside that building. some of them tried to get out through the hallway and they were not able to do so. others came out on their balcony

and those were the people that the firefighters were bringing down on the ladder. there were other people who were still holed up in the stairwell because they were not able to get out through the hallway. what we didn't see at that point were the firefighters that were inside trying to get to those people to help them, not only get out, but also putting some water on that fire from the inside, as you can see right there the smoke still pouring out of the top of the roof. a four-story building and as we pull out you can see the extent and scope of it. at the live desk, i'm chris lawrence, news 4. a dram atic scene is playin out in prince george's county. this is a live picture from our chopper 4. it is a smoky scene here right now and moments ago flames were shooting out of the roof of this apartment complex in adelphi, maryland. we are not live. this is video from just a short time ago. >> and just a short time ago we

saw people being pulled from that fire and put on to stretchers. chris lawrence is monitoring it from the live desk. what's the latest? >> we just heard from mark brady from the prince george's county fire department and he said right now paramedics are examining several people and the good thing is right now it does not appear that there are any serious injuries again. there were people that were inside when this fire broke out. a lot of them came out on their balconies because they felt that was the best way for firefighters to get to them. we saw them extend that ladder up to nearly about the third floor and start walking people down that ladder safely to the ground mark brady told us there were other people who could not get out that way and they were trapped and could not get out through the hallway and they were huddled on a stairway and what we didn't see, we had been wondering why we weren't seeing water being put on the fire, it

was because you had that ladder there and they were bringing people safely down and the firefighters were inside with external hard lines not only putting water on the fire from the inside and also trying to get to some of the folks on the stairway and get them to safety. that is want the preferred way that they like to attack a fire, but in this case it's what they had to do and again, if you're just joining us, we're trying to put this in some perspective and this is all happening in a four-story apartment building in adelphi and a mile south of the beltway. right now they have hoses and equipment stretched out across new hampshire avenue. so these backups in traffic will be going back to the beltway right now and they're putting water on the fire and most of it looked to be out and we saw some firefighters out there on the top floor, but you can still peek through this and you can see some units in the back pushing back toward the