that breaking news coming from the catholic church this morning. the formerrchbishop of washington has been accused of having sexually abused a teenager. >> cardinal theodore mckaerk relehied a statement morning. the allegation against him dates back nearly 45 years but was reported to the arch diocese of new yorkithin the last two years. ccarrick was a r-- iest at the time. he accepted the decision of pope francis to end his ministry and

says he doesn't recall the reported abuse and maintains his innocence. the arch diocesehi of wton also released a statement saying, in part, ote, while saddened and shocked, this arch diocese awaits the final outcome and asks foror prayers all involved. the vatican has not yet decided his final punishment, which could include being dismissed from the church. reaking news in first four traffic. take a look at this. this is the woodrow wilson we are all lanes shut down this morning. the main lanes as well. so,nd inner loop outer loop crossing the woodrow wilson bridge. at is a big tractor-trailer fire, all lanes blocked because ofhat fir we will keep you updated aut toda look at that smoke coming towards the sky here this morning. bottom of the beltway, wdgdrow wilsone, inner loop and outer loop shut down bece.se of

this f time new to take a look at the weather. samara is standing by. >> good morning, folks at home. we've got some changes that are going to be impacting your day. right now, though, things a pretty quiet out there. still a lot of clouds moving in but oefverall, it's a dry start. 81 degrees in washington, d.c., n manassas. leesburg, how you doing, 79 degrees. sore we'reing towards the 80s at this point. as we head throu out the afternoon, we'll make it to the upper 80s. there's a few things we are going to be talking about in detail coming up in just a the storms that are moving in ois evening, they will have an impact, especiall that rush hour time frame but i'll detail that a little bit in just a moment l also, we arking at a nice thursday afternoon, but we do have some rain chances for the weekend. i'll talk to you soon. stick around. >> s omara, thank you. the way d.c. restaurant employees get paid is changing. >> vote passing initiative 77

will eliminate the tped minimum wage. now employers r will beequired to pay everyone at at least the minimum wage. >> a nins conference appla the passage of this measure just wrappe up. molette, good morning. >> reporter: that news conference just wrapped up about minutes ago. this was the contentious issue on the d.c. ballot and supporters of initiative 77 say they feel emboldened. they have delivered a powerful blow to a huge opposition. years afterht fg for that $15 minimum wage, and they have united under one coalition called one fair wage, and they are ready now to move forward and help restaurts transition. >> a this is huge victory for tipped workers all over the district. this is going to mean a paycheck, finally.

we get a paycheck. you don't have to live shift to shift, week to week, montho month. reporter: the members of the city council, the mayor, and restaurant owners banded together. they fought hard against this, saying this would not be good for this industry, especially tipped workers. >> understand tt this is bad for tipped employees, and this is bad for small businesses in d.c. >> reporter: and they addressed their concerns this morning. the biggest one of them being the cy council andongress possibly stepping in and voiding the outcome of the election result, but the coalition says and urges the city to really listen to the voters. they have spoken, and this measure passed by about the vote. the wealthiest section of the city going against it, but those east of the river overwhelmingly supporting initiative 77. that is the latest live from

outside the wilson building. molette green, news4. >> thank you. some other big from the d.c. primary, mayor mur bowser is on her way to a second term. e's headed to be the district's first two-term mayor since anthony williams. beery inc on the ballot also won their party's nomination, including council memb phillip mendelssohn. nasty and uy. that's how president trump described the situation at the border as undocumented children continue to be separated from their parents. we president meth republicans on capitol hill last night, telling them if they canv get enoughes to fix the problem, he will sign an b immigratiol. tracie potts has more on what's next. >> reporter: both could happen aris week on two laws that would end sing migrant children from their parents.

>> we're going to try and see if we can fix it. >> mr. president, i'll lend you my pen, any pen. you can fix it yourself. >> reporter: president trump tells republicans he's 1,000% behind immigration reform. >> i don't want children taken away from parents. ter: but it's not clear which plan he's backing. >> we hope to reachut to the democrats and see if we can get a result. >> reporter: one compromise wod limit immigration and provide a path to citizenship and nearly $25 billion for a border wall. >> children should not be a bargaining chip in this process. >> reporter: lawmakers are under pressure with crts overflowing and thousands of children in government custody. >> people i haven't heard from in years who have gotll my phone, who know my personal e-mail who are saying, i haven't time.red you in a long this is

this is moral. >> reporter: ranchers at the border blame parents. >> it's terrible that they're ing their children as pawns tos gain acceso our country. >> repter: children in cages, congress in limbo, and america pointoiling we're expecting to hear more today as president trump meets with lawmakers again, this time at the white house. trac trac trac potts, nbc news washington. the man responsible for a security scare at the white house on monday will back in court today. according to court documents, he told officials he was on a mission from. a tourist recorded the entire incident on his cell phone camera. 29-year-old alexander minor is from danville, california. cording to court records, minor told police he received communication from the birds and the sky to comeo d.c. to resist tyranny.

somebody told minor he didn't believe in god and that's when witnesses say hee jumped th barrier. he is now facing multiple charges. we are working to learn more about the early morning shooting in southeast d.c. poce say a man was shot multiple times. that area is just a few blocks away from the playground and park on yuma street. police recei ad a callut 6:30 this morning. at this point, no word on a suspect. this morning, there is a reward for information about the murder of a teen at a prince georges county playground. he was shot to death monday. prince george's county police tell news4 this is a robbery. his p cousin tol collins the robbers took hisdesigner belt. there is a $25,000 reward. more about arnin the investigation into the death of a university of maryland football player. jordan mcnair died after aeam

workout. he investigation could last up to 90 days. also, all university football team workouts have been voluntary since mcnair's death and will remain so until furthei . his funeral is today. ot also happening today, a that could raise the cost of your commute. tolls are likely to jump on the dulles toll road. a 75 cent hike at the main toll plaza, a 50 cent hike at the off ramps. for some drivers, that could be an extra $1.25 a day. the majority would go the metro silver line extension. one driver is not thrilled the money will go to metro. >> so if i wanted my money to go to metro, i would get on the metro. . >> the price hike could take effect in january of nt year. commuters will have a chance to weigh in later this summer. an airlineh computer gli

has travelers scrambling. over 2 ,000 flights on an american airlines regional carrier have been cancelled since lt thursday. nbc's tom costello explains the ripple effect felt in others paf the country. >> reporter: for tens of thousands of psa airline passengers, it's beena almos week of going nowhere fast. >> aggravated. i'm ready to get home, and they don't tell you nothing. i can't tell m wife when to co pick me up because i don't know. >> reporter: at charlotte dougs international airport, passengers have been stuck in long lines, sleeping on the floor, luggage piling up ever since last thursday whe technical issue with psa'sdu scng system grounded hundreds of flights. oneng angry pas even reportedly smashing a window in frustration. >> there's an awful lot of people here that are in trouble. >> i was very frustrated, you know, i was trying to get back to ohio and nobody was kmubting with us. >> reporter: psa thought it had fixed the glitch but ongoing f

issuesced the airline to cancel all of its flights ntuesday and e more today. >> we're having issues getting the crews assigned to the plane correctly. >> reporter: whiletharlotte was ardest, travelers at airports in washington and philadelphia were also affected. american airlines issued a statement on tuesday saying, "psa airlines has stabilized its computer systems and working to reintroduce flying and tet backo regular operations." little consolation for those g desperate t out of dodge or wherever they may be stuck. >> and it took her 45 minutes to processy paperwork and they didn't let me board. >> i'm frustrated, angry, and i'm writing tters. >> well, there seems to beryne on e corner. we're talking about of course. it looks like the company is scaling back. details on plans to slow down the coffee giant's growth w cn news4 middtinues. cancer is smart.

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using tools like advancegend immunotherapy to bring more options to our patients. cancer treatment centers of america. we're not just fighting cancer any more. we're outsmarting it. visit cancercenter.com/outsmart to learn more. in breaking news right now first 4 traffic. a major problem on the woodrow wilson bridge. we are talking about a closure right now. inner loop and outer loop, main lanes and local lanes on the woodrow wilson bridge right now closed because of a really big truck fire. we were showing you that smoke kind of in the distance a little bit ago. here is another live picture of that. right now, that outer loop lane,

those are being pushed o on to van dorn street. been watching this the past 15 minutes or so. really, we had that black smoke in the sky. >> you could see the flashing o lighthe bridge in that last shot there. what we ca tellt this point is that there may have been a tanker truck that caught fire. at the same time, there was a rk crew underneath the bridge doing some work in a bucket. as such, the fire departmentll engines as s some fire boats from d.c. fire are responding to this scene.er s a rescue operation that seems to be under way for those workers, at the same time, trying to put this fire out and so you can expect that that response is going to keep the bridge closed to traffic for some time until they can get everybody taken care of in this tuation. >> and then comes the clean-up portion of things. who knows if there's been a fuel spill or what's going on there so this is going to be some time. you must avoid the bottom of the beltway if you can for the next few hours. again, inner loop and outer loop, all the laneswon the

row wilson bridge are shut down because of a tractor-trailer fire there, so t avoi area if you possibly can. they are trying to divert some folks but there are some that are stuck in the no man's land of the road area where there's where to get off. we'll keep you updated here and on the nbc washington app and first 4 ottwitter. >>r news now. a lot of us start our day by grabbing a cup of coffeen the way into the office but one of the most popular stops, starbucks, iso planning close more than 100 stores next year. the company says it will also slowen the number of ld stores that it opens. nbc's jolene kent has the sty. >> reporte this morning, starbucks appears to be losing steam. the coffee giant planning to close 150 stores nt year in at its most satured markets. the company says that's up from an average ofcl about 5ures a year. in a statement, starbucks president and ceo kevin josen

saying, our recent performance does not reflect the potential of our exceptional brand. it is not acceptable. we must move faster to address the needs of our customers. >> starbucks is going through a little bit of growing pains right now. i think what the c eo is saying is that starbucks is indeed facing challenges with their own customer and with the consumers at large. >> reporter: like many companies, starbucks is putting a renewed focus on its digital platform. 39% of sales last quarter came from its loyalty proleam and moapp, and sta ucks says it has added 5 million new online customers since april. but it's been a rocky few months for iae coffee. this month, formeeo howard schultz said he'd step down as executive chairman after more than 30 years after making starbucks a household name. that move coming just one week after starbucks shut down all 8,000 of its u.s. stores to provide its employees racial bias education. >> what did they do?

>> reporter: after the april arrest of two black men inside a philadelphia store, contact sac of racism. >> what happened and the way that incident escalated and the outcome was nothing but reprehensible, and i'm sorry. >> reporter: it's an icy time for starbucks, whetherou like your coffee hot or cold. now starbucks shifting its business to put a renewed fomes on the cus >> i think starbucks is definitely going through a renewal of how it approaches and attracts today's consumer. alexa, what can i do around here? >> your summer vacation getting an upgrade thanks to alexa. the echo smart speaker ls about tod on night stands in rooms in four hotelch ns. it can order room service, call housekeeping. guests conrned about their privacy can ask to have the speaker removed from their room. right now, once again, a

first 4 traffic alert. breaki news, this is on the beltway. a full closure. fire with a setruck, maybe a couple of other vehicles. we're trying to get this information sorted out right now on the woodrow wilson bridge.th means all lanes are closed. we're talking about local lanes d through lanes. bottom of the beltway on thels woodrow bridge at this point this morning. this is a major response, a massive scene. g everybody'ng to very likely be sitting there for some time, aaron. we've been talking what was going on as this happened, and you were mentioning something earlier. >> so,o according prince george's county fire, there was a work crew working under the idge in some sort of extended bucket and this fire happened, possibly involving sever. vehicl at this point, we know that two of three workers who were in that truck have been escued, lowered from that bucket down to a boat, a fire bo, d.c. fire dispatched some of their boats, at least one, and the third person is being rescued now according to the prince george's

countyire department. at's what chains the realinges of this situation. it becomes a greater conhorn for peopleave been involved in this. you can see from some of these still pictures, aot of fire, a lot of smoke, but in these pictures, it looks as though there were at least two vehicles involved in this somehow. something on fire, and then maybe another truck tha looked like it might have been hit. >> it does seem that way. we're getting some more information in about this. so, what we're seeing here, thick, black smokeir in the there, at least one, probably more than two vicles involved here, just from what we're reading online here at this point this morning, information we're getting into julie was near the mixing bowl, sending in the pictures, seeing at black smoke in the sky. so we are closed, bottom of the beltway, woodrow wilson bridge is shut down in both directions, inner loop, outer loop, no matter where you're going here. if you're trying to head that way, just a warng, you're not going to want to do it. let's say they get things moving here,t's going to take a while

because of the e clean-up h this morning. we're not just talking about dusting things off and pushing them out of the way. this could involve fuel and a much bigger clean-up situation as well. >> andhile we are hearing about some rescues having happened on this scene, there's no word at this point about any injuries so perhaps some good news, some good indications there but it looks like not only do you have people, fire and police response on the bridge, you have people who look to be standi around a bit as traffic is not moving oither side, so that's an indicator that it's going to be a while, when traffickes stopped, b up, probably for a couple of miles at least here on the part of the bridge that we can see in this partner. >> so right now what we know as far as the outer loop, they're being pushed off on van dorn street but if you're past that exit, you're going to be sitting here, what you'reooking at ght now, for quite a while. this is this vehiclee fire h on the woodrow wilson bridge, happened probably about 30 minutes ago, so here we are 30 minutes in, ande willeep you

updated both here on the nbc washington app and at first 4 traffic on twitter as well. well, it may already feel like it, but summer doesn't officially start until tomorrow. >> if you're still scratching your head over how to entertain your kids, we have you covered. we're taking look at summer staycation ideas that you can find in your community.

we are staying on top of the breaking news happening on the i woodrow wilsone. the beltway, you can see, traffic is stopped here as a response from prince george's county fire and d.c. fire is happening to a truck, at least e truck, likely more than one vehicle involved in a fire here on the bridge. we can see from these live pictures now from the scene that it would appear that the fire at the very l is out. andet there's still obviously this large response. >> so we're talking about inner loop and outer loop of the beltway here, bottom of e beltway, woodrow wilson bridge, shut down, no word on how long it's goingo be this way. it could be some time. what we were initially seein from mark, who we're hoping to prince george's county fire and rescue in the next couple minutes, he was aying this could be some time because multiple vehicle fires, what he had tweeted out so we're trying to get some more information on that. we saw those pictures earlier with those huge, black plume smoke, just a real mess for folks there.

sounds like they'ren the pictures. thank you for that, guys. you can see the flames and the smokes, just terrifying for whomever took these. >> as the fire response was going on, apparently there were some workers in some sort of a bucket underneathhe bridge who were doing some work. we understand at this point that all three of those workers have en successfully rescued from that bucket b under tdge there. they were lowered into a fire department boat, either from d.c.ire or prince george's county fire, a boat that was waiting below the bridge there to rescue those people. 's the some good news as we heill wait to see exactly what may have sparked fire, if there was some sort of collision et the bridge first or sng else that may have caused this fire to happen in the first place. still, though, the traffic impact here is significant. you know what? they're doing a good job. i'm looking right now a one of my applications and how we can look at realtime as far as back-ups and everything and i'm assuming this picture is from chopper 4?

really showing us what's going on. but if i look at a realte map, they're doing a good job diverting people, pushing peopl e outer loop at van dorn street. they're doing aca good job e right now what i'm seeing, when you look at the bottom of the beltway, you're seeing that red or bck from a closure just off the bridge. we have a little back-up on each side but they are doing as much as they can at this point, i'm sure, to get ts wrapped up and cleaned up but it could be some time. we can be talking about a fuel spill, who knows. >> and we're seeing this note now from fairfax county saying they have shut down the outer loop at south vanee dorn s to keep drivers from going to the woodrow wilson bridge, which is now closed, so trying to alleviate some of the back-up that's happening there as a result, even in fairfax county. because it actually, since we started talking about this about a half hour ago, it looks ashe though t fire response has grown, more flashingights on the bridge here and you would have to imaginehat's a safety ecaution. they want to cover all their

bases. you see a helicopter near the water here now. the flashing lielgghts from one boats, looks like a d.c. fire boat, possibly prince george's county. and then the helicopter there. the place where the park service - park police keep their helicopter fairly close to this location at the woodrow wilson bridge, so they may even be assisting if not a d.c. i helicoptolved here. >> so, again, we're talking about the inner loop and the ter loop of the beltway, bottom of the beltway there, at the woodrow wilson bridge. this is something that is not -- something we see almost ever where we have a full closure on the beltway, talking about both sides of the beltway. we talk about it every now and then, maybe the inner loop is closed temporarily o loop but because of the response, though this happened he the inner loop, ty have to also close thingsown on the outer loop. it's just too obviously, the smoke is out -- the fire is out, excuse me, the smoke is sort of dissipated a bit. mhose pictures were really incredible fust a short time ago but chopper 4 showing

the standstill on the bridge, inner loop and outer loop shut down. outer loop being diverted as we're saying a here van dorn street this morning. >> this d confirmation from. fire that the fire is out but now fire boats are working to help contain auel spill in the river. so now, an added concern there. we'll see a larger response on the water as they try to get that situation handled because there's anothernt environ hazard that's presented by having a fuel spill in the water there. but you know, iferhere's a si lining or some good news to come out of this in the -- at thismoment, this is that it seems as though no one was hurt. we workers we concerned here, we know, have been rescued, and it looks like that might be a hazmat truck comingce on to the here. obviously with that fuel spill, there's an issue to deal with. >> we now have mark ready with prince george's fire andrescue. melissa mollet and aaron gilchrist here. tell us wppened and what you guys are working on.

this is a massive resnse for you. >> massive response and it's an example of the interoperability toescue the three workers that were in the extended bucket of their boom truck underneath the woodrow wilson bridge. they are okay. but getting bowk to this started, very preliminary reports, you saw the change. the boom truck on which these workers were working on was stationary and involved in a multivehicle crash on the outer loop of the beltway. now, that resulted in a fire of the vehicles involve unfortunately, we do have injuries and we do have one fataty involved in that cras the fire has been extinguished. we do have hazmat crews coming on to the scene to make sure all the -- any hazardous materials,

including fuel and engine products are clearedff. we will have that wilson bridge clor an extended period of time. we do have quite a few vehicle on the bridge that we need to get off, and we are still investigating the crash site and it's still going to be an ongoing process for an extended period of time. >> mark, i can se watching tweets here, they're trying to contain fuel spill in the river below. can you confirm that for us and tell u how big a concern that is at this point. >> of course, when we have a collision of that nature and then it involves some tractor-trailers, you're goingl to have f from the saddle tanks from those trucks spill over and becau you're on th bridge, extended over the river, you're going to have some of that product spilling down into the river. yes. all right. >> it's not going to be a major issue. >> okay. now, mark, you were saying that

this crash h opened on theer loop of the beltway, is that correct? >> preliminary reports indicated the outer loop, right around the mid span in the throuanes of the beltway, yes. >> and at this point, again, we're saying that some were injured but one person did die here in the initialrash with that vehicle? >> that's correct. our reports are indicating we do have some people that are injured as a result of the crash and one of those is a fatal injury. >> and mark, was there a construction site set up here? was it just the one truck with the workers lowered from that one truck or were there lanes shut down? do you know what the scene was? itate to answer that question. i do know that the boom truck was set up on the bridge and operating. as far as what precautions were set up to protect them, i hesitate to answer that question at this point. >> okas. noar as clean-up, again, mark, and we appreciate you talking with us here because i

know you're py being pulled in ten different directions. as far as clean-up, though, any general idea for people of hld long we shavoid this? i mean, i'm thinking well into the early going to need to deal with the debris that's there, deal with possible spill on the span of the beltway, and then gff everything of there. this is not any small task,a evn fouge response like you have here. >> exactly. it's going to be an extended period of time, not to mention, or as you mentioned, a will the of the things that the fire department needs to do as far as making sure the fire is out, making sure any hazmat is cleaned up. but this does involve a crash and a fatality, so there's going to be a law enforcement investigation as to exactly what happened, and we know that documentatio does take an extended period of time. >> okay. >> all right, appreciate you taking some time for us. we're going to let you get to ormation. more i mark brady, thank you, sir.

we also have brad upn chopper, our photographer there, who has seen a lot of stuff in his day. brad, tell me what you're seeing oght now. you gotthe scene about 15 minutes ago and these pictures are really showing us what a situation this is for many people and very sadly, we just learned that one person was killed, brad. >> i did hear that, melissa, and as you can see here, thi mis about ses away from us. i'm having a pretty hard time keepingontrol of the image here, but as we're looking here, let me pull up the telestrator, and it looks like this was the at was holding the bucke that those workers were stuck in during these multiple fires breaking out as mark was sing. and as you can see, also here, we have the remnants of what was a 18-wheeler tractor-trailer cab right there, i l looe that was one of the main fires that were on the woodrow wilson brge here, a as we took off from the airport just about 15

miles srth, we the smoke that was over the woodrow wilson bridge and as we were getting on the scene, i also wanted to note how large this scene is. it's -- it looks to me to be about two and a half, three football fields worth of bridge here that are not only shut down but just filled with emergency vehicles, and we're seeing t delays on bot inner and the outer loop, stretching from vice nd into virginia a versa. as you look at this scene here, you can just see how big this response is and all of the people that are stand g in between the inner and out loopprobably, i would say, about 50 people, and that includes probably theorkers that were working on the bridge as well as all of the emergency. vehicles he you can see this large group of workers here, so as mark was saying, this is a fatalccident investigation, so expect this closure to last forhoeveral s, so if you're headed this way, we'll keep you updated on when this is ened but don't want it any time soon. melissa? >> thank you. >> brad, i want to ask you too,

i know you're a good distance away becauseav youto stay outside the no fly zone. but i'm wondering what the images look like in terms of the delays, extending into maryland or virginia, ifou're able to see that without the camera c getting toozy here, to see how bad the back-ups are and if you've been able to s it l. law enforcement trying to get people off the interstate now at this poio, if they're trying t turn people around anywhere. what are y seeing in terms of a traffic impact? >> reporter: that's a good question. so, as we were coming south from d h of joint base, we co see east to west, which is, of course, what the trajectory of the bridge is. but now that we're south of it, we're south oio the natnal harbor, that's when it becomes kind of difficult to see et to west, as you can see from the shot here. so we're looking just aboutur five miles to the north at the woodrow wilson bridge, and to west really see east right now. so of course we will take a look

at that as we move around this into nt and either go virginia or stay in maryland on this side of the river, and we'll be able t better see exactly how they're removing bhicles from thdge as well as stopping traffic on one side or the other. hopefully both for and we'll do that just in a few minutes here. >> okay. and brad, i know we also aave map we can show people from my traffic system, just to show kind of what'sou y, happening. ain, take a look there at that purple. that means a road is closed. so it's not just slow. it is closed. so the bridge there, that span, the woodrow wilson bridge, is shut down there at the bottom of the beltway. as you can see, the l outp lanes are shut down at van dorn street so they are pushing people off on to van dorn street and the inner loop lanes, traffic being pushed off at indian head highway so this really is something they're trying to contain as best the i can tell you, aaron, just thinking about this, how this is going to look, i would havesu d we would see sort of a red spaghetti there at the bottom of the beltway.

that all of it would just be shut down but they'reoing as best they can to get those folks e they coming off bef hit that no man's land. >> of we want to reset a little just beanybody who may joining us this morning. you are looking at pictures from the woodrow wilson bridge. inght there on sort of the virginia-maryland and what you can expect is that this bridge will be shut down for at least a f more hours after an accident that involved several vehicles, including a actor-trailer. we saw some images of the cab of a tractor-trailer that had been burned out. it seems as though there may have been a worker truck that was involved in this as well. it resulted in a huge fire, as you can see from some of ts still ima we've been able to gather here, and several vehicles were involved, initially in a collision. we know that there were injuries as a rest of that collision, and that one person has died as wes a result of a collision. at the same time, there were several workers under the bridge doing some work there. we're not quite sure at this point what exactly they were

doing on the woodrow wilson bridge, underneath it, i should say, but there were three meng work underneath the bridge. they have been rescue lowered into fire department boats that were waiting for them on the river. as we still see this large fire department response on the bridge, there is also now ali investigation that will have to happen because this has involved a fatality. so, we can expect the bridge to that sed for some time as investigation happens. at the same time, we know d.c. fire has said ty are underneath the bridge where there's been a fuel spill in the water, in thepotomac river there and they are working to make sure they can contain any fuel that has leaked int river as a result of all that traffic is backed up big time. >> it is backed u big time and as mark brady was saying and as aaron and i have been saying g, this is not something that's going to clear up any time soon. we're talking about hours and s and hours of reconstruction, investigation, of clean-up,ur and of then you're dealing with fuel spills

and all kind of things. even whenhings get cleared out of the way, you're going to see those slick stops on top of the bridge. of course we're zoomedn here for six miles because of the no fly zone but that's not something that just goes away. they have to bring in absorbent and everything to make sure the road is saf so there isn't another problem when folks begin to cross the bridge once again. would say this is going to be something we're talking about 3 until perhaps0 or 4:00 this afternoon or even later. >> we have not yet heard from maryland sta police or virginia state police in terms of trying to get the traffic that is stopped off the interstate i would imagine at this point we would see something that's pretty rare around hereis and tt police reversing traffic on the interstate. busy, busy part of the beltway at any point during the day, really, but the only way, rather san waiting for t scene to clear, would be to turn people around and try to get them exit off one of the entryways, quite likely coming out of fairfax county, coming outfit of alexandria or the oxen hill area

to get people off the interstate here. >> t true. brad, i don't know if you're still on the line. can you still hear me, brad, the photographer in the chop r. >> reporter: i have yo what's up? >> let's talk about what you're seeing right now because this is such a big response. i know we were talking about where they're diverting people and how bad the traffic ismi on to the bridge. so those that you're looking at, obviously, folks at home, those folks, sadly, a stuck there because there is nowhere to go and as aaron was niment, perhaps at some point they would turn them aund. diverted at van dorn street, what are you seeing there from above in terms of response and the back-ups? >> reporter: well, we were just repositioning to the maryland side of theve bridge back by joint base andrews so we can get a side viewt this, as you can see the trajector of our shot has changed. those are the outer loop lanes there heading towards us on the eeleft side of the s where the main bulk of this incident

happened.ig the side is the inner loop and you're right, unfortunately, those people that are actually on the spans already, and this is more towards the maryland o sithe bridge, by the way, so there's a lot more traffic there on the outu loop. n see that welcome to virginia sign right there. those cars that areomg from virginia, those are the ones that are going to be have t turn around and the inner loop, it looks like, as we're coming around here, let me zoom out for you, this is just about miles from the bridge that we're looking at right here, and as i can pull up the shot here of th inner loop south of joint base andrews, it looks like they are still stuck in these delays here. you can see there's a help me truck there from mdsha. so looks like that's going to be the point where they're forcing traffic off. as this comes into view here, yeah, it's a difficult melissa, because it's so far inside the no fly zone, but ase

you can actually now we're getting a better look at this. they are forcing traffic off from the inner loop on to 210 indian head hhway so that's going to be where you're forced off. but if you're headed this s, direction, fo i got to tell you, do not use the inner loop on the capital beltway. get off the beltway now and figure yourself out an alternate route depending on where y are, follow first 4 traffic on twitter as well as wtop traffic. we'll help you get around this ad i'll try to keep an eye on this from upve and tweet out from my twitter. that's @chopper4ad. i'll try keep you guys updated but the woodrow wilson bridge completely shu down right now. the outer loop from virginia, not seeing where those delays start, blyause we're obvio still in maryland, but the delays on the inner loop are started well north of joint base andrews. blissa. >> thank you,d. just a short time ago, we were

talking to prince george's coun m fire and rescue,k brady, he was telling us a little bit more about the crash, and that sadly,omebody did die. take a listen. >>ery preliminary reports, and this could be something that changed. the bym truckhich these workers were working on was stationary and involved in ale multivehrash on the outer loop of the beltway. now, that resulted in a fire of the vehicles involved and unrtunately, we do have injuries, and we do have one fatality involved in that crash. the fire has been extinguished. we do have hazmat crews coming on to the scene to make sure all the --ny hazardous materials, including fuel and engine products, are cleared off. >> you heard from mark brady there that the fire is out. obviously, we can seem that f the live pictures here, but you're still seeing, obviously, the big back-up of traffic that's been stopped there at the

edge of this woodrow wilson bridge, and we're sticking with this, because this is the most significant roadway in our area. we're talking about the capital beltway here and a very busy section of the beltway tt connected maryland, d.c., and virginia in a way, and so this is a roadhat we've -- would be beside any time of day and because this is an accident tha involved several vehicles colliding and catching fire, that response is going to take some time.us be we know someone died as a result of this accident, thega police inveson is going to take some time as well and so this is likely to be an issue for folks who maybe have the luck of getting started ear on the rush hour. this is going to be a problem for them, and it could possibly even extend later into the day, and so we're sticking with this to make sure that every n get of information that comes from at this hour is something that we can give out to you who are watching at home and online. . >> we're going to have some video as well from twitter. we're just getting unbelievable images in from when this crash

initially happened, but as aaron was jyit sa, you know what? i'm seeing a little bit of movement there, i thought. as aaron was just saying this is something that could take quite some time to clear up. if you're somebody, perhaps, or you know somebody that typically uses the woodrow wilinn bridge, r loop or outer loop, around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon because they go in super y,ea perhaps like we do, that's probably not going to be something they can do today. planning now start because this is going to be a situation that is hanging around for hours and hours and hours. again, a twitter video right here. >> instagram. >> instagram. i'm sorra. inst video here this morning showing you what was happening, i guess, after the initial impact and as that fire really was going. >> yeah, you have to imagine, looks like these cars, this vantage point might be fm the other side of the bridge, so from the inner loop. people were approaching the smoke here, knowing that obviously traffic is stopped on the other side at this point. and this all started maybe 45 or so minutes ago, close to an hour now when this all started so

that huge plume of black smoke is what drivers initially countered on the opposite side of the bridge here and a sure sign for them that obviously something terrible had happened tt also a signt this road was going to be significantly impacted for a while. and that has come to be the case here where we know now that the interstate is shut down and that even roads leading into this area are being closed at this point. fairfax county telling us a while ago that they closed access to the beltway at south van dorn street in fairfax county to alleviate some the pile-up that's happening as a result. >> we're seeing a little bit of movement here on t roadway so i don't know if brad can hear us, our photographer up in chopper 4. can you hear us again, brad, and tell me what you think is moving right there. it's hard toe. and i know it's hard for you too. you're zoomed in six miles. amazing camera, but we all have our limitations, right? >> reporter: so, i believe -- and we're going to confirm this by going to th other side of the bridge here in a minute, but

i believe these are just the vehicles under police direction that are able to cross the atidge that were stuck on the spans. you're going to have is a closure point pri to the woodrow wilson bridge spans but the vaekz that weicles that wert this is more on the maryland said of the woodrow wilson bridge, so you have a lot of vehicles that are still stuck on the bridge and there's really no way to turn them around so i believe what's happening is unn,r police direct the folks that were stuck on the outer loop from maryland -- excuse me, going into maryland are being now allowed through, d they're going to complete that closure point prior to the bridge and not let any more hicles up until this point. so, we're going to go around to the other side of the bridge because i can't quite confirm that that's what's happening, but we're gng to make sure that that's the case. i still would definitely not have this direction if coming from virginia into maryland. you're going to have to go on the inner loop all the way around or work your way through d.c. is the only way you're

going to be able to access prince george's county from fairfax county right now. >> okay. so, again, as we've been talking about, right now, what brad is sayi up there from chopper 4, giving us these pictures, we are shut down on the woodrow wilson bridge. what you're seeingre moving t is police directing some of those people who were stuckn that accident scene kind of trying to get them off. they've stopped this again temporarily, actually, as we're looking at it. the outer loop of the beltway, right now, diverted at south van dorn street this morning and the inneloop there at indian head highway so here is the map. all lanes closed there. that is you're seeing the purple on the map. that means it's a full closure, not just a .slowdo outer loop closed there at van dorn street and inner loop at indian head highway. you're seeing those stretches on each side. aaron, we've been talking about this. this could be much worse. i thinkhey actually took some quick, great action here, trying to stop folks to not make it that one solid red and purple

line along the bottom of the beltway because it could very easily turn into that. that could bang up for miles and miles. there's a significant impact we know for sure. and again we're looking at live pictures. is this a traffic camera? >> right in the middle of the bridge. e so you see s that sort of intermittent movement on the brid and itooks like you see movement on both sides. we know that the majority of the rescue response was on the outer loop of the lty. >> yes. >> the inner loop looked as though there were extra vehicles that had parked in different places there so it's possible that - i'm not sure which side we're looking at. >> outer that's right. left. >> so, there's obviously -- what are those? local lanes on that side. >> t local lanes and the through lanes. it's tough to look at because we kees switching s just to get things into perspective here, but right now, they are getting these fks that were stranded on the top of the bridge for the past 40, 50 anutes or hour

out of the way. >> and on the other side, the inner loop, i assume, in this picture, you see a little bitf o movement there as well. crash we know that th scene was mostly on the outer loop. there was a response that had built o athe inner loop side so for that reason, there were some closures there as well. ot a little bit of movement here, it seems, at this point. >> that is a good, good thing to see, for sure. i know they are working hard. now we spoke with mark brady with prince george's county fire and rescue just a couple of minutes ago. he was saying this could be a really big undertaking and it could be a long time before things are cleared out of the way. take a listen. >> it's goingo be an extended period of time, not to mention or as youentioned, a lot of the things that the fire and ems department needs to do as far as make surhe fire is out, making sure any hazmat is cleaned up, but thisoes involve a crash and a fatality, so there'sbe going t a law

enforcement investigation as to exactly what happened, and we knowta that documon does take an extended period of time. >> as we mentioned, you heard mark allude to the facsthat there he possibility of a spill here as well in the river below, because there was -- we know at least tractor-trailer involved that was -- that would have had some additional fuel o tanks it, there's a possibility of fuel spill. d.c. fire reported that they were trying to contain that spill beneath the bring, but mark brady with prince geore's county f indicated that it wasn't a huge concern at this point. they don't think that there was a big fuel spill in the potomac rir beneath the woodrow wilson bridge here. >> we're talking about not just tat, but the reconstruction, the investigatio clean-up and a possible fuel spill on top on theoadway. julie is live for us now. lie, what are you seeing and where are you at this point? >> reporter: well, we're at jones point park in alexandria. we just rolled up a fewo minute

nd i want to show you in the river, that is the rescue boat out there. it just pulled away from this dock. as i walked up a short while ago, those three construction be workers who ha rescued from a bucket just under the bridge, they were standing there on that boat. ey just stepped off. tried to ask them a couple questions but the declined to comment. as you've been reporting all along, there hasereen onen killed in this multivehicle accident. these vehicles collided into a boom truck, although we are told by prince george's county firet the driver of the boom truck is going to be okay. there are other injuries. we don't kno many others, but as you've been reporting all along, those three constructn workers were stranded where they were working beneath the bridge, so they had to rescue them by water, and t they were able safely get to all three of those workers, bring them back down into the boat and then a i said, that fire andouescue boat t them into the pier here

at jones point park and they just stepped away a short while ago, but d againlined to comment on what was happening here today. hard to tell from where i'm standing right now what's goi i on upn the bridge right now. m sure you guys have a better vantage point for that. >> julie, i want to ask you, because you had an opportunity to see those workers. obviously it had to have been a scary scene for them stuck in that bucket truck. you said they walked off. what were you able to see in terms of -- tidy look like they were okay? were they fine and just able to take off? >> reporter: they looked completely fine and i kind of wondered as i first walked up tt them whethy were the three that were up there because they did look well. i saw no sign of injury on them, and i watched them just a few minutes ago walk away under their own power with a supervisor. so, they all looked like they did not suffer any injuries, despite the harrowing experience they had just been through. >> all right, julie carey near

the scene for us along the river, julie, tha you for that. if you look toward the bottom of the screen, i think that's the boom hearm, bucket we've been talking about and the arm was extended down. the pretty high above water. i sort of have to wonder how exactly they got them out of that bucket and on to the boat below. >> i'm sure as the day dweelops e going to learn a will the more. >> we'll hear an amazing sto from the folks who had to rescue those menke who were in the b truck. again, a live picture here from beneath the bridge. we told you that there was a response from at leas couple of agencies, fire boats that went to that scene both to help in the rescue of the workers under the bridge and to help with the containme of at least a small fuel spill that happened as a result of the collision and fire on top of the bridge. >> so, when you're looking at that map, once again, when we dook at that map here this morning, you can k of of see

that we still have the closure on the bridge there, trying to get folks off the bridge as you can see he, on camera, but outer loop right now being pushed off at van dorn streeoo and inner there at indian head highway. we're going to keep on this for you on the nbc washington app, firs4 traffic on twitters well. right now, we've meteorologist somara theore with us and we want to get an update on the forecast. >> i want to take us right to radar. we are seeing rain enter the area, still dry within the beltway and we should be sing dry through the early afternoon. it's not until the evening where these showers a really going rev up for the district but as you can see, just to the east of i-81 rain there in areas like loudoun county, saw it here on future cast, 6:00 p.m., we're expecting the rain to pick up and some of thein heaviest actually moving through later on this ening. and into early tomorrow morning. we are under a slight risk, so please be awa t thats evening's storms could be on the strong to severe side in the areas shaded in yellow. if you've got any planstoday,

running any errands, you're pretty much good. maybe a few sprinkle here or there through the early morning hours -- early afternoon hours, but as we head into about 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, we're going to see that storm chance and high today in the uppera 80s. ittle cooler than the top of the week. >> we like that. we aree getting m information, an update on the situation in the bridge. melissa, i'll letprou int that. >> they are hoping to reopen some of those inner loop lanes actually for traffic to pass through shortly. outer loop going to remain closed because of the crash on the woodrow wilson bridge. avoid it. this is going to be hours before things are completel cleaned up. >> as we wrap up our coverage here this morning, we'll let you know that e nbc washington app will have all the updated information as it happens. stu can also follow us on twitter for the lan that. have a great day, everybody.

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