covered by insurance. >> it'een incredibly stressful. >> what to watch so you're not blind sided next time you're in the er. >> if you suffer from allergies and nothing is working. >> something new that mayyo bri u relief. new 4 at 4:00 starts right now. news 4in at 4:00 b with breaking news. >> and that breaking news happening right now in southeast washingt where there's a big fire burning. >> this is an apartment re building, wtold, in the 900 block of 5th street southeast near the navy ya. if you know that area. er erica gonzalez is standing by. >> reporter: this itwo-alarm fire, about 3:30 is when the call came in. that scene you're looking at is southeast, h street close to the navy yard. it's the arthur public senior

housing. these a live pictures you see the flames shooting out of this building. we understand that dt fire and ems are on t ground and rescues are in progress, and with more on that i believe we have one on the phone, this is erica, can you hear me? >> caller: erica, i can hear you. >> tl me about what thece s is there, and has the building been evacuated? >> caller: when i arrived on scene, we had heavy fire comin from the roof -- [ indiscernible ]ma at least one rescue down the ladder from the top floor. evacuating remaining residents quickly as they can, and starting -- >> i'm sorry, i don't want to interrupt you, you are so close

to the crews there, any chance you can step aside just a little bit so tha we can hear you more clearly. i understand that one rescu ress taken pl ae. >> caller: right, so we're battling the five alarm fire at 900 5th street southeast. >> thank you, much >>better. aller: large occupied building. working to get all residents safely out of the building. our rescuesncluded at least m a resident taken down f portable ladder from the 5th floor. we are dealing with heavy fire at the top floor, atticnd roof rea, and we're very actively battling this fire using large water streams from the outsid >> okay. how many crews do you have there on the ground, and are you calling in assistance from any nearby tijurisds? >> caller: oh, we have not called for assistance fromar jurisdictions, but we have two alarms.

that's about 20 pieces of equipment and0 firefighters. >> okay. do you know how many people are inhe building or are in danger right now? have all been evacuated safely? >> caller: i can't confirm whether they are all evacuated, but we areigorously working on ensuring that everybody is safely out. >> okay. do you know, at this point, where that fire may have started? nwas it o a top floor? we're seeing it looks like a lot of people running in there with wheelchai wheelchairs. is this, in fact, the public senior housing building? >> caller: i arrived here a short time ago, and i can't confirm that to you at the moment. >> okay. okay. this is, in fact, though, 900 5th street navy yard, looks like military personnel on the ground, l like it's close to the navy yard. they are running throughhere with wheelchairs and this fire, you can see the smoke billowing

out of this building. this is a two-alarm fire. anything around thatrea that you know of that's already been bld off or that may not be accessible to people? >> callere i'm sure t a very wide range of street closures. >> we're seeing on our tv right now a lotf people racing to the scene with wheelchairs. do you know anythin? about th maybe looks like what -- small triage center that may have been set up there or i'm looking at ambulancesand do you know if anybody's transported to the hospital? >> we have ems there so anybody who needs medical attention will be in triage and evaluated an if necessary, transported to the hospital, but i don have any indication on numbers yet. >> if you have just joining us at 4:00, this is a two-alarm fire, d.c. fire and em got the call at 3:30 this afternoon to

900 5th street in southeast, really close to the navy yard. this is the scene of the arthur kapper senior public housing building. we have crews on the way. i believe we have a crew that is there. there we go. we lost my mic for a minute. we have crews on scene. we'll go to a live report. is our reporter ready to go? we have aaron on scene. we'll go there in a second, sct this is the of 900 5th street southeast near the navy yard. this is the arthur kapper senior apartments. as you just saw there, a lot of people racing inside with wheelchairs. this is a two-alarm fire, a very active and developing scene going on right now. >> that's the observation i was going t make as well.

we saw people running in there, at least five or six people there running, pushing wheelchairs across, that looked like setup behind the building. sitting here watching that, you could see they were working on the fire for 40 minutes o so, the flames seem to be getting larger and lilger on the ng. >> yeah. again, this is happening in the 900 block of 5th street southeast washington. the fire started at 3:30, we know there may be peoe in the building. we don't know how many rez desis there were. a rescue was made frothe upper floor. one person taken from the building. so far, no reports of injuries, but, clearly, they -- the rescuers are getting in place to be prepared to ansport anyone who might need medical attention. >> as we see, you can seeli miry figures there running across that parking lot or that fieldhere behind the building. they are running towards that scene where there ambulances set up there and fire trucks seeing that extended ladder ovee the roof of building, and it

is shooting across one building to get to the flames o the far right of the screen there. people running to the scen, in fa're trying to get more information about exactly howh building it is and many people there are in it. we know there was a rescue, but we have no ide how many oth people are in the building. >> let's get more information now from aaron gilcrest on scene. aaron, what can you tell us? >> reporter: hey, pat, leon, i will point out live here there are young marines who are nearby this senior center, adult living facility on fire running through the marine corp.e facilities h across the soccer field to the scene of the fire, presumably to help. we saw a few young men come by o nt ago with wheelchairs. i live in this neighborhood. i drove up, coming home and saw the smoke and fire from the building. acan tell you this is building that has a little under 200 units, and i believe that was redones was much of the

navy yard area on this side of they nav yard area that was redone a few years back. obviously, an occupied building, wh sh is why you the fire and ems response tt youee here. several roads in the area, as you imagine are closed off as more young marines come to the scene here t help out and i would imagine, as i look over at the field he, they are lining up to be prepared to help out if need be. we'll get out of the way here. the marines ire bringin vehicles that we need to makees way for to a the property here. you can still see huge plumes of black smoke coming from the roof of the building, and now i can still see there are flames coming from this roof as well. i've been watching this. i had t walk over from home. i watched this for probably close to a half hour, and it looks to me as though the fire hasjumped. it was on the l the building when i first walked up. i don't see flames there b anymor i see them on the

virginia avenue side of the building, again, this building on 5etth streeten l and virginia, and now i see flames over there, not in the side of ute building where i initially saw them, as you can see, the fire department having alled in a second alarm, bringing in more firefighters, aggressive attack on flame here. water coming from three sides o the building. ladder trucks extended. as walked up, i saw three firefighters close to the roof on the ladder close to the roof here, and this is a facility that is designed to be independent living for mostly seniors who live at this property, but you have to imayine that there m have been people on the upper floors of this building who may not have been able to get out on their own, certainly with fireom comi he top of the building, there's a possibility people could have been trapped near the top of the building, which y is wh are seeing the large and gressive response here i think to make sure to the extent firefighters can go inside thed bu, they are able to rescue anybody who needs

rescued. again, it seems as though the flames were dying down a moment ago, and now they are flairing up again on the side of the building, closest to virginia avenue. i can see the smoke here as i came in along 695, along the sosheast/southwest freeway well, and through this neighborhood where the police department is now closing off several rds to allow for more access for emergency vehicles to come in here. it's a little after 4:00. time.usly, it's rush hour there's people leaving the navy yard, leaving the department of transportaon headquarters in the ighborhood to get to the highway to go home and people coming into the are as they see a big response, pat and leon, from the d.c. fire department. >> tough from the angle you're at, but we saw, as you did, marines running to t scene with wheelchairs. has anyone came out of the building or in awh lchair? >> reporter: yeah, not from where i'm standing.ea you can'ty see -- i can

see the backside of the building here. i don't see anyone around the ba of the building, and it doesn't look like, as i walked up here along l street, it dido not like anyone was pulled from the building where i could see. there were fire trucks and police vehicles blocking a perfect view. this side ist the l str side of the building. i'm not sure if people were brought out of the building here, bu again, i can see young marines in the field, soccer fiel i think, right across the fence, literally from the back of the fire waiting, i imagine to run in and carry people if necessary or whatever use they are to the fire department and police resrending he >> has to be a terrifying scene toatch if you have a relative who is a senior who is living in this building. again, we're trying to figure out exactly how this started, thw many people may be i building. as you know, aaron, there's been so much construction andva reon work being done. kns this building being worked on, do you ? >> reporter: this building is

right on the edge of virginia avenue, whichn has bnder construction, i feel like for a year now, and, again, i live in this neighborhood, so i see this road that runs along oneid of the building closed. it recently oped. i don't know, traffic was moving through, fencing was down, and roadblocks that were up were down as ill, and'm going to walk over a little bit, a lot of the fire apparatus has set up on the construction side essentially on virginia avenue on this side of the building to attack the flames that are very appare still on that side of the building here. i don'know and i can't imagine there wou have been a construction impact or the construction work that was going on here may have been rated to rmis, but, obviously, that's yet to be deteed, there, again, marines coming in to the prerty here, andhis young man has at least one wheelchair in front ofim showing id before he is let on the property, and over to the soccer field where there's others liningtw up. o wheelchairs, and this could

be just to make sure that they are able to help whoever needs building.g from the on the other side of the building, i can tell you there's a huge crowd gathering. these are new town homes around ther center that popped up here. i lived in the neighborhood for eight years now, and in that a time, lot of the town homes popped up here. you can imagine a lot of residents are looking on and concerned. may have family members who lived in this senior facility, again, that's -- i believe had just under 200 units inside. >> to help us place exactly where this particular installation is, in terms of geography, where is the navy yard and marine barracks from where you are, where are the marines coming in from? >> reporter: okay, give me a second to get b myrings here. one side of the building, side we initially saw flames is l street n -- that's l street, this is k street i'm looking at,

l street, m street, navy yard on m street. we're two blocks over from the navy yard and 5th street. i'm on 7th street right now, two blocks away. 5th and k is where this kapper facility, and -- >> got ya. >> reporter: sorry, again, trying to get a view oha what's ening here. looks like -- no, these -- again, the young marines are just set up to be available if they are called in to come over to the property to help out more, but it looks like most of them are still on the field over there in a holding pattern as i can see d.c. fire and ems folks and t-shirts, lely ems opposed to fire position themselves closer to the fire and help out too, it looks like. >> any more fire trucks coming up on the scene? >> reporter: not from this side of the obviously, like i said, we're on the other side of the rine corp. property so all the engines have been coming inrom 4th street, from virginia well, from m street as

and they've been, obviously, lining up there along k street and 5th street to have clo an access to the building as they can. looking at the smokebillow, it's not as black as it was when i was walking a over, i don't see from where we are standing -- there it , i didn't see flames, but in the middle between the two largerth parts of building, a roof that's a bit lower, you can see there's flames there, and there's still water shot on to th flames as we speak. this is -- this is aire that i overheard was under control, but it looks like at least there's more flames that are popping up. >> a if you are just joining us, you are watching live coverage of a raging fire being aggressively fought there in the 900 block os 5eet southeast. this fire happened at 3:30 this afternoon in the arthur kapper senior center, a facility for niors assisted living, and you

see the scene as marines from the navy yard nearby rushing into the gates there. we've seen them come in with wheelchairs, got some video to show yhe ofm responding with wheelchairs. we don't know if anyone's been, huut we know there's been one rescue earlier this afternoon from an upper floor. we don't know whether anyo's been transported, but these marines are moving in with whee thairs andre are many moving in to be in place just in case people need to be rescued. >> in the video we showed a moment ago of the flames, if we go back to that, i have to point something out that. it seemed as though the flames jumped. this is live pictures now, but gets the fla back up to talk about what aaron mentioned. flames had hough maybe jumped from that building on the left side of the screen over -- >> to the righ >> to the right side, and you can see the water was first used

to attack those flames, coming in from the left, and they now have an extended ladder on the other side of the building right up against the 695, southeast, southwest -- as you can see there, as you can see, building there on the left is where it may have first s wrted wh first started watching it, where we first saw flames, and i migrated across the screen from left to right and go into the other building. knockedt down there in the center and somehow the flames broke through the roof of the building on the t right close the highway. we don't know at what point they actually did make a rescue.d we understhere was at least one rescue that was being made, but considering how quicklyfi ts erupted, there are no doubt had to be many other people inside hatbuilding. >> we don't know whether they have been evacuated because we can't see. we don't have that vantage point here, but we do know there's a large presence of marines whous haved through the gate there is to assist anyone who might need help, who might have

been in the building >> as you sre, progress made. the flames you saw moments ago when it was reported five, ten minutes ago, and you can see they are making pgress against the fire. smoke is getting thinner and lighter which is always a good sign. >> yeah. we hear the sirens there. aaron, are you still there? >> reporter: yeah. we're still on scene here. pat, the fire engine you are hearing is from the opposite direction. again, we had seen a lot -- most of the vehicle coming in from south capital street, and now we see one engine -- we might have to move, actually, this is coming up behind us here on 7th street. trying to get access to the construction property. yeah, guys, look we have to move outwaf the we have to break down. sorry. >> do your thing. we'll get back to you in a cond. >> let's go to the newsroom closer to the scanners where the

desk is monitoring everything. are you hearing about rescues and people in the building? >> so we can tell you, we've got a few mor details on the arthur kapper senior apartments there. they were completed in 2007, and they've got just, as aaron mentioned, under 200 units. they have precisely 162 units there. we got chopper 4 that is h ded toene. we also go jackie benson trying to work her way into the scene to give us a different vantage poart from where is. it looks like such a scary scene when you see the r marinesning to that building. this is just a few minutes ago of the flames coming from that facility, and that is because as aaron detailed, there was a marine corp. facility just on the backside of this building, there,uckily, they were and we saw so many of them racing to the fence, racing to the backside of their facility to try to be closer to this building to be on hand in case they are needed. we saw some impressive video of people racing tohe scene with

wheelchai wheelchairs. this is a senior living community, senior living facility. again, d.c. fire and ems respondsing to the two-alarm fire. it is a five-story building, and acc according to d.c. fire and ems, the fire began in the top floor and in the attic. how many people were in that h building many people have had to be rescued? a total number, we're not of, but we can tell you we've seen one video of a person being rescue now y see the smoke billowing from the scene. these are live pictures from chopper 4 over that tharea. this i 900 5th street southeast. it's a five-story building. it aenior living facility. the arthur kapper senior apartments there with 162 units. 3:30 thiernoon at afternoon went up in flames. it appears to be that i'm having the top floor, even the attic as well of the building that we

could visibly see flames shootit from t building, and we have seen video of at least one person being rescued by firefighte coming down on a ladder. you've seen several pieces of apparatus there trying to get water on to this building. an exact number of people were inside or how many have been evacuated because of this fire at this point, we just don't know marine corp. facility so close by they are standing ah ready in case people need a type of help. aaron gilcrest was in the neighborhood, lives close by, and was there to be o give us some of the first images. ron? >> reporter: -- >> aaron, can you hear me? still there? i >> reporter: don't know if you can hear me. >> we got ya, aaron. >> reporter: we are still here. all right. we have to move again.ey th are now fire enginesoming

in from the navy yard. u.s. navy fire engines let in here by d.c. fire battalion chief to access the virginia avenue side of this scene. again, i'm sorry, this -- this fire truck we're watching is from joint base andrews. th's what it saysn the side here. i can tell you that the highway has now been closed. the exit down to 6th street has been cut off. d.c. fire --e d.c. pol see units blocking access. again, this is to allow optimal access for the fire units coming infr here, as i can se where we are on 7th, near 7th and virginia, that the -- they are still flames coming from the roof of the building. i can see at leastad twor trucks that are trying to douse

the flames extended above them. i tell ya, it looks likeha this just -- the flames have been really aggressive with effort from d.c. fire and now at least this fire unit cing in from the naval district of drews,gton, joint base navy yard as well, to help with the fire fight. >> hey, aaron, how many, exactly how many entrances are there to that facility? where the center is? >> reporter: pat, honestly, i don't know. driven by it many times. to be ables opened to try to access the highway here before they started the construction ongi va avenue, you'd drive by and there's one main door in the center of the building with a flight of stairs there well, 5th street side of the building. i don't know what other ways and exit doors there may have been on other sides of the building, but at least one main entrance i

know on 5thstreet. >> as we have a chopper shot up right now showing that side of the building here. what strikese is that it a particularl stubborn fire. it seems to be burning there on that 5th street side of the building, makeg wonder whether or not it's fed by a gas line or something because they had wat on this for at least the last 10 minutes or so and the flames are joust now appearing to die down a bit, but the smoke is coming out heavy and black and there's flames there despite there being thousands and thousands of gallons of water sprayed on it, you still see flames there. this is a remarkable scene there. and, again, we, folks, are trying to get a handle on just how many people may be aected bythis, by having been inside that building, and how many rescues there may have been affected. here you s morere marines the who are coming from the bararacs nearby. they are assembling there in the

soccer field, and now we're starting to see emergency emsin personnel c out there with an empty guerney at thist, poin and not rushing, a good sign. >> exactly. staging there, prepang for the next move here. they all seem to be heading into the building, and just sort ofg waitor everything to die down. this has been going on for nearly an hour now. this fire, as we understand, the first alarm -- [ no audio ] >> again, here, these are live pict tes. if that' case, this is still that onehe corner of building on the 5th street side of the living facility there, and that laflames, thoses there have been bning for 40 minutes on this side of the building and seem to be particularly stubborn.

they had a ton of water, thr or four trucks there spraying water on this particular side of the buildi. the flames had not abated at all. which makes one wonder, again, whether or not ts is a flame that's being fed by gas lines or another fuel source. >> obviously, a lot of fuel there, and, aaron indicated it had jumped, appeared to have jumped from one building to anoth another. you are watching live coverage of the raginger i burning at the author kapper senior building in the 900 block 5th streetsoutheast. the building is five stories high. it has 162 units in it, and according to aaron had in recent years been renovated. we know one person has been rescued. we don't know of any other injuries at this point or whether the building was evacuated before or after the fire started. >> word of advice for those

traveling in the area, trying to get out to atlan or points east of the city here, this is right next -- rht up against the highway. there's 695th, going over to the 8th and 5th street exits and 395. that's, we understand, been blocked off so personnel can get there and attack from that side. therefore, this is going to screw things up for the rush hour heading, at least heading out of town from downtown. i don't know what's happethng on westbound side of that particular freeway, but southeast freew and 695 right now are impacted. if you need to go from downtown or from the west side of town t gete southeast side of town, you definitely need to void this area. it is going to impacted for some time. >> erica gonzalez at the live desk. back to erica, what are you hearing? anything new on the rood adios,y

additional information? >> yeah. we've not gotten in touch with d.c. fire and ems. we see from the tweets right now, just the situation that they are assessing. you can s the large water streams, even from chopper 4's angle tryin to get this fire out. it appears to have started onlo the top of the building, and even into the attic. this is a fi-story building. the arthur pper senior apartments located at 5th and k, and the marine base is their neighbors. they rushed to the scene standing by ifneeded. stay with us. this is a developing storiment we'll be right back after this.

back now to continuing coverage of the breaki ining situation in southeast d.c. a fir burning there at the

senior living famelity. the f have been burning for at least an hour now. we are trying to learn how it started, how many people happened to be in the 162-unit building at the time the fire broke out. >> stubborn fire at the arthur kapper senior living building, 162 units, one person rescued, that we know of, so far. aaron gilcrest who lives nearby whshed to the scene and is there live. can you tell us at this point? >> reporter: pat, that fire fight is still going on. there's still, at least from what can see, three -- at least three ladder trucks shooting water on the flames here on the virginia avenue 5th street side of the building here blocks away from the navy yard. i can tell youe earlier w talked about several young marines running towards the property adjacent to the building on fire. i can tell you most of them have now left the area. grabbed a young man and asked if they were called in. hey came in the area,

to see if they could help and told they were no longer needed here by someone with d.c. public safety, and still the firefight continues here. i checked twitter a few minutes ago. tc. fire tweeted 15 minutes ago they were tryin evacuate people from the building. that may have been enough timto get most everyone out. as you mentioned awhile ago, the fire started roughly an hour or so ago so thateeay have enough time to get everyone out. still, the effort to continue putting out flames, and i tell you, again, what looks to be pretty fresh flames on the virginia avenue side of the building closest to the highway. here, d fire, we saw a fire engine come in from the naval district in washington, joint base on the side of the engine, they have been called in to stand by to help or actively engage with flames here as well. leon, you asked about the possibility of gas being involved or gas feeding the flames here. i can tell you, as i drove in an hour ago, along 4th street, a

block away, i didn't smell gas, and as walked over from new jersey avenue over here to 7th where we arestationed, i didn't smell gas either so to the extent that that would be a sign of -- smell is a sign of a leak in he building, i don't sme it at this point. that may be a good thing as to not complicatehe firefight going on forte bet part of an hour now. >> gyeah. someths fuelling that fire on that corner of the building that we're watching. i don't know if you can see the return aicture where you there, aaron, but as you mentioned, flames -- >> reporter: no. >> the corner of the building om there, you can see them. that seems to be the most stubborn resistant part of the fire. that hose has been on it for 3 minutes, and the flames have nod slow bit. the rest of the building is under control, nothing but thin white smoke coming from the rest of the structure there. coming ze and smo occupant from that corner of the building that's closest to the

highway. >> we can't tell whether it's spreading. the first you see the black t smokn turns white, and then it's bck again. these are live pictures of the fire now burning. aaron, have you been able, from where you are, to see whether there's been any transports? >> reporter: i can't see from where i am. the -- the only vehicles i can see from this side are fire engines, fire trucks brought in here. if there were ambulances brought in, they would have come inn the other side of 5th street, maybe near 4th and or from l street, m street. from the side we're on, i can't see any ambulances or anything like that, and i'll tell ya as i think back to what i sarewalking in i didn't see ambulances close to the scene. ing into the c area as i walked over here. at this point, i can't'v saye seen any evacuations. you talk about flames jumping, pat, i know when i walked up i could see flames on the k

street, 5th and k side of the building. now, as you noted, we are watching flames on the other side, on virginia 5th and virginia avenue side of the building, so to the extent indicates flames having jumped or at least the fireng barge enough to need to be fought from two sides of the building, defie'tely seen that larger area of flames.ng as i'm loot the roof of the building, though, you know, i have to note that at least from the edges, from what i can see o k street, on the backside access to the marine facility here and from the virginia avenue side, i doesn't look like as though the roof has collapsed anywhere. i meanri the int of the building is excellent from the backside we're looking a directly and from the k-street side i can see the entire sidew of as . >> yet, on that western and northwestern corner of the building, fles. flames have really, really stiln dug i there as that hose there on thatextended ladder still pouring water directly on it.

the flames have not lessened at listen, aaron, as you were talking, i was just told we have video now of a rescue that was just affected moments o. put that up. i don't know exactly if anyone can tellha me part of the building this is in, but as you can see here, there's a firefighter helping what appears to be a resident here down the ladder on the side of the building. >> we don't know when this happened, whether it's just a few minutes ago or whether this is the rescue they mentionedy that t had made earlier. >> could be. >> that could be the one. as you can see, that firefighter meticulously making his way down the water, holding on to the resident closely, appeared to be a woman to me, may be wrong about that, bute we'll get m information about that sort of activity there at the scene.n, age are watching this unfold. it's been going on for well over an hour now. we understand that this -- the first alarm wen out at3:30, and second one shortly after

that. the fire seems to have taken the roof of one section of the apartment complex here for seniors, and it now seems to be under control on most of it, but we're still watching this fire that's burning closer to thewa hi >> let's go back to the live desk and erica gonzalez, you have something new for us? >> pat, can you hear me? all right. we have been tol thathis is now gone to three-alarm. that's why you are not seeing these plumes go anywhere or decrease in size. this is not contained. firefighters, as you have seen er re, are using large w streams, and now you have fire companies from around the region assisting in this, including from prince georges county. scot mcfarla is here at the live desk to add context about what we're seeing here and the landscape you're seeing. another building there, onlookers in the background

there. that's not the arthur building bind it. >> the volume of people and residents has grown in recent years. the building in question was part of a federal project. a pioneering project about a decade ago to redevelo affordab housing in the same neighborhood inhich was being knocked down. all d.c. housing complexes require inspecons. fire inspections and inspections by the agency called dcra, that's the d.c. department of consumer regulatory affairs, they inspect to ensure fire systems are working, and like other commercialrojects and government projects in the district, they contract out af lot -- and offer solicitations to companies to get the fire systems up topa i have should mention, if there was a disabled smoke ala system or fire control system, they are required to have a fire watch, person actually walking the building 24/7 to watch for hagns of a possible fire. >> all right, you.

we are mentioning here as we hand it over, this has now gone to a four-alarm fire, a h four-alarm fire at 5th and k at the arthu sior living facility. >> thank you so much. thank weyou, scottre going to keep our eye on the situation to keep our eye on the situation and monitor it throughout i put criminals in prison during the day i'm jennifer wexton, and as a prosecutor, n and changed diapers atight., late when i had a law practice, i colunteered to help moms llect child support.en then, as state sator, a law practice, i worked across party lines tofrom domestic abusers.andy in congress, i'll stanup to president trump i approve this message because, like every working mom, what's ahead is as important as what's in the rearview mirror.

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when you have doctors working as a team for your health, you get the care you need to help you thrive. ♪ visit kp.org to learn more. kaiser permanente. thrive. ♪ back now to our continuingg covef this developing story this afternoon. fire at a senior apartment building in southeast washington. the fire at therthur kapper senior apartments started afterw 3:30t was a two-alarm blaze is now a four-alarm fire. >> rushing to the scene with wheelchairs to evacuate people who may have been inside the building. aaron, fortunately, for us knows

the area quite well, is there at the scene, and he's got someone to talk to to tell us more about what's going on there, aaron? >> reporter: yeah. we, scott davis, who works in the area, walked up on scene here awhile ago and was telling me about what he saw. step in here for me, and tell me what you saw. you ce in on 4th street? >> 4th street side, there's many more engines, and on your l street side, just down on the otherside, you have more paramedic units. my only concern is no one got hurt. they look like they are doing a good job with it, but i'm just concerned about the safety of the firemen and the tenants. >> we know t t there have been a couple rescues here, at least in the hour or so this has been going on. from where you came in on had 4th street, what did you see with regards to flames smoke, or people near the building? >> flames very high above the ladders at now, but they seemed some,ve extinguish them but from what i could see, it

was very intense, actually, part ofhe building looked like it was already burnt down, fell down, but nowhere on to any engines or anything like that. >> okay. well, appreciate you stopping to lk, you have to get to work, scott davis, appreciate the time. pat, leon, again, as we watch this from 7th street, two blocks away from the backside of the building, there's still water, again, coming from all angles, coming at least fm the k street, virginia avenue, 5th street side of the building, water focused on the streams ending, one area, and nower to e cef the building whereas before, we saw flames on either side, water focused side of the building, and now it's more focused on the center. we talked abohi the fact is a four-alarm fire as i seee another eng coming in from the naval district of washington, coming in from the construction side here on 7th

street. that fourth alarm is an indication how many battalions have been called in to help fight the fire or relieve firefighters who maybe have been on scene for a while. it's fairly hot out here, not as bad as last week with the ratures in the 90s, winds not blowing hard in the area now either so that could be an aide to the fire fighting effort going on here, but that fourth alarm, four alarms indicates the number of apparatus, number of personnel who had to be brought in to help combat this fire, and, again, at this point, reluctant to say i don't see flames, because i don't at thimoment, but they flare up. i tell you as i look between buildings now, i see, i believe, firefighters -- i see at least three people on what looks like a bridgeway, maybe the 4th floor level of theng buil >> yeah.

>> reporter: they are not in a rush per se. they are not evacuating, but repositioning people to aide with fire spotting or to start lding through the buig a little mor to make surehey attacked the flames and that they have evacuated anybody inside. >> yeah. we -- glad you mentioned we have a camera shot to zoom in on the gentlemen on the bridgeway there. watching them, as you mentioned, they are not in that much of a rush, but perhaps they are awaiting for a tanker to ease up on the hosing down of the roof to get inside and, as a matter of fact, as well ainyou were ta we saw more equipment moving in, a tanker from the u.s. navy backingay its there into the scene as well. we are seeing equipment arrive at the scene. >> let's go back to the live desk.t sccfarland on post there. what's your observations watching this and watch what appears to be the calmer pace of the firefighters. they don't appear to be in a panic. >> that's often the case with l

fires that age in scope or large in size. they get a lot of help. ri knowe george's county fire is now helping.c fire respond, and now there's navy fire on site. we know from th previous reporting and from the 2013 navy yard shooting incident, they have a lot of fire and emergency areaonders in the naval support activity washington has a fire house at the navy yard itself and fire houses at the joint base in bowling and naval research lab. there's a lot of help coming to support t d.c. fire as they continue to fight the fire fight, can't see all the names on the uniforms or logos on the agencies from this distance, but there's a lot o i manpower to a d, still, moving o second hour of the fire. >> and as we see, they are sti attacking the one corner of the building that's just beesithe most reant, but good news is that we're sing the smoke start to ease up, and it looks

as though theyre starting to get ahead of things here on the fire. >> youee s marines leaving. >> yes. we'llyo showe have a map, folks, for a better ideas of exactly what we're talking about here. you heard aaron mention earlier we are talking about the area that's just adjacent to 695,he ea from downtown out to prince george's county, and this is in the near southeast part of washington here. if you know thearea, it's between the navy yard and there's so much development going on there in the past few years, andilhis ng, we understand, has been refurbished or haseen worked on to convert into a living center for seniors, and so there's a lot -- there's a lot of people who actually live in thisarea, not just drive by it. again, we are seeing the entire area block off. we are trying to get a better handle on what the situation is, but getting around on the ground there fiv people who in the area. >> yeah.

it's -- i bel that it's located next to the navy yard because of the personnel tere availabl and willing to help, and we saw this sce earlier, what looks like military personnel rushing in with wheelchairs, sort of a disturbing unsettling site at first, but we don't believe n anyone's b taken out in a wheelchair. we don't know whether anyone needed the, but these marines have stood by and rushed in from next door from th navy yard, who wheelchairs for senio may have been disabled and unable to get out of there, and we saw all that manpower coming from next doorno help a case like this. >> just before we saw that, we did oet all these videos, pictures, by the way, folks, this is earlier. i just want toremind recorded. the scene now is mu, much calmer. the fire appears to be under control at this point. this is what it looked like

close to an hour ago, maybe, yeah, hour,45 minutes or so ago. this is what the scene looked like. at this time we were with the public information officer from d.c. fire who was telling us h that there been at least one rescue made when at that was engaged particular point. this is live pictures? these are live pictures making the -- appears now that fire moved over to another structure. that building you see there is not part of the arthur capper building, but that's on the other side across the street from it, perhaps embers from the capper building flew across and may have ignited the roof of the building across the street. we're not seeing any -- i guess firefighters who were on the bridgeway there moments ago with a hose where they were attacking from there, but no overhead fire fighting equipment fm any of the tankers, but this fire now just now taking off on the building across the street. this actually is the -- this is

the building.rh s the fire is, again, migrated inside the roofing structure of thisil ng. it's gone from one part to another, and now on to another. >> it started, we understand, at the top o the arthur capper senior apartment building located in the900 block of 5th street, at 5th and k in southeast. five story building. we understand the fire started in the attic. we have no indication yet of what startedre the obviously, that investigation will be underway. first priority, of course, is to get the blaze out, proving to be a difficult task thieeafternoon. >>g even more flames jumping up now on to the right of your screen. that slanted part of the roof, ityond that, there's more flames there. like the firefighters are playing whk-a-mole, attack in one section, and it pops up in another section. it's now taking over most of the billing, and maybe, perhaps, a good 80% of the roof as we can

tell. it appears they watered down very part of the roof of th building, of course, we'll have to get an expert to tell us more about that, but youan see the fire now really taking on some team and gaining mo ining momem although it was doused in the other part of the structure. >> four alarms irw, the burning in southeast, and we had a witness who talked to news 4 moments ago, talked abouteeg more emergency vehicles on the 4th street side of thi building, and more paramedic units on the l streetside, but we do not know if anyone's been transported or ifn there's b any injuries. we do know one person has been rescue we actually had video of a person lowered from a ladder from an upper floorfe to . >> what we are watching now is a troubling sight. it appears as though now another part of the complex has now caught fire and does not appear

they have gotten water on that in any significant way just yet, andly we can ee through this one little window, sort of pipeline we're looking at down rough the causeway or breezeway between the two buildings here, so we don't know how much of that entir roofline we're watching there may be fully engaged. they may fight onwo other ends. we just see the middle of the building. watching right now, the flames are getting higher and higher and gaining more and more of the structure. we do know that there are at least four different units th e there, foured alarms, depl around the building, and we are not seeing any wat making its way on the roof to this part of the structure after all the progress made watching forouhe last and a half now. >> again, you are watching live pictures of this aggressive and stubborn blazingireurning in the 900 block of 5th street southeast, aour alarm fire, an

apartment building for senior citins, and firefighters attacking it from all sides, trying to put the flames out. we've awaited word on rescues. we'll continue coverage of the breang news story next on kine

we're following big breaking news. you can see from about every corner of the district right now. the growing battle to put out a tubborn fire at a senior home here near the navy yard in d.c. and southeast. >> we've been following this for about an hour now, and we know of least one person rescued in anngoing effort to ensure everybody else is out safely. >> here's what we know right now,folks. this blaze began around 3:30. take a look. these are aggressive, relentless flames, and thick smoke, too, as we watched.

it quickly grew to four alarms which is where we are right now. >> that's right. this is the arthur capper senior apartments, really close to the navy yard, and just as this video shows, we know of at least one person rescued from that building that woman being helped down by the ladder by a firefighter. >> again, as we've said, there's about 162 units in this building. our aaron gilcrest rushed to the scene who lives near the area, and he's been wat cing thews make some progress, then we see some other spopup poi on that rooftop, aaron? >> reporter: yeah, you're absolutely right, jim, this has been an aggressive fight going on here for more than an hour now, and we saw a new line of flames pop up towards the center of the building on the roof a little while ago. those flames have sense been doused, it appears, and yet, there's still an aggressive fight going on with streams of water put on to the top of the community, theio s facility here in southeast washington in the navy yard area. i wao bring in one of

several marines who ran to the scene. obviously, we' near the navy yard. there's a marine corp. facility or severalex buildings to the annex here on 7th street in virginia avenue. this is captain trey gregory helping with the evacuations. tell me what yound your fellow marines did here today. >> we're marines, rushed to the danger, these are our neighbors. we held them t, they are there for us, so we tried to be there for them during the fire.> you saw fire and ran to help, right? >> exactly. we wanted to assist the first department. ou reporter: w y dha the scene.do go into the building? >> we did. there's a bunch of elderly,ry helped chem out any way we could, take belongings and everything we could andem helpe et to safety. >> reporter: you went up the stairs as the building was on fire to pull them from apartmts, hallways, and stair wells? >> and several marines all went in together to pull people out. >> reporter: a matter ofpicking them und carrying them? >> over our shoulder a