breaking right now at 11:00, flames race through a senior apartment buildi. rescuers rush in to help. ulrt of the roof dn't take the heat. the battle to get everyone out. a true team effort. >> just appreciate that we could

be the s to getebody out. marines, we answer the call every time. >> we've got live team coverage tonight on this massive and stubborn fire. plus, a jogger stabbed to death blocks from her d.c. home. the alaing attack sparking fear through the community. what police are to catch the killer. 11:00 begins with breaking news. >> it went on for urs. here, the roof caves as another section of this large apartment building bursts into flames. some residents say they laver heard an. >> firefighters and marines rushed in with wheelchairs to save people. the fire so big, you could see it for miles away. the inferno broke a out at apartment complex in southeast washington. right near the navyard. >> we expect an update on this blaze and what investigators ehave learned thisning any minute now. we're standing by to hear from the d.c. mayor. but our team coverage begins with jackie bensen. she's live on the scene.

jackie? >> reporter: we want to show you what it looks like right now. take a look. you can s firefighters still in the process of pouring water on this building filled withhe belongings of senior citizens, t everything in this historic fire. was a nightmare scenario for first responders. a fireacing through multistory building on fifth street southeast. 163 units whose residents are senior citizens. many are dependent on ee lchairs and walkers. job one, as the flames flared er hi was shouldered by visiting family members, building staff and first responders to quickly get the seniors to safety without using the el say torp. >> knock, ock, knoc get out, fire, fire, get out now, get out now. but no sprinklers went off, no nothing went off. father was laying in the bed during the process of all this

dilemma and we put his clothes on and we vacated the building. >> reporter: the firepreading d spreading until a section of the roof collapsed. >> there it goes. >> reporter: as the thick smoke continued to billow skyward, i visibl d.c., maryland and virginia, firefighters from neighboring jurisdictions arrived t help. it included this engine fromca tal heights. it had to jump the raised base of the gate, quickly opened by marines at the barracks facity next door. as residents and fair family members navigated the scene, many sharedce cs that were given to the mayor. people say they did not hear the buding's fire alarm. >> i've heard the same thing, and that, of course, will be the subject of investigation by t fire marshal. they will investigate the cause and any oer extenuating circumstances related to this fire.he >> reporter:ity is trying

to find a vacant unit at other developments for the displaced seeors. others hone home with their families. live in southeast washington, jackie bensen, news 4. >> jackie, thank you. and news 4's leon harris continues our live tverage tonight. >> he has -- saved lot of louves. leon? >> you watched the whole thing play out today, and you know, you can't tell the story of this fire without talking about the d.c. firefighters and the u.s. marines who rushed in to help.>> hese are our neighbors, wem help the out, they're always there for us, we try to do that for them. >> reporter: news 4 cameras were there as dozens ofes marin ran across a soccer field toward a burning building. no one calledhem for help. they just saw the flames and jumped into action. >> we werearrying pweple any way could, whatever assistant they needed. >> reporter: captain trey gregory, one of the marines ran in while flames were shooting from orooftop rooftop.

>> we went in there together. >> reporr: on the other side of the building, d.c. firefighters using ladders to rescuepeople. firefighters, marines and buildibuild ing staff taking people out on gurneys and wheelchairs. all the flames, and the roof collapse. >> there it is, there it is. >> reporter: but only minor injuries. thanks to some heroic neighbors. >> i'm just glad we could be there to help somebody out. marine, we answer the call every single time. >> reporter: and one final note, because we want to shoate you the vud owe we showed you earlier of the firefighter taking a woman down on a ladder. kevin mr.cray his father was a firefighter, he died in the line of duty back in 2015. so, jim, doreen, the urge to serve runs in that family and made a difference today. indeed i did.

thank you, leon. stay with news 4 for continuing coverage on this fire at the apartment complex for seniors. we'll let you kw of any new developments tonight, and we're mayor'siting for the news conference. we'll share any details from that as we can. and you can open our nbc washington app for updates throughout the night. jim in. meanwhile, family, friends and worried neighbors are remembering aoman stabbed to death while jogging in a populae hborhood. police believe it was a random attack. they have not maderen . darcy spencers i on the scene tonight with new details on the murder that's rocked a community. >> reporter: leicighting a cand at the scene. a woman is stabbed to death while out for a jog in her own >>neighborhood. worries me, especlly in this area, you think that is t not, like, you think i is safe.

>> reporter: wendy martinez had so much going for her. a georgetown grad, chief of staff at a data management company and png for the next step in life, getting married. police believe she was killed by stranger in a random kni attack at 11th and p streets northwest in the logan circl ea. >> you know, this is -- this is as bad as itge . really, obviously, just extremely tragic and very surprisi, as well. >> reporter: this is the man police are looking for, shown on surveillance video just moments before the fatal encounter. he wasearing a mustard-colored shirt. and this is him after the killing, the knife still in his hand. martinez was stabbed just outside a chinese restaurant. she stumbled inside, where she collapsed. customers, including a nurse, tried to help, but it was too late. and that's where the bouquets of flowers are being place now, in memory of a woman whose life

ended too soon.we y martinez's parents came here to the scene tonight. t honoredir request not to show them in their time of grief.y a fam spokesperson said they wanted to see for themselves the place where their daughter's lifeh came to s a tragic end. in northwest, darcy spencer, news 4. the confirmation ctroversy continues tonight. the lawyer for the woman who accuses judge brett kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when both were high school students in bethesda says more witnesses need to testify. right now, there are only two set for monday's hearing. r,dge kavanaugh and his accu christine blasey ford, and she hasn't committed. buford's lawyer says multie witnesses whose names have appeared publicly should be cluded in any proceeding and that the rush to a hearing is unnecessary. new tonight, missouri democratic senator claire mccaskill says she plans to vote no on judge kavanaugh. she says he's concerned about nonymous political

contributions. she is in a close race for ct re-eleion in a state president trump won handily in 2016.gh to neighbors of a beloved handyman are pleading for the hit and run driver who killed him to comerw d. a prince william county police officer saw the man lying in thd mi of rte 1 here last night. before that officer could check on him, a blueehicle ran the man over. the driver stopped to check for damage, then drove off. today, alvin smith's loved ones brought flowers to the spot where he die >> that's somebody's son. somebody's father. just left him there like he was n'nobody, like he d have anybody. >> reporter: police say it's possible the driver of the blue vehicle didn't know he hit a person. it i't clear w smith was lying in the road before he was run over. dozens of police cruisers swarmed a montgomery county apartment building tonight.

chopper 4 zooming in on an officer by a dumpsterhi pointin riving towards the building. police say the call came out as shots fired on l stewarte in white oak. officers staked the please oace but eventually learned the caller was mistaken. dum truck overturned and scattered everything in it along the beltway during the evening rush hour tonight. there were reports that the driver of the truck was trapped inside. you can see the damage is extensive. still working to get an update on that driver's condition and what caused the crash. we want to go back live toy muriel bowser's pre conference. >> we want to give you a briefing on the very significant fire we had here i want t acknowledge the presence of the ward 6 council member charles allen. earlier today, there were calls

for smoke at thisng buil they arrived to find a building actively involved in fire. this is a 162-unit apartment building for seniors. 161 occupied units. our firefighters, members of the united states marine corps and neighbors bunt into this ding to make sure that everyone could g out safely. we have scanned this building and we believe that everyone has gotten out of the building. the building management has also contacted all a tenants and tenants have been accounted for. fire and ems wil go back in tomorrow when it's safe to do so to continue the search of the building. i want to thank all of our fire and ems personnel who went into a very dangerous situation and

made sure that our residents could get out safely. i'm going to ask chief dean to give you the operations briefing for how this depard.ent respon >> good evening. so, the fire came in at 3:29 is afternoon. we went to a three-alarm fire. first initial units onscene went upstair, they noticed smoke on the fourth floor. by the time they got up to the fifth lel, they had heavy smoke and flames coming. that's when they went to a three-ouarm fire. wet the fire for -- on the inside for awhile, decided that it was larger than we could adndle. additionally, we number of evacuations we needed to do. so, when you're doing th first rule is to take care of the people. but we ended up doing evacuations. as the mayor said, not only were we doing evacuations, we had 100 marines sw up tossis us, the building management team assisting us, and neighbors

making suret.verybody got there are 80 to 90 people that are nonambulator so, making sure we got everybody out. that's the story today, thatble were to get everybody out. we are doing a followup on the alarm system to make sure -- 've heard reports that it was not working, so, we'll be following up on that. >> also going to ask the director of our homeland security and emergency services to provide an update on how we're caring for our residents who are in shelter or who m be with family tonight. we're also joined by our health director and our human services director who can answer questions. chris? >> thank you, mayor. thank you, chief. at this timewe currently have 87 residents at the greenleaf recreation center who are currently being cared for by depament of human services. and department of health. and a variety of other agencies,

including the red cross and, right now, what we're doing is, we want to make sure e are working with district agencies to ensure that these residents can be housed outde of the rec center, not the shelter. our plan is to makeure these residents are cared for, but also that they enter into temporary housing as quickly as possible, and that will happen tomorrow. i'll turn it back to the mayor for any questions. >> so, the fire marshal's office and the fire investigators will do the backup to try to determine if and why the fire alarm system was not working. so, we're trying notguos. again, fire alarm systems have

battery backups, there's a lot of thingshat go along. we do not have the answer for that at this time. it's too early for us. so, again, we have not -- as you can see, we're stillighting the fire, so, we will get our investigators in there once we get everything stabilid.as so, there a sprinkler system in the units and in the hallway, but weon't know if there was a sprinkler system in the weft. l look at the plans to make that determination. so, this building had been inspected a year ago, and aas fr know, there were not. >> well, there's going to be a lot of help. we will -- you heard already the

director talk about the emergency assisnce that the american red cross will provide. we'll continue to work with the public housing authority. these residents are considered public housing, we'll work with the authority to see if there are any vacant units in their portfolio, but also work with the building owner and the management company to see if they have vacant buildings in their portfolio so that these residents can be accommhiated. and i ultimately what we want to get together to do is see what is the status of this building, and how soon w can ouve a plan to rebuild it. >> well,eard it there from the d.c. mayor and fire chief, the real story here is that everybody got out. 161 occupied counits, all ted for tonight. a lot of brave men and women, firefighters and 100 marines who ran toward dange today. >> and also, the fire chief and the mayor making it clear that they will follow up on the questions about whether the fire

alarms, the smoke alarms were working in the building, andhe wh or not the building had adequate sprinklers. we heard the fire chief say the building was unspekted about a year ago, they are offering assistance to the seniors who were displayed by this fi. stay up t date with what's happening with this story on our nbc washington app. now, we've got some breaking news from prince george's county. reports of two police officers shot in district heights. >> we don't have much information right now, but we do have a crew on the way to warring drive. it's not far from bishop mcnamara hagh school. >>n, all we know is that two officers have been shot. no word on the cir their conditions. we'll bring you updates on that just as soon as we get them. in other news now, the friday night lights are flickering in the dmv. a news 4 i-am review shows the number of kids playing high school football is plummeting. >> as scott mcfarland reports now, my parents are changing

their game plans, and it's our schools and communities tha t haveo adjust the plays. ♪ >> reporter: game night in america. a right te of passage, a tradit for s, fans and parents. >> come on. >> especially in westfield high in shachantilly. when you watch the games, does it still hav the feel of high school football, when we were in high school? do you still fee the part? >> oh, definitely. the crowd is into it. >> reporter: vanessa hopes to watch her son at west springfield high. >> they learn respect. coaches, fortheir their teammates. i just think there's so many values to be learned i football. >> reporter: ber f kids are signing up for this physical game now. the news 4 i-team found while football still scores at some schools like westfield, it is getting sacked elsewhere. we found throughout the commonwealth participation in

high school football has dropped by,000 students just since 2012. in fairfax county alone, we found it reduced by 10% in the same time frame. in maryland, 14%. dn d.c. public schools, 18% fewer. e found at least six major local teams canceled their 2018 season because of a shortage of players. >> i think you're seeing a whole lot of things, kind of the perfect srm right now. here we go! here we go! >> reporter: jason eldridge coaches west springfield high. >> we start now july 3h. that was never the case before, okay? so now we're cutting into kids' summers. this is a hard thing to do. reporter: he says some of the fallout is cultural. >> they can sit on the cch and hegage. >> why come out re at 8:00 a.m. and run your tail off when i can hang with my friends online? >> reporter: but that's not the reason jordan and robert bont playing footba, according t their mom, amy. >> i want my kids to play to try

a bunch of things and their passion is. >> reporter: when they're older, they'll go t damascus high, but they will not be on the field. >> you can play basketball, yla can baseball, you can do track and field, i mean, there's a million different things you can do that doesn't require being knocked on yr butt. >> reporter:he specifically, t fear of concussions is turning many parents away from the sport. but not vassa, who runs a local sports blog. think so many people are not aware of the fact of the training that these cos ha have. they are taught the correct way to tackle. >> we found something else is sacking fool bat, too. specialization. >> specialization. >> reporter: kids are steering their kids to one sport, 12 months a year, to compete for championships and holarships. 's harder for you to get the basketball player to play football now. >> that is correct. we don't get any of th. >> reporter: it's the same game over in maryland, at eleanor

roosevelt high in prince george's county. football rosters are shrinkingro fast, f nearly 80 students a decade ago to 35 this year, sayr coach tom n. >> right now, i don't know. i don't know if it will be here ten years from now on a high school level. >> reporter: fewer players means students must play offense and defense. >> at that point, you put kids more in jeopardy of injury because they are playing more snaps, opposed to kidding playing one way. >> i'm very nervous. >> reporter: leaving coaches worried about what might be lost one day if these friday night lights eventually go out for good. >> i can point out four, five kids on this field alone that i don't know where they'de right now without football. they need it. >> reporter: and just today, virginia high school sports officials recommended some school districts in commonwealth consider moving to smaller, eight-man football teams. it's a game already being tried in other states and it is a direct response to the falloff on the field. scott mcfarland, news 4 i-team. and we have much more about the future of high school football on our nbc washington app, including extended ws

intervith coaches and with parents. just look under investigations. doug is heree with mor about -- doug is heree with mor about -- oh, w

geico has over 75 years doug is heree with mor about -- oh, w of great savings and service. with such a long history, it's easy to trust geico! thank you todd. it's not just easy. it's-being-a-master-of-hypnotism easy. hey, i got your text- sleep! doug, when i snap my fingers you're going to clean my gutters. ooh i should clean your gutters! great idea. it's not just easy. it's geico easy. todd, you will go make me a frittata.

doug, i can't remember a day when i was more happy to see warm sunshine. >> and not just that, you mean, temperatures today, ten degrees above average. it was 87. that's normal for july or august. this time of year, our average high is 78 degrees. pretty nict. sunset toni we have not seen that golden orb in the sky much laly. look atat. beautiful shot out there. nice little clouds moving across

every once in .awhi kind of looks like a cool little sun going down this afternoon. and now, we've got, hey, what happens when the goes down? total darkness. yeah, that was 100% chance of total darknesstonight. 75 degrees out there right now. the moon looking pretty good. it's on the calm side as we move through the rest of the night. 68 in lees buleesburg and gaith. tomorrow, temperatures a little cooler. had a front movethrough. that front allows for lower humidity. one of the reasons why we have so muchround clutter out there now. a front comes through, lower humidity. emwerratures, maybe a few more clouds during the day tomorrow, but not much. you don't see any real system heading our way. the system out to chicago, will die out before it moves here. highs today, to the south, 90s. the north,70s and 80s. we're not getting into the 90s. the air in the north coming down to our region. 82 degrees, still a nice thursday. friday looking good, too, going

for a high of 83. more cloids on , for sure. 80 on saturday. a chance of a shower. and then, and sunday, high temperature of 71. 71,dreary, kind of nasty out there on sunday, and the redskins have to play thepa ers in that. tuesday, wednesday, thursday and friday, i've added a chance of showersdend thtorms, because why not, it's ranned the entire summer, why not just keep .going until next we >> tomorrow looks good and friday. >> exactly. >> thank you, doug. >> okay, sports is next. this is the xfinity sports desk. once upon a time, wn tampa bay was really bad, i mean, really bad, head coach john mckay, when asked about his team's execution replied, i'm in favor of it.ed theins are not that bad, but they're not that good. at least not yet. and in their quest for answers, one of thenfl's best quarterbacks is coming to town. redskins defense getting ready for a hobbled aaron rodgers. aaron rodgers playing with a knee sprain he suffered i week

one. looked more like himself in week two. packers quarterback already coidered one of the all-time best, taken with the 24th pick in the 205 nfl draft. the top pick that year? redskins quarterback alex smith, who shared his thoughts on the hearded aaron rodgers. >> he's a decent player. and, yeah, i mean -- you ow, i -- we've been around each other a lot of time now, always linked. pretty good bu ties. hink as quarterbacks we alwaysr,atch one anothe analyze one another. certainly he's a unique guy, the waye plays quarterback. and always fun to watch from a peer's perspective. >> two goodin quarterbacks c up on sunday. here's a hint. redskins better score touchdowns this time. >> they better. >> wild prediction. they better score touchdowns. >> like the first game. that would be nice. >> thank you, dave. h> dave, thank you. we'll be back w more on that breaking news we just told you about, two prince george's about, two prince george's puntyolice officers shot.

i'm neal simon. i'm the son of an immigrant and a family man. daughter: hey, dad. neal: thd now i'm running foe u.s. senate, unaffiliated with any party, because they're playing partisan games and getting nothing done, and it's crippling america. i've created high-paying jobs right here in marynd by listenige, bringing people tother, and finding common ground, and i'll do the same thing as your setor. they say an outsider can't do i but... all: together... neal: ...we'll prove them wrong. i'm al simon, and i approve this message. let's finally put people over politics.

and i approve this message. i put criminals in prison during the day i'm jennifer wexton, and as a prosecutor, and changed diapers at night. later, when i had a law practice, i volunteered to help moms collect child support. then, as state senator, i worked across party lines to target sexual offenders and take guns away from domestic abusers. in congress, i'll stand up 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.

that breaking news in princo george's ty, reports of two police officers shot in district heights.e >> we don't h lot of information right now. darcy spencer and chopper 4 onr th way to lorring drive. >> we are getting unconfirmed reports that two officers have been shot and that they are not sly wounded, but again, those are unconfirmed reports. no word on the circumstances or their actual conditions. check our nbc washington app n throughout tht for updates. >> and of course the latest on news 4 today starting at 4:00 a.m. the biggest story of this day,

still developing tonight. it appears everyone who lives here in the senior apartments escaped today's massive fire. >> nose flamesro startedd 3:30, the fire qckly grew to three alarms. they're looking int claims that the building's smoke alarms not sound. fire crews still on the scene tonight and we'll stay on the story overnight.>> busy[ cheers and applause ]

♪ >> steve: from studio 6b in rockefeller center in the heart of new york city, it's "the tonight show starring jimmy fallon and kevin hart." tonight, join jimmy and his guests --

kevin hart,