this is 9news now. >> thank you for joining us. i'm jessica doyle in for jc hayward. a tense situation even more so

for dc fire and rescue crews. the call went out around 8:00 this morning while crews were battling a blaze on congress street southeast, kristin fisher joins us live from the scene with more on what happened next. >> reporter: a mayday call is bad enough, but that call intenseified when a pass alarm goes off. it accidentally went off and one of the missing firefighters was in the basement of this burning home. >> fires are bad because number one. >> we have to put them down the stairs and in a fire that's below you it's like a chimney. all the heat and smoke want to come up the stairs. so we're putting up firefighters in jeopardy right off the bat. >> reporter: three dc firefighters were unaccounted for in the basement of this burning building. >> the firemen everywhere, ambulance and smoke pouring out of the house. >> reporter: ly yeah washington

arrived on -- leah washington arrived on the scene to find out it was her mother's home on fire. her mom escaped but the house is almost a total loss. >> stressed out. the nerves are bad. we're just trying to get her in better spirits. especially because we were going to have about 30-40 people at our house for christmas dinner. so everything is in the house. >> reporter: as were those three firefighters . a two alarm fire was called and the rapid intervention team was sent in to rescue them. two were found in the basement uninjuried, but one was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation as was an elderly next door neighbor. >> this turned out to be actually a good day. okay. it could have been a lot more. >> we're just happy that mom is safe and that her dog is safe and everything else. we'll pray for her. >> reporter: now, you can see firefighters are still on the scene. right now they're working to determine exactly what caused

this fire. as for the two people taken to the hospital, both the firefighter and the elderly woman are expected to make a full recovery. as for the washingtons, you heard her say it, they've lost almost all of their christmas presents. but this year they're just happy that they still have each other. jessica >> kristin, definitely the take away from that situation. thank you so much. so what about the weather? since a white christmas isn't in the cards for us, hopefully the weather will be ideal for holiday traveling. so let's get right over to meteorologist olga breese with your forecast first. how is it looking, olga? >> actually, jessica, it's looking pretty good. fortunately we have all of this moisture moving on out of here. we can't give you a white christmas, not even a wet christmas, but we will have some pretty good conditions headed into saturday and sunday. for right now, take a look at the satellite and radar on a 12-hour loop. the overnight moisture has moved on over to the east. we did get some early sunshine this morning, but right now at least through midday, more of the cloud cover is moving on in. we're calling it officially

cloudy as we head into the afternoon. here is what you can expect over the short-term. today's forecast will take us out of the 50s. we'll keep on moving noon time hour right around 52 degrees. we're going to whoever here for the remainder -- hover here for the remainder of the day and the afternoon. many of us will drop down afternoon. the next three days are looking good but the seven-day forecast does feature a bit of a treat. although we cool down on saturday, things will start to improve as we get into sunday and even into the middle of next week. i'll give you all of the details, especially the traveling forecast, in just a couple of minutes. >> thank you, olga. it definitely looks like a gift for all of us. pushing and shoving, arrests, even pepper spray incidents all because of a pair of shoes. the new nike air jordan basketball shoes came out today and police had to get crowds under control at shopping malls all across the country. surea chinn has more on the response locally. >> reporter: the newest air jordans are the hottest sneakers

you can get your hands on, including people that stood in lines for hours. it paid off. >> there were probably 500 people waiting for them. >> everybody is trying to get them. >> reporter: at westfield montgomery mall, ts man got lucky. what time did you get here? >> since 4:00 in the morning. >> reporter: why are they so special? >> man, these are the number one jordans for real. everyone wants these. everybody. these come out about every six years, i'd say, and i just needed these. >> reporter: across the country, the same scenario. folks lined up overnight pushing the ways through the doors of this indianapolis mall and police even had to pepper spray eager shoe shoppers in seattle. >> it got all over my face. my mouth was on fire. >> reporter: with only about 23 pairs to give out, lorenzo was randomly picked in a lottery and paid 190 bucks for the size

9 air jordan concords. how happy are you right now? >> real happy. real happy. >> reporter: and the thing is you'll never catch him wearing them. >> nope. got to keep them in mint condition fresh. all the time. got to have them. >> reporter: surae chinn, 9news now. at least four people were arrested at an atlanta mall. officers said they had to break a car window to get two toddlers out after a woman went in after the shoes. if you ordered gifts from best buy, you made need to put a backup plan into action. the electronics retailer announced yesterday it won't be able to fill some customer's online orders. overwhelming commands for some products -- demands for some products has led to a problem. the company won't say exactly how many orders are affected or which products are out of site. the shortages are black eye for best buy which has beefed up offerings from online retailers

and discount stores. hundreds of holiday wishes came true for military families this morning. members returned from afghanistan. they were reunited with their families at this welcome home party at joint air base andrew. >> just spending time with her. decorating the christmas tree. getting a lot of presents. and try to see what happened around the house while i was gone. >> the unit was instrumental in air combat operations in afghanistan. congress passed a short-term extension of the payroll tax cut this morning ending a deadlock. as danielle noddingham reports, a $20 tax increase that starts on january 1st. >> reporter: the house approved a two -month extension of the payroll tax cut this morning. >> without objection, the bill is engrossed, passed and the motion is laid on the table.

>> reporter: the move comes after house republicans vowed to political -- bowed to political pressure from both parties. >> the senate will come to order. >> reporter: the senate passed a measure which spares about 160 million american workers a tax hike come january 1st. it also extends unemployment benefits through the end of february. >> it seems everything we've done this last year has been a knock down, drag out fight. there is no reason to do that. >> reporter: house republicans did not like the two-month extension, preferring a deal that would last a full year, but they changed course so they would not be blamed for a tax hike going into an elect year. >> it may not have been politically the smart est thing in the world. but let me tell you what, i think our members waged a good fight. >> reporter: the agreement is seen as a political victory for president obama who put off his christmas vacation to get it done. the deal means the average american worker gets to keep about $20 a week in their paycheck. and about 2 million unemployed

workers will continue to get benefits. they want to reach a year long deal on the issue when they return to washington in january. danielle noddingham, cbs news, washington. >> the bill also prevents a cut in the payments doctors receive for treating medicare patients. now a follow-up to a story we first told you about earlier this week. channel 9 getting results. we told you about the prince george's county mother who was in line to get gifts from toys for tots for her children. she threw a temper tantrum and didn't get the toys. she apologized. we showed that apology to toys for tots. and yesterday her children received their gifts. they are definitely happy. still to come when the news continues, a few local students might wind up with months of coal in their stockings after this bench clearing brawl. find out who was involved. people look to adopt children. usually they look for babies or toddlers. i'm peggy fox in fredericksburg.

coming up we'll tell you why teenagers are the best.

a u.s. park police was hurt after a fight with a man with the occupy dc encampment. it started with a man assaulting a woman yesterday. police used a taser on the man. once arrested, authorities say the suspect kicked an officer in

the groin and shattered a police cruisers window. a second man was also arrested during the scuffle. school authorities in dc and baltimore will have this to deal with diring the holidays. take a look at your screen. footage taken shortly after an all out brawl at a basketball game between cardosa height and connection school for the arts in baltimore. players on both sides got involved. they were called to break up the crowd. olga breese is up next with a holiday forecast that can put a smile on your face. >> absolutely. especially if you're going to be hitting the road and traveling. at least we have some good conditions for you to do that. we are a lot cooler today than yesterday. we picked up a little bit of a breeze and, yes, we'll be even cooler. i'll have all the details in the seven-day forecast when 9news now continues. state farm. this is jessica.

hey, jessica, jerry neumann with a policy question. jerry, how are you doing? fine, i just got a little fender bender. oh, jerry, i'm so sorry. i would love to help but remember, you dropped us last month.

yeah, you know it's funny. it only took 15 minutes to sign up for that new auto insurance company but it's taken a lot longer to hear back. is your car up a pole again? [ crying ] i miss you, jessica! jerry, are you crying? no, i just, i bit my tongue. [ male announcer ] get to a better state. state farm.

melwood and wusa9 salute all that serve at home and abroad. >> i'm samuel schmidt from steven city, virginia. i want to say happy holidays to my wife michelle. i love you, baby, i'll be home soon. the salvation army hopes you can spare a little more for others this holiday season. they tell inside nova.com donations are down 10%. that leaves the organization short of where it needs to be to

help families without any interruption. and it's got to be hard to get into the holiday spirit when you don't have a job. but apparently that's not the case for liz hickok. she is using holiday lights spelling out her resume on the side of her home. her display is getting some attention. >> i've had people stop when i'm out and telling me about positions that they know of their company or some other company. i've had a lot of linked in messages and a lot of linked in views. >> she says if it weren't for the holiday season, she would have likely gotten a citation from her homeowners association. so that's working out just the way she needs it to be. when you hear about a child being adopted, usually it is a baby or a toddler. but in fredericksburg, a 17-year-old boy has a new family this holiday season. our peggy fox reports it's a family that enjoys adopting teens. >> reporter: tyler freeman is a typical

teenager, except for the fact that he's just been adopted. >> i hope i'm doing the right thing. >> reporter: a fredericksburg minister is his new dad. >> he wanted a mother and my wife was that perfect person. >> reporter: in january, she died suddenly. eventually arty worked through his own grief and depression and decided what i must do. >> my wife left a legacy behind. i want him to be in the family, i want him to be my son. and we will adopt him. >> reporter: last month, tyler freemonday at man at 17 officially became his son. >> it's joyful to have a dad like him who would do anything for a child like me. even despite the bad things i've done. and he's still there. it's touching. >> reporter: three years ago, tyler was in a group home. when he was ready to move to a foster home, they gave him a

choice of seven different families. instead of reading through them to find out about them, he just picked one at random. but he struck gold with them. >> i wanted tyler to feel like he belonged to somebody and somebody belonged to him. and at 17, everybody needs somebody to love. that's my dad or that's my family. you'll get it together one day if you don't break your leg. >> reporter: he doesn't change lives from the pulpit but day by day at his own kitchen table. in fredericksburg, peggy fox, 9news now. >> they had five of their own children. listen to this. 30 foster kids and now two adopted children all by the non-profit phillips program. he is driven to help as many teens as he can because he hates to see 18-year-olds walk away from foster care with no family. what a story this holiday season. >> absolutely. beautiful.

>> exactly what you want to hear. >> it warms you from the inside. absolutely. we've been warm from the outside with the weather we've had. >> we have. a little spoil. it was a nice treat while it lasted. but at least for right now i think we're getting a little bit back to normal. temperatures have really dropped down behind the front. it brought us all of the rain and cloud cover. temperatures have been sitting right around 50, 51 degrees all morning long. we're going to continue that into the afternoon. but as you notice as we get closer to 3:00 and 4:00, a little bit more sunshine moves on through. official high for reagan national airplane to the i'm forecasting about -- airport today i'm forecasting about 50 degrees. that is not too far off our average. if you're going to be out and about later on this evening, take that jacket with you. after sunset say around 5:00, we're going to start to see these temperatures climb. by 6:00 we're down to the middle range 40s and we're headed for the 30s for overnight lows later

on tonight. now, it is going to be a fairly nice holiday weekend. so definitely get out and enjoy. i know a lot of folks have travel plans, maybe social visits. maybe you have people coming into town and you want to take them around to see some of the sites. today will be fantastic, but you need the sunglasses late in the day as we get in towards the overnight with mainly clear skies and the winds starting to back down a little bit. the temperatures will drop. we will be chilly to start us out for tomorrow if you're headed to fedex field for the game, dress in some layers. especially sitting in the shade. it's going to be very, very cold. and on christmas day, it looks like we're going to keep our forecast dry and our temperatures a little milder. at least we'll get out of the 40s on sunday. satellite and radar shows the big picture. this is what we've been dealing with through the overnight. the moisture moves on through some severe weather in the southern states. for us right now, just a little bit of cloud cover but that will start to break up a little bit as we head on through the afternoon. our temperatures are fairly uniform. everyone is around 48-51 degrees

this hour with the exception of some of the southern zones. in all, though, we're going to keep it fairly consistent for today and for tomorrow with 50 degrees in college park, 49 in bethesda, 50 down towards alexandria. not much of a variation there. but the winds are really what is cranking us for today. these northwest winds right now sustained at 22 miles per hour. yes, it is breezy so the 51 is feeling much cooler when you factor in the wind chill. now, here is the traveler's forecast. the big picture across the eastern seaboard is the front moving in. we're going to keep it nice and chilly. at least seasonable for the next two days. future cast forecast model does give us some sunshine both saturday afternoon and then clear on saturday night. but as we get into sunday, we're looking at a little bit warmer temperatures. at least getting out of the 40s and back into the 50s. so here we go with the long range forecast for you. the next three days ahead,

fairly pleasant for today. we'll be chilly for tomorrow. only into the 40s. but by sunday, we start to rebound a little bit. we keep the sunshine around. but by sunday night into monday, we're tracking a system that is going to pass on towards our south. better days will be mid week when temperatures are in the mid 50s. 9news now will be back in just a few moments.

. just in time for the holidays, we are talking airport survival now with travel expert laura powell. she is from daily suitcase.com. welcome to the show. >> thank you. glad to be here. >> you have some cool stuff. some new innovation for travel gear. why don't you start us off with

the colored luggage. >> they're making carry on luggage lighter than ever. i have these two cases up front. it's super cool based on the work of pop artist ramero brito. it's $300. you can get it a little cheaper online. it comes complete with a lock. super cool. you are going to get comments at the airport. it's 22 inches. >> very cool. >> the other one is 20 inches. and it is also from hayes. it's a little cheaper. it's $150. again, very light weight. this one is 6.7 pounds. the brito, the other one is 5.1 pounds. so that is amazing for a hard case container. >> i like the pop art one. but if you need to be more conservative, that's a good way to go. >> this is nice. this is the briggs and riley duffle and it is convertible so you can use it as a duffle bag and also if you unzip right here you have a nice backpack situation. >> that's great. >> it's very light. and, of course, being of canvas, you can smoosh it into the bins

without any problem. it's really sturdy. >> so if you're on your business trip, maybe a little gift for your business traveler. >> well, you know, this year the ipad accessories are super hot. >> uh-huh. >> and i brought some fun stylish ones. this one is called the gorilla mobile yogi by jobi. and what you can do, you put your ipad here and then you can either have this in a downward dog situation. >> uh-huh. >> you can bend it into a half lotus. >> that's cool. >> depending on how high you want it. >> you have other cool accessories. >> right. this is the stm skinny case. which, again, is about $50. you can get it for 30 online. this i love. it's the best. it's the minitek waterproof blue tooth keyboard. it makes it really easy to type. >> laura powell thanks so much. merry christmas. >> and we want everyone to know

merry christmas at home. you can check us out 24 hours a day at wusa9.com. have a very happy holiday.