live in huntington park, mitch blacher. >> before you go, we don't know what started this fire, we don't know exactly what's burning there, correct? >> you're right, jim. we don't know what started the fire, what is the cause. we know that peco has shut off power to this substation, they've isolated it the best they can. but the big problem is extinguishing an electrical fire. you can't do it with water because that conducts electricity. >> as far as you noticed there, you say it appears to be spreading within this plant, but doesn't appear to be at risk of spreading into the neighborhood from beyond this situation right here at this point anyway, correct? >> no, it doesn't appear so. we've seen firefighters walk pretty much right up to some of the doorways, and at that point we're actually hearing what sounds like fire suppression equipment. we cannot see it from where we are, but i don't know if we take a look from skyforce 10 to see, it looks like the black smoke is now turning to white smoke as those fire suppression crews may have started to extinguish the fire. we're hearing the sp

let's go to mitch blacher who is nighing high in skyforce 10 for us over center city. how is it looking? >> hey, jim, you're taking a look at 15th and jfk. looks pretty good. those major roads like jfk and market, they're complete clear in the city. the streets department says they're taking their second and third passes on the secondary roads. on one of philadelphia's smallest streets -- >> stay in the house all day, no good. >> reporter: marcos and his kids are doing what the philly street crews haven't gotten to yet. >> try to enjoy the storm. >> reporter: through the storm more than 450 plows and trucks fought the snow and ice. caravans of plows kept emergency routes cleared. >> it's a back breaker today. >> reporter: walt nelson kept the sidewalk clean at city hall. the emergency operations say there were no major problems during the storm and 911 calls never spiked. the hardest part was for those from places like argentina. >> for us this is something new. >> reporter: and those just trying to get to the office once winter storm stella let up. >> pretty tough wal

lets a check back in with mitch blacher live on the scene. >> things looking much different than they mitch. >> reporter: yeah, guys, what a major difference from the last 30 minutes. the last time we talked to you the building had active flames shooting out of it. take a look over my shoulder. fire crews are spraying what we have been told is a chemical powder on top of the electrical fire. from our vantage point we can no longer see any flames. but i want to show you what this looked like just 30 minutes ago. very, very strong flames coming out of this peco substation in hunting park. fire started just after 2:00, off of westmoreland street. at this point no injuries reported. take you up to skyforce 10 to show you a high view of the firefight as it continues trying to put out some of the hot spots. at its peak between 4:30 and 5:15 we could hear popping every so often which we're told is a normal sound, the explosions of either oils or equipment inside this substation. now, one of the biggest challenges we have heard and seen from fire crews is that they cannot use water to extingu

. >> mitch blacher continues our coverage. i've been out there. a lot of the side streets and alleys are still socked in with snow. >> reporter: the big headline is if you're trying to come into the city tore your commute tomorrow morning, you should be okay. the crews have done a good job of keeping the main roads clear. this is columbus boulevard, one of the major roads in the eastern part of the city. some of the side streets are passable but they're certainly slushy. in center city, a snow plow caravan rounds broad and heads for market. through the storm they kept philadelphia's main emergency routes clear. >> pelts you right in the face. it hurts. >> reporter: walt nelson kept the sidewalk clear if front of city hall and the masonic temple. >> it's a back breaker today. >> reporter: off broad and fitzwater firefighters who fought a fire in the early morning were laying the down salt by mid-afternoon. kevin healy making his way back from the office. >> pretty tough walking around. the rain makes the snow heavy. i'm sweating under here. >> repo

. >> mitch blacher has been tracking williams' ethics questions for seven months now. he joins us with insight into today's indictment. >> reporter: most of the nbc 10 investigators have been asking questions and tracking the d.a.'s gifts including clothes and cash, but today we learned he took more than he reported including trips to the caribbean and to the west coast as well as that car that you mentioned. the u.s. attorney says that in seth williams' office, justice was for sale. questions about seth williams' conduct have now turned into charges. the federal indictment against philadelphia's top law enforcement official says he committed fraud and interstate bribery. >> mr. williams was willing to compromise his position of public trust in exchange for private financial gain. >> reporter: the indictment cites text messages between williams and several associates who gave him gifts according to the u.s. attorney those text messages show williams accepting and in some cases soliciting trips to punt ta can na, florida, las vegas. it says he accepted a 1997 jaguar and

. >> mitch blacher has been reporting on the fire fighting efforts all evening long. this is a big challenge. >> yeah, it was. when we first started here we showed you all the flames coming out of the building. now we're giving you the perspective of the fire crews that are still huddled around and getting, you know, their organization together so that they can continue to make sure that the hot spots are out. i want to give you a view from skyforce 10 as well. you can see the building where we originally saw all of that thick black smoke coming out is now really settled down as they've extinguished all of the fire that was emerging from this peco substation. i want to show you what skyforce 10 captured when we were first on the scene just about 30, 40 minutes ago as thick black smoke and flames were clearly visible from this peco substation. and from the ground we saw very similar pictures as fire crews were using, as you said, chemical powder at first because an electrical fire, just a very challenging situation because you cannot use water initially on a chemical f

mitch blacher up in skyforce 10 to give us a bird's-eye view of what's left from the storm. >> you're up over the boulevard. >> reporter: yeah, guy, you want to get a good example of what the meteorologists are talking about as far as the potential for black ice, this snow plow right in front of the proceed you can see they're not pushing snow right now. that's water in front of the plow. one of the main things the city has been talking about is as you're clearing your sidewalks and the areas around your house, to make sure to clear your drains so that the storm water can go down those drains. you can see all that water just kind of sliding off of that plow right there. the city of philadelphia at the height of this storm had about 400 of these types of trucks full of salt, about 50,000 tons of salt available. and they're deploying it all throughout the city. the roads, as you can see, pretty good shape especially the main corridors like columbus boulevard. guys? >> mitch matcher in skyforce 10 for us tonight. ice forming on trees and branches really causing some headaches for a lot o

nbc 10 investigative reporter mitch blacher has been tracking this story for month. >> mitch, walk us through what happened in court today. >> reporter: seth williams walked into federal court. he seemed to be in a decent mood and greeted our cameras. once court started, his demeanor changed and got much more serious. this as the 23-count indictment was read. seth women yailliams walked int to proclaim his innocence. >> seth williams categorically denies he's guilty of any crime. >> reporter: the sitting philly d.a. faces 23 indictment counts alleging his office was for sale. that he took cash, a car and vacations in exchange for favors and access. inside the courtroom, williams pled not guilty. he turned over his passport and was released with just a signature. >> too many politicians and commentators have tried and convicted seth williams in the media. >> reporter: the deputy u.s. attorney prosecuting the case wouldn't talk about how serious the charges are. he and williams could be seen chatting before the proceedings. >> we just greeted each other. that was it. >> reporter: willia

. >> our coverage continues with mitch blacher. >> how does it look there from the sky? >> reporter: i want to take you down back to the toll plaza. you can see it's flowing pretty well. the best way to go at this point looks to be those left hand toll lanes, those seem to be flowing the best. if you get over to the right lane that seems to slow down a little bit more than anything. as we go down 476 northbound, you can see pretty normal rush at this point. slow down looks like it starts about a half mile back, but flowing pretty well at this point, guys. >> all right. thanks for keeping an eye on it, mitch. >> i want to hit some breaking news now. this is in overland park kansas. huge flames here. this complex we are told under construction. we don't have any word on any injuries but lot of firefighters at work right here. flames throughout that area. similar to what we saw in raleigh last week where that apartment complex was under construction. looks like some of those flames have jumped the road there to homes that are nearby. a lost smoke in the air. this is overlan

here's mitch blacher this past september. >> reporter: can you talk to us for a second, mr. williams? mr. williams, come on. don't you think you have an obligation to answer some of these questions, sir? i'm just trying to figure out why it is that the chief law enforcement officer in the city did not file a permit to get construction work done on his home. >> randy gyllenhaal continues our live team coverage. a question many folks have right now, how does this indictment affect cases that are already in the system? >> reporter: well, this indictment is set to ripple through the cops and the courts community in philadelphia. the philadelphia police department says right now they do not have any comment on this indictment. of course, their officers investigate the crimes that the d.a. eventually prosecutes, but already we're getting a lot of reaction from those in the legal community including calls for williams to step down. >> it's my job to get it right. >> reporter: district attorney seth williams facing increasing pressure to resign. the man tasked with enforcing justice

mitch blacher is live in skyforce10. you've been keeping an eye on the traffic. how's it moving? >> reporter: jim, continues to be pretty smooth. we got to hope that this is what the traffic looks like for the next three weeks. the good news is the traffic's been flowing a little bit of slow down as drivers approach the toll. tomorrow the southbound side of that express ez-pass lane, that is then closed as well and we'll see how the traffic is then tomorrow. live in skyforce10. >> in delaware tonight some lawmakers are fighting to keep teaching cursive handwriting to children. the bipartisan bill would require all public schools in the state to teach cursive. remember that? lawmakers say it's still an imperative skill in many professions not be taught right now. committee hearing on the bill should happen within the month. >> i like that. they've got to keep it. >>> tonight a lucky few in philadelphia will get to hear all new material from the stand-up comedian and kevin hart. he tweeted a surprise gig in fishtown. the tickets soldout in minutes. hart is in town to film an up com

. >> mitch blacher is live for us in center city with more on that. mitch, what can you tell us?porter: last hour when we talked with you, the sleet was coming down really hard. now this has turned into a much lighter sleet. it melts on your jacket when you're outside right now. this is north broad street. want to show you north broad street. we've seen snowplows continually coming by probably every 25 minutes or so. they come in caravans of four. we know the city street crews are working at what they call full deployment. they have 450 pieces of equipment, more than 800 city workers all on the streets. they also have 50,000 tons of salt. much of that left over from the light winter. but you can very clearly see the remnants of what was a serious bunch of ice -- rich, you all right? okay. the icicles stick on all the street signs. you can see them on the traffic lights. there was a point in time here in center city when this was just simply freezing rain coming down. now it's lightened up significantly. we have a little bit of a flurry activi activity, guys. >> thank you. >>> tha

i'm mitch blacher nbc10 news. >> thank you. meanwhile fbi director jachlz comey is asking the justice department to publicly reject president trump's claims that former president obama secretly wiretapped during this election. on twitter over the weekend, president trump accused mr. obama of sinking to a new low and compared the wiretap to watergate. there's been no evidence that president trump's phones were bugged. a spokesman for mr. obama says the accusations are simply false. white house officials are asking congress to investigate the claims. >> coming up at 5:15 the wiretapping process. a former federal prosecutor here to explain how it works. who is involved in a wiretap and how access would be obtained to mr. trump's phone? that's ahead at 5:15. >> back here at home a fitness center goes up in flames and sends two people to the hospital, just take a look at the video from skyforce10 this mrng. a four alarm fire tour through the afc fitness. the fire started just after 11:00 this morning on grant avenue. we spoke with m

i'm mitch blacher, nbc 10 news. >> you've been digging into questions about seth williams and gifts he's received for several months doing sbebs research. >> reporter: yeah, the nbc 10 investigators have done several reports from looking into his finances with his gift disclosures to the biggest gift disclosure, his $45,000 roof on his house. now, we have just learned that some of these gifts, some of these unreported gifts have led to criminal charges. we have tried to ask him questions since the fall about how he spends money and how he collects money. this is what happened when we asked him if some of these scandals could actually lead to criminal charges. >> mr. williams, are you worried about any criminal charges for your conduct? sir? mr. williams? are you concerned about any criminal charges that you may face because of your conduct? you're not going to take any questions? and that was not the first time he refused to answer direct questions about receiving gifts. we continued to ask those questions especially after he was fined $62,000 for his failure to report over five years of