captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> live and in hd, this abc 7 "news at noon." on your side. i knocked on everybody's doors and called 911 and told them to get out them up residents of manassas experienced a fire. good afternoon and thank you for being here. i am pamela brown. ash in a nothing but-a subdivision of manassas. the fire was whipped up by winds and quickly spread from house to

house. they are still trying to determine how the fire started. we go live to the scene. >> all day, we have been saying residents standing in the streets staring in disbelief at the scene on the 8300 block of killett l;oop in manassas. three people suffered minor injuries and three cats and two dogs did not escape. the fire was too dangerous to rescue them. >> i am just shaken. this is just so sad. >> as the sun rose this morning, displaced residents got their first good look at the destruction left behind by the massive fire yesterday. many were left speechless and some were simply overwhelmed the. >> [crying ] >> her houses still standing but it was flooded and badly damaged. >> the bathroom window is out.

the floor is flooded. the floor fell into the kitchen. >> firefighters stayed on the scene overnight repeatedly knocking down a glowing embers. because of the fire is still under investigation but some neighbors think it involves a grill on a back deck. >> until the experts comment and draw a concise possible origin, we're not prepared to make any speculation. >> it is clear the fire was fast and furious. it destroyed three homes and damaged five others in a matter of minutes. >> the wind caught it and it was like a fire tornado. >> the red cross and manassas emergency management are assisting the displaced families. >> it was a large event and not one that we are unprepared for. it was devastated to the community and will help them get back on their feet. >> the fire was so intense that it melted the sighting of homes. this siding melted off like a wet noodle.

135 firefighters responded to the scene and it took in two hours to get the fire under control. it will take weeks if not months to get these displaced families to rebuild what they have lost. investigators in another virginia community are trying to piece together what led to a deadly fire earlier this week. a 24-year-old and her son died when flames raced through their lorton town house on wednesday. her three other children survived after she dropped out of a second story window. we are following a couple of developing story started in the district, crews are repaired a water main break. they are trying to fix the break near martin luther king avenue in southeast d.c. they are also cleaning up after a downed tree. there are traffic issues in that area this afternoon in arlington, police say that a

driver who had a medical emergency was responsible for a seven-car pileup on i-66 this morning. the cleanup is causing delays near the roosevelt bridge. four people were taken to hospital and there is no word on their condition. investigators say suspect on the list should be considered armed and dangerous. there was a crash in southeast d.c. early this morning. courtney robinson brings us the latest. >> it was a series of crimes that led them -- led the police to cousy's -- southeast washington and lead to a shoot out. >> it was crazy and i was asleep and i heard about 20 gunshot. >> prince george's county officers say at 2:30 this morning a man robbed someone on kenilworth avenue and 45 minutes later, they got a call about a carjacking. officers responded and got into a high-speed chase with two men in this car.

the car had maryland tax. >> the suspect lost control of their vehicle during their pursuit. they bailed out of the suspect vehicle and they exchanged gunfire with uniformed prince george's county police officers. >> police offices also responded to shots off minnesota avenue and arrested one man and a couple of hours later arrested another. they found a handgun and they believe one of the suspects pounded them when they started shooting, they stopped a couple of men and they started all over again ban on no one was injured but officers closed down minnesota avenue to investigate. >> residents did not expect to wake up to a commuter nightmare. no one could drive in or out and metro d toward minibuses. >> it is inconvenient to me because i had to walk from my house to catch a metro bus. i am now late for work.

>> around 9:15, minnesota avenue reopen but the search continued for the stolen car and the man that police believe is dangerous. despite thousands of appeals, a rare sentence has been served in the commonwealth. >> the execution of to reset lewis has been carried out in the manner prescribed by the laws of the commonwealth of virginia. >> she died by lethal injection at 9:13 last night in a garret, virginia. she was accused of hiring two men to kill her husband and stepson back in 2002. many argue that she did not have the iq to organize this. tonight in prince george's county, a vigil is planned for a local politician who died after being hit by an suv on sunday. she was struck while she was riding a bicycle. she was a green party candidate for the maryland state senate.

right now across the midwest, there is flooding of forcing people from their homes. lindsay davis' is on the ground looking at the damage. >> people in minnesota pull together to salvage what they could as flood waters rose engulfing just about everything. >> it is always up to the top. >> in parts of the upper midwest, a powerful weather system, the remnants of pacific call -- the seventh tropical storm georgette. two intrepid ties coolers volunteer their time delivering sandbags to anxious neighbors. >> everyone says thank you for offering to help. >> everyone's arms are sore but we are there. we got it done. >> tractors were brought in to rescue stranded residents.

>> i cannot watch this ruin my house again. what do you do? >> the gun owners and minnesota and wisconsin have issued states of emergency. -- the governors in minnesota and wisconsin have issued states of emergency. in arcadia, wisconsin, attend -- waters continue to rise. >> you see the severe flooding and roads washed out. >> yesterday more than a month's worth of rain fell in less than 24 hours and parts of the region for some flood waters as high as 3 feet. no major rain is in the forecast for today but more is expected tomorrow. rain is something we actually need around here.

it has been awhile since we saw enough of that. will that change this weekend? adam caskey is in the weather center with a first forecast. there are changes in the overall winner patti and late this weekend and in the early part of next week. those changes could potentially translate into heavy rain showers which would be beneficial. we will talk about that coming up. look at the bright sunshine. there are hardly any clouds out there. it is a little hazy because of the new timidity out there. it feels like summer. chevy chase is 91 degrees. officially at reagan national airport, it is 90 degrees. our forecast today calls for mid-90's and the record today is 94. i think those records will be broken. we will talk about changes for the weekend because it cooled

down toth -- two children are among the dead when their grandmother shot down yesterday in seattle. relatives say the woman shot and killed her son in law and two granddaughters before killing herself. others were hurt including one victim the witnesses said the mom has gone crazy. the government wants to keep prescription drugs out of the hands of children. that is why the drug enforcement administration is sponsoring a number of prescription take back campaigns tomorrow. parents can come to thousands of locations across the country to drop off their unused medication. it happens in arlington, and montgomery county. stephen colbert is on capitol hill this afternoon. he wrapped up his testimony before the judiciary committee on the subject of march -- migrant farmworkers. he testified in character about what he calls his vast knowledge of the subject.

>> congresswomen lofgren asked me to share my vast experience, spending one day as a migrant farm worker. i'm happy to use my celebrity to draw attention to this complicated issue. i hope that my star power can't bump this hearing all the way up to cspan-1. he recently spent a day picking vegetables on a farm in new york. global leaders including president obama made in new york city for the united nations general assembly. iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad is making most of the headlines incurring the wrath of western nations. he has said the u.s. should release eight iranian prisoners being held here much like american hiker who was released last week from iran. >> i don't work with the government. i don't have any control over these things. i don't really have an opinion. i want this to be resolved in a way that improves relationships

between iran and the united states. >> the iranian president made headlines yesterday when he questioned the fact about 9/11 attacks. he said most people believe that the socks that -- some segments of the u.s. government orchestrated the attacks. more than two dozen members of the european union walked out in protest including the americans. coming up, his career was overshadowed by his life. today, hollywood mourns the death of a 1950's icon. will lindsay lohan end up back behind bars? the troubled actress gets ready to face a judge. plus, find out why facebook was off line for hours. we will be back with the weather.

we just found out that lindsay lohan is heading back to jail. she arrived at the beverly hills court house less than one hour ago for a court appearance. she had admitted failing a drug test. moments ago, the judge ordered her back to jail with nobel. facebook users can resume activity. the most significant technical glitch to hit the social networking site in four years knocked them off line for most of thursday afternoon for the outage had users scrambling to other site to vent their frustrations. facebook says a software flaw caused a cluster of databases to be overwhelmed and shut down. the facebook founder will take a seat on oprah scout. mark zuckerberg will announce the $100 million donation to the

new jersey school system. the philanthropic gesture some say was designed to draw attention away from "the social network," a new movie loosely based on facebook. you might want to have over to the national mall this weekend. tomorrow from 10-5:30, the library of congress will hold its 10th annual book festival. for more details, go to tbd.com. when you are finished at the mall, you and have -- you can head to a national park for free. national parks are free on saturday. the national park service is looking for americans to roll up their sleeves and get involved in a day of service. even if you don't volunteer, the entrance fees will be waived. what kind of day will be for them to get out tomorrow?

>> perfect, it will be fun. it will be a great day tomorrow and less cooler and less humid. it will not feel as much like to live like today. we talked about how we need rain. we have the latest drought monitor. my computer started at the wrong spot. i will get back to those graphs in a minute. happens when your computer goes on the fritz. it is!is sa notice locally we are in the gulf area which means we can use rain. we really, really needed. in the west, we are in the extreme category. the only force category than extreme is exceptional.

we will have a shift in the weather pattern by early next week. that will increase the chances for rain and maybe some heavy rain. we have a cold front off for west right now. that is moving our way and will bring some cooler, drier, less- humid air into our region tonight and into the day tomorrow. the midwest is already feeling that cooler air but we are on the warm side. we have a hot and humid day to day with temperatures in the mid-90's. notice the jet stream in purple. it should take a big dip to the south late sunday and early monday and tuesday. that should put our region into potentially heavy rainfall area. it should give as active and unsettled area. we could see some rainy days out of this, not just a few scattered showers. it could be some beneficial

accumulations that could put a dent in the drought. we will keep an eye on that and update the forecast accordingly. tonight, a few scattered clouds as the cold front moves into more morning. it to be a dry frontal passage tonight and you will notice tonight and tomorrow the temperatures will be similar to the last couple of days but the humidity will be much lower and more comfortable. it will be about 10 degrees cooler tomorrow afternoon compared to now. mostly sunny and low humidity and sunday, we will see changes start to happen with increasing clouds and light showers possible. i think a better chance of rain are monday into tuesday. the temperatures will be in the 70's sunday and monday. it looks like we could put a dent in the trout. -- drought. thank you. fisherpop singer eddie

has died after complications from had surgery. he was known for his songs but is best known for his marriage scandals. he was married five times and is the father of actress and author carrie fisher. he was 82-year results. we will go live to new york to talk to chris cuomo on a preview of his interview with the so- talk to chris cuomo on a preview of his interview with the so- called bigamist bride, next.

right here in this neighborhood, i grew up learning strong families and hard work means opportunity. and that starts with good schools. it's a tradition here in maryland-- and why in these tough times i've put education first. we've made record investments in our classrooms... doubled the number of charter schools... and we've frozen college tuition for four years in a row. and it's working. experts say we now have the number one schools in the nation. when it comes to expanding opportunity in every neighborhood, i know that we must do even better. she is called the military masters. she allegedly targeted more than a dozen servicemen by marrying them and taking off with their money. tonight, you will hear from her. chris, joins us live from new

york with a preview of his exclusive interview. >> good to see you. >> i want to talk about the charges against her. >> this is one of the content and parts of the story. for all the allegations and all the men and a one woman who has pursued this alleged con woman, the charges are surprisingly light. right now, she is in jail in alabama for check forging charges. we don't know about the status of the prosecution or how much time she will get. it probably won't be a hard time and that really flies in the face of the stories you will hear tonight of heartbreak and blas. >> despite her actions and so- called laws, she says she is not a comment. how does she explain that? >> she is steadfast in very direct and her feelings that she is not a con woman.

she says she is a victim of her own upbringing. she says she was marrying for certain emotional needs that she could not get. she also has brazen disregard for these men, mocking them and saying they were married her for money the same way she was marrying them. it is tough to prove that suggestion because all these men suffered incredible financial loss. >> you talked to some of the victims. there were left heartbroken and broke and we will hear more about that coming up tonight on "20/20," at 10:00. >> have a great weekend. you can see the exclusive interview tonight at 10:00. state and for abc 7 news at eleven o'clock. coming up after the break, come we have a final

let's get one final look at the weather. >> it is hot today. it is the last hot day of this stretch. mid-90's and mid-80's tomorrow and less humid. it will be a fantastic saturday and boy do we need rain. anybody with a lawn or garden can tell me that. we have a better chance of rain early next week. we have a better chance of rain early next week. >>