Over a dozen residents returned to their homes after a car crash led to a gas leak in Northeast Philadelphia.
Police say two cars collided on Academy and Comly Roads around 3 a.m. on Saturday. A woman inside one of the vehicles was injured and taken to Frankford Torresdale Hospital. Police have not yet revealed her condition.
Officials say one of the vehicles in the crash struck a gas vent, leading to a gas leak. The intersection of Academy and Comly was closed and 15 people were evacuated from their homes.
Crews with PGW arrived at the scene to repair the damage. The workers shut off the vent and officials say the situation is now under control. The intersection was closed for a few hours before reopening shortly before 6 a.m. The displaced residents were then allowed back into their homes.
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Over 150 people were evacuated after smoke was discovered in a plane at Philadelphia International Airport on Saturday.
Officials say Delta Flight 987 was scheduled to depart for Salt Lake City Saturday morning when smoke was found inside the cockpit shortly before takeoff.
“Flight 987, a Boeing 737-800 departing from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City with 150 passengers on board, returned to the gate shortly after pushback when the Captain experienced a smoky odor in the vicinity of the cockpit," said Delta Air Lines spokesman Paul Skrbec. "Out of an abundance of caution, the Captain elected return to the gate and advised emergency ground personnel."
The plane returned to the gate and the 159 passengers and crew were evacuated and evaluated. No injuries were reported. Officials say the smoke dissipated but they have not yet revealed the cause.
"All passengers onboard deplaned without incident and will be accommodated on the next available flight scheduled in the day today," Skrbec said. "The aircraft is currently in maintenance. We apologize to the passengers for the inconvenience.”
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Employees at a local café are doing their part to help a man who lost everything after a gas explosion in South Philadelphia.
On Thursday, shortly after 7 p.m., a gas explosion ignited three homes on the 1800 block of South Bancroft Street.
Investigators say two Philadelphia Gas Works employees were investigating a possible gas leak in the basement of one of the homes when a gas-fueled explosion ignited a fire.
The two workers as well as another person were all injured in the fire.
According to the Red Cross, at least eight people were displaced. One of those displaced residents was Ron Talton, an employee at Chris’ Jazz Café.
Staff members at the café say that Talton lost everything in the explosion and they are now organizing a fundraiser to help him.
“We will be collecting donations for Ron so he can begin to rebuild his life,” they wrote in a message on their Facebook page. “Ron has been a dedicated employee of Chris’ Jazz Café for over five years. The staff and management of Chris’ will accept any donation amounts or items on Ron’s behalf.”
If you would like to donate money or items, call 215-568-3131 or send donations to Chris’ Jazz Café at 1421 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, Pa., 19102.
Two teenagers are in the hospital after a shooting in North Philadelphia.
Police say a 15-year-old boy was with his 19-year-old cousin at the intersection of 24th Street and Glenwood Avenue near the Raymond Rosen public Housing Complex Friday night around 10:15 p.m. Suddenly the two were approached from behind by an unidentified gunman who opened fire, according to investigators.
Both teens were struck and the suspect fled the scene. The teens then ran inside the 19-year-old's home and called police. They were both taken to Temple University Hospital.
The 15-year-old was struck once in the hip. He is currently in stable condition. The 19-year-old teen was struck several times in the back, chest and leg. He is currently in critical condition.
The gunman is described as a thin, light skinned black male in his late teens to early 20's standing between 5-foot-11 and 6-foot-1. He was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants.
Investigators say they found shell casings as well as a gun at the scene. They continue to search for the gunman.
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Police are searching for a hit-and-run driver who struck and killed a man in Wilmington.
Police say a 57-year-old man left a home on the 1700 block of W. 2nd Street around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday and then fell into the roadway.
A vehicle traveling westbound then struck the victim as he was on the ground, according to investigators. Police say the vehicle then continued westbound without stopping.
The victim was taken to Christiana Hospital where he was pronounced dead. His name is being withheld pending notification of family.
Police describe the hit-and-run vehicle as a red pickup truck with a horizontal stripe. If you have any information on the whereabouts of the driver, please call Wilmington Police.
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A man is in custody after he allegedly punched a police officer in the face outside of a popular Philly music venue.
Police were called to Union Transfer on the 1000 block of Spring Garden Street around 12:45 a.m. on Saturday. A security guard told police an unruly man was being held by bouncers outside.
A police officer and two State Troopers arrived and found the guards holding 20-year-old Kevin Baker Jr. on the ground, according to investigators.
A security guard told the troopers that Baker had punched one of the bouncers five times.
Investigators say the officer and one of the troopers tried to grab Baker. As the officer grabbed his arm, Baker allegedly jumped up and punched the officer in the face.
Investigators say the officer and the two troopers then wrestled Baker to the ground and were finally able to control him and handcuff him.
The officer was taken to Hahnemann Hospital where he was treated for two small lacerations and later released.
Baker was arrested and charged with assault on police.
The incident occurred when RL Grime, an electronic musician, and Salva, a disc jockey, were scheduled to perform inside the venue.
A few hours later, RL Grime tweeted:
I'll be back soon I promise
— RL Grime (@RLGRIME) February 1, 2014
A large gas leak forced more than 40 people to evacuate in South Philadelphia and a second leak emptied a block in Chinatown Saturday.
The Philadelphia Fire Department rushed to the 2200 block of South 8th Street around 5:15 p.m. after a resident reported a suspicious odor, according to officials.
"I was really scared and all because the house could blow up," said 71-year-old Loretta Kelsey.
PGW crews are still working to determine the source of the leak in Chinatown.Officials say they evacuated the block - 28 houses and 48 residents in total - as a precaution.
"A gas explosion just happened a couple of blocks away," said Anthony Seaborn of South Philly. "So you have to be worried about your safety."
By 8 p.m. residents in odd-numbered homes were allowed to return. Residents of even-numbered properties were able to go back inside around 9:45 p.m.
Those affected could wait in a staging area on the 700 block of Jackson Street.
A SEPTA bus was also available so residents could sit and stay warm. The street closure caused the public transit agency to reroute bus 48 through Saturday evening.
It was not an explosive situation and the leak's origin was located outside of the house numbered 2012, according to Philadelphia Gas Works officials.
Fire crews also responded to the area of 9th and Race streets in Chinatown about a possible gas leak around 5:50 p.m., according to reports.
Authorities evacuated the 900 block of Race Street, but everyone was able to return to their homes by 9:45 p.m.
Crews determined the leak came from a six-inch main in the middle of the street. Officials say the area is safe and repairs are underway. There was no service disruption.
A PGW spokeswoman says they are unsure what caused the leaks, but that large fluctuations in temperature could have been a factor.
Any customer who smells gas is asked to call PGW immediately at 215-235-1212.
The president of Muhlenberg College says he plans to retire next year, and the school will begin looking for his successor this spring.
The Express-Times of Easton said Saturday that President Peyton "Randy" Helm saying in announcing the decision that he still has a lot he wanted to accomplish over the coming year and a half.
"Randy Helm has provided outstanding leadership to Muhlenberg for more than a decade," Richard Crist, chairman of the board of trustees, told The Express-Times. "The College has a strong foundation and tremendous momentum thanks to his efforts."
The endowment nearly tripled and applications increase during the 65-year-old history professor's tenure leading the Allentown college.
Muhlenberg has built a science building, sports complex and residence halls during Helm's tenure.
As soon as Olympic speed skater Kyle Carr could walk, he had a need for speed.
“I started out on plastic Fisher-Price skates that you could lock the wheels on,” said the 27-year-old first-time Olympian when recalling some of his earliest memories. “I could go faster that way.”
Carr had roller skates on his feet before he was out of diapers and skated in his first national speed skating competition, albeit on a roller rink, at 3-years-old.
Throughout his childhood, he competed in inline speed skating competitions around the country and world before making the transition to ice when he was a freshman at Governor Mifflin High School.
“I was a high energy kid and ice was something new to put all of my energy into,” he said.
High energy and high tempo.
As a child, Carr asked his mom if he could pour ice down a hill so his sled could slide even faster than normal.
“He was definitely a daredevil,” said his mom Lisa Cervantes from Peach Tree City, Ga., where the family has lived since 2005.
When she told him no, he tried a new tactic. “I put soap on the bottom of a saucer sled,” he said. “I distinctly remember being outside and covering all of my sleds with soap.”
He doesn’t recall the results of the experiment, but says this was just one of many ways he tried to speed up his play.
“I got myself in so much trouble as a kid trying to make things go faster,” he added.
But all that trouble eventually led Carr to the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, where he will compete as part of the 5,000 meter short track speed skating relay.
At the end of his junior year in high school, a 17-year-old Carr left his home in Shillington, Pa. and moved to Marquette, Mich., where he was accepted into a speed skating development program at Northern Michigan University.
He trained full-time there while completing his high school education. Missing prom and graduation were tough, Carr said, but his biggest challenge had yet to come.
Carr suffered a serious ankle break on Nov. 11, 2005, only months before the 2006 Olympic trials.
“I thought I was done at that point,” he said. “But it wasn’t sitting well in my heart.”
The injury followed a strong run for Carr. He had participated in his first international competitions earlier that year and won a gold medal in the 5,000 meter relay at the World Cup in Slovakia.
He returned to his family home in November 2005 and underwent surgery to have a pin and screw implanted in his ankle.
“I will never ever forget being in the hospital,” Cervantes said. “The break was more extensive than what they had first thought.”
She says the doctor told her “there is no way he is going to make the Olympic trials.”
Having to relay the message to her son was incredibly tough, said Cervantes, who held back tears recalling the conversation. “No parent wants to tell their kid that,” she said.
But, she says, “In no time at all, the child was defying everything the doctor told him.”
“I wasn’t ready to give up. I wasn’t ready to be done,” Carr said. “I didn’t see myself being happy as anything but a short track speed skater.”
He spent nearly 10 months recovering at home before returning to Marquette in summer 2006.
When Cervantes dropped him off at the airport she tried to prepare him for the uphill battle he faced.
“Kids who could not share the ice with you are going to be beating you,” she told him at the time. “The physical will come, but you have got to beat the mental first.”
The next four years he worked to regain the strength in his ankle while taking classes part-time at Northern Michigan University.
He competed for a spot on the 2010 Olympic team, but he missed out by 1/100 of a second.
The loss once again forced him to question his path. “It wasn’t just a daily sacrifice, it was embedded in my lifestyle,” said Carr, who added he began to consider if it was time to pursue a more traditional career.
“I even applied for a couple jobs, but thankfully never landed one,” he said.
Instead, with the encouragement of his then-girlfriend and current fiancé, Siobhan O’Rourke, Carr decided to recommit to the sport.
In one of the last competitions of the 2009-10 season, he qualified to compete in his first World Championship with a win at the American Cup Final.
“That weekend would change my life,” he said. An invitation to train at the U.S. Speed Skating National Racing Program in Salt Lake City came and he jumped on it.
Since May 2010, he has trained full-time year-round. Plus, during the summer months, he assisted a commercial real estate agent to supplement his income.
Finally on Jan. 5 his dedication and perseverance paid off. He finished in the top five in the overall distance standings during trials at the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City.
“Everything felt worth it at that point,” he said. “All the adversity that I faced helped strengthen me for that weekend.”
“This is what not hanging up your skates gets you,” O’Rourke said.
Despite the setbacks along his journey, Carr says he wouldn’t have it any other way and is prepared to do what it takes to get on top of the podium.
“What sacrifices am I going to make between now and then to be even more prepared to race at the most elite level?” he asked.
Watch Carr race in the 5,000 meter relay semifinals on Feb. 13 and look for his blogs from Sochi, right here on NBC10.com
Police charged a 15-year-old boy for his role in a fight at a Montgomery County high school Friday.
The suspect and a 16-year-old boy, both students at Perkiomen Valley High School in Collegeville, were fighting inside a school hallway shortly before 2 p.m., according to reports.
During the tussle, the victim was knocked unconscious after his head struck a support pole, according to officials.
Authorities initially transported him to Phoenixville Hospital before relocating the injured teen to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The suspect faces charges including aggravated assault and harassment.
The Perkiomen Valley School District serves nearly 5,900 students at seven schools, according to its website. In January the district was awarded the Governor's Award for Excellence in Academics in six of its schools.
Police arrested a man and a woman Friday after the pair sold crack cocaine in front of their children, including a 5-week-old infant.
Officers say they charged Henry P. Jones Jr. and Tenielle Fenderson of Walnut Street in Camden with drug-related charges and child endangerment after a month-long investigation.
Their 5-week-old infant was in the back seat of their car when the two suspects sold crack cocaine to an undercover detective, according to reports.
Authorities say in a seperate incident Fenderson had her 9-year-old child in the vehicle when completing another drug sale to an undercover officer.
Those were just two of the multiple purchases made by police during the investigation.
Each suspect is being held on $10,000 cash bail. When they were taken into custody, police seized cocaine, more than $500 in cash and their vehicle.
Officials say Fenderson was in training to be a 911 dispatcher for the City of Camden and was working for the city as a school crossing guard at the time of the arrest.
Police identified two victims in two fatal double shootings in Philadelphia. Melissa Thomas, 29, of Philadelphia and Pierce Johnson, 22, of Berlin, New Jersey were both killed in the shootings which took place only blocks away and within an hour of each other. 
Police say Thomas and her 34-year-old friend were walking out of a bar on Market and South 53rd Streets around 2:35 a.m. on Saturday when they were approached by two armed men.
(Pictured: Melissa Thomas, photo provided by family members)
The suspects allegedly pulled out guns and robbed the two women. After their purses were taken, the women tried to run away, according to investigators. As they ran, police say one of the suspects opened fire.
Thomas was struck once in the chest and once in the right arm while her friend was struck in the arm and back, according to police.
Responding officers say they found Thomas on the ground. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Thomas' friend was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where she is currently in stable condition.
“The only descriptions we have are two males wearing hoodies last seen going northbound on 53rd Street from the Unit block,” said Philadelphia Police Captain George Fuchs.
About 45 minutes later and a mile away, police say Johnson was killed and another man in his 20's was injured in another double shooting. Both men were walking on the 1200 block of South 57th Street when a gunman opened fire.
Johnson was struck twice in the head and three times in the back. He was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where he was pronounced dead.
The second man was struck once in the chest and once in the mouth. He was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where he is in critical condition.
Police say one gunman was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt while the other was wearing a tan hooded sweatshirt.
"We started out the night peaceful, everything was going well and all of a sudden we have these multiple shootings in the span of a half hour," Fuchs said. "For homicide you have officers and crime scene investigators. It's very taxing. A heavy burden."
No arrests have been made in either incident. At this point, police don't suspect the two shootings are related. The city is offering a $20,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the suspects responsible for either homicide.
If you have any information on either incident, please call the Homicide Unit at 215-686-3334/3335 or dial 911.
The incident on South 53rd Street was the third in about three weeks in which a purse-snatching resulted in a shooting. On Thursday, just before midnight, a man was shot after police say he tried to chase down a man who stole his girlfriend's purse on Lehigh Avenue.
Earlier in the January, a young architect walking down the street with her mother was shot and killed during a purse snatching in Northern Liberties.
Stay with NBC10.com for more details on these developing stories.
Two police officers are recovering after investigators say they were attacked by a crowd while trying to help a shooting victim outside a lodge in Montgomery County.
Officials say there was a shooting around 2:45 a.m. on the 600 block of Walnut Street at the Montgomery Elks Lodge in Pottstown.
Two police officers arrived at the scene and immediately checked on the victim. As they were doing this, investigators say a crowd came out of the lodge and began to attack the officers.
Officials say a bystander as well as police officers from neighboring departments arrived to assist them.
Both Pottstown officers as well as the shooting victim were taken to local hospitals. Police have not yet revealed their conditions.
Chad Watson and Brooklyn Aiken, both of Pottstown, were taken into custody and charged with assaulting the officers.
The suspect in the initial shooting is still on the loose however.
Police continue to investigate the shooting.
Stay with NBC10.com for more details on this developing story.
CBRE Inc. and one of its Philadelphia area commercial real estate brokers have settled a class-action lawsuit for $13.86 million over allegedly violating a section of the telecommunications act.
CBRE and the broker did not admit any fault or liability and, as part of the settlement, is released of all claims against them. A CBRE spokesman declined to comment.
The broker, Steve Italiano, is accused in the suit of sending fax advertisements between July 1, 2009, and Dec. 19, 2013, that violated the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, according to court papers. The suit was brought by Community Vocational Schools of Northeast Pennsylvania and Nuts to You Inc. and was filed in the Circuit Court of Lake County, Ill. Read more about this story on PBJ.com.
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There’s a bid in Philadelphia to ban electronic-cigarette use indoors. Councilman Bill Green introduced the proposal that would prohibit “vaping” in restaurants, workplaces and other public spaces.
E-cigs are battery-powered devices that are often made to look like a traditional cigarette, but there’s no smoke. When the e-cig is "lit," liquid inside the device heats up and vaporizes.
The liquid typically includes nicotine, which some traditional smokers say offers a satisfying — less harmful — way to get a cigarette jolt.
New York, Chicago — and the entire state of New Jersey — are among the municipalities that have banned electronic-cigarette vapor from public spaces.
The debates have been contentious and have often centered on whether the vapor released can hurt the health of bystanders.
Each brand of e-cig is different. The federal government does not regulate the contents and some vapers home brew their e-liquid on their own. But some of the common ingredients are distilled water, flavoring, vegetable glycerin (sometimes used in personal cosmetics), propylene glycol and nicotine.
Some nicotine from the liquid is released in the e-cig vapor.
“There are small trace amounts of nicotine,” said Jason Cardiff, CEO of the California electronic cigarette company Cigirex. “In the testing that’s been done, it’s not enough that can be picked up second-hand by anyone.”
Cardiff says e-cigarette vapor is harmless. Maybe you’d like to hear that from someone who’s not trying to sell you a product, but for now the federal government is silent. The Food and Drug Administration is considering regulations for electronic cigarettes, but that decision has been delayed for months.
In the meantime, local jurisdictions have stepped in with their own laws and opinions.
“I’m a firm believer that those laws will be unwound, and everybody will come to understand that you can’t treat an electronic cigarette like a regular cigarette,” Cardiff said.
New York City passed its indoor e-cigarette ban in less than three weeks, and policy watchers say there’s similar public-health muscle in Philadelphia. Remember: Philly cleared the air of traditional cigarettes smoke before Pennsylvania passed its indoor air law.
In December, the New York City hearing on electronic cigarettes ban was contentious. At City Hall, while some people stood to give speeches, some ban opponents made their point by ‘puffing’ on electronic cigarettes.
“Some have a coffee flavor, some have a mint flavor” said Karen Blumenfeld, who was at the meeting. “Imagine taking all those smells and putting it in one room.”
Blumenfeld leads GASP: Global Advisors on Smoke Free Policy.
“Many people present, including myself, were getting headaches, many people were getting nauseous,” she said. “Nicotine can create headaches. It’s no surprise that people who are non-users were becoming sick from this.”
Blumenfeld’s group helped push through the country’s very first e-cigarette ban in Paramus, N.J., back in 2009. Since then, there’s emerging science, Blumenfeld said, and even more health worries about the fumes that get released when vapers "light up."
The arguments from the industry have not changed, she said.
“They say: ‘We need more time to evaluate, we need more time, we need more time,’" Blumenfeld said. “We never hear any empathy for the innocent bystander who needs to breathe in the second-hand vapor smoke.”
Traditional tobacco makers — including Reynolds America and Lorillard are now competing in the electronic-device marketplace. Jeff Stier, with the National Center for Public Policy Research, says that affiliation has created some "knee-jerk" opposition to vaping.
“There’s almost an ideological view here, well if Big Tobacco is involved, if it gives people pleasure, if somebody’s making money off of it, it must be bad,” Stier said.
Instead of making electronic cigarettes "public-health enemy No. 1," Stier said the government needs to regulate e-cigs according to their risk.
“E-cigarettes are a fantastic alternative for people who’ve had a hard time using other methods,” Stier said. “E-cigarettes may do more good for public health by getting people to quit smoking than any tax, warning label has ever done.”
Stier points to a long list of research that he says supports that belief. Those particular studies show e-cigs are less harmful than traditional smoking.
Blumenfeld and others believe a completely different stack of studies.
“There’s no proof that e-cigarettes are an effective stop-smoking tool — over the long term,” she said.
Gregory Conley, 26, started smoking regular cigarettes as a teenager, then in his early 20s he tried watermelon-flavored electronic cigarettes.
“Overnight I was no longer a smoker,” Conley said.
Before that he’d tried nicotine gum and lots of other stop-smoking tools.
“I struggled to quit for many years,” he said.
Conley said vaping offered him not just nicotine, but the ability to inhale and mimic his old smoking behaviors.
Conley got a law degree, and these days he’s a professional advocate for the electronic cigarette industry.
Conley is an adviser for Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Research Fund, which funded a review of the chemistry of the vapor and liquid in e-cigarettes.
Conley lives in New Jersey where e-cigs are banned in restaurants, but — for now anyway — when he visits Philadelphia, he’s free to vape. Nonetheless, Conley usually takes a "stealth" approach.
“You learn that as long as you are not releasing giant clouds, no one’s going to notice, and the few people who do notice nobody cares,” he said.
“If you hold your breath for five seconds, and then exhale nothing comes out. Or if you’re drinking a hot beverage and you pull your coffee up to your mouth it looks like steam,” Conley said.
Conley said he "stealth vapes" to be respectful of the people around him — not because he thinks the vapor is harmful.
“Propylene glycol is the same ingredient they use in fog machines,” Conley said. “If you go to the Troc or the TLA, you are going to be exposed to more propylene glycol that one night than you will ever be exposed to sitting in a café with a e-cigarette user.”
Conley is against government bans on indoor e-cig use, but says he has no problem with private businesses that make their own rules.
Celia Joseph an employment attorney with Fisher & Phillips, LLP says there is a patchwork on-the-job rules about vaping. Generally, employers can set their own policies, but many haven’t.
“What they don’t have are actual statements from the FDA saying: ‘It’s safe or not safe,’” Joseph said.
“Proactively I think they should assess for themselves, if somebody is vaping in the workplace, is that safe? That’s something they have to decide for themselves,” she said.
Or maybe there is some other reason they don’t want it there, Joseph says.
“State and local have been stepping and enacting their own law, and for very different reasons,” Joseph said.
Some supporters of e-cig bans say the devices glamorize traditional smoking. Others worry they appeal to teens who’ve yet to develop a nicotine habit. Another group has said the "look-alike" product will lead to confusion for public establishments that are trying to enforce existing bans on combustible cigarettes.
Joseph helps big companies write employee handbooks and her advice is: Don’t wait for that moment when a worker comes in complaining about vaper in the next cubicle over.
"It's so much better to have a policy and think that through before that first time," Joseph said.
This story is reported through a newsgathering partnership between NBC10.com and NewsWorks.org.
