Major Warm-Up Thaws Philadelphia Region
After experiencing several days straight of below freezing temperatures, and even below zero temperatures, a big thaw is heading for the tri-state area. Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware will see temperatures climb through the 40s, 50s, and even 60s later this week.
Temperatures Rise Past Freezing
In Philadelphia, temperatures have been at or below freezing since last Thursday. In fact, over the weekend, temperatures never even made it into the 30s. Some spots across the region even saw temperatures fall below zero, particularly in South Jersey.
Those cold conditions are on the way out.
Instead, warmer air will filter into the region. Temperatures already had climbed about 32 degrees in South Jersey and the Shore by Tuesday around noon. By late day, most of the area will be above freezing and temperatures will still be climbing. It’s pretty easy to see the cold air in place across the region looking at the blues on the map below.
But check out the temperature anomaly map (below) by Thursday! The reds and oranges indicate the higher than average temperatures for mid-January.
Over the next several days, while periods of rain will pass Tuesday and Wednesday nights, temperatures will continue to climb. By Wednesday, the forecast high for Philadelphia is 52 degrees, and by Thursday it’s 65. The average is 40!
History in the Making?
Not exactly. Temperatures are going to be considerably warmer than average for mid-January. However, they won’t be record breaking for most. The record in Philadelphia for Thursday, Jan. 12, is 72 degrees. That was set all the way back in 1890! It’s not terribly shocking to see 60s in the forecast, either. Last Jan. 10, the high capped at 65 degrees. By Jan. 12, the high had fallen into the mid-40s.
The NBC10 First Alert team is expecting Wilmington to be one of few zones potentially breaking a record for warmth. The current record was set in 1913, and sits at 63. Wilmington is also forecast to hit the mid-60s.
Areas like Allentown and Atlantic City will see a large warm up, too, although not record breaking. Allentown is forecast to hit the mid-50s and Atlantic City the upper-50s.
Warmth Doesn’t Last Long
By the weekend, temperatures are expected to take a sharp drop. Colder air shifts back over the Mid-Atlantic states, and the forecast high for Saturday will only climb to the upper-30s, which continues into Sunday. Some areas – mostly north and west of Philadelphia – may even be able to pick up a small amount of snow by Saturday night. More on that in the days to come!
Over 30 organizations will team up to march against ‘right wing extremism’ in Philadelphia on Martin Luther King Day.
The ensemble-- also known as the MLK D.A.R.E Coalition-- announced on Facebook that they will gather at 6th and Market streets on Monday, Jan 16 at 11:00 a.m for the “March for a Better America.” Marchers will then head south to Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church for a public demonstration at noon.
Some of the groups who will march include the Pennsylvania chapter of Black Lives Matter, Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower & Rebuild (P.O.W.E.R), Philadelphia Student Union, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, Black Clergy of Philadelphia, and many more.
As the nation prepares for Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration the same week, MLK D.A.R.E Coalition said in a statement the march will protest the "ascension of right wing extremism into the highest levels of American public life."
Several protests and demonstrations are also slated to take place in Philadelphia during inauguration week, including a march for women’s rights scheduled for the day after Trump’s inauguration.
For more information on the “March for Better America," click here.
A Philadelphia school bus driver is facing charges after allegedly leaving a 7-year-old student alone on a bus.
Police say Jamar Henry, 28, was driving the student home from Cornerstone Christian Academy when he stopped at the Shop Rite on 6700 Haverford Avenue Monday at 4:44 p.m. Henry stopped in front of the store, told the student to stay on the bus as he left and entered the grocery store, according to investigators.
Police observed the idling bus and noticed the student by himself. An officer spoke to the student, who said Henry left him unattended for around ten minutes. The officer continued talking to the student when Henry was then seen running towards the school bus, police said.
Henry allegedly told the officer he had a bathroom emergency and needed to stop. The officer looked at surveillance video and determined it didn't match up with Henry's explanation however. Police also say Henry was in possession of marijuana.
Henry is charged with endangering the welfare of a child, marijuana possession and other related offenses.
A spokesperson for the bus contractor, Durham School Services, told NBC10 Henry was fired after the incident. The spokesperson also said Henry had passed his pre-employment screening and drug tests before he was initially hired.
A spokesperson for Cornerstone Christian Academy released the following statement on the incident:
Cornerstone Christian Academy would like to express our sincerest gratitude to the passerby who reported the incident concerning a student being left behind on the school bus yesterday evening, January 9, 2017. We would also like to thank the Philadelphia Police officer who stayed with the student and notified the school of the situation. Our first priority is always the safety and security of our students and we look forward to working together with the School District of Philadelphia’s bus services to ensure that our students are escorted safely to and from school.
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An ROTC coordinator at North Penn High School in Montgomery County has been charged with allegedly having sex with a student on a few different occasions last year, police said.
The allegations came after three students came forward to police, according to a police complaint filed Tuesday.
Mark Miller, a retired Air Force officer who worked as the senior coordinator for the Reserve Officers Training Corp at the Towamencin high school, allegedly first had sex with the unidentified female student in a Lansdale parking lot Nov. 12, 2016, the complaint said.
On another day within the next month, Miller, 47, of Glenmoore, and the victim allegedly had sex again in the same parking lot, and a third sexual encounter allegedly occurred Dec. 10 at a Towamencin hotel, police said.
He has been charged with institutional sexual assault. It is unclear if he was arraigned and given bail.
North Penn High School issued a statement that indicated Miller resigned Dec. 15, 2016.
"Charges such as these against Miller are contrary to the core values that educators hold true and will never be tolerated in the North Penn School District," the statement read. "As always, North Penn High School has the staff and resources in place for students who may need extra support during this time. Students are commended for reporting and acting upon this serious issue."
Police searched the Horsham, Pennsylvania apartment of a third person of interest in the rape, murder and dismemberment of a 14-year-old girl.
Detectives from both Montgomery and Bucks counties arrived at the apartment shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday and left with what appeared to be a box of evidence after about an hour. They did not reveal what they were looking for at the apartment specifically.
The woman who lives at the apartment was involved in a polyamorous relationship with Jacob Sullivan and Sara Packer, according to investigators. Both Sara Packer and Sullivan are charged in the rape, murder and dismemberment of Packer’s 14-year-old adopted daughter Grace Packer. They are both being held without bail in Bucks County.
The third person of interest lived with Sullivan and Packer inside the Horsham apartment for about a year and a half, according to officials. The woman, who we are not identifying since she has not been charged with a crime, called 911 back on December 30, 2016 after she found Sullivan barely conscious and unresponsive inside their bedroom.
“I don’t know if you have watched the news lately,” the woman told the dispatcher, according to the affidavit. “Someone we were involved with was recently...It’s a big mess. It’s a big mess and I don’t really know how to explain it. But oh my God.”
She also later found Packer unconscious in the bathroom and took her to the hospital. Police say Packer and Sullivan both tried to overdose on drugs as part of a suicide pact.
During his time recovering at Abington Hospital, Sullivan allegedly confessed to staff members that he and Packer had conspired to kill Grace. Police say Sullivan confessed to raping the teen while Packer watched, storing her body in the attic of their Quakertown home, dismembering her body months later and dumping her remains in a wooded area in Luzerne County. Police say Packer helped Sullivan dispose of her daughter’s body and then lied to investigators for months as they searched for the girl, whose remains were later found by a group of hunters.
Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub called Sullivan’s second girlfriend a person of interest in the case but not a suspect. The woman’s attorney, Sharon Meisler, spoke to NBC10 about her client’s involvement with the ongoing investigation.
“She is cooperating,” Meisler said. “She has been cooperating. I didn’t know they were going to do that but I understand why they’re doing it.”
Meisler said her client is devastated by Grace Packer’s death. Despite the arrests of Sara Packer and Jacob Sullivan, officials say the investigation into the teen’s death is ongoing.
A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the repeated vandalism of a Philadelphia synagogue.
Members of Temple Menorah Keneseth Chai in Northeast Philadelphia say someone threw a rock through a stained glass window just before services began back on Dec. 2 around 7:30 p.m.
Synagogue President Malcolm Adler said he was walking down the aisle when a baseball-sized rock crashed through the window and nearly hit him. Around 30 people were inside the synagogue at the time.
More than a month later vandals targeted the same window again, shattering it with a rock around 7:30 p.m. Friday, according to Adler.
No one was injured in either incident. Adler believes the incidents were hate crimes though police have not yet confirmed this. Adler also claimed the synagogue was vandalized three to four years ago when someone painted a swastika on an outside wall.
The Citizens Crime Commission is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. If you have any information, call the Commission at 215-546-6532.
It was a Tuesday to remember for the mayor of a Gloucester County town as he attended a funeral, saved a woman’s life from a fire and then went to Governor Christie’s final State of the State address all within the span of a few hours.
Paulsboro Mayor Gary Stevenson, who also works as a funeral director and volunteer firefighter in the town, was leaving a funeral around 9:30 a.m. when he noticed smoke coming from a home a block away on West Broad Street.
“I saw smoke coming back from this house and I originally thought it was a chimney,” said Stevenson, who was also a fire chief for 12 years.
Stevenson parked his car and walked closer to the smoke, noticing that it was growing in intensity.
“As I got closer to the house I could see the white smoke turning black which tells you it’s a fire,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson called 911 and then checked to see if anyone was inside the burning home. Two other men who were in the area arrived to help. The three men banged on the doors and yelled until a woman finally came down and asked them what was wrong.
“I’m like honey, your house is on fire,” Stevenson said.
Stevenson told NBC10 the woman was a shift worker and was sleeping when the fire began. As he tried to get her out the woman told him she had to go back in and find her pocketbook.
“I said honey, we’ve got to get out of this house because this roof is going to collapse right on both of us and we’re both going to be trapped here,” Stevenson said.
Firefighters arrived and were able to put out the flames though the home was badly damaged. Investigators say the accidental fire was electrical and began in the attic of the two-story rental house. The woman was the only person inside at the time and she was not injured, thanks to Stevenson.
“I’m not sure if I was in the right place at the right time or the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said. “God had me there at the right time I guess and fortunately the girl heard me banging and the other guys yelling. She woke up and that was key.”
Even after saving the woman however, Stevenson’s day was far from over. He still had to meet with New Jersey assemblyman John Burzichelli who was taking Stevenson as his guest to Governor Christie’s final State of the State address.
“I’m thinking I’m not going to make this,” Stevenson said. “I smell like smoke. We got there just a couple of minutes before he started speaking. Then the mayor’s hat went on and I was able to meet the governor and the lieutenant governor. I had a good time listening to the speech, the state of the union speech, but the fire was on my mind the whole time.”
Stevenson admitted it was a wild day, even by his standards.
“Today was hectic but gratifying that a life was saved,” he said.
Despite saving the woman’s life, Stevenson said he was merely performing his duty.
“I don’t consider myself a hero,” he said. “I’m just a citizen with the title of mayor.”
When he arrives to work each day, Fred Beard says “you never know what’s going to happen.”
The unpredictability might explain how Beard endures such long days and weeks at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
The veteran corrections officer averaged 80-hour work weeks during the first nine months of 2016. Through Sept. 23, he collected $49,000 in overtime on top of a salary of $44,842.
“In a prison, there is always something going on,” Beard said during an interview last fall. His daily routine at the hilltop prison in Eagleville is a whirlwind of activity: Working a hub in one of the prison blocks, Beard monitors numerous video screens, 360 degrees of hallways and dozens of locked doors.
In this bustling environment, there is always work to do, and always overtime for those willing to do it, according to Beard and his supervisors.
Beard was the top OT earner among the 3,100 workers employed by Montgomery County during those first nine months -- but he was not the only one riding the gravy train in recent years.
An NBC10.com analysis of payroll records found that county workers earned more than $26 million in overtime since 2011.
Consider that money this way: If the county spent that much on new corrections officers at the county average of $41,000, they could hire another 600. That’s more than double the 260 corrections officers currently on the books.
Spent another way, it would pay down nearly all of the $28 million in new county expenses budgeted in 2016 and 2017, which has increased taxes $110 for the average homeowner.
And OT costs are on the rise, from $3.8 million in 2011 to $5 million in 2015. (Through September, the county was on pace to pay out another $5 million in 2016.)
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A spokeswoman for the county commissioners, who oversee spending, said overtime is reviewed quarterly. She attributed the rise to a policy implemented in 2014 that reduced the payout for accumulated sick time at the time of retirement.
“As a result, there has been an increase in absenteeism, which reduces attendance percentage and creates a need for coverage/overtime,” county spokeswoman Lorie Slass said.
Most of the top earners come from four departments: Corrections, Emergency Communications, District Attorney, and Sheriff.
Officials who head those departments say the jobs garnering the most overtime -- corrections officer, county detective, 9-1-1 dispatcher -- all share traits that make them inherently hard to staff without the use of overtime.
Public Safety Director Tom Sullivan said extensive training and high turnover inside the county dispatch center are main causes for the overtime, which is necessary to keep in operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
“There’s a limit to increasing the staff size,” Public Safety Director Tom Sullivan said. “Once we hire someone, they have to go out for four months of training. We’re constantly recruiting, constantly testing, and it is a big effort to fill the jobs. It’s a constant struggle in this entire industry.”
He added that “many don’t want to work overtime and there are some who will work it.”
'It Does Fall on the Shoulders of Some'
Like Beard in Corrections, a 9-1-1 dispatcher apparently willing to work any and all hours is Brian Spatz, who has earned $249,000 in overtime since 2011.
Spatz is tops in a department that averaged $5,374 in overtime per employee in the first nine months of 2016. Since 2011, Emergency Communications workers collectively earned $7 million in overtime.
Some of it is built in, with dispatchers and supervisors required to work four hours of overtime each week.
But Sullivan said large amounts of OT for some employees does concern him.
“Our management staff is constantly looking at that,” he said. “Many don’t want to work OT and there are some who do.”
Sullivan said the staff has increased by more than 30 positions in the last decade and yet the overtime demand persists. In 2016, there were 180 employees in Emergency Communications.
“Not everyone is willing to come in. It does fall on the shoulders of some employees,” he said.
In addition to the county prison and the dispatch center, some of the highest paid county employees receive sumptuous amounts of extra hours.
County detectives in the District Attorney’s office averaged $106,000 in salary in 2016. They took home another $10,700, on average, in overtime.
In early December, District Attorney Kevin Steele pleaded with county commissioners to provide $238,000 in additional funding to his office, so he could give his assistant district attorneys pay increases in 2017. The county commissioners ultimately decided against giving Steele the money. Assistant DAs average $55,000 in salary.
Since 2011, the District Attorney’s office has spent $3.8 million in overtime, with the vast majority of that going to county detectives.
Steele defended the overtime for detectives, saying his highly-specialized investigators need to work long hours after crimes happen to help close cases.
“We have excellent closure rates, and my detectives are the reason for that,” he said.
Still, he said, the pay for his prosecutors is the reason why he loses good, young attorneys every year.
“Don’t get me started on that. Their salaries are a whole other story I’d be happy to talk about,” he said in an interview with NBC10.com, prior to the budget hearings.
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An Effect on Employees' Pensions
In addition to short-term effects on county budgets, the difficulty in finding and retaining dispatchers and corrections officers strains long-term county spending.
Pension payouts to county employees include overtime in calculating retirement compensation.
Despite calls to cap or eliminate overtime from those calculations, governments like Montgomery County and Philadelphia continue to allow it as a factor.
When figuring out an employee’s retirement pay, Montgomery County uses the three highest years’ compensation -- salary plus overtime -- to determine the annual pension.
In the case of Fred Beard, the prison officer, his annual pay in retirement will be thousands of dollars more thanks to all his hours of overtime.
“He’s got a plan,” the jail’s warden, Julio Algarin, said in an interview in the fall. “As long as he’s not wearing himself down, I’m fine with it.”
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Beard’s plan is simple: Pack in as many hours of OT as possible to boost his pension, so when he retires -- likely in three years, he says -- he’ll have a much larger annual compensation.
Neither Algarin nor Sullivan said they are aware of large numbers of staffers using overtime purposefully to boost their eventual pensions.
“I have not noticed that as a pattern,” Sullivan said.
Here are the 10 things you need to know to start your day from your friends at NBC10.
TODAY'S TOP STORY
Police Search Home of 3rd Person of Interest in Teen Girl's Rape, Murder, Dismemberment: Police searched the Horsham, Pennsylvania apartment of a third person of interest in the rape, murder and dismemberment of a 14-year-old girl. Detectives from both Montgomery and Bucks counties arrived at the apartment shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday and left with what appeared to be a box of evidence after about an hour. They did not reveal what they were looking for at the apartment specifically. The woman who lives at the apartment was involved in a polyamorous relationship with Jacob Sullivan and Sara Packer, according to investigators. Both Sara Packer and Sullivan are charged in the rape, murder and dismemberment of Packer’s 14-year-old adopted daughter Grace Packer. They are both being held without bail in Bucks County.
YOUR FIRST ALERT FORECAST
Wednesday could see some rain again by the evening. Thursday is expected to be dry with temperatures increasing to the 60s. Temperatures are expected to dip back to the 40s on Friday however. Light snow is possible for Saturday and Sunday is expected to be partly cloudy with temperatures in the 40s. High Temp: 48 Degrees. Get your full NBC10 First Alert forecast here.
WHAT YOU MISSED YESTERDAY
ROTC Instructor Charged with Sex with Student: An ROTC coordinator at North Penn High School in Montgomery County has been charged with allegedly having sex with a student on a few different occasions last year, police said. The allegations came after three students came forward to police, according to a police complaint filed Tuesday. Mark Miller, a retired Air Force officer who worked as the senior coordinator for the Reserve Officers Training Corp at the Towamencin high school, allegedly first had sex with the unidentified female student in a Lansdale parking lot Nov. 12, 2016, the complaint said. He has been charged with institutional sexual assault. It is unclear if he was arraigned and given bail.
AROUND THE WORLD
'Yes We Did' Obama Affirms Faith in Power of Change: In his parting message to the nation, President Barack Obama reaffirmed his faith in the ability of all Americans to bring about national change, despite the trials that so often stood between him and his goals during his time in office. "Yes, our progress has been uneven. The work of democracy has always been hard, contentious and sometimes bloody. For every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back," Obama said in front of a crowd of about 18,000 people. "But the long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion, a constant widening of our founding creed to embrace all, and not just some.” With just ten days left in his second term as president, Obama returned to Chicago to reflect on his unlikely path to the Oval Office and share his gratitude with the nation.
Paulsboro Mayor Saves Woman from Burning Home: It was a Tuesday to remember for the mayor of a Gloucester County town as he attended a funeral, saved a woman’s life from a fire and then went to Governor Christie’s final State of the State address all within the span of a few hours. Paulsboro Mayor Gary Stevenson, who also works as a funeral director and volunteer firefighter in the town, was leaving a funeral around 9:30 a.m. when he noticed smoke coming from a home a block away on West Broad Street. Stevenson called 911 and then checked to see if anyone was inside the burning home. Two other men who were in the area arrived to help. The three men banged on the doors and yelled until a woman finally came down and asked them what was wrong. Stevenson told NBC10 the woman was a shift worker and was sleeping when the fire began.
SPORTS SPOT
Flyers Lose to Buffalo: The Flyers lost 1 to 4 against the Buffalo Sabres. Get your full sports news at CSNPhilly.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
See more Top News Photos here.
THROUGH IGER'S EYES
@funkymac captured this cool photo of the Philadelphia skyline.
Have an awesome Instagram photo you'd like to share? Tag it with #NBC10Buzz.
TODAY'S VIRAL VIDEO
President Barack Obama gave his Farewell Address. Watch more here.
Philly Subway Riders Show Some Skin: Some Philadelphia subway riders showed some skin despite the Arctic temperatures, for the annual "No Pants'' ride. At 2:30 p.m., participants met at the Clothespin statue at 15th and Market Streets on Sunday before taking the ride. What started in New York City in 2002 with a just a handful of people has blossomed into a worldwide movement involving thousands. No Pants rides were scheduled Sunday in about 50 cities across the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia. The event was started by Improv Everywhere, a comedy collective that stages unexpected performances in public places. Read more.
That's what you need to know. We've got more stories worthy of your time in the Breakfast Buzz section. Click here to check them out.
In Wayne, New Jersey, a home surveillance camera rolls as a thief closes in on a package. Next door, another camera watches as the thief scoops the package off a front porch.
When it comes to catching criminals on camera, Wayne is on the cutting edge. Police are able to use mapping software to bring up registered cameras in the town.
Wayne Police Det. Dennis Ferray showed off the software to NBC 4 New York — little camera icons dot a map of the town, each of them private cameras that have been registered with police.
It’s called a “camera share program.” Police compile a database of camera locations across a town by asking private homeowners and business owners to voluntarily register their cameras with police. If a crime happens near them, investigators can quickly gain access to the video.
The homeowners who caught the aforementioned porch thief on video have since registered their cameras with the town.
Ferray says that police have been running the program for about six months and now have a little over three dozen residences and one business on board.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Wayne resident Lisa Wald said. “Occasionally there have been break-ins, you know, it happens in every neighborhood, and I think it would have been great to have had that.”
Police don’t have live access to the private surveillance cameras — owners of the cameras must consent first and then choose to email over a prerecorded clip. If given the okay, officers can see the surveillance video at their desks within minutes.
“We can look for a car that’s been in the area, a person that’s been going door-to-door, and it gives us a much better idea and it’s much faster,” Ferray said.
Many residents, like Joe Martinez, weren’t aware the camera sharing program exists.
“I had no idea that you could even do that,” he said.
Martinez owns surveillance cameras and says that he plans to register them with police.
The New Jersey state legislature passed a law more than a year ago making it legal to “voluntarily register the camera with municipal police departments.”
Critics argued against an original version of the law that forced people to hand over their video. It’s currently voluntary, but some still worry about privacy and others don’t want to be involved.
“I understand why they would do it, but for me, I would just want to stay out of everybody’s business,” Linden resident Cheryl Williams said.
NBC 4 New York has learned that a handful of New Jersey police departments are now getting on board and asking Wayne for advice. Linden plans to start its own program by the end of the year.
“We want people to feel more like, ‘Hey, these are our cameras, we’re just inviting you in to fight crime,’” Linden Mayor Derek Armstead said.
Expect more of these virtual block watches to roll out in the coming months and years.
A school bus fish-tailed on black ice and crashed into a tree in Delaware Wednesday morning leaving the bus driver and three students with minor injuries.
The Christian School District bus crashed after slipping on ice while the driver turned from Country Club Drive onto Windsor Drive in Newark around 6:45 a.m., said Newark Police.
Eight children from Shue-Medill Middle School -- between the ages of 11 to 14 -- and the 54-year-old female driver were on board, said police.
The driver and three students were taken to Christiana Hospital for treatment for aches and pains, said police.
the remaining children boarded another bus and headed to school, said police.
Police continued to investigate the wreck Wednesday morning.
Another school bus crashed along Rockland Road in Wilmington, Delaware Wednesday morning leaving 13 children with minor injuries.
Wal-Mart stores plans to slash the jobs of hundreds of workers, the latest in a series of cuts, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that nearly 1,000 people would lose their jobs before the end of the month, citing an executive familiar with the matter.
The layoffs could affect regional workers and employees at headquarters, with many to impact the retail giant's human resources department.
"As we've previously shared, we are always looking for ways to operate more efficiently and effectively," Wal-Mart said in a statement to CNBC. "While we continually look at our corporate structure, we have not made any announcements."
Dozens of people were forced from their homes in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on Tuesday night after a contractor struck a gas main, causing a gas leak.
The contractor struck the two-inch plastic shortly before 7:30 p.m. at the intersection of Mattison Avenue and Langford Street, Asbury Park police said.
More than 100 residents were evacuated from a building and moved to emergency service busses and to police headquarters to stay warm.
They were allowed back into the building around 11 p.m. as New Jersey Natural Gas continued repairs.
Police said no injuries were reported and that the leak is under investigation.
Frozen fire hydrants crippled firefighters' efforts to knock out a raging house fire in New Jersey Tuesday.
When flames began shooting from the townhouse at 31 Stockton Court in Parsippany Tuesday morning, the first firefighters on scene rushed to open the hydrant out front, only to find that one and two others completely frozen.
Dispatch recordings revealed the exchange between firefighters: "At this time, we're unable to find a working hydrant," one of them says. "Get me a tanker task force from the county, please."
Emergency responders used blowtorches to thaw the frozen hydrants, and firefighters drew water from their trucks into the hoses to try to stop the flames.
Parsippany Fire Chief David Hollner told NBC 4 at the scene, "Cold water is taking a toll on the guys and we had numerous frozen hydrants on arrival, delaying water getting onto the fire."
The Mount Tabor fire chief told NBC that three fire hydrants closest to the house were all frozen, and firefighters eventually had to use a hydrant more than 1,000 feet away, on a different street.
"The only way to know if they're frozen is if we open them and no water comes out," he said.
A woman who lives in the house that caught fire was taken to the hospital in critical condition. The other resident and their dog got out safely, but their home is destroyed.
Neighbor Dimple Ghandi recalled the frightening scene: "Lots of flames, lots of smoke. It was scary, very scary."
By the time the three-alarm fire was under control, all five townhouses in the row had smoke and water damage, and more than 10 people were forced out of their homes.
Red Cross is helping the displaced residents.
Parsippany Water Company said it tests the hydrants every year to make sure they're working, and it responded right away Tuesday to help thaw them.
The priest at the center of the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Philadelphia Archdiocese continues his fight Wednesday as prosecutors attempt to retry him on charges that he covered up abuse cases.
A detective who testified at Lynn's original trial is expected to take the stand Wednesday as a judge considers if there is enough evidence to bring Lynn to trial, again, in May.
Lynn’s attorney, Thomas Bergstrom, says there was wrongdoing by prosecutors five years ago. He filed motions, in part, arguing that the commonwealth hid evidence in the 2012 trial that could have been favorable to Lynn's defense.
The prosecution calls the defense claims "absurd."
Lynn already served 33 months of a 3- to 6-year sentence dating back to the previous trial, where he was convicted of covering up clergy sex abuse — the first Catholic official in the city to be convicted on those charges.
That conviction was overturned as the Pennsylvania Superior Court believed jurors heard too much evidence about unrelated matters. The commonwealth appealed to the state supreme court, which upheld the lower court’s decision, leading to Lynn’s release — on bail — from prison in August.
Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams has vowed to keep fighting for the conviction.
