October 5, 2020 4:12 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – Multiple crews battled a large house fire in Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes neighborhood. According to officials, the fire started around 8 p.m. Sunday on Mt. Oliver Street and quickly engulfed the entire side of the structure. Channel 11 crews could see flames shooting out of the roof and side of the building, and officials said neighboring homes were also evacuated to keep residents safe from potential spread. The fire reached three alarms, and four firefighters were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries sustained while battling the flames. It’s unclear how the fire started, and safety officials told Channel 11 there were two collapses in the backside of the building. That is where most of the damage is. However, fire officials said two nearby buildings were severely damaged due to water and smoke. Luckily, everyone that was inside the building made it out safely after the fire started.
October 5, 2020 4:09 am
WESTMORELAND CO., Pa. — (WPXI) – Just three days after officials with the Penn-Trafford School District said one of its elementary schools would be closed for five days because three staff members tested positive for the coronavirus, two more have the virus. That prompted Level Green Elementary to shut down for the next 14 days. In a message sent to parents Saturday, the superintendent said these five positive cases caused the district to reevaluate its previous plan. Students will learn remotely during the closure, something not all parents agree with. “I think it’s more disruptive to the kids to sit at home, not interact with their friends, and not learn. I think these are key years for their growth and I think it’s really impacting them by not being in school. I think that’s a far greater risk than their health concerns to be honest,” said Dominic Bergamasco. However, the district said it has an obligation to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all members of the community — not just the schools. Another elementary school in the same district — Sunrise Elementary — is closed due to a staff member testing positive for COVID-19, but it is set to reopen Monday.
October 5, 2020 4:06 am
WASHINGTON CO., Pa. – (WPXI) – A Washington County family escaped a massive fire at their house but lost everything inside. Several fire departments responded to the blaze Sunday morning on Quarry Road in South Strabane Township. The homeowner told Channel 11 that the smoke and heat actually woke him up. “I could feel the heat coming right through the wall,” said Sonny Keeney. ““The heat and the fire just knocked me back into my bedroom. It literally knocked me back and I’m thinking, ‘I got to get out of this room.'” His home of 45 years turned into an inferno in just minutes. The house was charred, gutted by the large flames. The retired iron worker sprinted into action. Keeney said he plowed through the bedroom door, quickly getting his wife and two sons out of the house — and then tried to put the fire out himself with a garden hose. Keeney told Channel 11 he was able to find his wife’s wallet in the debris, but that was about it. He said he has insurance, and his family is staying with his daughter for now. The fire marshal is still investigating what exactly caused the destructive blaze.
October 4, 2020 8:13 am
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Tropical Storm Gamma hit the resort-dotted coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula at near-hurricane force on Saturday, flooding streets, knocking down vulnerable buildings and stranding people trying to return from outlying islands. The storm came ashore near Tulum with maximum sustained winds of nearly 70 mph (110 kph) — 4 mph (9 kph short of hurricane force), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. By night, winds had dipped to 60 mph (95 kph), and it was centered about 85 miles (135 kilometers) north-northwest of Tulum, moving to the northwest at 7 mph (11 kph).
October 4, 2020 8:12 am
PARIS (AP) — French authorities deployed about 1,000 firefighters, four military helicopters and troops Sunday to help search for at least eight people still missing in a mountainous southeastern region after devastating floods that killed two people in neighboring Italy. Floods washed away houses and destroyed roads and bridges surrounding the city of Nice on the French Riviera after almost a year’s average rainfall fell in less than 12 hours. Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said over 100 homes were destroyed or severely damaged. Rescuers on Sunday were also providing emergency assistance, including food and water, to residents living in isolated villages.
October 4, 2020 8:08 am
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tweeted Saturday that he’s checked himself into a hospital, hours after he announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus. Christie said that after consulting with his doctors, he went to Morristown Medical Center on Saturday afternoon. He said he’s only experiencing mild symptoms. Christie, who has publicly struggled with his weight, is the latest in a string of virus cases connected to President Donald Trump’s inner circle. Trump’s former 2016 rival told The Associated Press on Friday that the last time he was with the president was Tuesday in Cleveland during preparations for his debate with former Vice President Joe Biden. Christie had tweeted Friday morning that he had last tested negative ahead of Tuesday’s debate and was not having any symptoms then.
October 4, 2020 8:07 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Three men blew up an ATM in a Chinese takeout restaurant in Philadelphia while the establishment was still open but were unable to get any cash, police said. The men entered the Golden Chinese/American takeout restaurant in northwest Philadelphia shortly after 9 p.m. Friday and ordered food, police said. They then placed some kind of explosive device which damaged the ATM and the window and knocked items off shelves behind the counter, police said. The three went back into the establishment but were unable to remove the cash box that was still inside the damaged ATM, police said. The three then fled, one on a bicycle and the other two on foot. Police were searching for suspects and no arrests were immediately reported.
October 4, 2020 8:05 am
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California man convicted five years ago of defrauding several local governments in the state has been charged with trying to steal $22 million from the Paycheck Protection Program. Attila Colar, 48, of Richmond, who goes by several aliases including Dahood Sharieff Bey, was charged with bank fraud in an alleged scheme where he falsified documents to take advantage of the federal program intended to keep small businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco said Friday. Colar faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine if convicted.
October 4, 2020 8:03 am
CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s fragile interim government is sharply divided over normalizing relations with Israel, as it finds itself under intense pressure from the Trump administration to become the third Arab country to do so in short order — after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Washington’s push for Sudan-Israel ties is part of a campaign to score foreign policy achievements ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. Sudan seemed like a natural target for the pressure campaign because of U.S. leverage — Khartoum’s desperate efforts to be removed from a U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism. Sudan can only get the international loans and aid that are essential for reviving its battered economy once that stain is removed.
October 4, 2020 8:01 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus reached further into Republican ranks on Saturday, forcing the Senate to call off lawmaking as a third GOP senator tested positive for COVID-19. Even so, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared he would push President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee toward confirmation in the shadow of the November election. Trump and Senate Republicans had hoped the confirmation hearings of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s would make the final case to voters of the party’s commitment to remake the court with a muscular conservative majority. But the hospitalization of Trump, and the infection of a trio of GOP senators, shattered any notion of changing the subject entirely from the virus that’s killed more than 205,000 Americans. So great was the threat posed by COVID-19 that McConnell called off floor proceedings but not Barrett’s hearings, slated to begin Oct. 12. The Kentucky Republican, who is battling to save the GOP majority and running for reelection himself, was not about to give them up.
