Temperatures from coasttocoast how long with it last . The hero firefighter killed in a fouralarm inferno trying to rescue a baby how he saved two other firefighters the father of three just hours the tragedy at a specialto needs school, a 13yearold with autism dying after his family says he was restrained for more than an hour and a half. The new charges tonight. Nbc news investigates black market thc vaping pens the frightening mix of toxic chemicals we found in the vapor. Announcer this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. Good evening the impeachment showdown went live today in the first public hearing democrats rolling out two career and selfdescribed nonpartisan diplomats who spelled out a sharp narrative of what they witnessed and what they saw as an effort by President Trump to trade Critical Military aid to ukraine for investigations into his political rivals William Taylor revealing another potentially troubling phone call involving President Trump. Our team has it covered and we begin with peter alexander. Reporter tonight, history on the hill as House Democrats make their case against President Trump in the first public impeachment hearing in 20 years. Is this what americans should now expect from their president . If this is not impeachable conduct, what is reporter democrats relying on two top career diplomats to spell out a quid pro quo much of the focus on the july phone call where President Trump asked ukraines president zelensky for investigations into the bidens and the 2016 election but tonight, taylor revealed another conversation involving President Trump the next day that he says a staffer recently told him about with trump donor turned diplomat, gordon sondland. A member of my staff could hear President Trump on the phone asking ambassador sondland about the investigations mr. Sondland told trump the ukrainians were ready to move forward. Following the call a member of my staff asked ambassador sondland what President Trump thought about ukraine. Sondland said mr. Trump cares more about the investigations of biden. Reporter its a call sondland never mentioned in his testimony getting to the heart of democrats argument military aid to a white house meeting were being with held until ukraine announced the investigation into the president s political rival. Neither of these investigations was in the u. S. National interest. Both however, were in Donald Trumps personal interest. Have you ever seen another example of foreign aid conditioned on the personal or political interests of the president of the United States no, mr. Goldman, i have not. Reporter the hearing testy at times. You yourself, mr. Chairman, mischaraterized the call will suspend. Reporter with republicans denouncing it as a partisan sham. Id like to congratulate you for passing the Democrat Star Chamber additions held for the last weeks in the basement of the capitol. It seems you agreed whiting or unwittingly to participate in a drama, but the main performance, the russia hoax has ended and youve been cast in the low rent ukrainian sequel. Reporter taylor going back one week before that july phone call recalling a Video Conference where he says he sat in astonishment when an unidentified Budget Office staffer said the aid to ukraine was frozen without explaining why. All the staff person said was that the directive had come from the president to the chief of staff to omb in an instant, i realized that one of the key pillars of our strong support for ukraine was threatened. Reporter weeks after that call, taylor recounting this conversation with gordon sondland. Ambassador sondland told me that President Trump told him that he wants president zelensky to state publicly ukraine will investigate an alleged ukrainian interference in the 2016 election ambassador sondland said everything was dependent on such an announcement including security assistance. He said that President Trump wanted president zelensky in a public box by making a Public Statement about ordering such investigations. Reporter Senior State Department official george kent questioning the role of the president s personal lawyer, rudy giuliani. His efforts to gin up investigations were now infecting investigation with ukraine leveraging the desire for a white house meeting. Reporter republicans defended the president. Where is the Impeachable Offense in that call reporter saying he could not be threatening to with hold military aid because taylor testified ukraine did not know aid was being with held until weeks after the july call and that ultimately, the aid was given to ukraine without the investigations President Trump requested. Were you wrong when you said you had a clear understanding that president zelensky had to commit to an investigation of bidens before the aid got released and the aid got released and he didnt commit to an investigation. I was not wrong about what i told you, which is what i heard. Thats all ive said ive told you what i heard. And thats the point. What you heard did not happen. It didnt happen you didnt listen on President Trumps call and president zelenskys call. I did not. You never talked with chief of staff mulvaney. I never did. You never met with the president . Thats correct. This is what i cant believe. Youre their star witness. The push to investigate hunter biden given a job with the Ukrainian Company while joe biden was Vice President something kent questioned back in 2015. I raised my concern that Hunter Bidens status as a board member would create the perception of conflict of interest i did not witness an effort to shield from scrutiny. Reporter saying they were not seeking the spotlight and push k bag from the Early Morning attack from mr. Trump that they are never trumpers. Mr. Kent, are you a never trumper . Im a career professional that serves whatever president is duly elected for three republican president s and two democrats. Are you a never trumper no, sir. Reporter the question tonight, will any of this sway divided americans testifying friday, the former ambassador to ukraine and the person that over heard the call, he will testify behind closed doors later this week lester peter alexander, thanks. The president as we noted reacting to todays hearing declaring it a sham while hosting the turkish president at the white house. And there is late reaction from democrats on all this, too Hallie Jackson has details. Reporter todays historic hearing viewed by millions but not the president he says. I hear its a joke. I havent watched this is a sham it shouldnt be allowed. Its all thirdhand information, nothing direct at all. Cant be direct because i never said it. Reporter he and his white house down playing what they describe as a witch hunt, decrying it as boring and disputing one new key fact about a call on july 26th between e. U. Ambassador sondland and the president himself. He said he cares more about the investigations of biden. What this call indicates is that the instructions are coming from the president on down. Reporter President Trump says thats news to him. I know nothing about that first time ive heard it. Do you recall the conversation i dont recall. No, not at all not even a little bit. Democrats say today helped explain to the American Public how they believed the president abused his power. Im very proud. I think that what has further come forth has given us the truth of what happened reporter President Trump spent most of the day meeting with the turkish president , a controversial president after the u. S. Pulled troops out of Northern Syria effectively allowing turkish troops to invade the president insists otherwise. Our relationship with the kurds is a good one. Reporter for the impeachment hearing, multiple sources acknowledge while bill taylor appeared to be a credible witness, they dont think this hearing changed the game with one person telling me based on today its doubtful any republicans will break ranks with President Trump lester all right Hallie Jackson at the white house tonight, thanks. Lets bring on Andrea Mitchell and chuck todd, the political director and moderator of meet the press. Let me begin with you. Does this move the needle acknowledging there are more public hearings to come . They did today because they got an additional piece of new information that frankly makes you want to see the next episode, which is gordon sondland, the ambassador to the e. U. And the second phone call, here is an eyewitness account or ear witness account of overhearing the president on the phone with gordon sondland. It makes his testimony crucial, lester, to the point of it could be make or break type of crucial i think for the longer portion of this but look, the other part of this is what do the democrats want out of this if youre looking at today through the lens of did they make the case to remove the president from office . Its way too soon to tell on that but they did have a decent enough day one to make you want to see day two. Andrea, we cant forget about the 2020 race for president. These two are colliding. They are colliding because that is why the democrats are narrowing the focus of this to just this issue, not russia and a lot of other related issues, charges they made against the president before they know they have very little time to get this case made to the public before they are into 2020 and the republicans best argument and doubters best argument is lets let the voters decide. Andrea and chuck, thanks to both of you. Lets turn to the dangerous deep freeze gripping hundreds of millions tonight the weather being blamed for at least nine deaths. Gabe gutierrez has the latest. Reporter tonight the polar plunge is even deeper. More than 235 Million People woke up to frigid wind chills. The dangerous arctic blast shattering more than 100 record lows year night. It thought it would be cold but didnt think it would be this cold. Yeah. Reporter in wisconsin, a bus driver noticed two under dressed kids wondering in the frigid conditions and she took action. Everybody keeps saying that im a hero, but im also a mother and at the end of the day, i would hope somebody could do the same for my kids. Reporter new york city set a new record low of 23 degrees breaking the previous record here set more than three decades ago. You expect it to be this cold this soon . No way. It was, what, 60 degrees last week. Reporter colder in nashville than in northern alaska. Some areas like mcallen, texas, dropped more than 50 degrees in 24 hours temperatures are now hovering ten to 30 degrees below average for the eastern half of the u. S. , but were forecast to warm up tomorrow, lester. Gabe gutierrez, thanks. It was brutally cold as fire crews responded to a fouralarm inferno in massachusetts one hero firefighter, a father of three, killed while trying to rescue a baby and his fellow firefighters nbcs ann thompson has the story. Reporter today a somber solute to fire lieutenant jason maine nartd menard on the day he planned to take his family to disney world but first there was a fire to fight. In bitter cold and high winds, firefighters battled flames at this threefamily home early this morning menard and his crews searched for the reported baby. On the third floor trying to find an exit get to a window. Let us know where you are. Reporter trapped he helped a probationary firefighter to a staircase and another to a window, but could not escape himself. He was a passionate fire officer that loved being a firefighter. His dedication to the residents of worcester was unwavering. Reporter the three firefighters and a resident were taken to the hospital. Officials have not determined a cause for the fire tonight, nine people have lost their homes and one firefighters family, their husband and father ann thompson, nbc news. A terribly sad story. There is a state of emergency in venice tonight as the historic italian city deals with the worst flooding in more than 50 years. Much of venice was submerged because of an exceptionally high tide, one man seen swimming in historic st. Marks square the mayor is blaming it on climate change. The nbc news investigation what is making so many people sick from vaping the cdc singled out a synthetic form of vitamin e in some patients lungs while it hasnt tested the actual thc vapor, a lab in california has. Cynthia mcfadden has the first ever results showing an alarming mix of toxins. Reporter tonight at the labs in los angeles, considered one of the top marijuana Testing Facilities in the world, executives aaron riley andannew test. We wanted to design a system that would be able to provide reproducible results. Reporter to do something they wish the government would do, analyze the vapor produced by elicit thc oil. They tested seven thc cartridges from licensed dispensaries and six from the black market. The elicit card has dangerous stuff in it and it had formaldehyde, Carbon Monoxide and cyanide. Reporter thats right, cyanide. Not one of them was safe for consumption . Fair thats very fair to say every single one of them had something, some of them had a cocktail of things that were wrong with them. Reporter two of the elicit cartridges were counterfei products seen here next to their legitimate counter parts how bad were these these knockoffs . They had significant levels they had formaldehyde. Reporter the kingpin had cyanide. There is no illegal product but according to the cdc, many that got sick used it. We found over seven pesticides in the dnk vapes. We found significant levels of vitamin e and were seeing trace amounts of formaldehyde. Reporter the prize for the most pesticides went to the vapor from this elicit thc cartridge with 1500 times the legal limit. Essentially, youre vaping pesticides at that level, yes. Reporter finally, a troubling surprise regarding legal thc products, safe when used at standard temperatures they say but many vaping pens allow users to crank up the heat. When we ran all of the cartridges at a higher voltage, we noticed there was carcinogens in not all of them but most of them. Even including the legal market cartridges reporter unfortunately, turning up the heat is popular with kids, the higher the heat, the bigger the vapor puffs and now we know the higher the chance of carcinogens. You can see more of our investigation tomorrow on today. Just ahead for us tonight, why three educators are facing charges after the death of a 13yearold special needs student. Also, well go inside the Training Program for some highly valued members of the military headed for active duty stay with us were back with three educators charged in the death of a 13yearold student nbc sam brock has more. Reporter a call for justice for max benson, a 13yearold autistic boy who headed off to a Northern California school last fall and never came home now a teacher, two administrators and the Guiding Hands School face charges of involuntary manslaughter, all pleading not guilty. How does a child go to school under the care of teachers and administrators and not survive the day . Obviously in this case, thats what happened the parents are asking the same question. Reporter the boys family says after claims he fit brought to the ground in a takedown ma for more than an hour and a half california officials revoked their license and some parents stand by the charged educators. In a million years they would never have done anything to harm a child. With a life tragically special needs restraint. Sam brock, nbc news los angeles. Well take a short break, those who serve, heroes in the making, which dogs had the right stuff. Youve seen the headlines about conan that helped take down a leader of isis. Were going inside the joint base in san antonio where dogs train for their turn in battle here is Morgan Chesky with those who serve. They may not know it yet but these pups are in the running to be americas next heroes their mission, join the ranks of 3,000 military dogs. What we look for in the puppies is the drive to move towards things that move, bite them and possess them. Reporter or something as simple as a water bottle teaching pups to work through distraction before getting a bite of a hot dog. The stars shepherds and the belgium dog intelligent and athletic labs trained to sniff out explosives and narcotics and for the navy, jack russell terriers who sense whose sense of smell are perfect for tight spots. Its like a natural instinct. They have a sense. They know what something is going down. Reporter after proving they can bite, tackle and track almost anything, the toughest part for trainers, saying goodbye. These dogs are irreplaceable. They come with the capability that no human has. Reporter a Battle Tested best friend ready to play hero no matter what Morgan Chesky, nbc news. We thank them for their service, as well. Coming up, final thoughts americans tonight finding themselves packing the same stadium. Well have that. Some final thoughts before we go, americans find themselves in the same arena watching the same contest and often the case for very different seats but of course, impeachment a potential removal of an elected president is no game a constitutional process thats about as serious as it gets but its nature, its also political a political process and brought its own unique dynamics but the stakes are too high to not give it our undivided attention it certainly has ours and well continue to report and follow this story thats nightly news. Right now at 6 00, the statue of joe montana vandalized. Well tell you what happened during the 49ers big game on monday night, and what the niners are doing about it tonight. Plus, a robbery caught on camera. The violent attack that has police in the south bay looking for a gunman. But first, a disturbing turn in theisis. The new deathre the news at 6 00 starts right now. Good evening and thanks for being with us. Im raj mathai. And imesarea, in fact in marin county. It is the first bay area death in this vaping crisis. And tonight the Marin County Health department is warning people to please, stop using those vaping products. Not just teenagers, but adults of all ages. Tim daly joins us in san rafael with the details. Tim . Reporter raj, the person who died here in marin county, a 45yearold woman who started vaping just six months ago. Amanda arconti was taken to Novato Community hospital last saturday night with serious respiratory issues. Within 24 hours, she had died. This is the first Death Associated with vaping in the bay area. There have been other cases, but this is the first fatality. Supporters of vaping say the use of ecigarettes is a way for smokers to reduce her nicotine input and eventually quit. Officer matt willis says arconti was trying to stop vaping, but ten vaping samples were found