Ditching his board and pulling a 14yearold to shore speaking out this morning on gma. And we do say good morning, america. We made it to friday. A huge crowd already gathering in central park this morning for 5 seconds of summer and for a few seconds it didnt seem like it was summer at awe, the flash floods, the storms but look at them. Theyve dried out after staying there all night, amy, ready for this concert this morning . We cannot wait to hear from the band in just a bit. We do want to get right to that breaking news, that explosion in los angeles overnight. Rocking the basement of a highrise sparking a power outage at the Staples Center. Nick watt has the latest. Good morning, nick. Reporter good morning, amy. Thats right. Concertgoers plunged into darkness. Firefighters deployed in the heart of the city, fire and billowing smoke in the financial district. Overnight a powerful underground explosion shaking downtown los angeles. Looks like we got a large multistoried modern sealed
Involved in a car accident that killed a woman. Could she be charged with manslaughter. And pool party. Six, count them, six black bears take over a backyard swimming pool. And were going to need some more chlorine today, friday, august 21st, 2015. From nbc news this is today with matt lauer and Savanah Guthrie live from studio 1 a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning. Welcome to today on a friday morning. Savannah is off. Tamron is here. That would be the end of my swimming season there. Those bears are very, very cute. Thats the result of the heat wave here in the northeast this week, bears swimming in back yards. That will put a smile on your face. Also Carly Rae Jepsen warming up on the plaza. A nice crowd out there to see her. A lot of fun and bears. You dont get that everywhere. Well be outside in a little while. Lets start with two major stories tied to the weather. High temperatures make for another difficult day for crews battling wild fires. In the Atlantic Danny is churning. F
The governor of washington calls it an unprecedented cataclysm. Danielle nottingham is on the fire lines. Danielle. Reporter charlie, heat and drought have combined to make this one of the worst worst fire seasons and here in Washington State, more than 330,000 acres have burned so far this year. All night and all day, huge flames tore across a fireweary Washington State as news spread about the three firefighters who lost their lives. This is really hard. Its not an easy thing at all. Reporter dan calvert is a baseball coach in twisp and knew one of the fallen firefighters overrun by flames. Nobodys going to be able to replace these kids. So reporter okanagan countys sheriff called it a hell storm with wind blowing in every direction. Residents of twisp and winthrop were ordered to evacuate. Lucinda mccalister is one of 1400 forced to flee. A plume went from one end all the way to the other other something that we havent seen ever. Reporter more than 10 fires are burning in okanagan c
The accident started in the northbound lanes. One box truck trying to pass another when they bumped at high speed and one lost control jumping the divider into the oncoming tractor trailer. Its a complex accident scene in a really bad spot. Reporter evidence spread over hundreds of yards of pavement on a friday afternoon where that corridor is very heavy. Most of the traffic is being diverted. Its one behind the other. Nobody moving for two hours. Reporter state police tried to turn southbound thruway motorists around but ended up filtering on to local streets to get past the wreck. The Ripple Effect lasted all afternoon. 17 is a dead stop. Reporter how long have you been stuck . Four hours. Going from suffern to spring valley. Reporter how long is it taking you. An hour and a half. Reporter and youre not there yet . No. Youre still in suffern, you know. Yeah. Reporter thousands were caught in it but the frustration vanished once they saw the cause. This truck driver missed all his app
And the ninth biggest point drop ever. For stockholders, jim axelrod tells us, it has been a week for the the strong. Rose tonight, two americans are being called heroes for preventing a mass shooting on a highspeed passenger train heading from amsterdam to paris. Jonathan vigliotti is in our london newsroom. Jonathan, what you can tell us . Reporter charlie, the two passengers who tackled the gunmen were offduty American Service men. The gunman was carrying several weapons in his luggage including a kalishnakov rifle, automatic pistom oland knives. According to veries, the American Service men heard the suspect loading his weapon in the bathroom and confronted him when he came out. The suspect has been taken into police custody. Both americans suffered injuries. One may have been hit by a bullet. Police have identified the suspect as a 26yearold of moroccanan descent. He was apparently known to intelligence services. Frances interior minister praised the two americans calling them ext