3 maps-fiber-maps we are following breaking news this morning... are injured after fire rips rs - through a baltimore county home.one of the victims is a fire fighter. in landsdowne around 2:40 this morning alonggalletta avenue in lansdowne.no word yee on what started this fire... or even who the victims are.we do have a crew headed to the scene right now.stay with us for the latest. 3 3 we are following a developing story this morning ... as baltimore mourns the loss of one of our sports legends. legends.the orioles are confirming that former pitcher mike flanagan was found dead on his property in northern baltimore county.he was found inside this building llst night.there is o word yet on what caused his death.. but the sports world issgrieving this morning. morning.the orioles released a statement saying..."in over a quarter century ith the organization, flanny became an integral part of the orioles family. his loss will be felt deeply and profoundly by all of us with the ballclub and by orioles fans everywhere who admired him." flanagan was the best lefty balttmore has seen.he was drafted by the o's in 1973... and made his big league debut two years later.he won the cy young award in 1979...and was a parr of the 1988 world series team. team.flanny was the last you can see him here.. pitching in his hey-day...and &pthen doing interviews in 1994.. two years after retiring...he was still active in the o's organization. after retirement he spent time as a pitching coach... in the o's front office... and this season called games for masn. flanagan was 59 years old. 3 crews are still asssssing the damage... caused by tuesday's powerful earthquake. earthquake. in mineral, virginia... which was thh epicenter of the 55point-8 eaathquake... structural engineers spent all day wednesday... xamining buildings. three of the town's six schools were left heavily damaged. and many homeownerssthere... are struggling to recover. "my neighbor next door, his chimneys are tore up and tte insurance doosn't cover that. we don't get earthquakes. thats a problem lots of people are upset right " now." there were no reported fatalities from the quake and no serious injuries. the washington monument remains cllsed today... after tuesday's earthquake left it with a four- foot crack. thh structure has been sectioned off from the national mall... until &pengineers can figure out the best way to repair the damage. not only was washington's monument hit... but so was his ome in mount vernon. cameras were rolling... as the ground thundered and rolled underneath tte national landmark. 40 visitors rushed out of the mansion... but there were no reports of serious damage to the home. aftershocks from tuesday's quake continue.the u-s geological survey is reporting the latest one happening early this morninn in central virginia.so far ... here have beee five ranging from 4 point 2 to as little as 2 point 2 in magnitude.officials says the aftershocks have been pretty low, but say it's likely there will be more forrdays .. if not weeks. 3 3 hurricane irene is headed for the united states.overnight... the storm battered the bahamas. and as melisa raney explains... people along the east coast are now preparing for the worst. 3 communities in the eye of any chances."we want folks ng there to take this storm seriously, and to get prepared.."there is likely to be some significant impacts from this storm in terms of rain and winds.""be comfortable on our coast but be watchful and be cautious." evacuations are already underway in parts of coastal north carolina. overnight hurricane rene brought heavy wind and rain to the bahamas. the weekend could mean trouble along the east coast. "the problem is going to be when it goes past north carolina and makes a run at the northeast. this could literally make a run into long island maybe even toward boston."many are holding out hope the storm doesn't end vacation plans early. "until it gets closer up the coast, i'm not so worried. when t gets closer... i'll start to worry at the end of the week."i'm melisa raney reporting. with irene hundreds of miles from north carolina... the national huuricane center warns that tropical storm and hurricane watches would likely be posted for coastal carolina early oday. peeple all along the east coast are preparing for the worst... as hurricane irene makes er approach. down in ocean city... people are wasting no time pulling their boats of the water.but with the rush of boaters acting fast... not everyone has that option.rich carney says he didn't get into the office in time to have his 74 foot boat hauled out. so... he's resigned to riding out the storm as best he can. "we'll make the best arrangements we can either get out on a bulkhead where they have more pilings to support the boat, tie it off with extra stoom lines and fenners fenderssome boaaers say they're waiting a bit longer before battening down the hatches. a mooher accused of throwing her seven month old child from a parking garage in california... is expected to appear in court today on murder charges. charges.authorities say 31- year old sonia hermosillo drove off from the hospital, but they caughttup with her boy died.hermosillo's husband says she suffered from postpartum depression.. .and urged women to get help. (translator) "understand the pain he's suffering. he just lost his child."(in spanish) (translator) "heedoesn't want to lose his wife now."(in spanish)(translator) "he has to keep going becauss of his other two children-- younger children."(in spanish) (translator) "juss the message to all the people who has depression, postpartum depression..."(in spanish) (translator) just seee care, p" please." prosecutors say hermosillo removed the helmet her son used for a meeical condition, before tossing him from the fourth floor on monday.no word on a motive . take a look at this...in florida... a man springs into woman shoplifting from a wal-mart. watch this surveillance video as the getaway car... the red mustang with the white top... pulls out of a parking space. the people stanning around it are store security and workers. around the corner comes a red minivan driven by ronald spence... spence says: "i saw her rapidly throwing stuff in her car nd trying to get out of there as quick as she could. i got in may van real fast and drove around over thhre. as she realized i was there in front of her she rammed me with the car and tried...tried to ram me a second time. i went ahead and pushed her on past the end of the row." row." he hell them there withhtheir car pinned against the store until police showed up.the two women were arrested. in their car, police found hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise including bedding and beauuy products. ronald spence was left with 25-hundred doolars worth of damage.and he says... he one bit. coming up on the early edition... they knew something big was going to hhppen... ábeforeá humans did. did.they have better sensory capabilitiessthan we do." do."find out how the animals at the national zoo in d-c... acted... right before the big eaat coast earthquake. earthquake. 3 ((break 1)) ((bump in)) ((bump in)) ((2-shot toss to weather)) 3 ((ad lib meteorologist)) 3 ((traffic reporter ad libs)) maps-fiber-liberty-back to maps please 3 3 3 3 still to come... still to come... still to come... hurricane irene is affecting the business on wall street. the affect she's having on several industries. industries."all of these behaviors were a-typical given the behaviors we observe in phese animals at this time of day every single day." day."but first... animals at the d-c zoo were acting out of character just before an earthquake rocked the east coast.the signs some animals gave... to alert zoo keepers... next. ((bump out)) ((break 2)) 3 3 the animals at the national zoo started acting very strangely tuesday... just before the big east coast many á humansá by surrrise... but as lisa fletcher explains... the animals knew what was coming... before we di. did. --reporter pkg-as follows -- thhse gorillas were among many animals at the national zoo to actually sense that something big was about to happen."i'm no longer surprised by animal abilities because i know they have better sensory capabilities thhn we do."dr. moore says as soon as the shaking stopped keepers from all over the zoo began reporting strangg animal behaviors that happened right before the quake.the great apes raced high into their lookouts, and moore says flamingos gathered into a big pink ball known as a defensive flock.natsperhaps most impressive, the lemurs, who called out and clamored a full 15 minutes prior to the quake. "all of these behaviors were a-typical givvn the behaviors we observe in these animals at this time of day every singll day."snakes that would normally be sleeping were writhing about their enclosures and oraagutans bellowed - surprising their keepers."we thought it was strange. we stopped what we were doing and watched her andd then we knew what was going on once we felt the shaking." elephants can hear ounds at lower frequencies than we can and pick uppvibrations through their sensitive foot pads. nearly every animal here - likely more attuned than we are to our surroundings. whether they're hero animals some other kind of hero animal that might be able to warn us of a heart attack or an earthquake or sommthing like that. they have extra-sensory abilities and it fascinates us." the zoo says it appears the giant pandas did not respond to the earthquake.officials say no animals, staff or visitors were hurt during the five-point-eight-magnitude quake. straight ahead... gold is nn longer a shining star.why it's losing it's luste. luster.and what's keeping potential homeowners away from buyinn those homes?find out what experts say... they're afraid of.. next. ((break 3)) 3 gold isn't shining too bright anymore.... and mortgage rates are nearing record lows...but as neil cavuto explains... ammricans still aren't takinn the bait. bait. irene alrrady changing the way before it even hits the u.s.as the hurricane is gaining steam... several major airlines are dropping fees to change flights.welcome news to travelers canceling trips in the storm's path.the financial storm not losing steam in washington...the congressional budget oofice saying the government is on track to rack up a one-point-three trillion dollar deficit ii 2011.that'll be the third straight year we top a trillion bucks.and starbucks c-e-o howard schultz telling me all the debt and the lack of dealing with it in dc... is creating uncertainty for job creators. a bad day... for gold.that's right. the precious metal plunging after posting five reccrds in the last six trading days...diving more than 104 bucks an ounce... it's biggest one-day drop since march 2008. and wwth mortgage rates near record lows....mericans still aren't taking the bait.home mortgage applications for purchases falling to a 15-year low last week. jitters over the economy keeping buyers on the sidelines.that's business. i'm neil cavuto. coming up... new details in the case of the missing maryland woman in pruba...what authorities are doing now... to get a break in the case. case.and he watches medical shows and... reads medical books..find out how all this knowledge helped this 12 year old in an emergency the parts of baltimore thaa will lose postal service because of the race.. on fox 45 news at 5:303 3 3