See that the traffic is finally flowing many hours after this accident happened. The southbound lanes just ago. The northbound lanes here on 275 near mile marker 57 remain closed though at this hour. We have some video of that nasty crash to show you right now. We are told by the florida Highway Patrol that it happened around 11 45 last night. A van was stalled in the center lane of southbound 275 with its lights off for some reason. Thats when a tractortrailer truck came barreling down the roadway and slammed into that van in the center lane. The tractortrailer truck ended up in the northbound lanes. The van caught fire in the southbound lanes and an fhp spokesman told us that the driver of the van was pronounced dead at the scene. Again, if we can come back live here. Another live look at 275 flowing freely at this point. We will keep you posted and let you know when the northbound lanes reopen. But im looking probably a mile this way. Back to you though for now. Thank you, ryan. Good information there. Again, southbound lanes have reopened. 275. Is if youre wondering where the mile marker is located, its actually just north of bearss avenue. So for those of you coming from pasco county, now you can head on to 275 southbound. However, if youre working in pasco and say you live here in tampa, then if youre traveling northbound, what happens is, you need to exit at bearss avenue and then hop on bruce b downs to get on 75 and go north. And we are see a little bit of a slow down here southbound on bruce b downs. Northbound not affected. It. And at least 25 minutes because go through, the va is not too far away. Northbound remains closed. Southbound is open. So we do have a little bit of better news for us. And i understand weve got some decent weather . Yeah, not bad. Were 20 degrees warmer than yesterday. We will take it. For sure. Lets look at the temperatures. 54 in tampa. 52 in plant city. 57 in st. Pete and bradenton. What a difference. I mean, its 14 degrees warmer in tampa than we were around 6 00 yesterday morning. A significant difference, today. Were 18 degrees warmer in brad don. Brandon. 73. Tonight, no cloud, 63. At 6 08, i go hourbyhour through today and talk about thank you. Thank you so much. Well police are investigating a crash on 66th street in largo. Two pedestrians were hit. At this time, theres no word the intersection is though back open right now. A fire sparks at an assisted living facility in tampa, forcing firefighters to evacuate the building. Crews arrived at the scene this morning to the estate at hyde park. Tampa police tell us a drier caught fire. Fortunately the facilitys patients got out safely. Happening today, it was the first criminal conviction of its kind. And now the cup who will lied about sinkhole issues will be sentenced. This afternoon, glenn and Kathryn Jason will face a judge. The spring hill couple was convicted of mortgage fraud after failing to disclose sinkhole problems when they sold their house. Not only did they know, they pocketed insurance claims for those sinkholes. An armed robber is on the run this morning and detectives think he could be connected to as many as six holdups. This is the crook in action on 46th avenue north in pinellas park. And you can see here with the hoodie over his head and ban dan la nia over his face, he and bandanna over his face, but hes trying to break into a coin game with a gun. He has hit the store three times as well as three other stores where a clerk gave him what he wanted. Florida state is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to the woman who claims she was raped by buc bucs quarterback jameis winston. She sued f by the bucs quarterback jameis winston. Fsu will give her 250,000. Her attorneys will receive 700,000. More than 3,000 of merchandise swiped from this whales. And this morning employees are on edge. These four women robbed the weekend. You can see them trying to young it will lingerie in the Surveillance Video trying to juggle the lingerie in the Surveillance Video. Customers are shocked. That can happen anywhere. For 30 seconds and someone can swipe something. All four women are charged with retail theft. A store employee told news channel 8 that mall security now has a stand right outside their store. Well today the democratic president ial candidates will continue to crisscross the state of iowa with the caucuses just one week away. The democratsic president ial candidates had a lot to say at a town hall monday night in des moines. The race in the state is at a dead heat between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Rodham clinton with Martin Omalley a distant third. Sanders touted his discretion with his vote no against the iraq war. We will be there to show you firsthand how the tight races are playing out in both the democratic and republican fields and explain what all this means for florida and the races moving forward. Ininvited to try out new voting equipment. The hillsborough supervisor of Elections Office is holding open houses to reveal the new equipment that will be used in the 2016 elections. It starts at 4 00 at the northwest Regional Office on gunn highway in tampa. And at the Hillsborough CountyElections Services center on falkenburg road. Its 6 07. The spotlight is on disney as the company deals with a new Class Action Lawsuit filed in federal court right here in tampa. Yeah, two former employees accuse disney of illegally hiring Foreign Workers to replace u. S. Employees. News channel 8s Lindsey Mastis joins us now for the morning alert. Reporter thats right. Good morning. This is the story getting a lot morning. Some people are even calling for boycotts of disney products. Disney along with two global sued. In the suit, two former it employees insist they were replacements and if they didnt, they would be denied bonuses and severance pay. More than 250 people got layed off but disney claims it hired more than 100 people back in other roles and the company insist it offered the two men suing different positions with similar pay. An attorney for the former employees is adamant that disney and the consulting firms illegally used visas to replace American Workers with cheaper foreign labor. We will follow the story and let you know what happens next. Gene thank you. You can follow the morning alerts each and every day on facebook and twitter. Just search the 8alert. And at 6 08, lets get a check on the weather with meteorologist leigh spann. Its a little cool but not the frosty day that we saw yesterday. Were much warmer. In fact, as we go hourbyhour through the day, temperatures warm up quickly. I mean were already at 62 degrees at 10 00 a. M. Thats above average. Clouds also thicken up throughout the day today and through the evening. 68 at 7 00 p. M. Like me, training for the gasparilla distance classic, go for a mild morning run because it will be warmer in the evening. The headlines, thats topping the headlines for today, how much warmer its going to be but really a heads up about tomorrow. An 80 chance of rain and strong storms that continues into thursday but for all you pirates out there getting ready for the parade on saturday, should be comfortable. And now a weather and traffic on the 8s update which i think a lot of people will be excited about. Yes. All lanes are back open on 275. Some great newses for you from news for you. And all lanes north of bearss have been closed until now. They are now back open. So theyve got the everything has been cleared from the roadway. And a live look here, this is 275 at 22nd south. Earlier i showed you construction that was out there. Looks like they have picked up the cones and they have left the scene and now over here, 275 at bearss, you can see cars going by in either direction. Everything is now back to normal there on the interstate. Thats a look at weather and traffic on the 8s. Back to gene and gayle. Thank you. And some more traffic news for you this morning. The Florida Department of transportation wants your input on the proposed widening of u. S. 41 in Hillsborough County. It will be held tonight at the gardenville recreation center. The improvements include widening u. S. 41 to a sixlane divided highway, a distance of approximately seven miles. Coming up, all the travel updates you need to know about after the big east coast storm. Yeah, find out how much snow one airport had to dig itself and as many train for the gasparilla distance classic, of smoke spilling out of the australia. Take a closer look. Officials say the fire started in the kitchen of a restaurant on the ground floor when cooking oil caught fire. Fire crews quickly put out the flames and no one was hurt. Boy the travel nightmare on the east coast is far from over. More than 1600 flights around the u. S. Were canceled. That doesnt count the additional backlog of departures and arrivals. Just to give you an idea of what airports were dealing with, Reagan National airport had enough snow to fill a football field. So these guys are pushing and hauling snow from sun up to sun down. At jfk in new york, Delta Airlines managers say its their biggest recovery effort since Hurricane Sandy in 2012 so dig out your patience. Airlines are reporting it will take days to coordinate getting people to their final destinations. On a beach in the netherlands. Experts believe they were looking for food but became disoriented. Crews are now racing against the tides to remove the dead whale from the beach. And look at this, a bus plows right through a shop in i seriously hurt. Take a look at the damage. Police say four people were on the bus at the time whit crashed through the shop. The shop. Two passengers were also hurt. The two workers inside survived. 8 on your side as you get ready for the gasparilla distance classic. For those planning to run, youre most likely going to be dealing with some sore muscles. Not a pro like you, right . Oh, yeah, i never get those. Its common but did you know you can improve your running much like a golf swing to prevent injury and soreness. Josh benson discovered a Bay Area Program that holds the key reporter are your legs sore from running . Would you believe you could be doing it all wrong . One of the number one factors in causing an injury in running is running with wrong form. Reporter maybe you think youre a decent runner, the truth is, few of us have great injuryfree form. You doing all right . Oh, yeah. Okay. Definitely out of shape though. Reporter think about it, running is not taught. Humans run to escape threats. So the doctor created ideal run, a Simple Program that uses science and video to show you whats wrong with your gait. 15 seconds of video, a few squats and step downs and he says he can transform your form into injuryfree strides in no time. Hop up. Footground angle. Degrees. Oh, boy. Run, my strides are too long and my right foot sticks out like a duck. I have a lot to work on. But he says you will notice major improvements. We are getting people closer to an efficient Human Movement in this pattern we call running. Reporter and that will have you jumping for joy. Nothing wrong with hobbling to the finish line with your duck foot, josh. The Doctors Office is in clearwater but he says anyone can have their running style reviewed. All you need is to capture about 15 seconds of video and up load that to his website. I need to do that because im doing something wrong. Today the crew will break through tampas defenses and storm into city hall and demand the mayor surrender the city. Gasparilla has been putting on the parade of pirates since 1904 and this year they are largest and perhaps most complex floats. Its going to have water that comes over the teeth and recycles back into the water falls in the interior chamber and it will be blue water. And then in addition to that, weve got induction fans that will blow smoke out into the crowd. The mayor will meet with the captain at noon today to negotiate a peaceful surrender. We hope you have your pirate costume picked out because gasparilla season is upon us. The adult parade kicks off in a few days. Grab your eye patch and sit on the couch. News channel 8 will carry the parade live. Its a great tradition that we love to bring you every year. And we will stream it live on wfla. Com. So no excuses. You can even watch if youre working. And our web team has been compiling everything you will want to know as the pirates invade tampa. Look for our special gasparilla section on wfla. Com. Beautiful day. We just have to get over a small patch, right, leigh . Right, im expecting fantastic pirate weather on saturday. Its between now and then when things are more questionable. This morning you will already notice a big change, 10 to 20 degrees warmer. 67 at noon. 73 at 3 00 p. M. Notice how the clouds increase along with the temperatures. In zephyrhills, 48. So yeah, a little cooler, but 57 sarasota. With wins from the southeast, its going to push the with winds from the southeast, it will push the clouds in today. Things change drastically 24 hours from now. This is about 6 30 tomorrow morning pockets of rain ahead of the slowmoving front. You could see off and on with the possibility of even seeing some stronger storms and this continues into thursday before the front finally clears out. And its going to be great parade weather for gasparilla on saturday. Leslee has great news for us on the traffic on the 8s. So nice when you have good news with weather and traffic too. My good news, all of the lane, if you didnt hear from the last report, they have been reopened on 275. We had an earlier fatal crash in which all the lanes were blocked both directions on the interstate here but they are now reopened. Heres a look at 275 at 22nd south in pinellas. And heres 275 at bearss where it was closed. Lets go ahead and look at polk county. If you live in lakeland and work in tampa, things look gooding for on i4 between each entrance of the polk parkway, 11 minutes. And plant city ask down to ybor city, things still look good. The 8s. Back to gene and gayle. Just ahead, a house fire in california forced eight people out of their home. What firefighters did to rescue the rest of the family and where those family members were found. Its a new line of hotels with millennials in mind. Hotels. It looks for public spaces to work and socialize and technology. In fact, they have a social media board in the lobby so you can have an interactive experience with other guests. 0 to 100 a night, they hope to compete in the Midscale Hotel category. Stop what youre doing and check this out. Some lucky pups in california are alive after being rescued from a fire. The firefighters rescued three dogs and a basket of puppies the fire started in the garage and forced eight people out of puppies again. One person did suffer smoke be okay. Scared. Without a doubt. Weather and traffic on the 8s is three minutes away. And new in the next half hour, what the bay area needs. What we could be expecting test runs on that new speed ferry. And police have ordered residents out of their apartment homes. Okay, its 6 28. Sends the kids to the bus stop this morning, not that cold, maybe a light jacket around 95 degrees. But this afternoon, 73. Send them out to play and enjoy not going to play tomorrow with an 80 chance of showers and thunderstorms, still 50 thursday. And how about traffic on the 8s . Well, we are looking good in and out of pasco county. This is great news. We had a really bad accident out here that was tying up a horrible crash on i275 this morning. A fiery crash involving a van and a tractortrailer leaving one person dead. Our ryan hughs is on the scene and we will have a live update in a few minutes. Good morning to you and welcome to news channel 8 today. Im gene ramirez. And im gayle guyardo. First, our other stop stories this morning. Police are investigating an accident on 66th street in largo. Two pedestrians were hit. At this hour, theres no word on their condition. Two former disney world employees are suing the company. The two say they were among 250 tech workers illegally layed off and later replaced with cheaper immigrant workers. Disney is calling the lawsuit an unsustainable legal theory and a misrepresentation of the facts. This morning residents in the northeast are still digging out of this weekends blizzard. Federal offices in washington, d. C. Will remain closed today. Students in washington, d. C. , baltimore and philadelphia are getting a second snow day. The deadly storm left more than 2 feet of snow in the area. Its 6 31. Lets get a check on the weather with meteorologist leigh spann. Not too bad today. It really wont be too bad. Yes, a little cool but not the frosty start to the day that we had yesterday. 52 in clearwater. Plant city, 52. Cooler in inverness at 46. Bradenton, 58. Look what a difference, anywhere from eight to 23 just 24 hours ago. So a huge difference there. And in fact, even this afternoon, we will be warmer than yesterday at 73. The clouds will be increasing. In fact, theres already a thin layer of clouds right now and should make for a beautiful sunrise but its ahead of this storm system. So coming up in weather and traffic on the 8s at 6 38, ill let you know how much rainfall we could see and its a lot. We have an update from the roadways this morning that people are happy about. Yes, things are looking better. Especially traveling in and out of pasco county, folks. Both directions back open here. We had an earlier fatal crash that had lanes tied up for quite some time. And right now, both directions are back open at 275 just north of bearss avenue. And ryan hughs is live on the scene and hes going to give us an update on what is going on. How does it look now, ryan . Reporter leslee, good morning to you once again. It reopened both lanes northbound and southbound within the last half hour after the really bad wreck from late last night. We have video to show you. According to fhp, it happened around 11 45 last night. A Passenger Van was stalled for some reason in the center lane of southbound i275 with its lights off. Thats when a tractortrailer truck came barreling down the southbound lanes and slammed into the van. The van burst into flames and were told by an fhp spokesman that the driver of the van was pronounced dead at the send. The collision caused the big rig to come into the northbound lane where is it came to rest. S