Storms running along 270 and south across the river to loudoun county. Another storm near woodstock. This stuff moves eastward. Its a fair amount of lightning and a smaller area. We track this eastward over the next hour or so. We will see it move through germantown, gaithersburg and rockville before 5 00. The southern end will probably stay along the Potomac River in loudoun county. Beyond that we will see ourselves with a chance of showers and storms longer. Again, the entire area in the day remains under the heat advisory for one more day. As the heat index values feel like 100 degrees or higher. Be back with the latest on the warnings and any additional ones in a few minutes. Alison okay, doug. Thank you very much. This was a big surprise around here today. Breaking news out of d. C. Where Longtime Police chief cathy lanier announced that she is finished at the end of the month. Michelle the next move for her, the National Football league. Jonathan thank you for staying with abc7 news on thi this story broke on twitter. The department was posting this announcement online. Michelle chief lanier has been with the department for 26 years, the past ten as chief. Alison we have Team Coverage beginning with stephen tschida. Stephen . Stephen the chief wrapped up the News Conference announcing her retirement 45 minutes ago. She will be going to the nfl in new york where she will be Vice President of Security Operations for the nfl. She talked about the importance of heifer new position. She was also reflective about her accomplishments here at the metropolitan police department. She also expressed her gratitude to the city and to the department for what she gained from her years here. Chief lanier when i started here in 1990. I had a ninth grade education and g. E. D. Over the past 26 years, i was able to work hard, get exams get promoted and i now have two masters degrees so i owe my life to the city, to the residents and the departments. Stephen more than a quarter drop in Violent Crime during her ten years at the helm. The mayor talked about what lanier accomplished and talked about her replacement. She will look for replacements in and out of the police department. Cathy laniers last say is september 17. Then she heads to new york. The quest for a new chief will commence. Reporting live, stephen tschida, abc7 news. Alison the chiefs Retirement Plan has come with mixed reaction today. A lot of people were surprised in chief. But it has been ten years. What is the sentiment today. You can rate what you think of her time leading the d. C. Police by heading to wjla. Com votenow. Right now our Horace Holmes continues our Team Coverage with reaction to the big news today. Horace . Horace we are in northeast washington and we have been all over the city since the news came out that cathy lanier is retiring and moving on. No one we talked to said the chief is a perfect chief but it clear by everything we heard she has gained the respect of the city. I mean i dont agree with everything she has done but i think she has done a good job. She has done a great job here. So all i can say is congratulations for her. I hope she does well. New job. She gets a pension and a new job. She gets two paychecks. The pension and the new job, i should do Something Like that. I was not aware that she was resigning. She did a lot for the city. And i mean i wish her the best. I wish her well. I dont know who the next person is going to be to fill her shoes. Horace that is the big question for the city. What is next as we turn the page on the cathy lanier era. Coming up at 5 00, we will let you go to other part of the city and let you hear from people on the reaction to the retirement of chief cathy lanier. Horace holmes, abc7 news. Jonathan thank you. Still ahead at abc7 news at 4 00 a look at some of the biggest cases during chief laniers tenure. If you want breaking news alerts like this one sent to your phone, log on to wjla. Com text. We have break news that is coming to us from lorton, virginia, where the fairfax fire are battling this fire. Its outdoors and its hot out there. This is Davis Industries on the 9900 block of richmond highway. Officials say the fire started in a large pile of metal. We are going to continue to follow the situation and well let you know what happens. Right now they are putting water to cool it down. It doesnt look like they will extinguish that if its at the bottom of the pile. Massive transformer fire has several buildings downtown without power. That means no air conditioning in the middle of the heatwave. 12,000 workers and a dozen Office Building and worker to retore the power. That goes on this afternoon. Q mccray is in northwest with the work going on. You know what . Its difficult for the folks in the buildings and difficult for the folks doing the work to try to restore power. Its difficult all the way around. Q its hot out here right now. Let me show the viewers a live look at the scene. Pepco is hard at work. They are working on the manhole right now. The big issue is down the way a little bit in front of the massive hole in the ground. That is where the explosion happened. We are finding out that the explosion didnt just affect people in the downtown d. C. Area. Its also affecting people all over the d. M. V. Thanks to our senior assignment editor jamie scott. He confirmed that this explosion here is actually affecting Sprint Wireless customers. A lot of them right now are dialing 911 and are getting busy signals. They are trying to rectify the problem right now. As for the scene, this is not getting any better. You just saw the footage of the smoke and the flames spewing in the air. This is happening at the intersection of 18th and l in northwest. Thousands of people are affect an they are dealing with it the best they can. We got in and manager said the building is unsafe to be in so we are not allowed to come in. Q well, again, here is a live look. We are at the intersection i wish i could show you all the apartments i mean the Office Buildings. Inside the windows. There are no people working in these buildings. There is no a. C. Or any power in a lot of the buildings. When i asked pepco when they hope to have the power restored for all the good people the answer they gave me is not minutes but more likely hours. Also trust me on this one. Stay away from the section. 18th and l. Its gridlock. We will be here as long as we need to be. Stay with us for updates. Im q mccray. Back to you in the studio. Jonathan thanks. Developing in fairfax a Deadly Police shooting on the Inova Fairfax hospital campus. This played out at a bus stop at the hospital. Police say the deputy assigned to the hospital opened fire when the man would not put down a street sign that had a very sharp end on it. Northern Virginia Bureau chief Jeff Goldberg has more on what who was killed. Jeff . Jeff a 29yearold hispanic male at the time this happened was suffering what they are calling a mental episode. He was carrying one of the sharp metal sign posts rather that could be found all over the campus at inova. We want to show you one. They say no smoking but the Security Guard drove up a couple minutes ago telling us he did not want us showing the bus stop. This is where it happened last night. According to police before 10 00 hospital Security Guards escorted the man to the bus stop after he was discharged from the hospital. For what we dont know. Shortly after subject security got a call saying the man was holding a message. Metal sign post in a shop end and a photo. Police say security tried to calm the man but he struck one of the Security Guards with object. Then is Fairfax County deputy protecting an inmate at the and responded to the bus stop. Police say the deputy tried calming down the man but say the man would not listen and kept coming at the deputy with that sharp sign post. At that moment the deputy fired multiple shots at the man and he was rushed in the hospital and later died. The sheriff was trying to retreat but unfortunately the adult male kept coming at him with a sign post ready to strike. Police say they have Surveillance Video of this incident but they are not making it public as its part of evidence in this case. They have also not released the name of a 29yearold man. Inova Fairfax Hospital will not tell us why he was being streeted at the hospital or why he was released or questions about the circumstances. As far as the deputy, he is an 18year veteran with the Sheriff Department in fairfa county. Now he is on administrative leave. In an hour we have reaction to the incident that took place last night. Until then, live in falls church, Jeff Goldberg, abc7 news. Michelle thank you. Tonight the city of fairfax will try to move on from the drug and the sex scandal involving the former mayor. Scott silverthorne resigned from office last week after being arrested in a methforsex bust. Tonight city council will meet to approve a date for a special election to fill the open position. That begins at 7 00 at city hall. We expect new information this week on what started the massive Apartment Fire in Silver Spring. Senator cardin and ike leggett is touring the site. Amy aubert is there. What came out of the meeting, amy . Amy you are right. The officials met with the residents of the Flower Branch apartments her at the shelter, a little before noon today. They told us one of the biggest concerns they heard is the need for permanent housing. County executive ike leggett calling the meeting spirited, open and transparent. We spoke to neighbors this morning who tell us they came to the shelter to seek help saying they are still having trouble sleeping at night. We are told Additional Information should be available in the next few days. Officials say they are hopeful the identification process will move forward in the next few days. I want to make sure people are comfortable to come forward and seek help. We know with the language used in this campaign there is a concern of the communities as to whether they can trust governmental services. I want them to know as the federal partners this is all about providing help amy officials hope to have a cause resolved and formalized by the end of next week. Washington gas completed the testing of the affected lines saying that tests confirmed the integrity of the Washington Gas infrastructure tested. Again, that was in a Statement Released today. Live in Silver Spring, amy aubert, abc7 news. Michelle amy, thank you. In the efforts to help the victim of the Flower Branch apartments Apartment Fire and explosion there will be a fundraiser held at the caba grill in Silver Spring at 6 00. This is the restaurant on fenton street. It runs from 6 00 until 10 00. Two restaurant employees are affected by the fire. Stay with abc7 news on air and online on updates on the Silver Spring explosion. We will have updates here throughout the evening and on the website wjla. Com. Jonathan coming up at 4 00, a new first for the zika virus. Michelle also, abc7 has more on the police chief cathy lanier. Next, a look at some of the highprofile cases her and the department have handled. Alison also next, a deadly storm leaves louisiana in shambles. The rising death toll and the tens of thousands evacuated. And the reason it might get worse before it gets better. My son has meningitis b. But how did we end up here . And that he was covered by the meningococcal meningitis vaccine he had received. Until 2014 there were no vaccines for meningitis b in the u. S. Now there are. While uncommon, meningitis b can lead to death within 24 hours. Trumenba is a vaccine for 10 through 25 year olds to help prevent group b meningococcal disease. Trumenba should not be given if you had a severe allergic reaction after a previous dose. Most common side effects were injectionsite pain, fatigue. Headache, muscle pain, and chills. Ask your doctor or pharmacist about all the risks and benefits of trumenba and tell them if youve received any other meningitis b vaccines. Meningitis b can be spread by typical sharing like. A drink. A spoon. A kiss. It all started here. It might have been prevented with trumenba. Ask your doctor or pharmacist about trumenba. Michelle an arrest has been made in a Massive Wildfire in california. The fire has forced several thousand people from their homes. The news of the arrest was greeted with a round of applause from the residents. Earlier today, california fire investigators with lake county sheriff detectives with the assistance of the Lake County Attorneys Office were able to arrest him on 17 counts of arson. [applause] michelle that was the enthusiastic applause there. The fire is only 5 contained. California governor jerry brown has declared a state of emergency for lake county. Alison a 7 on your side consumer alert now. As volkswagen prepares to dole out cash to customers in the emotion scandal there is word now of more criminal fines. That is despite settlements already. The wall street journal cites Justice DepartmentOfficials Saying there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing here. There could be significant fines coming down the line. Specific criminal charges have not been discussed yet. Federal prosecutors and volkswagen are working to reach a settlement before the end of the year. Jonathan how about this . Ford and a chinese Search Engine investing in a laser company. Going after it with so million total. They are funding a Company Making the laser sensors to guide selfdriving cars. That Company Wants to help bring down the cost of the sensors and it now has two big partners. This is just another sign in the race to bring a fully automated car to market. Time now, if we only we had automated cars on the market that could just move. Jamie sullivan has details. Its not moving too good today. Jamie no. In some areas we have traffic a lot slower. We are dealing with one issue all afternoon. That is the fire crews that are still on scene. L street is closed in the district between 18 and 19th street. A couple options as alternate. M street, k connecticut avenue. If you are heading out of the city on 295 well northbound is slowing. Kenilworth avenue. Same thing southbound just under 20 minutes to get from the 11th Street Bridge continuing closer to national harbor. Now we see, of course, northwest slowing but 66 is heavy as you head outbound. You get a good idea of how congested we are. A crash just past this point near nutley street. Never a good thing. Especially in the afternoon on 66 westbound. Look here, north to hagerstown. We see rain drops on the camera. Not causing major delays but we have volume closer to frederick. This is really cool. Our new graphic system puts that weather just underneath the cameras so you can see the roads are wet here. Of course with that coming through. That is the reason why. 270 is seeing it heavy right now through clarksburg. Back to you. Alison thank you. Look at this. This is wild out of colorado. This is what is called a fire whirl. Firefighter near the colorado border. It happens when the hot dry air down to the close to ground rises rapidly. And it forms that vortex. Isnt that incredible . Jonathan wow they say with big forest fires they generate and create their own weather pattern. It could be 70 degrees and a few miles down the road in a fire creates its own weather pattern. Michelle how often do you see Something Like that . Doug its kind of unusual. Its seen before but it depends on the type of fire and the season and the temperatures that go you higher. On a dry hot day like that, streaks rice up. Jonathan makes for a good picture. Doug absolutely last night the lightning show was unbelievable. And the thunder. Today we have a few storms out there. Nothing severe at the moment. Lets start with a time lapse. Show you what we have. This is from Cedar Grove Elementary School in georgetown. In the distance the blue sky. Clouds in the horizon. Over the past couple of hours the clouds appro the heaviest part of the storm passing east and northeast of germantown area. A new area of leesburg is an area were watching. Pink area, d. C. , to fairfax, to baltimore and pennsylvania, delaware, new jersey, that is the severe thunderstorm watch area until 11 00 tonight. We are on the southern edge of that. These are the showers and the storms that were severe. Moving to Carroll County and baltimore county. That will expire shortly. Nothing severe coming in from this area. Thunderstorm complex south of winchester not south of leesburg. We will monitor that as it crosses the Potomac River. It has been a hot day again. This is a closeup detail. If you are watching this farther north of the city. This is where most of the lightning and the thunder is closer to the metropolitan line. Closer to the pennsylvania line. This is section of howard county. Most of that should track west of the area. Heat advisory in 8 00 for most of the region. We get to the afternoon and the temperatures will settle dow