Firefighters flocked to the Tanger Outlets in Westbrook on Thursday after extreme cold caused a pipe to burst at the Marquee Cinemas there, soaking the carpet.

Emergency responders said a nearby heater had not been turned on.

"It’s about an inch and a half pipe that runs throughout the building for the sprinkler system, and an elbow itself had actually frozen and split in two pieces. We had 150 PSI water shooting out of the pipe," said Westbrook Fire Chief Mike Jenkins. "The carpet is a little bit wet but other than that that’s about the only damage inside the theater."

To prevent plumbing problems in extreme cold, experts recommend taking the following steps:

• Let cold water drip from a faucet served by an exposed pipe
• Open up doors, especially bathroom and kitchen cabinets
• And last, watch the temperature of your home

“People tend to lower their temperature at night and the temperature should not be lowered. You should really raise your temperature. Spend the extra dollars at night during these frigid, cold nights especially when it’s high wind. You will save money in the long end rather than having the repairs,” said Julianne Godwin, owner of plumbing company R.E. Godwin & Sons.

The fire department also responds to fires caused by people improperly thawing out their pipes. It's best to call a professional if you suspect a problem.

A resident made it out of a burning home in Meriden on Friday night, but a pet cat did not, according to the fire department.

Firefighters said they were called to the house at 292 North Wall Street around 9 p.m.

The extent of the damage is unclear. No people were hurt.

Check back for updates.

The former Stamford teacher accused of having a months-long sexual relationship with one of her students is facing new charges after allegedly threatening another teen.

Police said Danielle Watkins, 32, confronted the teen on Friday while he was waiting for an order at a local coffee shop.

According to police, Watkins had given him marijuana while he was in her English class at Stamford High School. She was also involved in a nine-month sexual relationship with another one of her students.

"[You and your friend] have taken everything from my: my family, my kids, my job," Watkins allegedly told the teen, according to the victim's attorney. "I will not rest until you are both dead."

The teen, who was afraid for his safety after Watkins approached him Friday, told his mother what had happened and the two went straight to the police department, authorities said.

Surveillance video recorded at the coffee shop corroborated the teen's account, according to police.

Attorney Devin Janosov said Watkins also blocked her caller ID and called the other student to make a similar threat, which "scared the hell out of him."

Watkins was re-arrested at her home in Norwalk and charged with second-degree threatening and violation of the conditions of her release. Bond was set at $25,000.

She previously pleaded guilty to felony charges of second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor as part of a plea deal.

Watkins was placed on administrative when the allegations surfaced. Her name has since been removed from the school website.

Two school administrators were charged with failing to report the student-teacher relationship and were granted accelerated rehabilitation.

As the first of the twin towers fell, NYPD officer Ada Resnick was enveloped in the massive cloud of debris that shrouded Lower Manhattan, the suffocating mix searing her eyes and lungs.

She thought she might die but emerged alive and spent a long day guiding survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks toward safety.

“I think we left for a couple of hours to just take a break and then pretty much for the next eight weeks or so we were working 12-hour days,” she said.

Thirteen years later, like many of the rescue and recovery workers who searched for bodies and cleared debris, she has lingering medical problems. She developed asthma and gastro-esophageal reflux disease, which is mild compared to the illnesses others have gotten, she said. But she is still worried about the future.

More than 2,300 New York City firefighters and other rescue workers have been diagnosed with cancers linked to the attacks and thousands have respiratory disease, diabetes, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments, according to the World Trade Center Health Program.

Now researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital are investigating two other possible killers-in-waiting: heart and kidney disease.

Resnick, who lives in Manhattan, is taking part in the two-year study, which began enrolling participants last month and for which the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has received $1.1 million from the World Trade Center Health Program.

Doctors know that air pollution increases the risk of heart attacks, and those who rushed to the World Trade Center were caught in a toxic mix of jet fuel, asbestos, silica, cement dust, glass fibers and heavy metals. They already have higher rates of lung disease and gastrointestinal problems.

“Those people on 9/11 who were really in the cloud and who had high exposure for months afterward basically got this huge dose of air pollution at once,” said the study’s director, Dr. Mary Ann McLaughlin.

A preliminary study shows that those most exposed have higher levels of a protein in their urine, a condition called microalbuminuria that has been linked to a risk of heart disease, McLaughlin said.

“If you have that signal of leaking protein into the urine, then it can lead to really significant kidney disease,” she said. “No one so far has had the money to be able to really look at kidney disease even though I’m getting emails all the time now from people who have been diagnosed with bad kidney disease after 9/11 and the question is, ’Is this a link or is it just random?’”

McLaughlin just completed testing a group of mostly first responders, a relatively homogeneous group who are exposed to similar risks and have similar lifestyles. Five hundred and fifty of them are being asked to participate in the study so the researchers can look for the protein in their urine, assess their kidneys’ function and search for heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium, exposure to which can lead to kidney disease, she said.

Dr. Michael Crane, medical director of the World Trade Center Health Program at the Clinical Center of Excellence at Mount Sinai, noted one difficulty facing researchers: heart and kidney disease are illnesses that become more typical among older people.

“So it’s a hard thing to pull all those strings out and untangle them and trace them back to World Trade (Center),” he said.

New York City's Health Department says that symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder appear to be the most common health effect of Sept. 11. Survivors exposed to World Trade Center-related dust are more likely to develop lung problems and gastroesophaegeal reflux symptoms and those had multiple injuries and PTSD had a threefold higher risk of heart disease.

Three early cancer studies suggests that long-term monitoring of cancer occurrence is needed, according to the health department.

Resnick, 50, retired from the NYPD in 2006 and now works as an officer manager. On the day of the attack and immediately afterward, she did not fear for her health, but thought only about the job she had to do, she said. She wore a painter’s mask for a few hours, and remembers colleagues wondering what was in the air they were breathing, but she was mostly concerned about her eyes. She had had laser eye surgery two weeks earlier and was using eye drops.

She and her husband, who was also a police officer, worry that one or the other of them will get seriously ill, but the risks aside, she would do it all over again, she said.

“I feel like I should have done more,” she said.

The 19-year-old owner of a popular music venue in Danbury, along with several entertainment companies, is facing federal charges after federal prosecutors say he defrauded more than 15 investors out of nearly $500,000 as part of a Ponzi scheme.

Ian Bick, 19, was arrested Friday morning and charged with 15 counts of fraud, money laundering and false statement, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Bick owns and manages a number of entertainment venues and companies, including Tuxedo Junction on Ives Street in Danbury, This is Where It's At Entertainment, Planet Youth Entertainment, W&B Wholesale and W&B Investments.

Federal prosecutors said Bick used those companies to defraud friends, family members, former classmates, acquaintances and their parents, who signed "loan agreements" and "music venture participation agreements" after Bick promised high returns over a short period of time.

According to the U.S. attorney's office, Bick told investors he would use their money to buy electronics and resell them for a profit, as well as to organize concerts in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

"Bick falsely represented that he had made significant profits organizing and promoting concerts in the past," officials with the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement Friday.

Federal prosecutors said Bick never actually invested that money and instead used it to book hotels and buy jet skis.

The Danbury News-Times reports that Bick has run into trouble with the law before.

According to the News-Times, Bick was charged with the illegal sale of alcohol in October after permitting underage drinking and serving alcohol without a liquor license.

He has also refused to comply with city regulations and has "butted heads" with town zoning officials, the News-Times reports.

Bick faces 11 counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering and one count of making false statements to federal law enforcement.

He could face a sentence of up to 255 years in prison if convicted on all counts, according to the U.S. attorney's office..

A young woman from Enfield who lost her fiance to a deadly house fire last month is facing a new struggle as she grapples with the premature birth of the couple’s baby girl.

Hollie Ories was born early Wednesday morning through an emergency Caesarean section. Hollie, who weighs a mere 1 pound, 13 ounces, is what doctors are calling “micro-premature.”

The baby wasn’t due until March but Willis’ cousin, Lisa Stone, said doctors had no choice but to deliver early due to Willis’ health problems, which were exacerbated by the trauma she has endured while coping with the death of her fiance, Josh Johnson.

“She was rushed by ambulance to the hospital where they had to do an emergency C-section. Not only due to Krissy’s health condition but due to the stress she's been through,” Stone said.

Willis got to touch her daughter for the first time Thursday night.

“It was a very special moment to bring her down and see how little and how itty bitty she really is,” Stone said. “And to see Krissy, and to see the baby move, she was like, ‘Mom, you're here.’”

Amazingly, Hollie is breathing on her own.

“It’s a true miracle,” Stone said. “There's no other way to explain it but a gift from god. I truly believe that this is God and his work, and that he is trying to help that family, bring them closer.”

Stone said Willis needs support now more than ever.

“The community has been very gracious in their donation of items, but right now what Krissy really needs in financial help. And right now I’m just asking the community to make a donation, if that’s what they wish to do,” she explained.

The family created a GoFundMe page to raise money for Willis and Hollie.

“That’s the only link to the love of her life that she lost tragically, so we're trying the best we can to support her in any way we can,” said Amy Stone, another of Willis’ cousins.

Lisa Stone said she has faith because Hollie seems to have inherited her father’s fighting spirit.

“Josh is going live through that baby. She looks just like him,” she said.

Route 177 in Plainville is closed due to a fallen telephone pole.

Utility crews are on scene repairing the damage.

The road is closed between Route 372 and Camp Street.

Officials said to expect delays in that area until noon.

A male driver was killed in a crash on Route 66 in Portland early Saturday morning.

A Mazda headed eastbound collided head-on with a Chevrolet Tahoe traveling in the other direction on a narrow stretch of road that winds through a large rock embankment known as the "Ledges," police said. The crash was reported at about 2:07 a.m.

One of the drivers was pronounced dead on scene.

Police aren't releasing the name of the person killed until the family is notified.

The road was closed for two miles between Portland and East Hampton as police investigated and has since reopened.

First responders said Life Star was called and canceled.

A Portland police accident reconstruction team is investigating the fatal crash and the department said further information isn't available at this time.

About a year and a half ago, a driver died in a crash in the same area.

A Hartford school will remain closed after air quality testing detected levels of harmful chemicals in the air over winter break. Concerned parents met with school and district leaders Saturday to find out what happens next.

School officials made the decision to close J.C. Clark Jr. Elementary School as they search for the source of contamination after discovering traces of the chemical PCB in the school after the installation of a new sprinkler.

"I freaked out for my kids health and my daughter actually had a physical yesterday and I told them to test her for it," parent Gloribee Gonzalez said. "If it comes back positive I'll have to bring back the other two. They say it wasn't a big concern, but it was a big concern to me because I didn't know what PBC was."

PCBs are chemical compounds thought to be linked to a higher cancer risk. Recent air quality tests conducted after the sprinkler was installed revealed higher levels of PCBs in the air than are recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency, Hartford Superintendent Beth Sharvino Narvaez said.

At the meeting, she addressed plans for continuing classes in other buildings as school officials work to resolve the issue. She said that school officials decided it would be "too disruptive" to have the investigation into the source of the chemical issue going on while students were in class.

"When you find PCBs above the recommended level, you need to limit the exposure," she said at the meeting.

Students in pre-kindergarten through third grade will temporarily take classes at the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC) Museum Academy in Bloomfield and students in fourth to eighth grade will relocate to the Journalism and Media Academy Magnet School in Hartford for the time being. Two ABA classrooms will move to the Simpson Waverly School for now.

Buses will run as they usually do to take students to the temporary locations.

It's still unclear when the school will reopen and how long it will take officials to find the source of the PCBs.

A food pantry in Andover is getting a grant from Walmart to fund renovations.

The Andover Food Pantry is one of 75 food pantries nationwide to win a $20,000 grant in Walmart's Food Pantry Holiday Makeover campaign.

The grant will fund renovations and new equipment like "refrigerators, ovens, stoves, storage units, and even refrigerated trucks to help them better serve families in need," according to a press release from Walmart. The winners were determined by votes from the public.

“We are so thankful for everyone who voted and for the communities that came together to support their local hunger relief agencies,” Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation and senior vice president of Walmart Sustainability, said in a statement Dec. 15. “Today, the dedicated food pantry staff and volunteers who work so hard to fight hunger can start making plans for the purchase of new equipment and renovations. We hope that these grants will help make the holidays a little brighter not just for the food pantry staff and volunteers, but also, most importantly, for the families served by these organizations.”

Walmart is awarding about $1.5 million in grants to food pantries nationwide through the campaign.

The grandmother of a murdered infant found dead in a dumpster begged for witnesses to come forward at a vigil held at the family home in Long Beach, California, Friday.

Pastors and community leaders also turned out for the event held to remember Eliza de la Cruz, who was abducted Saturday from the house on West 51st Street by a man who shot and wounded her parents and uncle. Her body was found in a San Diego dumpster last Sunday.

Clutching an information flyer and flanked by friends at the crime scene vigil, Eliza’s grandmother, Lupe Lechuga, went door-to-door to appeal for information. 

"You don't have to give your name, just come forward," Lechuga said.

LaWanda Hawkins, of vigil organizers Justice for Murdered Children, also turned up and demanded people put any fears aside and speak up.

"Snitches get stitches? We're not having that. We’re saying, hey, this crosses every line. This was a 3-week-old baby,” Hawkins said.

Further support was lended by Pastor Claude Powe, who hoped people would put themselves imn the victims’ shoes.

"Neighbors? It could have been your child! But for the grace of God, there go us. Amen," Pastor Powe said.

Residents were clearly moved at the well-attended event.

"It's a three week old baby! And it's like really really sad about that," Lupe Torres of Long Beach said

And fellow local Miguel Reynos said he wanted to do whatever he could to help.

"(I'm) coming here to show support to the family. May God have her soul," Reynos said.

Long Beach Police Department Cmdr. Don Wood was hoping the appeal will help bring new information to light.

"They're cooperative. But unfortunate at this time, we don't have any information that's going to lead us to the person or person's responsible," Cmdr. Wood said.

One person was hospitalized after a shooting in Hamden early Saturday morning.

The person shot was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The shooting happened on Dixwell Avenue near Morse Street.

No arrests have been made at this time.

Hamden police are investigating the shooting.

Two children and three adults, including a pregnant woman, died in a crash in Queen Anne's County, Maryland, Saturday morning, Maryland State Police confirmed.

A family of five from Greenbush, Virginia, was traveling westbound on Route 50 in a 2006 Suzuki Forenza when a tractor-trailer heading south on Route 213 struck the passenger side about 1:15 a.m. The tractor-trailer apparently rolled over the car.

Sisters Zarissa and Regina Ayres, Regina's boyfriend Travis Stratton, their 2-month-old son Jonathan, and Regina's 7-year-old daughter Jordan were on a trip to Baltimore to visit family, police said.

Regina Ayres, 24; Stratton, 25; and the two children were pronounced dead at the scene. Zerissa Ayres, 30, was taken to a hospital where she and her unborn child were pronounced dead.

The driver of the tractor-trailer, 28-year-old Yvenet Mayette, was believed to be headed home to Wilmington, Delaware, after picking up 44,000 pounds of polyfiber in Charlotte, North Carolina, Friday afternoon. He was flown to University of Maryland Shock Trauma, where he is being treated.

The cause of the crash is under investigation, but alcohol does not appear to be a factor. It's unclear which vehicle had a green light.

Route 50 reopened about 9:30 a.m.

Rope Ferry Road (Route 156) was closed in Waterford for most of Saturday after a drunken driver crashed and snapped a utility pole, police said.

Police arrested the driver after he ran from crash site, police said.

The pole sustained heavy damage in the crash and police closed the road between Gardiner's Wood and Spithead roads.

The road reopened around 6 p.m., police said.

Police charged the driver with driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. The name of the driver hasn't been released at this time.

A Groton police K-9 unit also responded and assisted Waterford police in the investigation.

More than 200 people fanned out over a 10-block area around Grand Central Terminal on Saturday to look for a 16-year-old Westchester, New York, girl who hasn't been heard from since she left home more than a week ago wearing only pajamas.

The teenager, Ji Woo "Christine" Kang, was last seen by her family at her home in Greenburgh at about 8 p.m. on Friday Jan. 2, when she left the home after an argument with her family, according to police.

The search was the biggest coordinated effort since Kang left her Robin Hill Road home.

She was last seen in surveillance video getting off a train from Scarsdale at Grand Central.

Aubrey Graf, a member of Edgemont Cares, an arm of the Edgemont Community Council, organized the search, which brought together people from the central Westchester County community and beyond.

"The response has been overwhelming," she said.

Scout troops, sports teams and teachers from Edgemont High School, where Christine is a junior, were among those handing out fliers.

Reade Seiff, 16, donated money he earned from a business he runs to pay for 3,000 fliers. He and his sister, Sydney, helped hand them out.

"I feel so bad for her parents," he said. "She's out there somewhere with no coat, no phone, no money."

Kang is described as being 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighing about 120 pounds. She has brown eyes and brown hair and was last seen wearing a green flannel shirt, pajama pants and UGG boots. The school said she wasn’t wearing a jacket.

Anyone with information about Kang’s whereabouts is asked to call the Greenburgh Police Department at 914-682-5300.

As the first of the twin towers fell, NYPD officer Ada Resnick was enveloped in the massive cloud of debris that shrouded Lower Manhattan, the suffocating mix searing her eyes and lungs.

She thought she might die but emerged alive and spent a long day guiding survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks toward safety.

“I think we left for a couple of hours to just take a break and then pretty much for the next eight weeks or so we were working 12-hour days,” she said.

Thirteen years later, like many of the rescue and recovery workers who searched for bodies and cleared debris, she has lingering medical problems. She developed asthma and gastro-esophageal reflux disease, which is mild compared to the illnesses others have gotten, she said. But she is still worried about the future.

More than 2,300 New York City firefighters and other rescue workers have been diagnosed with cancers linked to the attacks and thousands have respiratory disease, diabetes, post-traumatic stress disorder and other ailments, according to the World Trade Center Health Program.

Now researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital are investigating two other possible killers-in-waiting: heart and kidney disease.

Resnick, who lives in Manhattan, is taking part in the two-year study, which began enrolling participants last month and for which the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has received $1.1 million from the World Trade Center Health Program.

Doctors know that air pollution increases the risk of heart attacks, and those who rushed to the World Trade Center were caught in a toxic mix of jet fuel, asbestos, silica, cement dust, glass fibers and heavy metals. They already have higher rates of lung disease and gastrointestinal problems.

“Those people on 9/11 who were really in the cloud and who had high exposure for months afterward basically got this huge dose of air pollution at once,” said the study’s director, Dr. Mary Ann McLaughlin.

A preliminary study shows that those most exposed have higher levels of a protein in their urine, a condition called microalbuminuria that has been linked to a risk of heart disease, McLaughlin said.

“If you have that signal of leaking protein into the urine, then it can lead to really significant kidney disease,” she said. “No one so far has had the money to be able to really look at kidney disease even though I’m getting emails all the time now from people who have been diagnosed with bad kidney disease after 9/11 and the question is, ’Is this a link or is it just random?’”

McLaughlin just completed testing a group of mostly first responders, a relatively homogeneous group who are exposed to similar risks and have similar lifestyles. Five hundred and fifty of them are being asked to participate in the study so the researchers can look for the protein in their urine, assess their kidneys’ function and search for heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium, exposure to which can lead to kidney disease, she said.

Dr. Michael Crane, medical director of the World Trade Center Health Program at the Clinical Center of Excellence at Mount Sinai, noted one difficulty facing researchers: heart and kidney disease are illnesses that become more typical among older people.

“So it’s a hard thing to pull all those strings out and untangle them and trace them back to World Trade (Center),” he said.

New York City's Health Department says that symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder appear to be the most common health effect of Sept. 11. Survivors exposed to World Trade Center-related dust are more likely to develop lung problems and gastroesophaegeal reflux symptoms and those had multiple injuries and PTSD had a threefold higher risk of heart disease.

Three early cancer studies suggests that long-term monitoring of cancer occurrence is needed, according to the health department.

Resnick, 50, retired from the NYPD in 2006 and now works as an officer manager. On the day of the attack and immediately afterward, she did not fear for her health, but thought only about the job she had to do, she said. She wore a painter’s mask for a few hours, and remembers colleagues wondering what was in the air they were breathing, but she was mostly concerned about her eyes. She had had laser eye surgery two weeks earlier and was using eye drops.

She and her husband, who was also a police officer, worry that one or the other of them will get seriously ill, but the risks aside, she would do it all over again, she said.

“I feel like I should have done more,” she said.

Three police cruisers collided with a vehicle involved in a chase that resulted in an arrest early Saturday morning.

Two Windsor police cruisers and one from Windsor Locks chased a suspect from Windsor into Suffield and crashed into the individual's car on South Street (Route 75). The crash happened just after 3 a.m.

The driver of the fleeing car has been arrested. Police have not released the name on the person arrested or the charges.

No further details have been released at this time and more information will be provided when it becomes available.

Police are offering a reward for information that leads to the arrest of two suspects in an armed bank robbery in Windsor Saturday morning.

Windsor police responded to a 911 call reporting a robbery at First Niagara bank at 2133 Poquonock Ave. at about 9:18 a.m.

Two people brandishing handguns demanded money at gunpoint from bank employees and fled the scene in a get-away car with an unknown amount of cash. They had peeked in a window in the back of the bank to scope it out before going in, police said.

No one was injured.

Windsor and state police searched for the suspects but were unable to find them.

Police released surveillance photos of the suspects. They described the first suspect as slim, about 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds and said he was wearing a dark leather jacket, black jeans and grey hooded sweatshirt. The second suspect was about 6 feet tall with a medium build and likely weighs about 160 to 180 pounds, police said. He was wearing a dark, hooded sweatshirt and light pants. Both men had handguns and wore black masks, police said.

The car they fled in was likely a small gray or bronze Mercedes sedan with tinted windows, according to police.  

Windsor police inspected footprints in the snow in that area. 

Police are calling the robbers "amateurs," not "professionals," and said that they remain at large.

No arrests have been made at this time.

Windsor detectives are investigating the robbery and ask anyone with information on the robbery or the suspects in the surveillance photos to call Windsor police at 860-688-5273, extension 521.

Three people are displaced after a truck fire spread to a house in Glastonbury on Saturday.

The fire started in a truck parked in a garage and appeared to be under control before flames ripped through the adjoining house, according to Glastonbury firefighters. Responding firemen noticed the truck on fire when they arrived.

The fire seemingly swallowed about 80 percent of the home, leaving the house a total loss.

No one was injured, fire officials said.

It's unclear whether the residents were home at the time of the fire or how the truck caught fire

More information will be provided when it becomes available.

Human rights activists protesting "torture policies" squeezed through the front gate of former Vice President Dick Cheney’s McLean, Virginia, home and demonstrated on his front porch Saturday.

Fairfax County Police arrived soon after and called the protesters back to the street, police spokesman Roger Henriquez said, Reuters reported.

The protest was organized to mark the 14th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay prison, which still holds 127 detainees, Reuters reported.

In front of Cheney’s gate the activists from the anti-war group CODEPINK and Witness Against Torture put a man in a Cheney mask behind fake prison bars and dressed him in a black-and-white striped jumpsuit.

The group carried signs that read “Torturer lives here” and chanted “Arrest Dick Cheney,” “Stop torture now” and “Close Guantanamo Bay.”

Police arrested two protesters, including the man in the Cheney mask and prison costume. CODEPINK identified them as Tighe Barry, 57, and Eve Tetaz, 83. The group said they were unfairly singled out for arrest, according to Reuters.

Officers then asked the group to leave the street because they were blocking traffic.

The crowd dispersed and then gathered at Langley Fork Park. Wearing black hoods and orange jumpsuits, they marched to the front gate of the CIA carrying various signs, including ones that read “Shut Down Guantanamo,” Stop Drone Bombings in Pakistan” and “Is this who we are?” They again called for the Guantanamo Bay prison to be closed and an end of “torture policies.”

Earlier, the group made its first stop at CIA Director John Brennan’s house in northern Virginia.