A fire at a Worcester, Massachusetts, apartment left 13 people spending the Thanksgiving holiday at a hotel, but it could have been much worse if it wasn’t for a group of high schoolers on their way home.

Four junior ROTC members were driving from their high school when they saw smoke at a Hamilton Street apartment building.

The humble high schoolers credit their training with what they did next.

"We're in the ROTC program, and the values that we are taught, that they instill into us, we use those to act upon situations like this," Raesean Goodney said.

The group ran into the burning apartment building, going door to door to save the people inside.

"When we looked back, no one was out ... I didn't see no people, or nothing," Abderrahman Sebbai said. "It was just like, we need to go, like we have to go in there fast."

"I started kicking down the second door, and when I finally kicked it down, the resident finally came to the door and then I led him downstairs," Jordan Parker said.

Flames were focused to the back of the third floor, where, one room away, a woman was asleep with her three children.

"When she woke up, cause we were like shaking the bed, we were yelling at them to get up, get up, get up. She woke up and she was like really confused, she was shocked, she didn't know what was going on," Goodney said.

The group of friends says they called 911 when they first saw the flames. The fire department was there minutes later, but by that time, everyone was already outside.

All 13 people who live there, including the mother of three, made it out alive.

Emanuela Abbascia met with NBC10 Boston in a hotel conference room because she can't go back home with her three sons.

"Losing everything you've worked for has been heartbreaking," she said. "My son's room, I worked so hard to pay for this."

Everything is gone, but Abbascia says she has gained hope with neighbors and strangers donating all they can.

"Instead of being sad and making, you know rolling in pity, in the video you'll see that I kept on saying, 'God I still thank you' cause it could have ended up differently," she said.

Abbascia and her sons are moving out of the hotel on Monday as they start their search for a new home.

An Inglewood neighborhood was evacuated overnight after what appeared to be a bomb was found under a parked car near a school.

A bomb squad safely detonated the device at about 4:30 a.m. Monday in the 700 block of West Beach Avenue near Highland Elementary School.

Investigators responded to the area after a resident reported wires dangling from under the sedan. A bomb sniffing dog "alerted" on the car, police said.

"We don't know who left it, but they parked it right outside of a school," said Inglewood Police Lt. Neal Cochran. 

Later Monday morning, Cochran said there were no live explosives found with the device. The person who placed it under the car apparently tried to make it look like a car bomb, he said.

Scientists say an impact crater bigger than Washington, D.C. is hiding beneath more than a half-mile of ice in Greenland, NBC News reported. The crater, which would be the first ever discovered under a continental ice sheet, is more than 19 miles wide and 1,000 feet deep.

Researchers believe it formed "after ice began to cover Greenland, so younger than three million years old and possibly as recently as 12,000 years ago," Kurt Kjaer, a professor at the Center for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, said in a statement.

The researchers first spotted evidence of the crater in 2015 when they noticed an unusual feature on a topographical map made from data obtained by NASA aircraft that had surveyed the area with ice-penetrating radar. They spent the next three years confirming the discovery.

Some scientists want more evidence to be convinced the feature is an impact crater from a meteorite.

Union Station Tree Lighting & Cocoa Concert: If a free holiday-themed event is a cheerful composite of its pretty parts, then consider how many sparkly blocks build this annual to-do. There's the tree-lighting aspect, which is the centerpiece of the Thursday, Nov. 29 event, but there's also live music, too, thanks to the Grand Arts Chamber Singers and other acts. A Cocoa Bar is part of the flavorful joy, and other spirit-raising sights. Can't make it? There are more Cocoa Concerts to come at the Alameda Street landmark.

Silent Skate Party at Pershing Square: Donning some headphones before you take to the ice? That's the name of the glacially glam game at this DTLA seasonal rink on Wednesday, Nov. 28. The sounds'll flow directly into your headphones as you show off your skills (or at least just keep it moving, moving, moving forward along the cold surface). This special event isn't happening every week at the Bai Holiday Rink, but you can catch it again on Dec. 19.

Art Battle US National Championship: We see paintings long after their completion, sometimes centuries, but the chance to watch artists go brush-to-brush, live, as they go for a mighty and creative crown? It's a pretty nifty thing, and one that will flower, fabulously, at the Exchange LA on Thursday, Nov. 28. There are a dozen competitors in all to root for, and, yep, the audience gets a chance to weigh in. Tickets, times, and the full brush-up? Here.

"Something Wicked This Way Comes": Treats about around town for Ray Bradbury fans. After all, Mr. Bradbury called our sunny stomping grounds home, and chances to revel in his work, and marvelous memory, are plentiful. And here's one cinematic slice of Bradburydom, a screening that will include a Q&A with a few talented people behind the 1983 film: "Something Wicked This Way Comes" will roll at the TCL Chinese Theatres on Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 9 in the evening. Need a little sinister magic in your world? This should do the tantalizing trick.

"Superman" 40th Anniversary: And speaking of magical films celebrating major anniversaries, this 1978 dazzler is flying back into select cinemas on Nov. 27 and again on Dec. 3. Yep, Christopher Reeve is at the cape-rocking fore, and the marvelous Margot Kidder, too, and the only question is where to see it (find your nearest theater at Fathom Events, which is bringing the film back for this special engagement). Wait, there is one more question: You've got me — who's got you?

Democrats gained 39 seats in the House of Representatives in this year's midterm elections, NBC News concluded Monday, after Ben McAdams defeated Republican Rep. Mia Love in Utah's Fourth Congressional District.

It was NBC News' final uncalled contest, though the Republican incumbent's lead in California's 21st Congressional District is smaller than 500 votes despite NBC News and other outlets calling the race.

Democrats' gains in the House were propelled by the largest vote margin for one party ever seen in a midterm election year, beating Democrats' previous record from the Watergate era.

Love conceded her race Monday, tearing into President Donald Trump for having "no real relationships, just convenient transactions."

Ouch.

An unlicensed teen hopped in his father's Porsche coupe over the weekend and took it for a spin without permission before wrecking the high-end car, according to Santa Rosa police.

The Porsche suffered serious damage to its passenger door and right rear tire, but no one was hurt in the crash, according to police.

"Hopefully the teen learned his lesson!" police wrote on Facebook.

Police did not say what caused the crash.

Based on a photo shared by the department, roads were wet at the time when officials were investigating the wreck. It's not clear if it was actually raining when the crash occurred.

When a musical stage production wraps, even those sizzling productions that find fans lining up at the door each night, there's a notable pause as staffers turn to look at an array of other properties and possibilities.

And while Center Theatre Group is definitely perusing what's next, and what's after that, one thing is for sure: "Dear Evan Hansen," which just completed its six-week run on Nov. 25, was a hit of gotta-see-it, can't-miss-it, beyond-mega proportions.

How beyond-mega was the Tony-winning hit's Los Angeles run? It "... became the first show in Ahmanson Theatre history to gross more than $2 million in a single playing week," revealed CTG in a just-released statement.

And the show topped itself four more times beyond that, grossing over $2,500,000 in the final week of its super-successful Southern California stay.

Which all leads to this: Many people saw it, many people wanted to see it, and many people will see it again, when "Dear Evan Hansen" returns to the Music Center venue during its 2020-2021 season.

That's just two years away, and while exact dates haven't been announced, nor a ticket on-sale date, you can bet that many of the fans who pushed it over its near-weekly $2,000,000 mark will be back to take a seat in just about two years' time, give or take.

Let's call it "two-years-ish," which seems close enough to be nearly here.

Center Theatre Group made the announcement on Monday, Nov. 26, less than a day after the show ended in LA, which is also quite rare. Rare because while shows do return, quite often, planning a return engagement hours after a musical closes in a city is almost an unheard-of event.

If you just can't wait, set your sights on Costa Mesa, and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, over the first 13 days of 2019, where "Dear Evan Hansen" will again spin its heartfelt stories of teenagehood, friendship, love, family, hurt, and healing for new and devoted audiences.

A man charged with gunning down his boss at a Chinese-language newspaper in Alhambra was arraigned Monday on a murder charge.

Zhong Qi Chen, 59, of El Monte, faces a potential maximum sentence of 50 years to life in prison if convicted of murder with allegations that he personally used a handgun and caused great bodily injury and death, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Bail initially set at $6 million was reduced to $3 million for Chen, who pleaded not guilty. His next court date is Dec. 18 at the Alhambra courthouse.

Chen is accused of entering the offices of The China Press on West Mission Road at about 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 16 and shooting his boss, with whom he reportedly had some sort of dispute, the nature of which has not been disclosed. Yining Xie, 58, of Arcadia, died at the scene.

Chen was arrested on the spot and police said they recovered a handgun. Online jail records show that he was subsequently released, then re-arrested Nov. 20 on a warrant that was under seal until now, according to the District Attorney's Office.

The California Supreme Court Monday reversed the convictions of an accused killer from Los Angeles because the jury trial wasn't stopped -- even after the defendant showed signs he had returned to a state of mental incompetence.

The opinion means Domingo Linares Rodas could receive a new trial, so long as he is deemed competent to stand trial. The high court's decision noted Rodas' long history with mental illness.

"We conclude the trial court erred in failing to suspend the criminal trial and initiate competency proceedings at the time counsel declared a doubt as to her client's competence," Justice Leondra R. Kruger wrote.

Rodas, now 62, was convicted in 2014 of one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder for the stabbings of homeless men in Hollywood. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

The convictions included the murder of Keith Fallin, who was killed on Aug. 6, 2009 while he was asleep near the Music Box Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, according to the LA County District Attorney's Office. The attempted murder convictions were for the stabbings of two other men the same day.

Jurors acquitted Rodas of murdering two other homeless men in the weeks prior to the Aug. 6 attacks.

Rodas was initially found incompetent to stand trial because of mental illness, but after several months of treatment with antipsychotic medication at a state hospital, doctors reported Rodas was ready for trial, according to the court opinion.

Rodas stopped taking medication as the trial began and was, "communicating incoherently with counsel." A defense lawyer raised the concern with LA Superior Court Judge Robert Perry, but after the judge quizzed Rodas about the charges in the case Rodas told the court he was willing to go to trial and would work with his lawyer.

The District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

Wildfires have burned across California, hurricanes leveled homes in Florida and the Carolinas, and recovery is uneven across Puerto Rico a year after Hurricane Maria. On #GivingTuesday, thousands of residents remain displaced while others are struggling to rebuild.

#GivingTuesday, set for Nov. 27, is in its seventh year. Created at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, its purpose is to encourage giving. Check a charity’s reputation before you donate. Here’s one place to start: Charity Navigator.

Below are some organizations offering immediate and long-term assistance for communities hit by natural disasters.

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES

The Camp Fire in Northern California, the state’s deadliest fire, was contained over the weekend after burning for more than two weeks. The fire killed at least 85 people and destroyed most of the community of Paradise. Meanwhile two other fires -- the Woolsey and Hill fires -- burned in Southern California, killing at least three people.

California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Relief Fund

The fund supports intermediate and longterm recovery, with grants going to residents who lost homes, belongings or jobs with rebuilding and other assistance.

California Fire Foundation

The foundation’s Supplying Aid to Victims of Emergency or SAVE program provides short-term financial help to victims of natural disasters in California.

Direct Relief

The organization works with partners in the area, whether health departments or clinics, to get medical resources where they are needed.

Entertainment Industry Foundation

The foundation’s Fire Relief Fund is supporting the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, the L.A. Kitchen, which provided food for first responders and people in shelters, and the Humane Society of Ventura County, which has helped with more than 300 animals displaced by the fires.

Humane Society of Ventura County

The animal shelter offered help with animals displaced by the fires

Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation

The foundation provides equipment and other support to firefighters, including brush helmets and now hydration backpacks for every firefighter.

North Valley Animal Disaster Group

The group is caring for animals evacuated because of the Camp Fire.

North Valley Community Foundation

The foundation’s Camp Fire Evacuation Relief Fund is supporting evacuation centers to make sure they have portable toilets and showers, blankets and other needs and is offering grants of up to $25,000 to organizations providing short-term direct services to evacuees.

 Venture County Community Foundation

The foundation created the Hill Fire/Woolsey Fire Sudden and Urgent Needs Effort Fund for those affected by the fire.

THE CAROLINAS

Hurricane Florence hit North and South Carolina in September, drenching the area and causing serious damage from flooding.

Foundation for the Carolinas

The foundation’s Hurricane Florence Response Fund is directing donations to non-profits in North and South Carolina to provide immediate and long-term help to victims of the storm.

A GoFundMe page for Hurricane Florence relief is being managed by the Direct Impact Fund, a nonprofit.

FLORIDA

Hurricane Michael was the most powerful hurricane to hit the Florida Panhandle, killing 43, and leaving thousands homeless.

Florida Disaster Fund

The Florida Disaster Fund assists the state’s communities to recover from disasters.

A GoFundMe page for Hurricane Michael relief is being managed by the Direct Impact Fund, a nonprofit.

PUERTO RICO

Hurricane Maria killed nearly 3,000 people on Puerto Rico in September 2017 in the deadliest natual disaster in the United States in 100 years. A year later, the island is still rebuilding

Global Giving Foundation

The Disaster Recovery Network at Global Giving emphasizes community-led relief and recovery. FORWARD/ADELANTE Puerto Rico is a fund created by a network of Puerto Rican foundations providing longterm support for local grassroots organizations.

Cuddling up in your jam-jams, with something from the nog family in your glass, your fuzziest slippers on your tootsies, and a peppermint-flavored carol humming through your heart?

You're probably settling in for a small-screen confection, the sort of gotta-see-it-every-December show that you've been watching since you were a kid.

And while no one would dare deny you the right to your jam-jams, nor your fuzzy slippers, there is a way to behold some of the best-known holiday specials in a different and delightful space.

Oh, and on the big-screen, too. The Paley Center for Media has that big screen, and, as it has in years gone by, it has transformed into PaleyLand for a merry, very lengthy seasonal run.

That run concludes on Jan. 6, 2019, but before that date? At least on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, when the television museum is open?

You can watch television classics, played large, and strike a colorful pose in the center's way-cute Candy Cane Forest, and maybe visit with Santa Claus, if you happen to plan your visit when St. Nick's around (as he will be over several December dates).

Shows set to screen during the mistle-terrific merriment? "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "A Rugrats Kwanzaa," "Even Stevens: A Heck of a Hanukkah," a Christmas-themed episode of "Cheers," a Three Kings Day-themed episode of "Dora the Explorer," and several more treats.

Entry is free, to all screenings, but if you want a professional photo with Santa, complete with a Paleyland digital frame, that's ten dollars.

Want to see when your must-see seasonal classics are in the spotlight at the Beverly Hills vault o' TV goodness?

Eye the sparkly, sugar-dusted schedule now, and the dates for Mr. Kringle, two things you can definitely do while in your jam-jams and fuzzy slippers.

Bullet holes can still be seen at the entry gate where Carlo Mellado and his family called home.

One of them broke through stucco, a second is imprinted on the steel gate, a third is somewhere nearby, but the fourth is the one that took the life of the 30-year-old father of two.

Mellado, a 30-year-old father of two, was slain right outside his home in the 800 block of 167th Street in the Harbor Gateway area of South LA. 

“This is a cowardly act for someone to take such a good person from us,” said Desiree Alejo, Carlo’s long-time girlfriend and mother of their two sons, ages 11 and 6. "A great father, a great boyfriend to me, a great son. We need justice. For all of us, and for him."

LAPD South Bureau Homicide detectives said Mellado was shot in the back the night of Nov. 6, 2018. They believe he was trying to escape the shooter, who was inside a vehicle that had pulled into the alley. The car had followed Mellado to his doorstep. 

“It appears that he was trying to key his way into the complex,” Det. Rene Castro said.

Castro believes there were other people in the alley that night that have yet to come forward with information about who might have been in the passing car.

“I can’t believe that no one knows anything,” Alejo said. 

Mellado’s mother says her worry is for the two boys he left behind. 

“I know we’re at a loss but my boys -- they’re not going to have their dad, never see their dad anymore. My heart breaks for them,” Alicia Mellado said.

LAPD is asking anyone with information to contact its South Bureau Homicide division at 323-786-5113. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call 800-222-TIPS (8477).

Police tracked a group of suspected thieves believed to be carrying stolen goods taken from Louis Vuitton store in Orange County to a Mid-City pawn shop Monday evening. 

NewsChopper4 Bravo was over the scene before police arrived at the Mid-City pawn shop near the corner of Cadillac Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard.

After police arrived, one of the men inside the sedan took off on foot and was tracked down and taken into custody soon after.

At least one other person was taken into custody at the pawn shop.

The pawn store owner confirmed to NBC4 that men came into the store carrying Louis Vuitton bags.

Refresh this page for updates.

More than four years after the disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, the mothers of two of them protested on Monday in front of the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles and demanded the disappearance to be clarified.

Cristina Bautista and Joaquina García have lived four years and two months of anguish and despair since their children disappeared on Sept. 26, 2014 in Ayotzinapa, Mexico.

Joaquina Garcia says that the last thing her son Martín Sanchez García, 19, told her before he left that day was that he would be back early to have lunch with her.

Garcia never saw her son again.

"That day was the saddest day of our lives," said Garcia. "We went to where the accident happened and we did not find them."

The two moms recall the chaotic day when the students traveled from the town of Ayotzinapa.

"Some of the people looked dislocated, others were without shoes. It was a sad thing," García said.

The students intended to take buses to travel to Mexico City to participate in the annual commemorative march of the student massacre of 1968.

"I will not rest until I find him because my son has to fulfill his dreams of being someone in life," said Bautista about her missing son.

Both women traveled to Los Angeles to continue with their search and to ask current Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador to clarify the disappearance of their children and to punish those responsible.

Bautista said, "I left my harvest. I quit my job. I left everything to come here to demand that the Mexican government gives me my son alive."

López-Obrador met with the families of the disappeared students during his election campaign and assured them that he would seek justice.

According to the Mexican Attorney General's Office, local police opened fire on the students because the couple in charge of the group had an alleged relationship with an organized crime group, and the police thought that the students were going to interrupt a public event.

Actor Todd Bridges was knocked down violently while attempting to mediate a neighbor dispute several months ago, the former child actor told NBC4 when discussing a viral video that recently went public.

"For a while, I was actually speaking with a crooked mouth," Bridges said he was feeling much better considering the incident caught on video occurred seven months earlier.

Bridges did not throw any punches or appear to be expecting the punch that sent the "Diff'rent Strikes" actor tumbling to the ground. The 53-year-old got up looking dazed after the punch. 

Bridges said he had never before been "sucker punched."

Bridges explained that his friend, who was a paraplegic, asked for help in moving a woman out of a home. So, the actor decided to help his friend in need, but Bridges was unaware that an unkown man was hiding in the apartment, waiting to throw the blind punch that sent the actor tumbling.

"It stunned me because I didn't realize I was hit until I was on the ground," Bridges said.

The actor said that when he started looking up, the assailant was nowhere to be seen. Bridges said he never pressed charges because he doesn't know who hit him and cannot even provide a description.

"Supposedly, somebody decided to sell it, I guess," Bridges said in a frustrated tone when asked why the video had come to light seven months after the incident.

He added, "It doesn't make me angry, but what I don't like about it is the fact that my children have to see this, and that's not good...I always pride myself on trying to do the right thing. I don't believe in fighting. I believe in talking and communicating."

Bridges even shared that his son had asked about the swollen face resulting from the strike and that the actor had lied to his son. With the video going public, Bridges said his children were very aware of the video and his son was concerned after seeing the footage.

Bridges, who admitted he would think twice before attempting to help anyone in the future, concluded, "I'm 53. I don't want to fight anybody. I just want to talk."

Lawmakers from around the world questioning a top Facebook executive over "fake news" on Tuesday at a hearing that CEO Mark Zuckerberg refused to attend, NBC News reported. 

Politicians and other top officials from nine countries were questioning Richard Allan, the company's vice president of policy solutions in London. Representatives from the U.K., Canada, Australia, Ireland, Argentina, Brazil, Singapore and Latvia invited Zuckerberg to give evidence, even by video link, but he declined. France and Belgium also attended the hearing.

The event was billed as the inaugural "Grand Committee on Disinformation.” Organizer Damian Collins, the British lawmaker who chairs a parliamentary committee investigating disinformation and the use of people's data, said he was "deeply disappointed by Zuckerberg's decision to ignore summons from so many nations."

The committee turned up the heat by seizing confidential Facebook documents from the developer of a now-defunct bikini photo-searching app.

Two premature babies who contracted a bacterial infection at a New Jersey hospital in the throes of an outbreak, died last week, officials say.

It is the third death of a premature baby in Newark's University Hospital after the Department of Health became aware that the hospital had an outbreak of the bacteria A. baumannii in its neonatal intensive care unit.

The department says that, while the babies were infected with A. baumannii, it may not have been what killed them, as they also suffered from other medical conditions due to being born premature.

Four babies have been infected in total at the hospital, officials say.

At the end of September, a premature baby who had been cared for at the hospital and had the bacteria died after being transferred to another facility, and before the Department's notification of problems in the NICU, health officials say. Another baby was effectively treated for the bacteria and was discharged last month.

No new infections have been confirmed since October. 

The department issued the news about the deaths of the other two babies Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigation into the outbreak of A. baumannii in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of University Hospital.

It said it was on-site at the hospital Tuesday to investigate the facility's internal processes around reporting deaths amid ongoing outbreaks. The department said as of Monday, the hospital's own infection control program was not aware of the most recent deaths when contacted.

A University Hospital spokesperson on Tuesday said the hospital has "continue[d] to reinforce proper procedures and protocols with our team."

"We have worked diligently since the Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria was discovered in our neonatal intensive care unit to control the outbreak, and there have been no new cases in the NICU since October," the spokesperson said.