A spokeswoman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department said the crash happened around 1 p.m. Sunday on Md. Route 260/Chesapeake Beach Road, near the boundary between Anne Arundel and Calvert counties.

Two children suffered life-threatening injuries and were flown to a D.C. trauma center by two Maryland State Police medevac helicopters.

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One of two adults injured in the crash was also flown to the trauma center in serious condition, the fire department said. The second adult is being treated for serious injuries.

The cause of the crash remained under investigation on Sunday afternoon.

Below is a map of the area:

º£½Ç¾«Æ·ºÚÁÏ”s Alejandro Alvarez contributed to this report.

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Former º£½Ç¾«Æ·ºÚÁÏ political analyst Mark Plotkin died Sunday at the age of 72.

Plotkin was a staple on º£½Ç¾«Æ·ºÚÁÏ for 10 years. He hosted “The Politics Program with Mark Plotkin” on Fridays, through which he delivered his colorful commentaries on air.

Plotkin was passionate about D.C. statehood and voting rights, tennis and George Washington basketball.

He came to º£½Ç¾«Æ·ºÚÁÏ in 2002 and left in 2012. Before that, he was at WAMU, did commentary for Fox5 and he would write columns for various publications.

In the º£½Ç¾«Æ·ºÚÁÏ newsroom, he was often heard on the phone questioning elected officials and dashing into the studio for his live interviews.

Tributes from D.C. area politicians and journalists started pouring in upon the news of Plotkin’s death.

º£½Ç¾«Æ·ºÚÁÏ’s former Vice President of Programming Jim Farley described Plotkin as “one of the feistiest guys I had ever met.”

“He was a bulldog when he got on a story or on an issue … He was rough on everybody because he wanted to get things done,” Farley told º£½Ç¾«Æ·ºÚÁÏ. “He was a character. He had some rough edges, but was so memorable.”

Farley said he hired Plotkin at a time when º£½Ç¾«Æ·ºÚÁÏ had a presence in the D.C. area suburbs, but not so much in the District. That changed within weeks when Plotkin came on board.

D.C. politicians, including Mayor Muriel Bowser and Councilman Jack Evans (D, Ward 2) also shared their condolences.

“I am saddened to hear of the passing of Mark Plotkin. Mark embodied D.C. politics, cared deeply about this city …,” Bowser said in a statement Sunday. “Minted in a time before social media, Mark was never one to mince words and offered fair, poignant perspectives across media outlets. In particular, tuning into Mark’s show was must-listen radio.”

It is with a heavy heart that I must tell you that longtime to DC voting rights advocate and political analyst Mark Plotkin has passed away. Mark was one of my oldest friends and a steadfast advocate for his adopted hometown of Washington DC. He will be missed.

— Jack Evans (@JackEvansWard2)

“I’m deeply saddened to let everybody know that my close dear friend Mark Plotkin and someone who was really revered by everyone has passed away today,” Evans told º£½Ç¾«Æ·ºÚÁÏ. “He was a champion for D.C. statehood. It’s somewhat interesting that right after the hearing this past week that Mark had passed away. We will miss him deeply.”

NBC Washington’s Mark Segraves said he learned “so much” from Plotkin from the 10 years he shared an office with him.

“He taught me not only how to hold public officials accountable, but [also] how to listen to a person’s answers and follow up,” Segraves said. “While Plotkin wasn’t born and raised here in D.C., he considered Washington his adopted hometown and loved it with all of his might.”

Im heartbroken to report that my longtime friend and former colleague Mark Plotkin has passed away at his home in DC. Mark showed me how to hold elected officials accountable. He was one of a kind and loved Washington DC. R-I-P Mark, we’ll take it from here.

— Mark Segraves (@SegravesNBC4)

Watch Plotkin in action interviewing then-senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama about issues that impact residents in the D.C. area.

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Maryland State Police said a group of juveniles were walking across the highway near Washingtonian Boulevard in Gaithersburg.

Police shut down the westbound side of the highway for hours to investigate.

The driver of the SUV stayed on scene and DUI has been ruled out.

Below is the area where the boy was struck:

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A car traveling north on Colesville Road struck 49-year-old Donald Morgan Jr. of Northwest D.C. around 2:30 a.m., Montgomery County police said. Morgan was using the marked crosswalk to walk east across Colesville Road at the intersection with Fenton Street when he was hit.

After the car hit Morgan, witnesses said they saw the driver, identified as 30-year-old Janet M. Brown of Laurel, stop, get out of her car and then drive away from the area, according to a news release from police. When officers arrived at the scene, witnesses gave them a description of Brown and her car’s tag number.

Morgan was in cardiac arrest at the scene and was taken to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries, police said.

Officers located Brown nearby on Georgia Avenue after she left the scene. She was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, police said, but she has not been formally charged because police are still investigating the collision.

Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue were closed for hours as police investigated the incident.

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The $700,000 includes heat damage to the house next door, said Montgomery County Fire Spokesman Pete Piringer.

All four residents of the house in the 23100 block of Persimmon Ridge Road escaped harm, thanks to the quick response of the police officer who arrived first at the scene.

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue said Officer Jon Roark made sure everyone was safely out of the burning house before running to the houses next door to evacuate the neighbors.

Roark went to one house he said appeared to be in danger of catching fire due to the massive amount of heat being generated from the blaze.

“I went over there and said ‘Get your family out of there now. Your house isn’t on fire yet, but it’s not safe.’ They started evacuating their people,” said Roark. “Everybody was just incredible. Surrounding neighbors came out and were offering to help.”

It took 75 firefighters to subdue the fire from the two-story house and make sure the blaze didn’t spread, Montgomery County Fire spokesman Pete Piringer said. The homes on both sides have some damage from the heat.

Two adults and two children were displaced as a result of the fire.

No one was injured.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Shortly before officers responded to the Persimmon Ridge Road fire, Montgomery County firefighters were at the scene of another fire in Silver Spring, Maryland. Crews put out a fire at the 11000 block of Mapleview Drive that spread from a shed. No one was injured, and officials do not know the cause of the fire.

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You’ve washed them, put them in a dryer. Not you’ve got to fold them.

At CES in Las Vegas, Seven Dreamers presented a clothes-folding robot, which is a couple of months away from launch after more than a decade in development.

Shin Sakane of Seven Dreamers that in 2005, he asked his wife what is it she could really use. She said something that could fold clothes. He thought it was a good idea.

The big machine takes five to 12 minutes to fold a piece of clothing, but it’s the type of machine that you can set and forget.

The Laundroid sorts by either the type of garment or who they belong to. You can place the clothes in the machine, set it, go to work or take a nap, and your clothes will be folded when you return, Sakane said.

Panasonic and other companies invested $60 million on the project, seeing its potential. Sakane said that there have been many preorders for the clothes-folding robot. Sakane hopes to be able to add a washer and dryer to the Laundroid by 2019.

Watch a demonstration of the Laundroid:

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As of 8:30 a.m., Pepco was reporting 2,000 outages in the Brookland and Fort Lincoln neighborhoods of Northeast D.C., the area along Rhode Island Avenue near South Dakota Avenue. Traffic lights in the area may be dark.

Crews have been dispatched for repairs, Pepco said.

Pepco can be reached at 877-737-2662.

View the latest outages in the map below:

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Here’s a breakdown of some of the major crashes by region.

Virginia

Slick road conditions triggered a chain-reaction crash involving 23 vehicles on the Inner Loop of the Beltway, near Gallows Road, at around 5:15 a.m., Virginia State Police said.

State police did not identify the man and said they were still in the process of notifying his next of kin.

Four others were treated for minor injuries, police said.

Due to the crash, tolls on northbound Interstate  495 express lanes were lifted as of around 8:30 a.m. Drivers were directed through the express lanes to detour the pileup. Officials on the scene closed northbound lanes of I-495  for the investigation and clean up.

All major roads were pre-treated, according to officials, but the wintry mix late Friday into early Saturday caused havoc — especially on bridges, overpasses and ramps.

Even fire engines were not safe from the icy roads. Two crashes were reported involving fire engines as they were responding to an emergency. One was on U.S. Route 50 near Interstate 66 in Fairfax County. Officials say an engine slid on ice and went off the road around 5:30 a.m. The second major fire engine crash occurred in Maryland.

Maryland

On Interstate 95 through Baltimore, a fuel tanker slid over a jersey wall and burst into flames early Saturday, Baltimore City Fire Chief Roman Clark said. Omar Jimenez of WBAL posted video of the crash on .

[GRAPHIC] This is video of a fuel tanker sliding over the rail on I-95 this AM and EXPLODING shortly after. (via Marvellous Amasiacu) — Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenezWBAL)

Clark said the roads were very icy, but it’s too early to say what caused the tanker to careen off the highway.

In a separate incident, two people were killed in a chain-reaction crash involving 67 vehicles. Clark said it’s unclear whether the pileup started before the tanker crash or if it was caused by the incident.

As of 4:30 p.m., 23 people were being treated at University of Maryland Medical Center,  with injuries ranging from head trauma and broken bones to cuts and scrapes, hospital officials said Saturday.

Four people were listed in “critical” condition; two others were listed in “serious” condition, hospital officials said.

The Maryland Transportation Authority  police requested Sunday that any operators, passengers or others involved in the I-95 crash contact the Tunnel Command Duty Station at 410-537-1208 to give police important information that will help them match operators and passengers with the vehicles involved. They are requesting those involved provide information about the vehicle they were operating, any passengers in that vehicle and their contact information.

Scores of traffic accidents were being reported across the region due to slick roads.

As of 1 p.m., Maryland state troopers had responded to 330 crashes across the state.

In Prince George’s County, on Maryland Route 450, near Route 3.

There were no reports of serious injuries.

The National Weather Service issued a freezing rain advisory for the Baltimore-Washington D.C. region early Saturday and warned of travel difficulties on slippery roads.

Despite warming temperatures late Saturday afternoon, police were urging motorist to remain cautious and warned that dropping temperatures on Sunday could create a similar scenario in the morning.

º£½Ç¾«Æ·ºÚÁÏ’s Tiffany Arnold and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Data from shows that more than 1,400 flights within, into or out of the United States have been canceled, and that more than 175 have been delayed.

Chicago O’Hare International Airport had the most cancellations and delays, between 7 and 11 a.m. Sunday. Chicago is expected to get about a half-foot of snow Sunday.

Detroit Metropolitan Airport and St. Paul International Airport were also among the top three airports experiencing significant delays and cancellations.

A change in flights status can often cause a ripple effect that spreads to other regions, so if you have a flight scheduled, don’t forget to check the status of both the departure and arrival locations.

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Prince George’s County Fire Department officials said reports of a house fire in the 1500 block of Ballinger Avenue came in around 3:30 a.m.

Following a string of recent fire incidents, officials said fire activity typically picks up this time of year, as people start using furnaces and space heaters.

The Prince George’s County Fire Department offers heating safety tips when using space heaters, and other recommendations for fire prevention on their .

Space Heaters

• Buy only heaters evaluated by a nationally-recognized laboratory.
• Always unplug your electric space heater when not in use.
• Never use an extension cord with space heaters. Plug them directly into the wall socket.
• Space heaters need space — keep flammable objects at least three feet away.

General Heating Tips

• Keep combustible objects at least three feet away from fireplaces, furnaces and chimneys.
• Have heating devices such as furnaces and fireplaces checked each year by a professional.
• Dispose of fireplace ash in a metal container and store outdoors away from structures on a concrete surface. Fireplace ashcan ignite a fire days after disposal.
• Make sure your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are working properly.

For the full list of tips, read the Prince George’s County Fire Department’s post .

Friday night an elderly man was found dead in a house fire in Oxon Hill. Officials say fire activities typically picks up this time of the year as people start using furnaces and space heaters.

Update: 1500 Blk Ballinger Ave, 1-confirmed civilian fatality, 3 additional injuries. Fire under control.

— PGFD PIO (@PGFDNews)

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As soon as the transit system opened Saturday morning, Metro sent out an alert of a power problem on the Red Line. Metro officials said buses are replacing trains between Takoma and NoMa-Gallaudet.

Saturday is the first day of the new 24/7 work zone, which could have the largest impact of all scheduled track work.

The surge was expected to shut down service between Fort Totten and NoMa-Gallaudet.

Metro authorities have yet to comment on the unscheduled Metro shutdown.

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The crash happened on the Inner Loop, near U.S. Route 1, at around 8 a.m. in College Park. State police said a Dodge Dart rear-ended a marked patrol vehicle parked on the shoulder.

The trooper, Robert Cearfoss of the College Park Barrack, had to be extricated from the vehicle and was flown to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

The driver of the striking vehicle, a 23-year-old man from D.C., was also injured and was taken to Prince George’s County hospital, police said.

Details about their conditions were unavailable.

The roadway was shut down for several hours to accommodate police, state highway officials and emergency responders at the scene. The highway was reopened at around 11:30 a.m.

Police said they haven’t determined the cause of the crash, but they are investigating the possibility that alcohol was a factor.

Charges are pending against the driver.

º£½Ç¾«Æ·ºÚÁÏ’s Dennis Foley and Tiffany Arnold contributed to this report.

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The crash happened around 1 a.m. at the intersection of Indian Head Highway and Berry Road in Accokeek, Maryland.

Police said an SUV and another car were attempting to turn left onto Berry Road, when they hit a car traveling northbound on Route 210.

One man was pronounced dead on scene. Drivers of the SUV and the other car attempting a left turn were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, officials said.

Police said Route 210 at Berry Road would be closed until about 5:30 a.m.

The investigation is underway.

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Maryland State Troopers got calls for wires down on the Interstate at York Road in Towson at around 12:18 a.m.

Police said two suspension towers fell, dropping ten or more large cables, along with heavy tension cables and supports, all across the highway on both directions.

No one was injured, and the interstate reopened around 7:30 Saturday morning.

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At the Pentagon

President Barack Obama at the Pentagon on Sunday morning to mark the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Drivers may encounter some road closures related to dignitaries traveling.

Around D.C.

Thousands of athletes will be in D.C. for . Although the swim portion has been canceled because of the bacterial level in the Potomac River, participants will still travel all over D.C. for the running and bike portions of the race.

The bike course starts on the National Mall, goes up Rock Creek Parkway and Beach Drive to Connecticut Avenue, comes back down Beach Drive and turns onto Whitehurst Freeway. Bikers will turn around at Key Bridge, then snake through Watergate’s area and E Street, going around the Tidal Basin, then crossing the 14th Street bridge on HOV lanes. They will turn around before Washington Boulevard.

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Around Rockville, Maryland.

°Õ³ó±ðÌý starts early Sunday morning near the Rockville Metro station. Some of the roads impacted by the race are Veirs Mill Road, Connecticut Avenue and Jones Bridge Road. Runners will go mainly through Rock Creek Park, but there could be delays when the course intersects roads such as Randolph Road. The runners will finish near the Bethesda Metro station.

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