Firefighters put out a blaze in a La Mesa attic Tuesday. 

The fire started at approximately 2:43 p.m. Tuesday on the 7300 block of Colony Drive.

White smoke from the fire could be seen for miles, firefighters said. 

The fire burned two rooms in the attic, and the owner believes the fire may have been an electrical fire that began with the AC in the bedroom. 

Officials said no humans were injured, though the couple that lives in the house fears for pets who were in the house at the time.  

La Mesa Police and Heartland Fire responded.

No further information was immediately available. 

Refresh this page for updates on this breaking news story. 

 Three fallen San Diego firefighters will be honored at a memorial Saturday when their names are added to a statewide memorial.

Captain Normal R. Nelson, Captain Craig Nielsen and Engineer Oran Shadoan, all of the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, will be honored Saturday.

The firefighters will join the nearly 1,300 listed fallen firefighters on a statewide California Firefighters Memorial at Sacramento’s Capitol Park.

The ceremony will include a flag presentations to the families of the honorees, a procession and the “Last Alarm” bell ringing ceremony. 16 names will be added to the memorial on Saturday.

All three firefighters served with the department for decades.

Nelson, a 27-year-old veteran of the department, died in 2014 after a battle with kidney and colon cancer.

Shadoan died in 2004 from complications due to job-related cancer. He worked for SDFD for more than 40 years.

Nielson died in 2004 after suffering a heart attack related to his job. He spent nearly three decades with the department.

Readers can watch the memorial streamed live on Saturday at this link.

Two South County schools are planning a joint memorial for beloved, married teachers killed in a crash over the weekend.

Henry and Pamela Gutierrez, who went by Mr. G and Ms. G, were driving back from Arizona Saturday after Henry, 70, participated in a baseball tournament there.

The couple was on their way to his daughter’s home in Palm Springs when they crashed on Interstate 10 outside of Indio. Both died in the accident.

On Tuesday, grief counselors consoled students and staff at Hilltop High School in Chula Vista, where Pamela, 64, taught AP psychology, and at National City Middle School, where Henry taught world culture.

At both schools, colleagues remembered the couple for the huge difference they made in the lives of their students.

Teacher Angela Vasquez, who has known Henry for 16 years, said he was competitive and generous — beyond what anyone could imagine. He even aided students whose families faced eviction.

“He would pay the rent for these families,” said Vasquez. “He would put up a month, two months’ rent so kids could finish the school year. If they needed clothes or something special for graduation, just had to ask him. He would help them out — very generous.”

Pamela, meanwhile, had been teaching at Hilltop High for 17 years, and many of the teachers there now were once her students.

Until a few years ago, she served as the senior class adviser and yearbook adviser. Every year, she would also make the sashes for the school’s homecoming court.

At this year’s homecoming, her initials will be displayed on the sashes.

Pamela recently turned over the adviser role to Courtney Petersen.

“I used to call her my work mom my first year here because she would bring me lunch and have snacks for me, and she always made any struggle I had her struggle,” Petersen said.

She recalled calling Ms. G because she did not get the desired date for grad night at Disneyland.

“And she said, ‘That’s unacceptable.’ So she drove to Disneyland and refused to get out of line until she got the date she want,” said Petersen. “That was Pam. She got stuff done.”

Hilltop High’s class of 2001 is planning a candlelight vigil for Pamela on Saturday night at the school.

Administrators at Hilltop High and National City Middle schools are working together on a memorial for their beloved teachers, though details are still being worked out.

A new study finds that San Diego's research institutions are pouring billions of dollars into the regional economy every year.

The study shows that in total non-profit research organizations like the Salk Institute have a $4.6 billion economic impact on the regional economy.

Dr. Steve Kay, incoming president of the Scripps Research Institute, is grateful for this first-of its kind study showing the economic impact of scientific, non-profit organizations.

“I'm moving from LA back to San Diego because of exactly that kind of features that are mentioned in this report,” Kay said.

Authors of the study say that amount of money every year is equal to 34 San Diego Comic-Cons, four San Diego Convention Centers, 33 Open Golf Championships or six aircraft carriers stationed in San Diego.

Not to mention the impact the institutions have on roughly 37,000 jobs.

The study is a confirmation for Kay and others of the impact their research is having not only on individuals and disease but also on the economy.

“You help fund research grants and the enterprise and in return we bring cures and jobs and economic development to your local community,” he said.
 

The police were called to the San Diego iconic landmark resort the Hotel del Coronado early Wednesday for what was described as a violent disturbance.

Coronado Police are interviewing guests after the report of a group of men getting into a fight with a group of men and two women around 3:00 a.m. Some men involved in the fight suffered minor injuries, police said.

Investigating officers told NBC 7 one person reported seeing a gun.

Despite the presence of at least three police patrol cars on the hotel’s property, the resort’s manager told NBC 7 the fight should not concern the public.

Members of the hotel staff were tight-lipped about the situation and asked news crews to leave the property.

Officers say they are interviewing the guests who were the victims in this incident and are trying to gather any surveillance footage from the incident. Police also say the people they are interviewing say the participants had been drinking.

If you have any information regarding this incident, call NBC 7 at (619) 578-0393 or send in images/video to isee@nbcsandiego.com.

The iconic hotel by the sea with its red turrets is one of the most recognizable hotels in the world. The 28-acre property was built in 1888 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977.

It offers close to 700 rooms and 11 restaurants and continues to draw celebrities and other high-profile guests to the Coronado shoreline.

The Federal Drug Administration has long warned of the hidden dangers associated with taking products marketed as “dietary supplements” that promise to enhance sexual performance or increase sexual stimulation, a growing trend among men.

Former NBA star Lamar Odom was hospitalized Tuesday after he was found unresponsive at a Nevada brothel, and, according to Nye County officials, had taken 10 tabs of over-the-counter sexual performance enhancing "supplements" that he purchased at the Bunny Ranch. 

According to the brothel's spokesperson, Odom told employees he did cocaine before arriving Saturday. Odom has publicly struggled with addiction to drugs. In 2001, the recently drafted forward was suspended for violating the NBA's anti-drug policy for the second time in eight months.

Authorities took a blood sample from Odom early Wednesday to determine what was in his system. The toxicology results could take weeks, Sheriff's Detective Michael Eisenloffel said.

But claims that he may have taken herbal Viagra have nonetheless drawn attention to supplements that the FDA has warned about.  Herbal impotency pills are emerging as a major public health concern that officials haven’t figured out how to track, much less tame.

“All-natural” products with names like Lady Shangai, Blue Steel, Rhino V Max purport to be a safe herbal alternative to prescription erectile dysfunction(ED) drugs.

But since 2004, FDA lab tests have found that nearly 300 products sold as “herbal viagra” contained “potentially harmful, undeclared ingredients.”

“Even a cautious consumer can’t tell that these products are, in fact, tainted with undisclosed drug ingredients, because their labels do not list the potentially hazardous ingredients,” Dr. Daniel Dos Santos with the FDA’s Division of Dietary Supplement Programs said in a consumer alert release.

This year alone, the FDA sent consumer alerts on 25 products seized during an examination of international mail shipments that contained undisclosed active ingredients — specifically sildenafil.

Sildenafil is the active ingredient found in FDA-approved prescription drugs used to treat ED such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra.

"These products may interact in dangerous ways with drugs that a consumer is already taking," said FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research medical team leader Mark Hirsch, in a 2009 Consumer Health Information report. “For example, taking sildenafil in addition to certain prescription drugs containing nitrates may lower blood pressure to an unsafe level.”

This poses the greatest danger to people with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart disease who are often prescribed drugs that contain nitrates. Men with these conditions often suffer from ED and seek impotency pills.

"Those are factors that doctors consider when prescribing approved ED treatments,”
Hirsch said.

Budget cuts in an already fiscally constrained department limits the FDA’s ability to aggressively police these products. The agency issues alerts warning consumers about potentially dangerous products and works to stop the sale of illegal products and have them voluntarily recalled or destroyed.

Nonetheless, some products are still in the marketplace.

The FDA says consumers should always consult their health care professional before taking a new supplement.
 

Ralph Duquette, a leukemia survivor, made his daughter's wedding extra special when he was able to walk her down the aisle, NBC affiliate WCSH reported.

Duquette, of Maine, practiced walking all summer with physical therapists despite a grim diagnosis from doctors, extensive chemotherapy, being in a coma for five days and falling blind in one eye. 

Not only was Duquette able to walk his daughter, Heather, down the aisle but he was able to dance with his daughter during a traditional father-daughter dance. 

Thousands of roasting pans sold online at Target.com and other online retailers are being recalled over concerns they may break or shatter and cause burns or cuts.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced Wednesday the recall of 4,000 CHEFS-branded flameproof ceramic vertical roasters made by TCC Cooking Company of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

"The black roasters consist of a round roasting pan with handles and a removable insert. The roasting pan measures 11.75 in diameter on the inside and 2.5 inches high and the removable insert measures 7.5 inches in diameter at the base and 4.5 inches high. The underside of the handles are slightly recessed for grip. The CHEFS logo is at the center of the rimmed base," the CPSC said.

To date there have been more than two dozen reports of the roasters breaking or shattering -- no injuries have been reported.

The roasting pans, which were made in China, were sold at Chefscatalog.com, Cooking.com, Target.com and other online retailers from April 2014 through May 2015 for between $35 and $50.

Consumers who purchased the roaster through Target.com should return the product to any Target store for a full refund. All other consumers should discard the product and contact TCC Cooking Company to receive a gift card equal to the purchase price.

A Florida man in a motorized wheelchair was arrested on Wednesday night and charged with felony DUI.

Ronny Scott Hicks, 54, was blocking multiple lanes of travel on a bridge and smelled strongly of alcohol, police said. Hicks allegedly refused to take a field sobriety test and declined treatment for an unexplained head wound. 

Hicks remains at Brevard County Jail after his arrest, according to court records. 

A New Jersey woman looking for sea glass on a New Jersey beach last week found an ancient Native American spear point believed to be about 10,000 or 11,000 years old.

Audrey Stanick, of Lanoka Harbor, brought the relic she found in Seaside Heights to the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton to have it analyzed. There, Gregory Lattanzi, assistant curator for the museum's bureau of archaeology and ethnography, confirmed the age of her finding.

Lattanzi explained that back in the Middle Paleoindian period, sea levels were much lower and that Native American villages close to the sea would have been 60 miles or so east of what is now the New Jersey coastline.

"Over time those would get reburied by sand and then the water levels would rise," Lattanzi said.

In recent years, similar spear points have been found elsewhere along the shoreline.

Stanick said she intends to keep the one she found.

"Just the thought that 10,000 thousand years ago somebody had this in their hand ... it's amazing," Stanick said.

Rand Paul on Wednesday dismissed the need for employment protections for members of the LGBT community, saying there "plenty of places" that will hire gay people and that their sexual identity is best kept out of the workplace.

"I think society is rapidly changing and that if you are gay, there are plenty of places that will hire you," Paul said in response to a question about whether employers should be able to fire someone based on his or her sexual identity.

He added: "I think, really, the things you do in your house, just leave those in your house and they wouldn't have to be a part of the workplace, to tell you the truth."

Paul said that designating the LGBT community as a protected class, like race, gender and ethnicity, would create a new group "who can now sue."

A 13-year-old San Diego boy is fighting to conquer his intense fear of vehicles after being hit, not once, but twice by a car.

The crash in City Heights on Aug. 7 broke his left leg in three places, removing most of the skin and muscle. Thousands of pounds of metal pinned him to the ground until a group of people, including family friends, lifted the car off and pulled him to safety.

“Ever since then I’ve been scared of cars. I’m scared of crossing the road because I’m scared it’s going to hit me again,” Yusuf Hussein told NBC 7 Tuesday. “Now I don’t even like hearing the sound of cars anymore. I tell my mom to close the doors because I don’t like the sound of cars in front of the house.”

Yusuf had just left afternoon prayer at a nearby mosque and decided to walk with a friend to a pizza restaurant in the area of University Avenue and 49th Street.

“I saw a car up the hill speeding, and then I got distracted and turned away. Next thing, I saw the car hit me. I couldn’t move,” he remembered.

Police say a hit-and-run driver, who still has not been identified, caused a chain-reaction crash. Another driver lost control and ran over Hussein.

“I tasted blood and I was scared, you know like in the movies when you’re afraid of blood. So I asked for water,” Hussein said. “I thought it was a dream. I asked one person to wake me up but he said no. I thought it was a dream.”

Hussein’s family is extremely grateful for the staff at Rady Children’s Hospital that rebuilt his leg. Hussein is still trying to rebuild his spirit.

“I’m scared I won’t run again,” he said.

Still, he’s very appreciative of everyone who saved him from the accident and possibly saved his life.

“I’m so thankful for them for helping me, and I thank them for coming to the hospital and supporting me, and giving me all the prayers. I saw thank you to them,” Hussein said.

Hussein’s father says his son was the victim of another accident when he was only three or four. It happened in South Africa, where the family lived at the time. The crash fractured Hussein’s right leg.

Hussein’s family says he will walk again, but doctors said it’s unclear whether he’ll be able to run.
 

A group of residents in San Diego’s College Area got an unwelcome visit Tuesday night when a group of strangers – clad in clown masks and armed with guns – barged into their home during a bizarre robbery.

The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) said one of the suspects went through the unlocked door of a home in the 5600 block of Mary Lane Drive near San Diego State University (SDSU) around 11:35 p.m. and asked for a person by name.

Six people were inside the home and one of the residents told the suspect he didn’t know the person he was looking for and said that person did not live there. The resident asked the suspect to leave.

The man left, but soon came back – armed with a gun – and wearing a Halloween-style clown mask, police said. The suspect asked again for the person who didn’t live there and then demanded money from the residents. Two other suspects then barged inside, also wearing masks, and began ransacking the home, taking some items.

According to police, at one point, one resident tried to take matters into his own hands and wrestle the gun away from one of the robbers. The gun hit the floor and fired off, but no one was hurt, investigators said.

Police said the gun discharged very close to the resident, narrowly missing him.

“He’s actually got some powder residue on his leg from the blast,” explained Todd Griffin, of the SDPD. “Fortunately it did miss him, and he was not injured.

The other residents dropped to the ground and took cover during the struggle, police said.

After rummaging through the home, the masked trio fled the neighborhood in a dark-colored SUV.

The home invasion robbery is under investigation. Police believe the suspects were casing out the home, but didn’t realize the person they were looking for did not live there.

For now, police are interviewing witnesses and are hoping to obtain surveillance video from neighbors that could help them identify the suspects. Police said they do not have detailed descriptions of the suspects because the masks covered their faces.

Griffin said the masks were described as “court jester” masks.

“One was a mask like something you’d see at Mardi Gras with a lot of different colored points at the top of it. Someone described one as kind of the mask that was in ‘Scream.’ Another person described one of the masks as kind of a cartoonish, clown-type mask,” Griffin said.

Neighbor Nick Mikulich said he did not see the masked men, but did hear commotion coming from the home that was robbed. Mikulich said he was watching TV with his roommate when they suddenly heard a loud bang. They went out to their front lawn and saw police officers on the street.

Mikulich said he has never heard of something like this happening on Mary Lane Drive, which is less that one quarter-mile away from the SDSU campus.

“[This is] nothing I’d expect. This is a college community and I think this is a very safe neighborhood. I’m not quite sure what happened, but this is not common for around here that I know of,” he explained.

“I feel very safe in this neighborhood and I’m just concerned something like this happened. I just want to see the guys caught,” he continued.

Police said it’s important for residents to keep their home secure and lock their doors to prevent incidents like this from happening to them.

“Keep the doors locked to prevent this from occurring in the first place. Security is the best way to prevent all of these things. Who knows, we may have prevented the whole encounter had the doors been locked,” said Griffin. “That little bit of home security is the way to go – and lots of lighting and so forth.”
 

A specialized team of federal investigators are in San Diego County to discover the cause of an explosion and huge blaze at a motor home business Sunday.

The National Response Team (NRT) from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been called to San Diego only a handful of times in the past 15 years to investigate fires.

“The NRT has responded to the World Trade Center at those explosions,” said NRT’s Central Region Team Supervisor Steve Cordle. “We work explosions and fires.”

But Wednesday, the team traveled to San Marcos to look into the third-alarm fire that seriously damaged Holland Motor Homes, as well as 20 motor homes parked nearby. The blaze caused an estimated $4.2 million in damage.

Eighteen ATF experts, who specialize in chemistry, electrical engineering and fire investigation, filled Holland Motor Homes’ burned-out building. They combed through the structure, trying to find clues that could determine how and where the fire started.

One of the motor homes belonged to a military family. It was their only home.

“They lived out of that motor coach and it burned to the ground,” said Greg Hampton with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department’s bomb and arson unit.

The sheriff’s department would normally do this type of investigation, but they knew early on it would be too big a task for their team.

“It's an awesome sight,” said Hampton “I've been involved in bomb/arson for a short time, but I have guys who have been in it for five to eight years, and they have never worked with the National Response Team. Just the opportunity to work with them and learn from them is awesome for us.”

The building that burned is one of four on the property, and the business is operating as usual, the owner told NBC 7. He found another space to use about five miles away — an unused RV repair shop.

The owner is working with the insurance company to cover the damages to his and customers' property.

NRT officials do not have a timeline on how long they will be out here. They said it could be several days.

The Ebola virus can stay in a man's semen for nine months or longer and in one case, a survivor infected someone else after being cleared for the virus, researchers reported. 

"We believe it's rare," said Dr. Barbara Knust, who helped lead CDC's Ebola response team.

The studies reveal that the epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, could have long-term effects. 

One report in the New England Journal of Medicine confirms what experts had feared - a 44-year-old woman who died in Liberia last March was infected by her fiancé, who had survived Ebola.

A Department of Homeland Security computer system that checks airline flight passenger lists against terror watch lists experienced a service disruption Wednesday night, NBC News reported, citing senior government officials.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement late Wednesday that the outage lasted around 90 minutes, and that it did not immediately appear to be the result of a hack.

"At this time, there is no indication the service disruption was malicious in nature," the statement read.

The temporary outage affected Customs and Border Protection "processing systems at airports of entry in the United States," according to the statement.

The outage sparked extensive delays and long lines at airports across the country. 

A passenger arriving at Los Angeles International Airport told City News Service that U.S. Customs agents had to manually input passport information, leading to long lines and thousands of people backed up at passport-control stations. Similar delays were being reported at other airports, including in Boston, New York and Dallas.

An LAX spokeswoman confirmed the computer problem, but referred inquiries to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

Customs and Border Protection uses self-service kiosks to allow U.S. citizens, along with Canadians and some international travelers with visas, to submit entry forms. The agency touts the program's faster processing times.

The kiosks are located at airports across the country. 

The House Select Committee on Benghazi will interview top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Adebin behind closed doors on Friday, sources familiar with the committee told NBC News Wednesday evening.

The interview comes just days before Hillary Clinton is scheduled to testify before the committee herself during a public hearing on October 22.

The interview of Adebin is one of many sessions the committee has had with people who were close to Clinton during the September 11, 2012 attack on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi.

Ex-Chief-of-Staff Cheryl Mills participated in an interview before the committee on September 3, and former Deputy Chief-of-Staff Jake Sullivan was interviewed on September 4.

During a visit to San Diego, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said Wednesday the federal government must free up more funding to help with devastating wildfires.

Jewell toured the county by helicopter, taking a look at all the neighborhoods that butt up against open space and public lands.

She then spent time at Cal Fire’s headquarters in Rancho San Diego. She looked at the facility and discussed finding a more rational way to budget for big fires like the ones San Diego saw in 2003, 2007 and last May.

Jewell said fire season in 2015 is officially 78 days longer than it was in 1970, and the government’s approach to fighting the fires is part of the problem.

Appearing alongside Congressman Scott Peters, the secretary called for federal reserves similar to what other natural disasters receive to combat devastating fires.

“When you have a tornado and you have a flood and you have a hurricane or earthquake, those are natural disasters, and we go to disaster funds to take care of that, so year in and year out landscapes can be protected from those events,” Jewell said. “We don't have the same capacity with fire.”

Right now the funding structure is too reactionary, she said.

Jewell, who previously served as the CEO of REI, believes allocating disaster funds would save money, property, and possibly lives in the long run.

"So [now] when we have a bad fire year, we take money from the prevention fund, we take money from the burned area rehabilitation fund, and we use that to suppress the fires,” she said. “And what that does is it increases the spiral of increasing hotter fires. It makes it much worse; it costs us more in long run.”

Congressman Peters blames stalling tactics in Washington and politics as usual for why the matter hasn't gone up for a vote yet, even though he believes it would pass easily with bipartisan support.
 

The price for your stolen data may seem like a lot, but a new report from Intel Security Group’s McAfee Labs says that information doesn’t usually go for much, NBC News reported.

Researchers monitored websites, chat rooms and other places where stolen data are bought and sold. The prices ranged from 55 cents to $1, the report said.

Even though the data may lack a hefty price tag individually, those selling the information usually make up for shortfalls in volume.

"Selling millions of cards for cents still nets huge returns. The idea is to sell a lot of accounts," Raj Samani, CTO of Intel Security for Europe, the Middle East and Africa said.

Bernie Sanders proved on Tuesday he can debate, but can he dance? Sure, he can.

The Vermont senator was a guest on a taping of “Ellen” in his first televised appearance since Tuesday night’s Democratic debate.

Show host Ellen DeGeneres tweeted a short clip of the Democratic presidential candidate doing a little two-step as he waited to make his entrance.

Sanders danced in to “Disco Inferno” before taking his seat.

The two talked about some of the issues that were brought up during the debate, including Sanders’ comments on the Hillary Clinton private email server scandal.

“You said this may not be political,” DeGeneres said. “And I think that’s the exact thing people are sick of is people being political.”

Sanders told the audience he’s been in many political campaigns and said he’s never resorted to attack ads.

“I’ve never run a negative political ad in my entire life and I’ve been attacked a lot,” Sanders said.

Sanders also touched on the disappearing middle class, nutrition and climate change.

DeGeneres put Sanders in the Hot Seat, asking him personal questions. The host donated $1,000 to breast cancer research every time he answered a question correctly.

Sanders said he would prefer being stuck on a desert island with Republican candidate Marco Rubio.

His Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor would be called “Bern, Bernie, Bern”, a hot and spicy ice cream.

Sanders also admitted to having been in handcuffs.

“When I was young, I was involved in a civil rights demonstration and I was arrested,” he said.

When asked what song he would sing in a karaoke bar, Sanders said he would choose “Stayin’ Alive” from “Saturday Night Fever.”

And if you’re wondering, Sanders doesn’t wear boxers, he wears briefs.

The “Ellen DeGeneres Show” featuring the Democratic presidential candidate will air on Thursday Oct. 15.