ABC11 Eyewitness News - Eyewitness News at 6pm - April 18, 2026

Episode Date: April 18, 2026

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Well right now at 6th, the extreme drought in heat leading to a fire in East Durham. Today, firefighters not only battling those flames, but the dry conditions there in the area. And as dry conditions across the state continue tonight, so does that statewide burn ban. The ban comes as drought conditions for parts of the viewing area are still at an extreme level. You're watching, Iwinness News at 6th this Saturday evening. Thank you so much for choosing us tonight. I'm Duan Hoggard. Now right now, we are working to learn if drought conditions played a role in this fire in Durham this afternoon.

and want to go ahead and show you video. This all happened behind the East Durham Water Tank near the intersection of Alston Avenue and Pedigur Street right off Highway 147 there. Eyewness News was there as crews rushed to the scene to put that fire out. Durham Fire telling us that fire started in the grass and then spread to several cars there behind the tank.

No injuries were reported and firefighters were quickly able to put that fire out. The cause is still under investigation. So a very warm, very hot dry day out there. We have Cruz Medina in our first alert forecast in our cruise. It's a, I mean, we've been outside. It's just extremely hot, very dry. Yes, and that heat is actually helping to worsen the drought. So we could really use some rain around here.

And luckily, we have at least a little bit on Sunday, but it's not going to be drought-busting rain. So the rain chance really peaks as we go into the late morning and early afternoon hours. You can see it's only about 30%. So it's just light, brief showers that'll move through. And those will clear as we go into tomorrow evening. But after that, we're back to dry weather, and it's going to be dry all throughout next week. And tipters, you can notice, will be a little cooler as well.

So we hit 93 today. Sunday, that 69 you see, that's early in the morning, and then tipters will fall into the low 60s for the afternoon. Then it will stay seasonable right around 70 degrees as we go into the start of the week. Now, for this evening, where it's going to be very warm, if you're heading out to the Wilson Warbirds game today, home game for them, 90 degrees before the game, 75 after. And then later tonight, we're not going to cool down that much as this front comes in. tomorrow. So 67 is the low in rally. We can see those tipped your spike around six or seven in the morning and then by the afternoon again cooling down in a significant way. That chance of showers throughout midday you might want a rain jacket with you as you head out and then we'll see dry conditions again returning for next week. We'll talk about another warm up in the forecast

coming up in your seven day forecast in just minutes. Duwant. All right, Cruz, we'll see you shortly and with those high temperatures in your forecast for the weekend and the drought conditions getting worse. Now is a good time to download the ABC 11 mobile app. You can can check the seven day forecast anytime and have it right there in the palm of your hand. Well, new details on the shooting investigation at Triangle Town Center. This was the scene yesterday afternoon after gunshots rang out at the mall there. Raleigh police telling eyewitness news that incident happened when a 20-year-old mall employee was confronted by three 17-year-olds. Police say the employee was assaulted during the confrontation and then pull out a handgun and fired shots.

That mall worker and one of the teens were entered in the shooting. The other two teenagers, they ran away, including one who was also injured. Police were later able to track them down after they went to a local hospital. Two of those teens and the 20-year-old are still in the hospital being treated tonight. They are expected to be okay. The way County DA's office is still working to determine potential charges. And Triangle Town Center is set to reopen today following that shooting. The mall actually opened earlier today at 1 o'clock this afternoon.

There's also a food truck rodeo currently underway there at the mall. wraps up at 9 o'clock tonight. Well, tonight, a former Raleigh police officer is facing charges in connection to an off-duty incident. According to RAPD, Ryan Greathouse is accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend on April the 12th at a home in the 6300 block of Lakecrest Drive in Raleigh. He was placed on administrative leave while the investigation is underway, but was fired on Friday from the Raleigh Police Department. He's facing multiple charges, including domestic violence and false imprisonment.

Well today a memorial service for former Miss North Carolina, Kerry Everett, the 22-year-old passed away Easter Sunday after a battle with an aggressive form of cancer. Today's memorial service was held in Everett's home state of Washington. The family says a North Carolina service will happen at a later date before Everett's remains are taken to Africa, where she will be laid to rest in Liberia. What happening now? It is in Raleigh. It's round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs near Carolina Hurricanes.

just getting off the eyes a short while ago against the Ottawa Senators in game one. The Cains winning that game, 2 to nothing, thousands of Camiacs filling the Lenovo Center for today's home game. And our John Dowding was out there with the rest of them for game one. John, not sure if you've ever had a chance to make it out to a hockey game or at least a Kane's game. But we are no stranger to the playoffs. So go ahead and tell us how fans got ready for today's game. And really just the overall atmosphere there. Yeah, I mean, just talk about the excitement, DeWan.

You can feel inside, outside, during the game. after the game and this is the best part of today. So also everybody happy to see that flag hanging up outside of the Lenovo center. Walking away with a win in the first round of the playoffs here after a sold out game here at the Lenovo center as the Keynes started their journey for the Stanley Cup. The party started long before the puck dropped this afternoon.

That's the sound of a perfect, perfect tailgate here, especially on a perfect beautiful day ahead of the game. Cain's fans packed the parking lots around the Lenovo center with excitement building before heading inside to watch all the action. And Keynes fans we spoke to say they couldn't have asked for a better start to the playoffs. It looked really good. There was a lot of fist going out, a lot of beautiful shots being made. They weren't taking anything from Ottawa.

And I liked what I saw. And Keynes fans also letting out a huge sigh of relief during the third period when an Ottawa goal was actually overturned and resulting in that two to nothing win by the Kane's game two is back. here at the Lenovo Center on Monday night. So a lot of excitement here going into next week and happy they're walking away with a win already. Live here in Raleigh, I'm John Dowding. ABC 11, eyewitness news. All right, John, still a lot of hockey love to play. Again, thanks so much for your live reporting. We'll have highlights from today's game a little bit later on in sports. Thanks, John. Well, coming up, prolonged drought conditions and record-breaking heat

are putting a strain on farmers across the state. How one local strawberry farm is working to preserve its harvest. Well, welcome back. It is strawberry picking season time and for many families making plans for a day on the farm. Drought conditions are impacting crops. Local farmers in the triangle are doing all that they can to preserve their existing fruits and vegetables. Bianca Holman reports from Page Farms. So you've got here across the bridge and stay on here to the right. Tons of families spinning the day at Page Farm. You got some more for your basket. I got a lot more. Good day to come on out pick some fresh strawberries. We are loaded with strawberries best pickings of the year.

This 100-year-old farm has pumpkins in the fall and these bright red strawberries in the spring. But this year, conditions aren't ideal. Anytime when the heat gets up at a 9 degrees, strawberries don't like that. So we pump water underneath that plastic and cool them down, and that happened to protect the bloom of the strawberries. And strawberry pickers are thankful for the harvest. It was fantastic. There are so many red strawberries. The drought has become so severe, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 82 North Carolina counties as natural disaster areas,

making farmers eligible for emergency loans and other relief programs. Fortunately, Page Farms has their own water source, but they are still on high alert. We're okay for right now. If the drought stays now when it comes to this spring, this summer, you know, then we'll start worrying about the water. when we had to start irrigating corn and the pumpkins. Hoping for rain, yes. The berries are big, juicy, sweet, and ready for your next breakfast parfay. It's a little hot out here, but worth it, I think.

Make a smoothie out of it. Bianca Holman, ABC 11, eyewitness news. Bianca, thank you. Well, new tonight, people in Raleigh are raising awareness for those fighting blindness. The Foundation Fighting Blindness holding its 5K Vision Walk at William Peace University in Raleigh today. Organizers say they were able to raise more than $177,000 to go toward finding treatments and cures for blinding diseases. Our very own Tom George served as MC of the event. All right, so those folks who had a chance to get outside.

A lot of us had a chance to get outside today. And look, no humidity, but very warm, very hot, dry. I'm looking at some of this video here behind you as well. Yeah. So that hot and dry conditions that we had today and a little bit of a breeze, that kind of generated what we call a dust devil. So this is actually the second weekend that we've seen one of these do damage across the area. Last week, it was at the Tar Hill Antique Festival. And today, this was just at a baseball game.

But as you get the sun and these hot tipters heating up the ground, the air is rising. All you need is a breeze to kind of get this vortex going. And until something comes along to cool it down, it just keeps going. So you can see the damage it caused there. Chairs thrown everywhere. And also a little bit of damage to some tents there in the foreground as well. But tomorrow, thankfully, we've got a little bit of rain in the forecast. It's not going to amount to much, but you can see that rain chance about 40%.

That'll come in late morning and it's the early afternoon. Then it's back to bone dry. And if we're lucky, we'll get a little bit of rain next weekend at some point as well. But as far as tomorrow's system, it's still well back to our west, that cold front moving through Tennessee right now. And so you could see the rain associated with that moving through the central portion of Tennessee. And that's going to be heading east as we go throughout the duration of tonight and into tomorrow. as well. But in our neck of the woods, it'll be dry all throughout this evening and very warm. So for your dinner plans, you're dining out. Tiptures are still around 90 right now. We will stay in the middle to upper 80s for another hour or two and then eventually later this evening we fall into the 70s. Overall, great for outdoor plans. So enjoy it while it's nice out because tomorrow it's going to be a backwards day. Through the course of the night, the clouds increase. Winds will still be out of the south in the morning. So we'll see our warmest part of the day right around six or seven in the morning. should still be near 70 degrees then.

Here comes the front. So that's the rain moving in behind it. And so as that comes through, it's just a few spotty showers that we're expecting. This is not going to be widespread and it's not going to be a soaking rain. That comes through midday. This is 11 a.m. I'm showing you here. And by the late afternoon and into the evening, we're back to dry weather. And tipters will spend most of the afternoon in the low 60s. So you could see that here by region.

Essentially the sand hills will be the last ones to see that front pass through. the warmest spots in the morning, but you can see in our northern counties, most of the afternoon there are spent in the 50s and the triangle in Sand Hills. We should be right around 60 degrees for those afternoon temperatures. Now after this front departs our region, it's going to be seasonable. So a high around 70 on Monday. We'll have a mostly sunny sky. We'll be a bit cooler compared to what we've seen recently with all these 90s. And then by Tuesday, still a bit chilly in the morning, pleasant for the afternoon. And then we'll be back to warm temperature through the middle and end of the upcoming week.

So we're back to 80s by Wednesday. That is Earth Day, by the way, low 80s then, middle to upper 80s, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And again, we'll cross our fingers for some rain next weekend. The next week is on Monday night. I want to thank you so much for choosing us tonight at 6. We'll see you back here after this evening's NBA playoff game. For now, the news continues online on Facebook X and wherever you choose to streak. Have a great night.