Photo by Ruby Grace Ong

Good morning, Washington. The Pennsylvania Avenue overpass on Rock Creek Parkway remains closed this morning following a fire under the bridge at that location. D.C. Fire crews first responded to the blaze, which Fire/EMS spokesperson Pete Piringer described as appearing to have started due to an electrical problem in the cabling of the superstructure of the bridge, at around 6 a.m. this morning. While investigators were on the scene, however, they also happened upon a dead body at the foot of the M Street bridge. So far, word is that the death appears to be unrelated to the fire, and the body, that of an adult male, has since been removed. Pennsylvania Avenue continues to be closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic while Pepco and firefighters work to discover the root cause of the fire. AlertDC also reports that M Street is closed from Key Bridge to 36th St. NW due to the police investigation. You can just imagine what a mess this has caused for traffic trying to get in or out of the area — a tipster writes in to say that M Street “is at a halt.”

Allegations of Neglect Against Washington Humane Society: The Examiner reports on allegations from PETA of “gross incompetence” on the part of the Washington Humane Society, D.C.’s main animal shelter. ‘Citizen calls to collect unwanted animals are ignored, disease outbreaks are common, and inhumane euthanizations are performed, PETA claimed, citing records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and “citizen complaints and observations.”‘ WHS responded by saying that ‘”most of the allegations” in the report were investigated and “proven completely without merit.”‘

A New Molly? WUSA9 and WTTG both went with the story of 8-year old Andrew “Kofi” Gordon, who was walking his 4-month-old Yorkie, Luxy, in the front yard of his mother’s home in Northeast D.C. when a man approached and snatched the dog away. It all happened at about 2 p.m. Monday afternoon in the 4900 block of Sargent Road NE. Channel 9 wins hands down for most heartbreaking quote: ‘”I cried three times,” said Andrew “Kofi” Gordon. He got the four-month-old puppy for Christmas.’

Briefly Noted: Slain security guard’s family reacts to death of James von Brunn … Brothers Place apartments in Southeast emptied due to unsafe conditions …
Metro police form anti-terror unit … Dulles rail test to sound like small explosion.

This Day in DCist: In 2009, we were keeping track of plans to close all the city’s main bridges to vehicular traffic during the inauguration, and in 2008, the city launched a new emergency preparedness web site.