Transcripts For KGO Good Morning America 20171009

Safety. Also the Petaluma Community center. There is the Analy High School and Solano Community college in fairfield is a place for shel shelter. Lawrence Cook Middle School in santa rosa. And this is probably the newest one that we have not mentioned yet. This is the Burton Recreation Center and that opened up within just the last half hour. One of those areas that have not seen this morning as of yet any mandatory evacuations. They have been a safe spot for a lot of people. We know that east the Sheriffs Department is heading that direction because they are going to be evacuating that area. As soon as we get more information about that we will let you know. We want to share dramatic video from santa rosa. We are going to get to that video in a second. We want to check in with mike now. How are the winds right now . Earlier this morning the winds were so strong and that was what was fuelling the fire in an unpredictable manner which was a concern. Thats why we had so many evacuations. When the fire is out of control basically it is not contained and the fires will create its own wind. These are the environmental winds. Lets show you. The winds at the highest elevations 25 in atlas peak to the northeast of napa. Gusts reaching 40, 45 degrees. Knoxville creek just to the east of geyserville is hawkeye. Its had gusts nearly 80 Miles Per Hour this morning. A hurricane becomes a hurricane at 74 Miles Per Hour. Gives you an idea how fast some of the winds are. When they hit the valleys especially if they are narrower if you try to push wind through a narrow space it accelerates. Thats what we saw during overnight hours as the storm pushed across 101. When you have winds it picks up the embers and the storm jumps from one area to another area to another area and thats how we saw the k administmart go up in right now in santa rosa environmental wind is lighter. Gusting to 30 at fairfield. Let me show you the forecast model. This forecast model has been the most positive in the fact that it is showing the winds calming. You can see by 8 00 we are down to 7 in santa rosa. 26 in fairfield. Winds are slowing in places like oakla oakland. As we head into lunch hour the winds continue to drop and continue to drop this afternoon. What that means is we have extremely poor air quality. Here the way it looks in san rafael looking south on 101. Highest levels ever seen in the last decade for the north bay and the coast and central bay as far as air quality. That means everybody could get sick from the air quality that is outside right now in the north bay, the coast and the central bay. You have a respirator. Use it. Its not a great fashion statement. Thats not what this is about right now. This is about keeping you healthy. Make sure it can get at least fine matter. Make sure it can get down to that because that will cause. That is what we are looking for. Show you the wind advisories. All the areas in yellow. All the areas susceptible to fire also because those embers could get caught in the wind and flow that way. Even when the winds calm down later this morning the fire danger is going to last through 5 00 tomorrow morning. Before you evacuate document everything with video and photos because by the time they tell you to evacuate it will be too late. Have that with you so if you are in a fire and your house does go up and you lose items you will have the documentation you need because it will take months, maybe even years to get that stuff replaced. Thank you. Of course, we will continue to check in with you start putting out flames with the devices. We check in on the phone, spokesperson for the sonomaeac can you tell us what is happening there . The grasslands behind the mountains we call Cougar Mountain is on fire. The winds are currently in our favor. No structures, nothing structural has been threatened at this point. We have key personnel including our president with Key Facilities including firefighters. Putting their best efforts to the cause. Are you at the race way right now . I am not. Are you in an area affected by the fire this morning . Yes. I am west in san rafael. Are you concerned about rieks evacuation for yourself . I am not. I am sort of on hold here. Concerned about evacuations for friends and family. At the race way it is in the center of everything so we have people who live in santa rosa and sonoma and napa, marin. Certainly were a tight knit group so concerned for everyones safety. Anyone at the race way this early in the morning . Our president is there in addition to a key personnel folks. They are safe right now. They are there. They can go outside and look at the embers of the fire cresting over the mountain we call Cougar Mountain, large moupten behind the race way. Our land extends to the highway. And what is on that land . No structured burned. Its just open grassland that we use for parking areas for major nascar events. Thats used very temporarily but we do sit on 1,600 acres. As far as flames not headed in the direction of the actual race way structures and the facilities. Correct. The word that i got is that wind is in our favor at this time. Thank you for joining us. We are so happy to hear that the crew there and the folks that are at the race way and that you are also safe this morning and are out of harms way. As you can see there are seven fires burning right now. It is eight minutes after 7 00 a. M. We have been following fires for you all night long. We have had multiple crews to give you the latest information because this is started off as a fire that was a couple Hundred Acres big and now we are talking about a fire that morphed into 20,000 acres plus. There are several different locations across the north bay burning. These are the fires on your screen that we have confirmed. The fire at berkeleys hills was out earlier this morning. As far as we know that fire is out the other fires actively burning. We have been told this is an active situation we have been told they are focussing on getting people out of their homes and at day break they are able to get air crews up to battle the flames from the sky which would be a tremendous help. The winds have been fuelling the flames erratically and because of that unpredictable nature of the fire they were just focussed on getting people out as quickly as possible. Is there any video to show the folks . This is what ree dewe are deali with. This is in santa rosa. Not only is it a Mobile Home Park but also a place where Senior Citizens live. I think you have to be 55 or older to move into the parkt. We did hear there are injuries sustained. We can confirm that these fires throughout the night and Early Morning have injured people. This is very close to the Kaiser Hospital. That hospital also evacuated. You can see how quickly the flames moved. There are firefighter s on the scene but no way they can get control of this fire fast enough in order to save these homes. So this appears to be a total loss. So many mobile homes up in flames. Amy described it as looking at a war zone and that is certainly what it looks like. Getting people out to safety is the priority as far as trying to fight smaller fires where the structures are burning they are trying to get people out safely. Take a listen to the interview. This fire is 21,000 acresism. There is a Large Population and the explosive rate of growth and how fast it has pushed into this area made priority of getting people out of the way. Again, they are just trying to make sure that people are safe and there is no loss of life from all of the fires burning right now. Building and brush is secondary. Patients have to be put on the buses to evacuate them. And that hospital has now been as far as we understand safely evacuated. It looked like they actually lost power at one point we heard some of them had voluntarily switched over to the generator. If you do have a loved one that was at the kaiser transported to san rafael. We heard from someone that a part of the parking lot was on fire. Structure is. It is obviously a large structure. This is going to be the case as we get more day light we see how much has been destroyed. This is a dramatic picture to be sure. You can definitely see how much smoke is surrounding these areas. It is difficult to see. It is difficult to really make out the land around that structure. We can see it is a large structure with huge flames. The air quality and the smoke that is all around the north bay right now is also an issue. Part of the reason during the middle of the night when winds were so strong and it was difficult to see they couldnt get a lot of this air support up there. We couldnt get our helicopter up but that means emergency crews could not get helicopters up that would be dropping water on these fires throughout the day. You can see it almost looks like as sky seven zooms out we have the one isolated fire and then further up the hill we have some spots. This is not an area where there is huge amount of flames which is kind of an odd thing to see. I cant tell you exactly what this is that is burning there. I know there are a number of wineries. This is just east of santa rosa and santa rosa as you know by now has been one of the most affected areas so far. Interesting to see the land area around the structure. It is odd that that structure is on fire. We heard winds gusting to as high as how many Miles Per Hour . 80 Miles Per Hour earlier this morning. The embers probably traveling far. We are trying to make out, i see palm trees, trying to make out what this building is. But large flames coming from it right now. It looks like a building or structures in flames right now. People who have lived in this area have had to deal with fires for a long time. For folks living in santa rosa this is an unprecedented event. They are heading to the roads that remain open to get completely out of the north bay and make their way down to San Francisco or east bay so that they are safe. You can see now how hazy that smoke is making the entire north bay and much of the bay area beyond that. Much of the bay area dealing with that throughout the day and you mentioned the haze is going to have an effect on people trying to get out of there. Everyone trying to evacuate. Now with sky 7 we are able to see a better idea. You see hot spots. Looks like several areas still burning. Odd to see just the one structure in flames and a little better view of the entire area where you do see that heavy haze. It is going to Effect People out on the roadways. We want to talk more about what people are experiencing as they evacuate. Santa rosa one of the really big trouble spots. It really is. And south of there as thee evacuations continue. Obviously, we are looking at very hazy, smoky conditions here from sky 7. We want to flip over to my traffic map i can show you a few major road closures we have in place. Most of these we have no estimate when these will reopen. This is all a very fluid situation with these closures this morning. 101 fully closed both directions between bicentennial. That is a major corridor. We did have grid lock just south of there that looks like it has shifted into the pengrove area. You are looking at about 16 miles of heavy traffic. Yes, part of that we typically start to see the route fill in. The other part there is just so many more people on the roads this morning. You are seeing a lot of purple here. These are all road closures that are in place due to these fires. We are looking at about seven right now in the north bay. These are just making it really tough to get around. State route 37 a full closure between 101 all the over tainterstate 80. Im watching chps log really carefully. Sounds like they are getting close to reopening the eastbound side of state route 37 which would be great for everybody trng to get out of the north bay. They can cut over into the area which would help with evacuation. I will tweet that out as soon as we have that confirmation. And we do have a new closure in the napa area state route 121 at state route 129. Looks like the closure is really significant to the west of the napa area. Downtown napa area. Avoid that if possible. The rest of our roadways we are looking at increase in volume because these folks are trying to get out of the north bay and escape the fires. We are extra slow here on westbound 80 this morning. Approaching the bay bridge has been tough and we have been talking about air quality. Here is a live look at the bay bridge camera. You see the haze. That is not fog. That is smoke. One of those days you want to have the windows up and just have patience as we have increased volumes in weird places this morning. And if you dont have to get out on the roads it is highly recommended that you stay home and stay off of the roads. As long as you are in a safe place and not under any Evacuation Orders chp urging you off the roads so emergency crews can get to the scene and everyone evacuating can get out, as well. Back to you guys. Thank you. We want to check in one more time with sky 7. We are able to see what roads sky 7 is flying above. This is in kenwood. This is in Sonoma County. You can see there on sylvia drive a lot of flames in that area. And the hill side there burning currently. That is flames in that area. And this is where we were flying just a few moments ago. This is sky map 7 that allows us to see what roads sky 7 is above. It gives us a better idea of exactly where we are located and allows you at home to have an idea of exactly which areas are affected if you live nearby. And as we continue our coverage here on abc 7, it is 7 20. We just got information from cal fire and they tell us that the fire that they are fighting 20,000 acres in santa rosa is ss contained. Not what any of us is hoping to hear. Not surprising in light of the fact that they said this morning that this was simply just trying to get everyone out of there. They were actively working, crews, firefighters, across the north bay trying to make sure there was no loss of life and that people were evacuated immediately as Evacuation Orders rained down quickly. There were things changing rapidly. We have not heard of new Evacuation Orders. Earlier this morning when it was dark out the Evacuation Orders were coming every 15, 20 minutes or so. Sky 7 continues to show us what is happening there. We are going to go back to the ground where Tiffany Wilson is. I understand you have new information for us. Reporter a couple of changes here. First of all, officials are advising evacuees to wear these masks whenever they come outside because the air quality around here is so bad and it does help with breathing. A lot of people have complained of scratchy throats and tightness of chests. The other thing we noticed within the past couple of minutes is cell service is pretty much zero. Key dont know how many different cell phone towers are knocked out. I tried to call back to the station and send emails. If you are out there trying to reach a loved one in the napa area and you cannot get ahold of them that could be one of the reasons. Cell phone service is very, very bad here right now to the point where i would say almost nonexistent. I want to talk about the Evacuation Center. About 300 people here staying not just in the gymnasium but also the sanctuary and another room. This church is run by pastor peter shaw. Pastor, talk to me about opening up the church last night. I got a call about 11 00 from the sheriff asking that we get the thing open as fast as we could. I was here in a few minutes. Red cross showed up on site and waited for probably over an hour before we got our first guests. And then it started to roll pretty heavy. By the time you guys shows up it was a steady stream and has kept coming and coming and coming probably until about 5 00 a. M. They kept flowing in from different parts. Once we hit capacity they opened up the Community College for overflow. Reporter right now we are just starting to see day break we have seen the first helicopters go overhead. It is going to be a long road before most of these evacuees can return home. Where do we go from here . I dont know where they go from here. I dont know what the logistics are. I know all we can do is make them very comfortable and provide great space for them and care for them as much as we can. Napa has been amazing with that. I think it has gone pretty smooth. That is our hope. We have had restaurants come in with food for free, local bakeries, breakfast burritos come in. Thats the napa spirit. So it is really cool to see that happening right here. Reporter we have seen a couple of folks pack up as day light has come up. Im sure they are trying to find out information. Will crosswalk remain open to evacuees throughout the day or as long as needed . As long as needed. You were the first Evacuation Center following the napa earthquake. What lessons have you learned to the fires we are experiencing today . Very different animals. With that one we had to make sure the church was cleaned up from the earthquake. We did learn some things in terms of how we Work Together and with different agencies. I think we are a lot wiser for it now. There is a much greater collaboration between the county, red cross, salvation army, cross walk and it is definitely a Team Approach and that shows. I has been a pretty smooth operation. I have to agree. Every evacuee has been so grateful and said they have been so wellmed here. Pastor shaw thank you for speaking with us and for opening up the church. The red cross helping out the evacuees. We have seen several of them leaving this morning. Not recommended because there are still so many road closures. The fire zero percent contained. For anyone who is out and about in the north bay you are advised to wear a mask like this just to protect yourself because the smoke even though you cant really see it as much as you could earlier on it is still heavy in the air so this does help protect you. One last time i want to reitera reiterate, if you are having a difficult time reaching a loved one with your cell phone it could be because the service up here is just so terrible. We were not able to make any calls out within the past 15 minutes. I want to reassure you that could by one reason you are not able to get ahold of the loved ones who live in this area. That is great news. Some reassurance for people as they try to locate the loved ones, important to know it is just a difficult situation out there. Thank you for your reporting. And im trying to i was getting messages from people i know who live in santa rosa and they are saying they are seeing a number of businesses on fire as we speak. Im trying to confirm that. I wanted to make it clear to you that large chunks of santa rosa are burning. People are very afraid. A friend of mine told me his relatives had to grab his grandmother who lives close to a couple of friends of mine and also saw that there were hotels on fire in that area. If you know where the historic red round barn is, he is telling me that is on fire. This is from my famienrily. I have not confirmed that with any official in santa rosa or firefighters. That is the information i am getting. It is a scary situation for people who live in santa rosa right now. This is kenwood southeast of santa rosa. We want to also talk on the phone from santa rosa. Thank you for joining us. Are you safe . I am safe. Thank you. Have you evacuated . What is your situation . I havent evacuated. The area im in is kind of close to the fair grounds by highway 12. My house is kind of a safe haven, i have about eight people who come here to take refuge, several of their houses have been burned down. People who live by hopper. At about 4 00 this morning i jumped on my harley and drove down to the area that the person was just speaking spoke about. I can personally verify that round barn at least at that point was completely on fire. We had people asking about that on social media. You have been able to take people into your home to give them a safe haven . About 3 20 in the morning i had friends show up and it started at that point. I live in a high point so we have a very good perspective the level of immediate danger at least in our location. A large portion of northern i would say north of blazing up. You mentioned you are near the fair grounds which i believe is an Evacuation Center. So you seem to be safe there, correct . Yeah. I have been kind of monitoring it just to see where the fire actually is and right now it appears to be at least two to three miles away from the fair grounds. And do you have a Vantage Point of the fair grounds. Can you give us an idea of what the roadways look like to get there and how many people have shown up to that Evacuation Center . I cant. If you are really interested it would take me two minutes to jump on my bike and go down there. We want you to stay safe and say in your home. We thank you for taking some people in as they needed that this morning. Please continue as you are safe to share the information that you do have with us. Thank you for joining us on the phone from santa rosa. He can confirm the red round barn is on fire. That is the second person i heard that from. That is a landmark in santa rosa. On the ground in santa rosa we have had Amy Hollyfield. What are you seeing now . Reporter we are on bicentennial way. This has become the border of santa rosa. You cant go past here. The north side of the city is where the fire is. Behind me we are looking at what im told by residents near me that this is a gun shop and cannabis shop. That explains the popping we have been hearing. Its rounds going off, the ammunition inside this gun shop. We are not allowed to go past this point on this side of the freeway. This is west of highway 101. Then we did try on the east side, as well, because we wanted to get to where the fire has been doing most of the damage. They say it is just not safe. There are power lines that have fallen. There are hose out for the firefighters so they are keeping everyone south of bicentennial way. We know that north of bicentennial way in santa rosa is where we will see so much damage once the sun comes up and once we are able to safely get there. That gives you an idea of where this is really hitting. Let me get my cameraman to pan over here and give you this shot of the sunrise. The color is just incredible with what we are seeing here because of all the smoke and the fire here in santa rosa. And it is everywhere. Every direction you look you see an orange glow. The east side of the freeway we see it north up in the hills. We see flames in the hills slowly creeping down the hill. There is fire everywhere. Cal fire has told us they have confirmed injuries because of the fire. They dont know the extent or the number yet and they dont know how many structures we have lost. We do know near here that a k mart is on fire. We are not able to get to it. And we also saw the journeys end Mobile Home Park destroyed next to Kaiser Hospital. That is why they evacuated that hospital because they were concerned about all of the patients there. So the journeys end Mobile Home Park for seniors 55 and up is gone. Fire wiped it out. We will continue to bring you updates and try to get more information of what is happening north of here. Now we need to keep a safe distance and let firefighters do their work. We keep hearing sirens. Police are handling the evacuations and Fire Departments from all over the state have been called to come here. They put out a call for the whole state to come here if possible to help with this enormous fire that they are saying is at least 20,000 acres. Live in santa rosa, Amy Hollyfield, abc 7 news. We are going to need all the help that we can get in the north bay and the situation still ongoing. Thank you for joining us for our breaking news coverage. It is 7 30 in the morning. We have been with you all night long since 11 00 last night as well as online on abc7news. Com trying to give you the latest information of what is still a major emergency happening in the north bay right now. At one time seven fires were active. One of them has dropped off. That was in berkeley. The rest of them are fully engulfed. We are talking about 20,000 acres on fire and growing in the santa rosa area and that fire is zero percent contained. You can see the haze and all the smoke coming from the fires. Wrm su im sure most of you listening and watching can smell it. Imagine what it is like if you are in the area directly impacted by the fire. Folks are heading to Evacuation Centers. A number of them have opened up throughout the morning. A couple have had so many people they are telling them to go elsewhere. We have had two hospitals evacuated in santa rosa this morning. We are concerned about kaiser perm nent a. We think they were able to get all the patients out to another location. They were very proactive in getting their staff on it and having these people get out before those flames got too close. We know that they have been getting very close. When we were talking to amy she showed us the view of the sun that is glowing bright orange this morning from the north bay and its there is another view of that. It is beautiful to look at but it is a terrible reminder of what is happening in the north bay right now that the air is so hazy and foggy from all of those wild fires burning. It looks as we have said earlier this morning like a war zone particularly in santa rosa. There are numerous buildings there. We have heard of injuries associated with the fires. So we are working to get you the very latest information. Lets look at sky 7 one more time because also we are so used to seeing the fog here in the bay area that comes and rolls into San Francisco. This is not fog. This is the smoke that is billowing up from all of the wildfires burning in the north bay. It is affecting the entire bay area as far as air quality is concerned. Just now as the sun is rising our air crews actually able to go up and attempt to contain part of the fires. Reggie, you said this just seconds ago. Only zero percent containment because the focus was just getting people out of their homes to safety. And now it is going to be to launch these helicopters so that cal fire can have air support. They have been without that all night long. They did get support, of course, from other Fire Agencies including i think as far south as San Francisco and they will need as much power as they can get on the ground and of course in the air. They havent been able to launch until day light so hopefully this is going to be able to help them at least a little bit. This is an emergency situation for thousands of people in our viewing area. We ave been focussing a lot on santa rosa. Its not just santa rosa but that is a major population center. Thats where as you can see from the live shot with Amy Hollyfield this is a place where a lot of businesses are and a lot of people live. Major landmarks that are in santa rosa are currently burning. You mentioned that this is our focus right now because we are looking at the live image. We spoke to amy. There are fires burning in lake county, napa and sonoma. This is widespread and we have not forgotten about you. We are trying to get the latest information. Clear lake right now we have images coming in from viewers. So we know those fires are actively burning and those are also major concerns. I think we would like to get Evacuation Centers up on our screen. There is our board of some of the images that viewers have been sending in throughout the morning. It is stunning to see that orange glow. That was earlier this morning some of the photos. You can see the flames from highways as people try to evacuate in their vehicles. That was the scene as people were trying to leave their homes many people describing feeling heartbreak and sadness to see childhood homes in flames Napa County Fair Grounds open. These sites should be open to take a good number of people. A couple have closed because they have reached capacity. Elsie Allen High School opened this morning. New Life Christian church if you wish. If you are heading to these sites there is heavy traffic on the way to the areas. Petaluma Community Center opened this morning. Sebastapol Community Center taking evacuees. We should note that all of these are on our website, abc7news. Com. We are going through them quickly here. Burton Recreation Center is open to take in evacuees. That is one of the newest centers that opened up. Alexis smith has been monitoring traffic conditions. It is slow going for people trying to get out. It sure is. I have several updates. This is impacting mass transit. Smart Train Service has been cancelled this morning. They are saying as a result of extreme fire conditionsism i know that was impacting. They will not be operating in addition to the transit. All santa rosa bus Service Suspended due to one of the many large fires in the area. That is mass transit. As far as road closures are concerned we have a full closure of 101 between bicentennial and northwest springs road. That is in the santa rosa area. And we are seeing long delays still all the way through petaluma for folks heading down trying to get to San Francisco to escape these fires. I have seen quite a few fire trucks and ambulances across the Golden Gate Bridge on our traffic camera. Looks like a lot of crews from San Francisco are going to help out. I did not have time to update my map. We have a partial reopening of state route 37. Really good news for folks trying to get out of the north bay. They had reopened eastbound 37 between 101 and 80. Westbound lanes remain closed. No estimate when the westbound side will reopen. The eastbound side has reopened. We have another fire location there. And it sounds like they have also just made a modification you are allowed to leave sonoma via lakeville highway to get to 37. We have had a ton of local road closures this morning, some major road closures. It looks like they are starting to get a few of these back open or trying to. Again, if you want tofollow me on twitter im keeping you updated with the latest. So throughout the morning we have been checking in with Amy Hollyfield. She has been in several locations in santa rosa. The last time we saw you we could see incredible flames behind you in an area with so many businesses and where people live just off this road. Reporter i have the Business Owner with me now. This is andy standing here as we watch his furniture business burn up. Im so sorry. Tell us your story. I was asleep around 3 00 a. M. One of my friends called and said that its better you just move out and go south. When i was passing by in front of my shop i saw my truck was already on fire and i called 911 and the Fire Department told me we are going to come immediately. It took them some time to come over. Finally they start to get the fire down. Reporter what did you say they told you about their manpower . They said we have so many other places to go but we have to wait. And then finally when they came they had only a couple of guys here. They said we are awaiting for more happy to help us. Finally they came about two hours ago around 6 00 a. M. Reporter the demand is incredible. Reporter what is inside . You are saying your inventory. This is the building that holds the inventory. It had a gun shop, and a sport guy and part of it is my inventory for both businesses i have in santa rosa. Reporter it is more than a business to you. It means more than that to you, im sure. Many years of hard work. Thats correct. I feel very sad, but this happened. Im glad nobody got hurt. Its furniture. Its not a big deal. Hopefully the insurance will take care of me and take care of everything else, too. Reporter thank you for talking to us. I appreciate meeting you and thank you for talking. Im sorry this happened. Bicentennial way businesses on fire right now. North of here we can see that there are several fires burning. We cant go further north of this. They are saying it isnt safe. Power lines are down. The hoses are drawn. Firefighters are very busy with their work. Lots of trucks in and out. They want to keep us out so they can do their work. Once we are able to get further north we will tell you more about the damage here in santa rosa. We know it is going to be just awful. Reporting live in santa rosa, Amy Hollyfield, abc 7 news. What is the cross road right behind you . Bicentennial way and what . Reporter and range. We are west of highway 101. Earlier we were on the east side at the hospital. We could see an orange glow so we wanted to see what was happening this way. We have the gun shop on fire, cannabis store, Furniture Store and further up the road the k mart is on fire. And then also before we leave have you heard anything more about kaiser . I was getting unconfirmed reports that the fire got very close to the hospital. Reporter i checked with cal fire. They have no reports that the hospital is on fire. I checked with the Police Officer here. He has not heard that. We can drive back over there and check it. When we were over there we didnt feel as if the hospital was in the direct line of fire. We didnt feel it was threatened. Im hoping that that is not the case. We can check it out. Just curious because we are getting reports. It could be just people seeing the glow. The glow is everywhere. Do you have a second for a full pan . Steve, is that possible . Its just every direction you look you see smoke and orange glow, the incredible sunrise. We settled down in one place and look another direction we want to go that way and see what is happening there. It is as if santa rosa is surrounded by fire. We heard that we have one officer tell us did he say Bennett Valley . I believe he said Bennett Valley is on fire. He said north santa rosa including neighborhoods have been impacted. We can see hill sides that have flames. Its everywhere. As cal fire said, this fire made a hard push into santa rosa. It almost feels like you dont know which way to go and which way to evacuate. I can see the cars going in several different directions. Boy, it is just tough to look at that. We appreciate you guys being so mobile and giving us all the really specific information. This is so important to people at home. We will continue to check in with you, amy. I believe we want to go to sky 7 now and also there in santa rosa, noah if you can hear me can you give us a better location. Earlier we were above 101 and highway 12. Is it still in that area . We are trying to figure out exactly where this what we are looking at here from sky 7. Do we have an idea . This is in and around the area of santa rosa. A little further from the city center. You can see structures still on fire. You saw this earlier this morning where some of the lands surrounding the structures was not on fire but the structures themselves perhaps because of the embers traveling with the wind gusts throughout the morning. Yes. This is the eastern side of santa rosa coming from our news room. This is what you are looking at now, the eastern side of santa rosa. You can see dots here as we zoom out where the structures are burning. And i was saying before that we had a gentleman on the phone who lives in santa rosa and if you are familiar with the area where amy was on bicentennial way, that is not far from where there is a hilton and they have a red round barn. And the gentleman on the phone and a friend of mine have been sending me messages that that landmark is on fire. There are concerns about a couple of hotels that are right near that area. You heard amy say the k mart was on fire and the strip of shops where she is on bicentennial and range avenue also on fire now. We are seeing from sky 7 some areas that are less populated and then areas that are very close to Population Centers we are talking about many apartment buildings and homes that are threatened. And you mentioned that k mart we believe sththat is the one o cleveland avenue. That is a pretty large swath of the northern part of the city populated area of santa rosa that is experiencing those structure fires right in and around that area near the Kaiser Hospital. And the scene that we are seeing throughout the north bay as we continue looking at sky 7 and the thick smoke that is emminating all around the bay area and in the north bay it is just even hard to see right now anything because there is just so much smoke in the air. You can see an isolated patch in the center of your screen what may be another structure burning. Once again it seems like patches but that may be due to the heavy wind where some of the structures are just catching on fire and the winds have blown up to 80 Miles Per Hour earlier this morning is what mike nicco was telling us earlier. Very strong winds and it has fuelled this fire and in such an unpredictable manner that evacuations were occurring rapidly throughout the night especially when it was dark. At last check this fire at 0 containment. Our folks at sky 7 just by their count just looking at the scope that they have there, they believe that there are at least 30 homes that are destroyed. That they can just see from their Vantage Point. Thats just a small area. Keep in mind how smoky it is and they are not able to see everything clearly. They are counting 30 homes perhaps that are gone. Remember, we are also at a Mobile Home Park for seniors this morning which appears to be mostly if not totally destroyed. And thats just what we have been able to see in a short amount of time that there has been light this morning. We are very concerned about that. If you are just joining us here on the air or live stream we are getting this information that has changed throughout the morning. Because we were in an emergency situation where people were just trying to evacuate there are no numbers that we know of. 20,000 was the number we got about two hours ago and this fire continued to rage. We know from Tiffany Wilson that about 300 people are at one evacuation shelter and that is just one shelter. You can imagine the hundreds if not thousands of people that are needing shelter right now and then obviously the thousands of people that are going to be impacted in some way or another whether it is their work or their homes that have gone up in flames this morning. Of course, sky 7 will stay up there for us. Want to show you what it looks like on the ground again. Amy hollyfield is located closer to the Business District of santa rosa just outside of the downtown of santa rosa and this is on bicentennial way and range. And this gives you an idea of what they are dealing with there. She just spoke to a Business Owner who was in contact with the Fire Department and as you can see they are there. Can you imagine how thinly stretched they are this morning. They have been doing an amazing job of showing up to locations. Earlier amy was at the Kaiser Hospital which isnt too far from where this is and they had a fire that was very close to one of the entrances to kaiser and the Fire Department was able to put that out because they were in evacuation mode to get their critically ill patients out of the hospital and into safety. You can see how big the flames are and how out of control this fire is. We know that there is a cannabis shop there and a gun store there. This may go without saying but there are resources coming into the north bay from all over the state and here from the bay area we just got a update from marin county fire. They have 22 engines, 5 ambulances there. The resources are now beginning to pour in and as we do have day light they are able to send up helicopter crews and try to fight this massive fire. There are multiple fires burning all along the north bay in four different counties this morning, those crews are able to get up and hopefully try to at least have some containment. The stories here that we have been hearing, those are from the people having to wake up in the middle of the night, grab whatever they can get and get out of there. They have been talking to us under extraordinary circumstances. Tiffany wilson live in napa at Evacuation Center at Crosswalk Community church. Reporter you are absolutely right. So many people being generous with time and stories when they dont know if they have a home to go home to. It is remarkable to see the incredible resilience of the people here in napa. As you pointed out it is day light and people have been waiting for this because all night long they thought once the tankers can start working the fire and maybe my neighborhood will be safe, maybe my house will be safe. We have seen a couple of helicopters go by. It is the tankers that can make a dent in the fire. Now that it is morning the exhaustion is just catching up with people inside. Overnight we saw a lot of shock and people who were numb, some crying, but now you just see the exhaustion. Most of them have not slept or maybe slept an hour or two overnight and now are facing the reality of a very long day ahead of them with little to no information. There are a couple of tvs inside and people are absolutely glued, hungry for any information about what neighborhood might have been hit and what neighborhood might have been spared. One of the evacuees to meet is dr. Larry hosener. You live in the avenues along napa. Tell me about your evacuation experience. We live on the eastern part of town called the avenues. We had neighbors came and woke us up. We took a look outside and saw some flames probably still a few miles away but with the winds going we knew things could spread quickly so we just grabbed some photographs and computer backups and took off and came over to the shelter. I went by my office to pick up some medications in case there were supplies that may be needed here. Paramedics have been on stand by for any emergencies. We do anticipate a lot of respiratory problems from this. Reporter and thats just it. Evacuees have been told to wear masks outside and stay inside preferably because there is a lot of smoke in the air. You are a respiratory physician. What is the best thing people can do right now . If you are not being evacuated just stay indoors and dont go outside. If you need to be out, have a mask, n 95 mask. If you can get out of the area all together so much the better. A lot of people have increases in flare ups of asthma, copd and Heart Disease can be affected by inhaling these small particles deep into the lungs. Reporter what are the risk signs that you may need to seek treatment for smoke inhalation . What should people watch out for . Certainly persistent coughing or shortness of breath. People should seek treatment particularly if they have an underlying respiratory condition. Reporter i know you have asthma inhalers with you to help in case of anyone you come across. What precautions are you taking yourself . Myself, im just i feel pretty safe. I dont know when and if i will be able to get back to my home, but we have lots of support and people that will be around for us. The community is coming together in this crisis. Reporter and just talk to me about the exhaustion. I know you have been up all night long. We are now getting into the point of the day where most people would be waking up and instead this is when reality is hitting. Personally, there is still a lot of adrenaline going on. I think at some point we will crash and burn. Im answering texts from friends and family and my office staff and trying to keep everything going. You know, i imagine this is going to be days rather than hours before anyone will be able to leave and go back home. Reporter we wish you the best. Thank you dr. Posener for talking to us. One of the roughly 300 evacuees here are here at crosswalk church. They have been open all night long. So many powerful stories of friends helping friends, neighbors waking neighbors letting them know you have to go. If you can register for the alerts. Its been the neighbors that really have come in so strongly here. Back to you. Thank you. Tiffany wilson reporting from napa. Now we check in with Amy Hollyfield in santa rosa where people are being evacuated and has more information. That fire is raging behind you. Reporter i want to describe to you what was happening. We heard so many pops. It was all the ammunition going off, rounds and rounds, hundreds of them. This is a gun shop on fire here on bicentennial way and range avenue. So that was alarming and very dramatic. I also have battalion chief cox with me. We were talking about how the wind died and there is a big gust so you guys are not getting help from the weather. This fire is just very much a winddriven fire right now. We are still seeing gusts making the fire behavior erratic. Reporter right before that gust it had died down for a while. You say in the hills it was a different story. There are still significant winds in the hills. With the changing of nighttime to daytime we are seeing change in temperatures and humidities, as well, which will only add a little more complexity. If anything you are about to get busier. We have a Large Resource order to get more resources here to get containment on the fire. This fire is just a winddriven event. Really our number one priority still continues to be life safety and getting people out of harms way and making gains where we can using the strategies to do it as safely and effectively. Reporter i think we need to get out of here. Look at the black smoke coming our way. We are getting water coming our way hitting the camera and lots of black smoke. Let me send it to you so we can get to a safe spot. Now from abc 7 live breaking news. We want amy to be careful. We have been covering breaking news nonstop since 11 00 last night. There are wildfires burning in at least five counties. We have at least six fires burning actively. Napa and sonoma counties are hardest hit. If you are watching santa rosa to show you how widespread the fire is there. 20,000 acres. Here is a view from sky 7 that we havent seen yet. It looks like they are over what appears to be or at least was a large development. Wow. And there are certainly a lot of patches there which appear to be structures burning right now and this is a situation that we are daling with. People are just trying to flee their homes. Alexis has been watching roadways for us as congestion builds up as people are trying to leave particularly in the santa rosa area. We have major road closures. I got a tweet from someone in the Sonoma County area and said they have had a tough time sorting out what roads are closed and what roads are open. It is fluid and confusing. Im doing the best i can to keep you updated on the latest. Alexis abc 7 on twitter. Still westbound 37 still fully clos closed. And the wind has been a huge factor this morning. It is really what fuelled these flames erratically all morning long and made it uncertainty for so many people. Once those embers get up in the winds gusting nearly 80 Miles Per Hour they could have landed anywhere and they did. And that is why you have spot fires that they cant get to all of them because there are so many of them. Then the wind hits them and they spread and then they give off more embers. If anybody is watching us in shelter right now or if you are thinking about evacuating my parents went through this two years ago. I have been talking to my mom. She wishes you be safe and you will be surprised with all the help strangers will be offering you and dont be proud. Dont be too proud to take that because you will be in a daze and confused and not thinking correctly right now. You take that help. You take it without reservation and dont worry about repaying it because someday you will repay it in some other way. She said get in contact with your insurance as soon as possible. Try to take your important papers with you. And if you need to get psychological help. Some important tips there from unfortunately your parents who have gone through this and in hind sight can offer some of those tips and pieces of advice for people that right now are just in shock that they are having to leave their homes. Can i interrupt . People are watching and want to know where this is. This is in sage hiarrow. This is in santa rosa. Sorry to interrupt. I want to let people know because they want to know specifically what they are looking at. I apologize we werent able to mention that before. This is just the beginning for you. It has been two years now and my parents are still not 100 and may never be 100 back to where they were before the fire but materially theyre almost 100 back. That gives you an idea it took nearly two years to get back all the things they lost. Thankfully my mom had pictures and receipts and documents to do that. This will effect you for the next year or two. Absolutely. Hundreds if not thousands of people being effected. On your right here on your screen are fires still burning. There was one in berkeley hills. We want to recap the information we do know. The fires have effected hundreds if not thousands of people. There are Evacuation Centers set up. The biggest fires are burning in napa and sonoma counties this morning. They are the hardest hit. Right now napa county border has scorched about 20,000 acres. And at this moment we are told zero percent containment. Dozens of homes have been destroyed. Sky 7 spotted at least 30 homes that were burning in eastern santa rosa and that is only a small piece of land that we were able to see. People all over the bay area can smell smoke. Its billowing down from the fires all across the bay area. Napa county officials plan to hold a briefing at 9 00 this morning in the next hour they will give us an update on the conditions. Right now we also have schools that are closed. Many School Districts are closed and Evacuation Orders are rolling on the bottom of your screen. If you are wondering if you have an Evacuation Order where you are you need to get out of there if you are feeling like you are in harm pfs way the best advics to seek shelter. We have that information on the bottom of the screen. I should let you know that i dont think we talked about this about the mandatory evacuations in roanoek park . No. Earlier there were no mandatory evacuations. Mandatory evacuations for g and h sections. They are talking about the Evacuation Centers closing in roanoak park. Earlier it wasnt the case and now it is. You are looking at journeys end Mobile Home Park. It has burned to the ground. That park is specifically for seniors ages 55 and up. We didnt see anyone when we got there other than firefighters. So we are very much hoping that everyone is okay. We did get confirmation that there were some injuries from the Mobile Home Park from firefighters. We are hoping they are minor injuries. What you are looking at here this is from Kaiser Hospital earlier this morning patients were evacuated as flames got closer to the hospital at least two bus loads of patients were taken to the kaiser in san rafael, some of the more critical loaded oen to bamblances. It is now shut down and closed as well as sutter hospital in santa rosa. At least 300 evacuees staying at Crosswalk Community church in napa serving as Evacuation Center. People are advising to stay indoors at Evacuation Centers because of the significant smoke. I should add that you should not be going to this particular shelter any longer because they are full. People are complaining of scratchy throats, tightness in their chest. Some people having trouble reaching their families because we understand cell service is at a minimal right now. Communication is very limited. Napa and sonoma counties. We have info on Evacuation Centers that are open on the bottom of your screen and by going to our website and news app you see articles that have all centers listed. As that particular center is closed i can tell you that Napa Valley College was opened immediately after that Crosswalk Community church was closed down. They opened up Napa Valley College. That is a safe place to go if you are watching us from napa. As we take a look at sky 7 here, staggering to look at that. That is not fog. That is smoke rising up from all of the wildfires and it is going to be difficult for not only people to drive through the bay area and just have any sort of visibility but then, of course, we have countless roads that are closed. We sure do. It has been a lot to keep up with here this morning. Definitely working on making sure that the latest is being updated online and on the air here, as well. I want to zoom in on our traffic maps. The latest that we definitely have confirmed eastbound state route 37 is back open even though we are not quite seeing that reflected on our traffic maps. You can travel eastbound on 37 between 101 and interstate 80. The westbound side continues to be closed. This is because we have a large fire in sears point area. There is no estimate on when we get tet w back open. Lakeville highway northbound lanes are back open. We are hearing that local traffic out of sonoma from 116 trying to get out of that area you can take lakeville highway southbound and then eastbound on 37. This is local traffic only. If you are not in the area dont go here for any reason. We have closures out of napa between napa and sonoma. State route 12 is closed between 121 and old sonoma road due to another fire. We have 128 closed at tubs lane just to the west of the area. 101 is closed between bicentennial and northwest springs in both directions. Just want to read a tweet. 101 south starting to move. Saw grid lock for about 15 miles. Said hundreds of emergency vehi lescle prengsirtno an apoc obviously, we have a ton of help on the way for the north bay fire and police communities. Its just going to be a really long day and avoid the area if you dont have to be on the roads definitely stay off of them. Thank you. Right now coming in brand new this morning the mayor of santa rosa just releasing a statement about the emergency situation there. Mayor chris coursy saying the magnitude of the fire is sinking in and writes quote i hope we can each take a moment to reach out to friends and neighbors. It is in these difficult times that we most need our community to hold us up. He shared information about Evacuation Centers and shelters and that information is scrolling on the bottom of your screen. It is also available on our website, abc7news. Com and on our abc 7 news app. I want to bring in daniel. Where do you live in the city . I live over in south grove. It is a little section just on the other side of where the journeys end trailer park is. You know it is pretty much demolished as a result of the fire this morning. Are you at home right now . No. About 1 00 a. M. My father, firefighter over 30 years stayed behind to fight the fires. We thank you for that. He and his neighbor who we had legal battles with are fighting the fires. Just recently the oakland fire chief came by and started helping them. As the were doing this i cant believe our neighbors their back deck was on fire. When you say they are fighting the fires, was your home up in flames as you left this morning or was it just surrounding area . What was the viewike there in the neighborhood . When we left all we could see was orange glow on the horizon. There was a huge car fire on the highway as we were driving. There was liquid oil on fire. As we were driving down we could see the skyline orange and flames lining all the hills to our east. And you said you are in petaluma. Are you at an Evacuation Center . We were lucky enough to get a hotel. And the fires are still ragelingiraging and still fighting the fire. They are fighting the fire with garden hoses right now. I can hear the fear in your voice. What is the mood like where you are now . Are there several evacueewise you at that hotel . The hotel has been asking regular guests to make more room. The lobby is full to the brim with evacuees, people trying to hold out and find out what is going on. Im definitely em iional roll as my family and neighbors are all at hotel room right now. My father and neighbors and houses are okay. Our neighbors couldnt get their stuff. We wish you the best and your father and all the people there in santa rosa and we hope that you are safe this morning. He is in petaluma, one of the areas that have shelters set up. He sounds like he is safe there inside the hotel. That has been the case throughout the morning. People going to wherever they could to find a safe place. We told you there were two hospitals evacuated this morning in santa rosa including the kaiser that we had a lot of live shots from. I want to talk to you about a different hospital. This is queen of the Valley Hospital in napa. They are having an issue having to do with communication. They are unable to reach a lot of physicians and staff because Cell Phone Service is so spotty. So they have asked us to ask anyone who can hear us who works at the hospital as a physician or nurse to please call them as soon as possible. Their number is 7072524411 extension 2911. If you are a physician at the hospital queen of the valley please call into work. They need people urgently and are trying to get ahold of you. We have heard about cell phone issues earlier this morning because our reporter Tiffany Wilson told us. That adds to the fear that people are already feeling. They are anxious about their homes and their family members and then you add the Cell Phone Service problem on top of it. How are things there now . Reporter absolutely, Cell Phone Service continues to remain very, very spotty. I want to let everyone know if you are trying to reach a loved one a text message seems to be the best way to communicate. We have had problems all morning long really not all morning but in the past couple of hours with cell phones trying to put a call through. For some reason text mess mgs have been getting through. Now, as you can see it is a little bit after 8 00. People are starting to wake up and drinking coffee. Some of the Neighborhood Restaurants and bakeries have dropped off breakfast burritos and food for the evacuees here at the shelter. One of the evacuees and her son, you evacuated from one of the nearby hotels. What was your experience . It was very scary around 4 00 in the morning they started knocking on everybodys doors and saying there was a mandatory evacuation. We thought it was a building on fire because there was no information. We found out it was a wildfire so we grabbed what we had and right away we didnt know where to go. We just started calling 911 to see where to go. Reporter you have your little one with you. It is pretty scary. We were all sleeping. I wrapped him with blankets. This is not your first home. You live in miami, florida. Hurricane au Hurricane Irma was at your door step. We moved up to orlando from miami at that time. Reporter your house at that point was spared. From here on out what is your game plan today . Today i dont know. I guess i will head down to San Francisco. They said it is safe to go there. I was planning to go there anyway tomorrow. I have a conference to go to. I guess we will just do it a little bit earlier. Thank you for speaking with me. Absolutely adoorablerable. I want viewers to look behind me. This is facing the west in the sky. It is blue. You can see the clouds over there. Now we are going to turn about 180 degrees. This is to the east where the sun is just rising and it is a hazy, hazy horizon. At times the sun is completely obscured by the smoke. Right now it is just scarlett red. All around it orange and this thick heavy smoke. Even though we are not in the fire zone it is smoky here. We have had ash coming down on us overnight. Evacuees are being urged to either stay inside or wear masks because you may not think you are in heavy smoke but the air quality here is very poor. So just from one side of the lens to the other complete difference and at this point people dont know when the air qualit is going to get better. Wow. You see that huge orange glow is the scene so many people are waking up to. This is a little further northwest of napa where we just heard from Tiffany Wilson. This is from sky 7. You can see that it is also burning. It was one of the centers of the fire in the very beginning when we knew it to just be a couple Hundred Acres. Supervisor from napa county saying Petrified Forest was an area of concern. It went from a couple Hundred Acres to more than 20,000 acres. I know we keep showing you maps of multiple fires, perhaps up to six fires that are burning right now. It is a little hard to tell where one fire ends and the next begins. Thats true. It seems like the entire north bay is on fire right now. Im sure that is what folks are feeling especially as they are trying to find a safe place to go. We had been reporting from santa rosa which is just southwest of where we are looking at right now. What is on your screen is calistoga. Look at the plume of smoke coming into the air. This is just one area. And then you add it all together and you can see hazy skies clear across even all the way through San Francisco. People waking up like you to smelling smoke. I didnt wake up to it. When i walked out of my home in San Francisco i thought the fire is near San Francisco. But it is further north. Thats how far this thing is reaching. I was really having trouble breathing as im sure a lot of people were. I thought my home was perhaps on fire and then i looked at my phone and realized that it was coming from the north bay. That is how intense it is. Of course, we are seeing a lot of area that isnt populated by many homes or businesses. Let me assure you, we have been watching as many developments and also commercial areas have been destroyed this morning. And also a couple of hospitals that have had to evacuate because there has been such a concern about their patients. So this is effecting forested area and wineries and Population Centers. That is where a lot of our focus is this morning. Absolutely. Everyone in the bay area is familiar with napa, sonoma counties because of the wineries and putting the bay area on the map in that regard and this is going to have such a wide reaching effect for so many people and their livelihoods here in the bay area. This is a look here from the east bay hills and you can see that it is barely able to make out the bridge there and here is a look at San Francisco from our tower camera. And it is very hazy. Hard to make out the bay bridge there. Thats why this will have such a far reaching effect throughout the day even if you are not in the north bay. Have we said how much it is contained or have they changed it . Still 0 percent as far as we know. Burning uncontrollably, putting out smoke like there is no tomorrow with no end in sight and the winds continue to blow from north to south. Everybody in the south bay is getting a lot more tweets from the south bay than from anywhere else. It seems like it fly reacd you i and your pallet and not very good. It tastes terrible and smells terrible and makes everything look bad. The thing that is going to be the worst is the fact that it is just going to be dangerous. Still gusting to 44 Miles Per Hour. At least that is better than the 80 Miles Per Hour we had earlier. We were close to it just down the road. 19 in atlas peak. Oakland hills gusting around 23. Same thing at the pass. That is in the hills and the mountains. In the valleys you see a little bit of relief. Napa is only 6. Santa rosa 10. Fairfield gusting to 32. That is all pointing down basically to the south. That is where the force of the air quality is starting to move. So the winds are driving this. Environmental winds gusting to 50 Miles Per Hour. Not only did they down tree branches and power lines, they cause this to spread. Also what is called the chimney effect. Quickly spreads up the hills due to the fact that hot air rises. Lowers its level of combustion and then burns up the hill. Once it gets to the ridge top it runs into the winds that also feed it unlimited oxygen and then they take the embers and ridge jump. That is what we have been seeing all morning. We have so many fires out there that are so spread out throughout all those valleys and hard places to reach that the fire men, Police Officers, First Responders cant get to it. These winds are going to taper. Weather service says by 11 00. Let me show you what is happening in santa rosa. This is where they taper the quickest. You can see in the valley tshi is from the airport forecast that shows gusts around ten Miles Per Hour to 15 possibly all the way through 1 00. Much lighter and even with the heating of the day we may get a little wind shift to the southwest. That would be nice because that would pull in humidity off the bay. Humidity levels are running less than 20 up there. Unfortunately in napa and towards sonoma you can see your gusts are faster around 20 to 25 through 10 00 up to about 13 by 1 00. You may see a little wind shift to the west, much calmer wind. What that does for the air quality is you are not going to vent the nastiness that you see. It is more likely going to stay in your neighborhoods and keep your air quality unhealthy for everybody. Its the most dangerous air quality i have seen in more than a decade across the north bay. Severe in the north bay. Severe coast and central bay. That means pretty much all of the San Francisco bay. Inland east bay, South Central bay still doing okay as far as air quality. Watch as we go throughout the rest of the morning and into the afternoon hours you can see those winds definitely taper as the cold front that started all this, the dry cold front that went through last night with the strong northeast winds on the back of it move on through. One last graphic to show you. Even when the winds subside later this morning into early afternoon hours the fire danger continues until 5 00 in the morning for the dry air that is going to be out there. Tons to talk about on the roads. Here is alexis. Lets get to the latest with our closures. We have the eastbound side of state route 37 back open. The westbound side remains closed and we have no estimate on when we get that side of the wray ba roadway back open. State route 116 fully open southbound. Coming from petaluma trying to get to 37 that is now an option for you. Southbound to eastbound 37 will get you out of the north bay and that could be faster. 17 Miles Per Hour as you head into the area. Full closure of 101 continues between bicentennial and northwest springs road. We dont know how long those are gong to last. Golden gate transit has been cancelled. Smart train cancelled and Sonoma County Transit Bus Service cancelled out of the north bay. Back to you. Oh, you brought butch. Yeah butch growls at man hes looking at me right now, isnt he . Yup. butch barks at man butch is like an old soul that just hates my guts. laughs vo you can never have too many faithful companions. Introducing the allnew crosstrek. Love is out there. Find it in a subaru crosstrek. Do you want to do a monster check . Yes. No monsters. How about the drawer . No monsters. Nightly monster checks are how grant makes home his. And homegoods is what makes it all possible. Amazing finds. Always great prices. Make home yours. Its time for our fall sale on the only bed that adjusts on your sleep number setting. Omfort does your bed do that . And right now queen sleep number beds start at just 699. Save 200. With free Home Delivery on select beds only during our fall sale. Ends monday. Now from abc 7 live breaking news. We have been watching breaking news since late last night on the air since 11 00 p. M. Sending out push alerts and giving you the latest information about the fires that continue to burn. Right now live look from sky 7 just one of the many fires burning and you see a structure there that is on fire that has been the case throughout the morning. You have seen a lot of spot fires even as surrounding wild area is not burning. We have seen structures burning but then so much land being affected. Our latest number that we have at least 20,000 acres being affected by wildfires. And zero percent contained. They are going to continue tapering over the next several hours. The winds will become less and less of an issue. Temperatures mid 80s and humidity still bone dry. There is still a high there are so many closures due to the fire. 101 fully closed. Westbound 37 closed over to the vallejo area. State route 121 and state route 12 we have a ton in the north bay. So many fires in the north bay and the two hardest affected areas at least from what we know at this point are sonoma and napa counties and in napa that is where we find abc 7 News Reporter Laura Anthony in napa. Reporter im in napa county. The eastern part of the county. This is olive hill lane. We have seen fire activity all over this area just beyond me a hill side just burned through. There were firefighters a few minutes ago. We have unfortunately seen several homes, as well. Lets show you some of the video we shot just a short time ago as we were driving in here this morning. We have seen at least three or four homes that have burned completely it appears. Unfortunately, the homes we have seen burn are just east of where im standing. We have seen a lot of fire activity here but also a lot of fire crews. We have seen free mont, all of them up here trying to fight fires that are sporadic. They are all over the place left and right. Lets hear from some of the residents who have had a very difficult night. There was fire, all the trees were on fire. Thank goodness they were able to station in this area and get the fire under control especially with theukelipsis trees. Reporter trying to keep your water on . As much water as possible. We have a couple of 3,500 gallon tanks here. There are neighbors with other tanks that we can allow water to be used. We are just doing everything we can to maintain moisture. This area got shorted in a short time. One moment it was completely on the other side the hill and next thing you know it is this side of the hill. We have been awake since like midnight. We got the warnings and the advisories and we came out and we were watching it all night. This property went up about 2 30 in the morning all the way across there. The tail end of it is right there. This whole hill burned but it back in 1964 when the fire came through it burned it out. There was really no fuel for it. And so that is kind of what has protected us here in this way. That is the way the fire was blowing. Reporter we are back live here. The hill side was completely on fire that is to the west of olive hill lane where i am standing. We are east of silverado trail between hagan road and the trail p. Complicating matters here is there is very little communication. No cell signal. Electricity completely out. We have run into a number of residents asking us what is going on because they have no communication, no cell, no electricity so just trying to figure out what is going on. In the meantime there is fire everywhere. We have seen crews from all over the bay area up here trying to help out. As sun is coming up i think people are getting an idea of the gravity of the situation, the number of locations where there is still active fire. Live in napa county, Laura Anthony, abc 7 news. Our colleague is live for us this morning in Sonoma County. And what are you seeing there . Looks like the house is gone. Reporter reggie, this is unbelievable. The sun is up. We are getting the first view of complete and utter devastation. We are on sylvia drive off of highway 12. We are unglen in glen ellen. This neighborhood is gone. At least a dozen to a half dozen homes here on sylvia drive off of highway 12 destroyed by this monster fire. You are seeing a gas line there hat has ruptured. To the left we have a fire place. That is all that is left of this home. Behind we have an above ground pool that is still full of water. Everyone told to evacuate overnoilth. We are not seeing anyone here but we see cars in drive ways. We see ruptured gas lines pretty much everywhere. We have homes destroyed to the left, to the right of us, across the highway as well. The wind is still very fierce. We have active fire burning on the hills all around us really. And we are going to talk to kimber kimberly hughes. How is your home . You dont live in this neighborhood. How is your place . We are not sure. We evacuated a few hours ago. The house was fine when we left. We saw a wall of fire in the canyons kind of heading in our direction but hard to tell. Really steep area. Hard to know if it will get there. You said this began overnight with fire and wind. The winds were howling. I think a power line went down and sparks and fires and the wind was so ferocious. Reporter you have your dog here. He seems very calm. What did you do . How fast did you get out of your home . We dlinter about the fire until quite a bit later after it started so we packed up things around 4 00 this morning and drove down the hill and went through a fire area, had to clear a lot of debris and branches off the road in order to get cars out. Checked in on our neighbors. They seemed to be fine. They were packing up and trying to evacuate. So. Do you remember a fire like this in wine country . I dont. I know there have been pretty bad fires middle town and there were fires here maybe 100 years ago but not in recent memory. Reporter you said you know the street. You look at it now and there is really nothing left here. What are your thoughts here . It is devastating. It is so devastating. Im sure these people are just homeless now. Reporter you said there was no official Evacuation Order because you had no communication. You had no phone. You had no power. Our power went out. They rely on pumps and wells. We did have battery operated radio. We didnt hear an official warning sign or a siren or anything. No one came to your door. No. Everyone lives pretty far out off the main roads. Reporter what did you take with you besides your dog . Dog, car, computer. What do you put in the car . A little bit of food and water and a shovel and gloves which were helpful when we remove trees from the road on the way down. Reporter stay safe and we hope you get back into your home soon. We noticed a lot of down power lines coming up here today. It was a very slow go. We came up from marin county. There was a mass exodus leaving the valley of the moon. People trying to get away. We saw people as far south of navado who evacuated places like santa rosa because they werent sure how far the fire would spread. The wind still super fierce here. Im getting ash in my eye about every second here. We are going to venture into this neighborhood and see what else we can find and then venture to the north, as well. We are live in Sonoma County. Before we let you go i know that you are going to go further into the neighborhood, but apart from kimberly, have you seen other people trying to see what is left of their homes . Are there people Walking Around . Reporter yeah, you know, there are road blocks and chp are keeping people out of the neighborhood. So far we have not seen anyone other than firefighters and kimberly who just lives right up the hill so she is really inside this cordoned off area. Its a ghost town here besides the complete devastation. We havent seen anybody. But we did see emergency vehicles passing up and down highway 12. We stopped in briefly because there was a fire burning across the street from cal fire fire station. I went inside to try to get information. There was not a soul inside the fire station. It is as though everyone left in a moments notice to fight these fires obviously. Active fire burning to the north, to the south of us. We see a fire truck on highway 12 surveying this situation. As kimberly said hot spots and she said it all happened so fast. The winds blowing 50, 60 Miles Per Hour burning these embers and just creating this inferno through the neighborhood. And it went very, very fast. Perhaps good that you are seeing anyone there because of the hot spots that we still are able to see. That ash almost looks like snow covering the ground but instead that is ash from the fires. Hope everyone was able to get out in the middle of the night. It is a dicy situation. We go to Amy Hollyfield now in santa rosa. Last time we saw amy that smoke was getting black and going right for you. Reporter we had to take a break. We were consumed with smoke. A lot of wind kicked up and we couldnt breathe. We had to sneak into our news van for a while. Now we push forward north a little more and found more destruction. Some people in santa rosa will be interested to know what this fire has done. This is the applebees. It is gone. Next to it is the arbys . We have apple bees, arbys and mcdonalds. All three of them gone. Here comes a fire truck to survey. Then we have a taco bell also in the parking lot that is okay. It made it. Then we had a lot of people asking us about the kohls. We did hear that k mart is on fire. Kohls Department Store is okay. You see the awning in the parking lot has damage. Three restaurants are gone. It is moky but the wind has died down. Look at the sun and the color of it. It gives you an idea of how much smoke is here in santa rosa it is just amazing what has happened here. We will keep pushing further north to see what else the fire has done here. We want to show you the restaurants next to highway 101. We are on the west side of the highway. The hospital that we showed you evacuating earlier is on the east side. This fire jumped the highway and did all of this damage here on the west side of highway 101. We dont see any cars on 101. I dont see any traffic on there right now. Reporting live from Santa Rosa Amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. It is like a post apocalyptic view. The businesses represent so many peoples livevelihoods. Those are their jobs and businesses they own. It is hard to recognize that that is wine country. We have been checking with in Tiffany Wilson at one of theurst if Evacuation Centers to open this morning at Crosswalk Community church in napa. These people have been up all night. Reporter this Evacuation Center opened at 11 00 last night. One of the first was mr. Mills. You went to the safeway open yesterday and that is when you noticed the wind. Talk to me what it was like. We were on one of the holes and there was an area that was a dried area and not much grass there. The wind would pick up and blow it and the golfers were waiting to tee off and they would have to wait for the wind to die down. It was just a tremendous amount of wind. Reporter that wind has reeked havoc on fires spreading it so quickly. What did you see from your home last night . We saw the helicopter go over. We saw the kplums of red smoke. Then not far after that the fire trucks came and had us all evacuated. When you were trying to evacuate you had a problem at the end of your drive way. There was a large oak tree and it was partially blocking the drive way. Good thing it wasnt blocking the whole drive way. It was blocking the drive way and part of the road. We were able to scoot around it. Reporter at that point you went to the Neighborhood Grocery store and you said the smoke was just unbelievably difficult to catch a breath. We stopped there just because our neighbors told us. That is when we realized how much smoke and fire must be going on because it was hard to breathe and hurting my eyes. Reporter you have been here all night long. Talk to me about what is going through your mind these hours and hours of not knowing. We are nervous about what we are going to find out about our house mostly. Its hard to sleep. It is hard to deal with. Reporter i know there are some tvs. People are trying to get news, desperate for information. There has been rumors going around. How have you been trying to deal with that . Mostly on my phone i have been texting my sister and my mom and talking to them. Im kind of afraid to look at the news on the tv. Reporter you dont want foosee something that you recognize especially if it is your house. True. Reporter what is your game plan from here . Some people we have seen leave Evacuation Center. Others are staying. We havent talked about it. We will play it by ear. We want to go downtown and get a good cup of coffee and find out if we can find out any other information about what is going on. Reporter appreciate your time and sharing your story. They are trying to do the best they can with coffee and food that people have dropped off. Some of the small creature comforts that people are looking forward to on what has been a devastating night and to continue as an even more devastating day. Tiffany wilson, abc 7 news. We feel for them so much. Thank you for bringing us those stories. You are watching from sky 7 live pictures over Sonoma County this morning. If you are just joining us it is 8 47. We have been on the air since late last night watching this fire explode from just a couple Hundred Acres to now at least 20,000 acres and the news is that this isnt contained at all. 0 containment. Firefighters have incredible day in front of them. Withhe light now they are able to see better how far this fire has spread. They are also able to put up helicopters in the air to fight the fire from the air and not just the ground. Of course, they called in backup resources from as far away as possible. We have heard this morning of firefighters who live in the area who have taken out garden hoses to try to protect their homes and 40e78z of people who live in the neighborhood while their families evacuated to safer places. People are in Hotels Across the north bay. Those hotels will be hard to find now so they are going to shelters like the one you just saw Tiffany Wilson. Those Evacuation Centers have opened up throughout the north bay. Some of them have closed because those areas have become evacuated or because they have reached capacity which is the case with the one tiffany is standing next to in napa. This fire has already consumed so much land. Right now you are not looking at a very populated area. I can tell you we have watched buildings be consumed by the fire. We have seen an entire neighborhood of mobile homes go up in flames. That is a senior mobile home facility. We have seen the fire get close to hospitals in the area. Two hospitals in santa rosa have been evacuated as a result. Other hospitals are having a very difficult time communicating to get the staff to come in at this point. Of course, we have major road closures and major backups as people are trying to leave the area and get to safety. Mike nicco has been monitoring the weather conditions including the humidity. Spoiler alert, there is none. It is bon dry. You can hear it in a lot of peoples voices. You can feel it just trying to breathe the air that the smoke, low humidity is getting to all of us. We are looking at sky 7 over the fire. Once they reach ridge tops it gets most concerning because they can get caught up in the breezes and ridge jump or jump into a valley where chimney effect takes over where the rising heat and gases dry the other vegetation as they rise and make it more susceptible to combustion and then you just see the valleys go up quickly as it then creates its own weather as it sucks in the air from the surrounding areas as the warm air rises and then that changes the weather patterns. And then those changing weather patterns are what can push the embers maybe a different direction than what you expected. Anywhere you see orange you need to be careful if you can see it that close because you can have ridge jumpers out there. I have been taking a look at the current air quality conditions. They have actually improved. We expect them to improve a little bit once the sun came up because the air would start mixing out as the sun warmed the ground the air would start rising to a deeper depth into the sky instead of being compressed down at the lower levels. We still have pretty much unhealthy air just about everywhere outside of the south bay but its not excuse me as dangerous as it was earlier. It is still unhealthy. If you have a respirator continue to wear it. If you are thinking about buying one make sure 2. 5 microns or better is the respirator you want. Not all pres operarespirators ae same. The winds are starting to calm a little bit. The air is starting to rise a little bit and that is a benefit. Unfortunately, we still dont see helicopters or air tankers in this shot from sky 7 which is going to have to be one of the best ways to fight it because this is in a very hilly mountainous terrain. It will be hard to get to all the hot spots. We will be checking in throughout the morning. We have on the phone now just what mike was talking about, the particles in the air, the smoke we are breathing. And dr. John vamos is joining us. Thank you for being with us to help us through this. A lot of us are worried about what we are breathing in. You should be especially if you have asthma or chronic bronchitis or emphysema because both with be exacerbated by breathing in the fine particles that were just described that come from wildland fire smoke. Can you talk to us about what the best precaution is today if you areinak be out and about . Because this is so wide reaching. We can smell it even here in eth studio in san franciscfrancisco i smelled it when i powoke u people should stay inside as much as possible. If they have air conditioning turn it on with the windows closed. Thats the way to avoid breathing in the emission. If you have to go outside, again, if you have a preexisting respiratory condition or cardiac condition you should wear a fine particulate respirator. And exercising increases your minute ventilation, how much you breathe in. And you tend to breathe in through your mouth when you exercise. Heavy exercise should be avoided, as well. Here in the studio we have some face masks we have been showing throughout the morning. What if you dont have one available near you or in your home . Is there any way to protect yourself or any make shift thing that you can do at home . Not really. You really need a fine particulate mask for it to have any benefit. The amount of smoke in the air at least where i am in North Berkeley isnt that bad. I actually dont think that it would be too harmful for most people to be out walking. Where the smoke is heavier, though, that is where people should be more careful. I think i heard the previous person talk about the air quality improving somewhat. I would say it has gotten better in the last few hours. When i woke up at 5 30 this morning and went outside it was really pretty bad. And, doctor, i am concerned about people who have copd or other Health Conditions that this really trigger especially those in the north bay, what should they do . The sort of official Public Health recommendation for those people with preexisting heart and lung disease is to shelter in place assuming the fire isnt coming close to them. So they should stay inside with the windows closed if possible. And the most important thing to do is to try to reduce the exposure. That is why staying inside wearing the mask, not exercising. And in general what are people looking for as far as when this is over or when their area might be clear, do you have general guidelines there as far as i know this is a fire that is zero percent contained you mentioned air quality getting a little better where you are. How do you gauge that . If you can still smell the smoke it probably means that there is more particulate in the air than we would like to have. But if people have access to the internet, the bay area air Quality Management district online you can find out the air quality by just going to their website. And the particle level that we are concerned about is 35 im sure it is well above that now but not as bad as beijing. We are relatively cleaner than most places in the world even with the fire. As the winds blow the smoke away it should get cleaner. We are all hoping and waiting for that. Thanks so much for joining us and giving us this information. It is good advice. Dont think about exercising if you are near impacted areas or if you have a preexisting condition make sure you keep windows closed. Thanks for taking the time. Sure. We continue to look at sky 7 here above the north bay. This is still actively burning wildfires. There are several fires still six active wildfires in the north bay right now as we get a glimpse from the sky of the devastation that has been left devastation that has been left behind. Get 35 off on coit Residential Cleaning Services including carpet and hardwood, tile, stone, even air ducts and window treatments. And your satisfaction is 100 guaranteed or your money back. Thats 35 off everything coit cleans. Call or click today. Thats 35 off by living off the grid. Completely. Or. Set the washing machine to cold. Do your thing. Energy upgrade california. Including carpet and hardwood, tile, stone, even air ducts and window treatments. And your satisfaction is 100 guaranteed or your money back. Thats 35 off everything coit cleans. Call or click today. Good morning. Were coming up on 9 00 a. M. Weve been on since 11 00 last night giving you the latest information on the fires severely affecting the north bay this morning. Right now the governor of california has just issued a state of emergency for both napa and sonoma counties. Those are the two hardest hit areas overnight by these wildfires, but there are also wildfires burning currently in lake county and mendocino county. We are interrupting our normally scheduled program which would be live with kelly and ryan. We apologize for that, but this is information that your neighbors and friends need today, so well be continuing our coverage of these fires for the time being. Right now we are awaiting a press conference to begin any moment now from the napa county Sheriffs Department. You can see they are not quite set up yet. This will happen in the next 5 to 10 minutes is what were being told, but of course that can change. They are actively working what is an emergency situation at this point. Still zer