And contra costa. Its massive. Burned 85,000 acres and only 5 contained. The lnu fire, that is in the napa and Sonoma County regions in the north bay. The wine country. Thats burned 46,000 the czu lightning complex, 10,000 acres, closer to the coast. More than 375 fires started across california in the past three days. A lot of those due to lightning strikes that weve had, of course, we have very hot temperatures and its so dry. B. I dont think ive seen anything quite like this. All around the bay area. Look at the nasa satellite image, just to show how widespread the fires are. Youve seen numerous fires from the north bay to the south bay, on the peninsula now. And the wind flow out of the north has generally been blowing smoke from window, im sure youve seen the smoke in the air or maybe seen ash collecting on the ground or automobiles. Heres a look at down in the south bay fires, the east bay fires and on the peninsula, you can see the images are so vivid on the nasa satellite camera. Air quality, of course, is declining all around the bay area. The yellow dots indicate moderate air quality. You wont find many locations with moderate air quality because its declining. The orange dots indicate where the air quality is so poor that it affects what we call sensitive groups, that would be people with respiratory ailments or Young Children or the elderly and then the red dots, of course, indicate unhelpful or very poor air quality. As we look farther north, even though we have fires burning up in that direction because the smoke is being blown southward, you see more of the yellow dots indicating moderate air quality but that will probably not last very long. Look at specific weather conditions near some of these fire near the la honda area. Only 30 wind gusts. Not so bad there. About 5 miles per hour. However, looking farther north now up near lake berryessa. Berre the relative humidity in the teens which is dangerously low and wind gusts are ranging from 17 to 20 miles per hour. That, of course, not only fires helps spreadll oo aosshe r region. You n see surface wind speeds are rather impressive. Weve got 15 to 25mileperhour winds generally with gusts here in San Francisco up to 32 miles per hour. And as the air quality continues to decline, look at the air quality outlook for tomorrow. Poor in the north bay, and even poorer, listed as unhealthy or unhealthful across the entire region. Spare the air day. As long as these wildfires are burning, we expect to have more spare the air days and the outlook right now calls for spare the air alerts through sunday. So even though the poorest air quality may be tomorrow, it will remain poor friday, saturday and sunday. Look at our fire danger red flag warnings up in lake port. In fact, all over lake county, parts of mendocino county. Still have a red flag warning until 9 00 a. M. Tomorrow, isolated gusty winds. A risk of fire starting and spreading. We also have a red flag warning for high fire danger in Solano County through 9 00 a. M. Tomorrow. Ill give you a look at one more graphic to show you our excessive heat warning. The heat has persisted for so long, theres still a high risk of heatrelated illness. We have an excessive heat warning in effect until 9 00 tonight and more information comes my way, ill be here to report it for you. Kristen . Spencer, you and i were talking about how worrisome it is because its expected to last so long, so even if we keep leangll tdays,. Se. Hats true. And the air is beginning to seep into homes already. My wife and i woke up in the middle of the night, thought we smelled smoke. We thought it was from the fan we had trying to cool off, it was from the smoke outdoors that was coming in to our house. There was ash all over the driveway and cars. We are house now because the air quality indoors has declined. This situation is not likely to improve significantly over the next few days. Maybe it will get a little bit better as we get the fires more contained and less smoke is being blown into the atmosphere but as long as we have this relatively stagnant air mass with this persistent heat wave dominating the picture, were likely to have poor air quality the next several days if not longer. I wonder if its worse than what we had a few years ago with the north bay wildfires which are so devastating and destructive. Rk a sortr level in the atmosph than i recall from the wildfires from a couple of years ago. That just scientific, but i thik youre right. I think your reasoning, we have so many fires burning simultaneously. And the wind flow is pushing the smoke all around these residential areas, business areas into the office buildings, i just dont see how things could get much worse and this does appear to be a greater threat to our health and a more severe poor air quality situation than we had a few years ago. You know, when it comes to the winds and weather, not that our wishing has anything to do with it. But i do wonder in this case if we want winds or not because it seems like if you have the winds, they blow the smoke out, the fires. So i wonder if almost for the air purposes, air quality purposes and Fire Fighting purposes, containment purposes, is it like they have competing demands or what would help . Thats a good observation. The pieffirefighters would not gusty wind because it would allow them to have better containment of the fires but thad ctral valley, but we have wind blowing down from the north generally but the fires from the north are producing smoke thats now blowing down into the peninsula and the east bay and the south bay. If we had that westerly flow and really strong steady one, that we carry much of the smoke away from the densely populated bay area communities. All right. Well, spencer, thank you so much for kind of giving us an insight of whats happening now and what will be happening. When we come back, we take a short break. When we come back, we have just a very devastating story to bring you. One of the places that suffered fire damage called the yin ranch that profiled the owner of the ranch back in may because this is a ifphilanthropist that donad millions of face shields, masks, ppe to front line workers. We are going to hear his harrowing story of escaping in the middle of the night and invite the fire chief to jo welcome back. These wildfires are forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate. That includes the area where dozens of home have burned including one thats very special to the community. Were talking about the yin ranch on Pleasant Valley road, home of the immigrant turned mcdonalds entrepreneur who represents the american dream. Abc7 news saluted during Asian AmericanPacific Islander heritage month in may because his nonprofit donated millions of ppes, went to front line workers battling the covid pandemic. Joining me now, his wife regina and fire chief chris. Cc and regina, we at abc7 news are so sorry to hear about the fire damage to the yin ranch but also very relieved your family is safe. Cc, i know you and regina had to escape in the middle of the night. When did you two realize the fire reached you and you had to go . 12 00, ghiotto a from the emergency office, that nighttime with the work of community and business. Did ash and smoke coming down. So alert, yes, but never here any time over the years. We come from an area in San Francisco, south bay, east bay for about 20 something years. We love northern california. This is our home. This ranch is not just your home but a wedding venue, a place where you Host Community events like new years celebrations and workshops for young people and leaders. We have some video of that. I know youve always thought of that ranch as a way for you to give back to the community, so tell me about efforts to save it. Regina, maybe you can talk about that because i heard you had some workers that remain, just throwing buckets of water. I dont know where they were getting it from. Can you talk about it . Chris, our bay area, the first call every 20 or 30 minutes, best they can do to try to save the ranch. Of course, the entire area is wiped out by the wildfires totally at the same time, but keep us informed in the meantime that our ranch managers, workers and friends help us out, water from the lake. 2,000 feet, this type of fire. So very chaotic and very dangerous. Very scary. I do. Chief conception, i know that cc has supported your department for a long time and you have a close relationship. Have you had a chance to go out there, take a look at whats burned . Whats happening with your department right now and your efforts to save n just the yin ranch but so many thousands of homes in your city . Yes, i can vouch for the kindness to the community. The entire community have been recipients for his generosity. I got the phone call from cc, letting us know that his ranch was threatened, wanted to get some resources out there as quickly as i could. Unfortunately, the resources were spread very thin and we had abtd 2500 to 3,000 homes that were immediately threatened within city limits and so we had very limited resources, we had to prioritize what we were able to save. So our firefighters worked with Police Officers in the city, going door to door as the fire quickly moved into the city and our Police Officers trying to get people out of the houses safely, standing between the houses and the flaming front. In almost 30 years in the fire service, its very rare that ive seen the type of fire behavior we saw when i was there on the edge of the city, just east of Pleasant Valley road and i saw a wall of flames about 40 feet high just travel into the city very quickly. So its been a long night and my condolences to you, cc and regina as far as i saw pictures of of actually where we held first ever combined safety, so it breaks my heart to see what happened there. Thank you, all what you have done. It was the most painful and agonizing night last night. It was 2 00 a. M. And every so often, we try to get an update as to whats going on, and everything happened so fast and next thing you know, its close, close, its close to your house, and the original very first house at the ranch and just praying and hopefully, you know, it will not come, told it was catching fire. And just like, its unreal. Just unreal. You know, literally two years and everything happened so fast. And chris, you were right on top. Try to let us know which is very comforting to know but no hope, we know that. Thank you. I want to add that so much, the station going on here. The fire going past a few six months. To burn them out already. Overwhelmed. So we really want to thank them for great work you do and, you know, chris said it right. Responsibility to the entire city and surrounding area, heart goes out to friends, neighbors and the community, and the place burned down too. American like you said, the ranch was made over 28 years, most for the community. I have to say, cc, with less than 100 and build up to brah hyiev burned there, you will have the will to rebuild, and we certainly hope that when its all over and you can assess what happened, there will be less damage than we imagine and please keep us posted. Were just glad youre okay. I do want to add, one more word. All the fire and police and the publicervice ht mary and her huf hers, we own mcdonalds along highway 80 and any time in the past, now this fire in the future, all folks to do work 24 7 and so any time happy to continue to provide free breakfast, lunch and dinner. There you go, chris. Chief conception. You heard that. So at least your men and women will be well fed. Thank you all so much. We really appreciate your time. Take care, best to you. Bo t sket th im alex trebek here to tell you about the Colonial Penn program. 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And with this plan, you can pick your payment date, so you can time your premium due date to work with your budget. Options start at 9. 95 a month,d moy back gee. So call now for free information. And youll also get this free beneficiary planner, and its yours just for calling. So call now. Welcome back. Weve talked now to people directly impacted by the wildfires. Now lets talk about the rest of us impacted by the smoke. Truly, its horrible out there. So joining me now, special correspondent dr. Alok patel. Dr. Patel, it looks unhealthy. I got to say. It must be unhealthy. Its like the worst weve ever seen, weve been in the bay area a long time, it seems worth than the north bay wildfires as far as how widespread it is. It really is. And actually, its surprising. You go on right now, and look at the air quality index. You will see these numbers in the 150s or highers. Were up there in the bay area, if you compare the rest of the world. You start to feel the effects. It is a pretty critical situation right now. Just being outside. Im indoors and i can feel it. I got to ask you. What are the potential effects on our systems, right . What are some of the symptoms to watch out for . Because i feel as though i got smoke poisoning. That was a real thing after being exposed to the fire. With the exposure to wildfire smoke right now, you could have these shortterm instantaneous symptoms and then lingering or longterm symptoms like what you felt. The large particles when you hear that word ten microns, those are not small enough to get your deep respiratory into your lungs but can definitely cause signs and irritation, irritation in your eyes. When you start to get to the smaller level, 2. 5 microns, those can go way deep into your lungs and bronchitis and trigger migraines and mess with your immune system, something were all worried about right now. Best thing is to stay indoors. Do covid masks help filter out the particulates . They do not. Covid masks are going to help prevent that person to prevent transmission. This is just a barrier. Last year, we talked about this. Almost a year ago, we talked about the only masks that are going to help with wildfire smoke, the particulate smoke are n95s but right now is not the time people should be hoarding n95s because we have a concurrent pandemic happening. We need to save masks for health care workers. So the best thing people can do unfortunately is just to shelter in place, a phrase were all too familiar with. O youre telling me had other filters, layers, thats still not going to help. Its really not. I mean, its better than nothing, i should say, but i cant back that with data but youre literally walking into particulate smoke all around you. Its going to get into open areas around your bandanna, putting a tshirt up, anything like that. People going outdoors as a stress relief and gyms are closed. So at this point, would you say, should we not exercise for a while . It depends on where you are in the bay area. Again, if youre way towards the coast, the air quality index is below 150, then i would not go outside and work out right now. Youre going to be breathing more air per volume per minute, more particulate smoke going into your lungs, potentially more side effects and damage. Whew. All right. One quick question, could air filters help . It can. I dont think you need to go out and fit your place mix of the outside air. Its a terrible time for it to be happening but do everything we can to keep the all right, thats going to do it for now. Thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show, getting answers. Well be here every weekday at 3 00 on air and on live stream answering your questions. You can find complete wildfire coverage at abc7news. Com and of course, well be back on air with more of the latest at 4 00. Tonight, several late headlines as we come on the air. The coronavirus, the new turn with schools. And the president speaking on this moments ago. Also, the democratic convention, and what we just learned about what youll be hearing tonight. And the emergency unfolding at this hour. Esrealngn ernctoght. Multiple wildfires. Thousands rushing to escape, some with only seconds to spare. Dozens of fires burning at this hour. Harrowing images of families driving through the flames. Homes burning to the ground. More than 10,000 lightning strikes sparking more than 300 fires. Our team from the fire zone. Also, the news already coming in before night three of the Democratic National convention. Just in tonight, w and senar mala har making history on the ticket