Proximity to populated areas, including the freeway, 101 there and cars and developments and structures, they are tak r fire. Well be talking with cal fire to get more on this in just a little bit. Of course as you know this comes with the backdrop of the entire state being stretched thin right now, battling more than 500 fires. Thats according to governor gavin newsom. So a leading cal fire official will be joining us to answer questions about this new fire along 101 in san jose as well as the other, the three complex fires burning in the bay area. You know, with all this going on, many of us are feeling a lot of stress, well. So we have a stress relief expert with us with some helpful ways to deal with the craziness going on. And two top political experts will join us a little later to discuss the best and worst of the Democratic National convention. So join our conversation on facebook live. We do want to start w a l arin t bay. G those cpl fires, n as mlionave buedthoughd that thresldready. Rod. The lnu lightning complex fires have killed at least four residents. In all at least 94,000 people have been evacuated across the bay area, though that number is likely much higher. Now, those numbers are not readily available for the scu complex fire right now. When you see how these fires are stretched out, the smoke is now visible from space stretching from idaho down to baja, california. You can get a full list of evacuation orders at abc7news. Com and updated alerts to your phone with the abc 7 news app. And that of course is the question on everyones mind right now. What is going to happen. No one better to answer this question of what firefighters are up against this weekend than assistant Deputy Director of cal fire sacramento, daniel bean thank you for joining us, daniel. Good afternoon. What is the latest you can tell me . The one in san jose by coyote creek just broke out. What is it affecting . What are you doing to combat it . Yeah, that fire somewhere around 30 acres or so as you mentioned off coyote creek golf course drive, near the golf course in san jose. Very fastmoving fire, threatening a number of structures. We have a full wildland response to that fire, but that fire is just one of hundreds of fires that we are actively battling or have battled the last several days. In fact since saturday, which is the start of the Lightning Storm that hit california, we have responded to 560 wildfires. Ew o jose just another example of how dry and how hot it remains across california, especially across the bay area. Is there any way to tell how this one in particular started . Was it embers from the fires to its east . Of course the scu complex has grown so big. Yeah, you know, we really have fires in the north bay, th across Northern California. So there is the chance that we could even have lightning sparks from several days ago, lightning hits the ground, smolders for several days before it actually turns into a wildfire. So its likely that well see fires that were sparked by the lightning for the coming days. Its still too early on this fire to know exactly what started it and really were investigating all the fires that were currently battling. But right now we have over 12,000 firefighters on the front lines across california battling. Like i said, 540 fires, really two dozen large fires across california. Ive got to ask you, Governor Newsom said these fires have together charred more than 770,000 acres, roughly the size of rhode island. That is mind boggling, and im wondering, is that the biggest youve ever had to deal with at once in terms of the land mass . Yeah, this is absolutely a historic siege by far. Now, weve had lightning sieges in california. You remember in 2008 we had hundreds of fires spark across much of Northern California. However, many of those fires were in more rural areas. Fortunately, we didnt see the prolonged triple digits extreme heat wave during that same time period so conditions were relatively different. But the acres burned in this series in just this week has been significantly higher than that siege back in 2008. As these fires, though, many of them still with very little containment, anywhere from 0 to 10 containment. You can see there is a lot of work ahead of us. But as i mentioned, nearly 12,000 firefighters on the front lines, more resources coming in, even other states sending resources. We will work to turn the corner. However, the conditions over the weekend are not going to necessarily be in our favor. I was going to say, i was looking at the forecast and it seems from sunday night to tuesday, there are possibilities for more dry lightning. That is exactly what you dont need. So hopefully, fingers crossed there. Give us the latest update on the three groups of fires in the bay area, scu, czu, and i know very little containment on all of those but what is your strategy for each of these fires today . Im going to switch to our statewide fire map and show you real quick where we are on with those fires because really when you start to see it from the map and the perimeters, and it may be hard to see on zoom here. But so much of Northern California around Lake Berryessa and down into Solano County has been consumed by that fire. And just looking at the stats of that fire, 219,000 acres have burned. Right now it is showing 7 contained. That acreage makes it the tenth largest wildfire in our states history, but it surpassed in the fire that is in the east bay, and thats the scu lightning complex. That fire nearly 230,000 acres burned. That makes it the seventh largest fire in our states history. So the north bay and the east bay, these are the fires that make up those complexes, definitely going into the record books. With only 10 containment on the sdu lightning complex, there is a lot of potential for this fire to move up those history books. The bulk of those flames are right now still in the unpopulated areas. But show me on the map where youre most concerned. Where is it that if the winds were to push in the wrong direction that would get the flames into the Population Centers . Yeah, well so coming back here to the scu complex, you can see this perspective over here is san jose and sunnyvale, and it may be on the outer edge of the map here. But obviously right on the other side of this series of hills where this fire is burning is san jose. So that to us is something were watching very closely. This fire also continues to push south towards highway 152 down toward the san lewis reservoir but also gilroy and thats an area of concern. Im moving back to the north to the lnu lightning complex which encompasses sonoma, napa, down into solano counties. Ill zoom in here. Vacaville and fairfield was an area a couple of days ago that quickly required evacuations, so this is definitely the southern edge of the fire that continues to be a concern for us just merely based on how many people live in this populated portion of Solano County. And so we have a lot of crews watching that area particularly. Yeah, it does seem like vacaville is doing a little better. I dont want to say theyre out of the woods yet, but fingers crossed for them. What do you need the public to know right now in terms of protecting their homes, but more importantly their lives . Its really critical. As we are incredibly busy with the lightningsparked fires that are up and down the state, we cannot afford another fire and so it is really important that the public take extra steps and extra precautions to preventing sparking a new wildfire. We just really cannot afford to respond to one more fire, especially one that is preventible. Hey, ive got to ask you, weve heard about some people hiring private firefighters, some not even trained professionals. Given your limited resources, do you welcome this type of thing or do you actually discourage it, because maybe this manpower is not what you need . Yeah, you know, private firefighters has been something in our history for really centuries, going back to when the United States was established. Most Fire Departments were actually run by insurance companies, not necessarily by the government. We continue to kind of figure out the best way to coordinate those efforts, because we really need to ensure that when we evacuate an area, we know exactly who and where our resources are located. And so when we get companies that send in individuals, even if they are trained, that still puts us at risk in case something happens, weve got to pull ourselves off of fighting the fire to save them of the and so the coordination, the communication is really whats essential when it comes to these private firefighters. We also have laws here in california that restrict an eva into a place, it really does pertain to these private firefighters, so that too is just an area that weve got to work through. I see, all right. Hey, before i let you go, im wondering how much acreage do you think will be burned before all this is contained . Realistically, when will that be . Give me your best guess. You know, it is it is hard to make that estimate. I can tell you we are aggressively fighting these fires, but it is likely that we will be working to get full containment over the coming weeks if not into the next month. All right. So realistically several more weeks at least. All right, daniel berlant, cppr an tell. It gave me a good visual of where were really concerned about. Take good ca welcome back. This weeks explosive wildfires, horrible spoke, add to the stress we were already f becae ary, o o l, and taking a toll on our Mental Health so we want to explore ways to cope. Joining us is the executive director at mentis, rob weiss. Thanks for being here. My pleasure. Who do you provide Mental Health services to and counseling to . Mentis is a bilingual and professional provider of Mental Health services to all age levels throughout napa county. I think a lot of people need your service right now because 2020 so far has been a return to sender, and the feeling is just so crushing and so real. Are you seeing a large wave of people asking for help right now with anxiety and depression . Yeah, we really are. Its a combination of anxiety, depression and trauma. All those things work in tandem. We know theres been a spike in the level of anxiety and stress due to covid and then for people in the bay area and Northern California. You layer in the fires and residual trauma from having dealt with evacuations and power shutoffs and fires for three years, that is a very potent formula and leads to a real need for support among our residents. Of course. Whos impacted the most from what youve seen, is it young people, teens not seeing their friends, the elderly feeling isolated or middleaged folks like us worried about our kids, our parents and our jobs . All of the above, kristen. So this is impacted broadly because its such an unprecedented combination between the fires and the pandemic that nobody really has experienced before so all age groups are impacted. That said, i think particularly when we think about teens and youth, its particularly hard for them because theyre so pure focused, so connected to their friends and the social aspect is so important for youth. So theres a real sense of acute loss for many young people not being able to see, hang out, engage in their typical activities with their peers. This is really difficult. So look, whatever your age, what can we do to cope when it all feels too much . I think theres some basic things to keep in minding. First and foremost, try to maintain some sense of order, structure, predictability, maintaining your daily activities the best you possibly can is comforting in that this whole pandemic and fire feels so out of control and unmanageable that having kind of a structure can really help. And part of that is really just good selfcare practices. And what i mean by that is really talk with friends, families, neighbors, any way you can whether its on the phone, in person socially distanced or whether its through a video screen. Whatever you can do. Really trying to exercise and move, thats so important yet thats so difficult to do outside now. But even if youre in your house you can dance, you can put on music, you can use any exercise equipment you may have or an exercise video. So movement is really important. I also think if you have spiritual or religious practices, really helpful. And theres simple breathing exercises you can do. All right. Im going to ask you if you could do me the favor and our viewers the favor of walking through a deep breathing exercise. For some reason ive been kind of scared to tackle it myself but i think it will be easier doing it with you. Sure, this is real simple. Youre just going to take several deep breaths from the belly. And what youre going to do, inhale through your nose for a counting of three, hold it for a counting of three and then let it go through your mouth. So its going to look Something Like this. So youre inhaling, one, two, three, holding that for a counting of three, and then one, two, three and then just exhaling through your mouth. Okay. I do feel more relaxed. Its not real sophisticated. Its real basic and its really grounding and you can do it anywhere any time. Just do a set of five of those deep brehsnd i think it really helps. Rob weiss with mentis, by the way youre at mentisnapa. Org. And consultations can be free depending on your financial situation, right . Correct. Rob, i so appreciate it. Take good care. Thank you. Well take a short break. When we come all right, were back. The Democratic National convention has wrapped up with joe biden accepting his partys nomination for president last night. So how did it go . Joining us to review the highlights and preview the republican National Convention next week are two insiders, political reporter Carla Marinucci and cooper tebow. Carla and cooper, thanks for joining us. Hey, thanks for having me. Thank you so much. After all the speeches, after all the special appearances by celebs, other candidates, the curry family and real americans, did the democrats achieve what they needed to . Carla . I think they did. Throughout the week the message the democrats are going to bring back decency, dignity to the white house. They made the case that the very democracy is at stake here, kristen. I think what you also saw was diversity, both racial diversity and ideological diversity. All of those president ial candidates i thought tchnologically this convention was a ground breaker. Im not sure we can ever go back to what we had before. I think Kamala Harris speech was that happy warrior speech that introduced her to america and joe bidens speech i thought hit it out of the park for vibrancy and for messaging. I think its going to be very hard for the republicans to beat this bar next week. Well see how they do. Cooper, make it quick. Did they sway any votes . I want to make it quick because i want you to get into a game after this answer. Its a secret, its coming your way. Cooper, what do you think, did they sway votes . Ill be very brief. The only votes they need to be focused on right now are those undecided in wisconsin and pennsylvania. Did they sway those . I think so. So now real quickly, we want you to grade each of those moments that we pulled. You can see, right . Yes . Okay, here we go. Tee it up. Bidens speech. Give me a grade, a through f, quickly. I think a. Yeah. No question. A. Cooper . A, absolutely. How about this next moment. Brandon, little brandon, 13yearold stutterer talking about what he had in common with biden, what do you think, carla . That was an a. I was weeping. The kid was a star, no question about it. Cooper . A plus. I wish i was that eloquent. Wow. A lot of people were saying brayden for president. How about the curry family video, carla, what did you think . I hate to say another a but is there another family that looks that beautiful on tv . Theyre fabulous. Cooper . B only because theyre not running for office yet. Oh, i see its coming for riley. She was giving me some future president vibes. Yep. How about Kamala Harris speech, carla . Im going to say b. I think a lot of people wish she had gone after him more, done more of an attack. Ill say b. Cooper . I agree. I think kamala is there to really be a very strong attack dog and a prosecutor on the president. Okay. Hey, guys, you guys are graders. I wanted you for teachers in high school and college. Carla, you touched on how Kamala Harris came across. To me she felt less fiery than usual, whereas biden came across more fiery. Do you agree . Yes. Is that intentional, you guys . I think that was intentional. For my view she had to introduce herself. Californians know Kamala Harris, but she had to introduce herself to millions of americans who dont know her and talk about her immigrant background. So i think she did what she needed to do. I think well see the attack dog coming up. Cooper . Weve got the next 72, 73 days to prosecute the president by Kamala Harris. I think that we will see that very soon. And again, the only folks, that convention could have aired only in wisconsin and pennsylvania and i think senator harris was speaking to those people. Real quickly, do you have a sense for how many people watched given the more limited coverage, but there was also streaming so maybe that offset some. How great was the reach, do you know . I think millions of people watched. I dont have the exact number. Look, this isnt going to match what weve seen in the past. This is a new era for conventions, no doubt about it. Cooper, so the Republican Convention is coming up next week. What themes do you think theyll hit . I think theyll hit similar themes, american exceptionalism. However, i think theyll hit them very differently. Joe biden hit it in terms of this is who i am, i lost everything but came back from the ash. I think the Republican Convention will hit it in terms of this is america, this is our america, this is why we need to keep it that way. All right. Hey, thats all the time we have. Carla and cooper, it was great talking to both of you. And hopefully well check in again next week after the republican National Convention. Stay safe, all right . Take care. Thanks much. Thanks for having me. We know it may seem like the pandemic thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show getting answers. We certainly tackled a lot this week. Before we go, we want to show you there are some glimmers of hope. It was just a couple of days ago when we told you about part of the lnu lightning complex fire rapidly overtaking the ranch in vacaville owned by cc and virginia yen. We told you plenty about what they have done for fellow immigrants and frontline workers, donating ppes. Well, today that good will seems to have foundi its way back to then. Here is virginia yen returning to the yen ranch. Not only did they find their maybe house survived, but all of the animals that they released while they were fleeing the ranch have been returned. And look, heres the sweetest reunion of all with her llama, oreo. Re awe glad to see them back safe. They have been through so much. The yens own a lot of mcdonalds franchises here in california, came here to the u. S. With 100 in their pocket and worked hard. Now they are paying back to the community by hosting events at their ranch, giving free masks and food to frontline workers, so we are so happy that theyre okay. Tonight, the abc news exclusive democratic president ial nominee joe biden and Vice President ial nominee Kamala Harris in their first joint interviews. We just wrapped up a short time ago. Hours after accepting the nomination and delivering the most important speech of his career, joe biden and Kamala Harris sitting down with us. No questions offlimits and tonight, the first look right here. Biden on what he would do differently in this pandemic. Would he shut down the country again if needed . The issue of race and policing in this country. Robin roberts asking what President Trump claimed about biden will he defund police. Tonight, my question to senator Kamala Harris. The words