Now. And this is the concern. The wind and heat a dangerous mix. Well show you this wildfire in just a moment. Its happening in the north bay. Its in geyserville, not star from the lake county line. Here it is. Sonoma county sheriffs just issued evacuations for northern haeldsburg and geyserville. Theyre telling people to leave immediately. You can see that glow on the hillside there. Were also getting new video from the santa rosa fire department. Crews clearing fallen trees. These trees along parker hill road in fountain grove. Pg e has already cut power to thousands of people in sonoma and napa counties. Our sky ranger overhead in santa rosa. Down below thousands of homes it is dark. Power could be out on and off for the next four days. Nbc bay areas cheryl hurd leads our coverage tonight in the darkness there in santa rosa. Cheryl. Reporter well, raj, its kind of weird because the wind has been picking up but its calm right now. As you can see, there are a lot of small businesses. They wont have power tomorrow. And then theres this intersection in the dark. I talked to a lot of people who have been through this before. They dont like it, but theyre dealing with it. Tonight caltrans installing generators to keep stoplights working on highway 12 and generators are the reason why this safeway is the only thing open in the oakmont area. We get concerned because were on a well and dont have water. I understand fires are a danger, but its rough. Reporter tough times for santa rosa residents who have been through this before. Its really uncomfortable and a little bit scary when its, you know, dark. Reporter so to keep the lights on this time around judy sampson ran out and bought batterypowered lanterns and a generator. Last time we lost food. Reporter People Living in the power outage zone are rearranging their lives. Its tough when you have children who wont be in school tomorrow. Its just inconvenient in terms of having to figure stuff out, daycare, childcare, my work schedule. Reporter the office of Emergency Service is up and running. And weve stepped up our game, if you would, in terms of just refining a lot of the processes we use, the Information Tools that we use. Reporter people tonight are refusing to stop living. A church gettogether went on as planned. Youve got to go with the flow. Thats all you can do. Pg e turns off the lights, you work with it. And we decided yesterday wed go with it. Reporter now, as you can see, some people are goodnatured about all this and youve heard this before. This happens to be the new normal. Reporting live in santa rosa, im cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. Cheryl, thank you. So tomorrow a lot of schools will be closed. Right now this is the partial list. Among them in geyserville unified, Rincon Valley union, and santa rosa c districts. You can find the full list of the closures on our website, nbcbayarea. Com. So what comes next . Well, parts of San Mateo County are likely to get power cut in about two hours from now. Pg e is also preparing for another shutoff, possibly this weekend. Nbc bay areas jean elle joins us from pg e headquarters in San Francisco with the very latest. Jean. Reporter raj, tonight pg e says that possible third power outage expected this weekend may very well be the largest of the three if indeed it happens. While pg e is importanting weather conditions it says its top priority right now is restoring power as soon as possible. The bay areas second pg e power shutoff delivered an unwelcome surprise for some. The lights in the north bay went out earlier than expected. Pg e says the winds driving the shutoff arrived earlier than predicted. As were getting closer to that time, we could see the weather changing quicker than we had predicted. So thats why we went a little bit early. Reporter pg e is monitoring those winds, expecting the wildfire danger to pass tomorrow afternoon. Thats when crews can get to work, inspecting lines and restoring power. They will have some help from a chp plane using infrared Technology Looking for damage tonight. We believe that we can fly our Transmission System and just look for any obvious damage locations, vegetation blowing into our right of ways and impacting our facilities. That will give us an advance notice that t station and mobilize repair crews. Reporter pg e says it may take 48 hours to restore everyones power just in time for another expected shutoff. It would be the third this month and possibly the largest yet. The utility says the strongest winds of the season may arrive this weekend. Stronger winds mean more customers are likely to lose power. Now, pg e says it has no plans to leave the power shutoff through that expected third power shutoff. It says it is committed to restoring power to people who are currently in the dark. And that work is expected to begin tomorrow afternoon. Reporting live in San Francisco, jean elle, nbc bay area news. Jean, thank you. We want to get back to our breaking news now. You can see here that fire in Sonoma County. This is in geyserville near the lake county line. This video and photos just now coming into our newsroom. This started late tonight, and it is unfortunately exploding in size. We do have a news crew on the way. In the meantime lets bring in our chief meteorologist jeff ranieri and this is really the concern, right, jeff . It is. We see wind gusts in the location of about 50 Miles Per Hour tonight. It is very hilly terrain, one to about 3,000 feetplus in elevation. Heres cobb. This is off to the south near the geysers. The way the wind is blowing this would push possibly the flames and the smoke off towards the south and the west. Right now gusts again occasional of about 50 Miles Per Hour. Tomorrow we see the gusts eventually go down to about 25, but it is going to be a very dangerous firefight in the dark as we head throughout the next 12hour period. What about the wind . Lets get you a wider look at the bay area. Its been a mountain event. As expected. Up to 56 Miles Per Hour at mount st. Helena, mount diablo 52. What about the highest fire danger . Right here through the north bay. The higher elevations. Thats whats critical. Right near that fire, also near healdsburg, sonoma, yountville and vacaville. The gusts will be the highest and the humidity the lowest. A look at the wind forecasts and you can see through 7 00 tomorrow morning it is still all about the north bay. 30 to 50mileperhour wind gusts possible with some of those stronger gusts over mount diablo and for parts of the peninsula. Well take you through the rest of this forecast and what looks to be a stronger wind event for the weekend. Ill have details in about ten minutes. We will see you shortly, jeff. We mentioned San Mateo County and the peninsula there. The lights might be cut at 1 00 a. M. That is less than two hours from now. Alec coleman of la honda says hes concerned about the potential outage because some of his family members rely on oxygenators to breathe. The devices last about a day and a half before they require recharging. More should be done and i dont think that i dont think that its okay to take the power away with short warning certainly or even at all. He says his family was looking into getting a generator if these outages become the norm. Well, what are the chances pg e will cut power in your neighborhood . We put up a map on our website, nbcbayarea. Com. Very easy to use. You simply enter your address and see if you are in the blackout zone. Well, heres the catch. Even if you are not in the outage zone you could still be in the fire zone. Nbc bay areas sergio quintana. The power is out but people are still concerned. They are still concerned. Let me just give you a reason as to why people are having to stay concerned and be aware. Were over at the Orinda Moraga fire station. You can see that that fire danger sign is set at its highest level. People need to be aware as this red flag warning continues through tomorrow afternoon. At the shell staon in orinda some customers came by tonight to top off their vehicles. Were getting a lot more people here than normal. Reporter the station owner tells me its been busier than usual today and shes had some unusual requests from customers. On a normal day without any issues with power i wouldnt have someone coming in asking for a battery for a generator. Reporter people here know this area is not in the power shutoff zone right now but that doesnt mean conditions cant change and it might mean theyre in the zone next time around. It is a blessing. But being right near the hill because the wind comes down, i understand why they do it. Reporter in concord several Contra Costa County fire crews came together as members of task force 2025. Four wildland fire trucks, water tenders, and a dozier are ready to roll to attack a fire as fast as possible. That proved to be very helpful earlier this month when a fire in moraga threatened 100 homes. It paid off because we got personnel and equipment to the scene a lot faster than waiting to have a strike team form up within the county because its a process to get a strike team to form up within the county if its not a prepositioned strike team like this one is. Reporter this task force is part of a newly funded strategy to mobilize teams closer to threatened areas for quick deployment. This is now the second residents are contemplating the possibility of having power turned off as a precaution and re grudgingly some residents say its a necessary strategy. Tough. If theres a possibility, yeah, id say go for it. If it saves that many lives. And as jeff mentioned theres a chance people are going to be reassessing this all over again this weekend because of forecast winds then. Reporting live in moraga im sergie quintana, nbc bay area news. Sergio, thank you. Now, our website, nbcbayarea. Com, is a trusted source for the very latest with all this fire danger and Power Outages. Were updating information 24 7. Well, new at 11 00, protests quickly escalated, even becoming physical, at a School Board Meeting in oakland. [ screaming ] you can see it and you can hear it, the anger there. The coalition of students, parents, and teachers protesting to stop Public School closures in oakland. Now, things did get physical and officers had to use batons and barriers to hold the protesters back. The district is planning to move forward with its plan to close up to 1 3 of its Public Schools. The protesters complained these will be replaced by Charter Schools funded by the rich. When we come back well go back to our breaking news about the Power Outages and the fire. Stay with us. Your business is up and running, but is it going beyond fast . Comcast business gives you high speed internet. We also have Solutions Like powerful wifi that gives your entire business more coverage and automatic internet backup that can keep your business running. And it all starts with our gigspeed network. So give us 10 minutes. If we cant offer you faster speed or better savings than your current internet service, well give you 300 dollars for your time. Call now to get your comcast business 10 minute advantage. Comcast business. Beyond fast. We want to update our breaking news. In northern Sonoma County what youre looking at here, pictures of this fire that just exploded about an hour ago, and it continues to spread. This is in northern Sonoma County. Evacuations are under way. In fact, about two minutes ago we did learn that the River Rock Casino there in geyserville is now being evacuated. Jeff ranieri was just telling us theres 50mileperhour winds on the mountaintops there. Lets bring in nbc bay areas ian cull joins us from the newsroom with the very latest. And this is really the concern about all this wind and fire danger in the last 24 hours, ian. Exactly, raj. Local authorities, cal fire all rushing to those flames being pushed by the winds out in that rural parts of that area near geysers. You see the flames there, the River Rock Casino thats just off highway 128 evacuated like you said. Were told security is staying on site there. Sonoma county sheriff has been setting out these urgent messages just in the past few minutes. Within the past hour on social media about this fi the kinkade fire, letting people know about this. We dont have the acreage confirmed right now. It is out in the hills. But again, high winds pushing them through the trees. Weve seen this before so many times. Evacuation order now for geysers road to 128. Thats where the River Rock Casino is. Were also told that there are evacuation orders on pine flat road, red winery road. Youre told to leave immediately if you are on or near these roads. Also told to be prepared to evacuate from authorities if youre in northern healdsburg or geyserville. Again, developing information right now. Fire crews from multiple agencies rushing out there. First responders will also be going to those areas making sure those people are evacuated when they need to be. And everyone there basically told to be on high alert right now. Jeff ranieri back with us now. You said this was a rough and rugged area, which it is, but this is now getting toward 101. Thats where the River Rock Casino is, not far from 101. This is now a main thoroughfare. And its really just also because of these wind gusts will be stick around for several hours at a time. Its one of those situations where things definitely pick up and pick up fast. And thats why they have issued those evacuations at the River Rock Casino and some of the surrounding areas. Make sure this is one of those situations if youre watching us now youre not sure about evacuations, you have your phone on, you have the emergency alerts turned on. If youre in this area and you are ready to go, if youre asked to. Because once again we are looking at wind gusts in the vicinity of this fire up to about 50 Miles Per Hour. Some locations to the south near some of the higher mountain peaks up to about 60. So it is definitely one of those times to just please listen to any kind of local orders you get. So heres the geysers right here. The location of the initial fire is just off to the north. The way the wind is blowing coming from the north and the east, its pushing off to the south and the west. So thats why in geyserville they are asking you to be on alert to evacuate if you have not been asked to already because of those wind gusts of about 50 Miles Per Hour. By tomorrow afternoon that wind will start to calm down, but it really is the next 10 to 12 hours where well be under these high wind gusts. Once again, the fire start near john kincade road and Burned Mountain road with some evacuations in place as the wind from this would push smoke and flames possibly all too close toward geyserville. I want to bring this out to the rest of our forecast but i do want to encourage you to get open nbcbayarea. Com, get our app as well, and well continue to give you more information on that. So as we get a wider look, the red flag fire warning continues here until 4 00 p. M. Tomorrow. Thats for the northeast and south bay. And as weve been saying, its a Mountain Wind event with gusts up to 55 Miles Per Hour. Lower elevations, gusts of about 20. Where are we on this wind right now . Just as expected, highest wind gusts here over the north bay. Up to about 56 Miles Per Hour at mount st. Helena, mount diabolo 52. So the fire danger is with us. Right now we are in the middle of this wind, picking up and youll see on the forecast as we hit 1 30 in the morning it continues here. Across the north bay. Winds of 20 to 30 for the lower elevations. Those on and off gusts. But in the mountains once again 55mileperhour gusts are possible. Still the main zone of the fire threat through 5 00 a. M. Right here through the north bay. Then i do think once we hit tomorrow afternoon well start to see those winds calm down and that will at least start to help out our fire danger. Temperatures tomorrow were going to start off in the 60s to low 70s. Little bit of a milder start. Mostly sunny skies here throughout the bay area. 71 in the east bay. San francisco at 68 and the north bay 72. Temperatures, thats the other problem. It is going to be hot tomorrow. Even though this dryer wind will try to leave us by the afternoon, were going up to near recordsetting heat. 92 at morgan hill. 90 in san jose. Right over through the east bay i have low 90s through walnut creek, concord and pittsburgh. Right over to oakland 88. Lets bring you back to redwood city. 88 degrees. Half moon bay warm at the beaches. 83. San francisco, no airconditioning. 87 going to be uncomfortable for you. And right here through the north bay well have low 90s tomorrow from novato right into santa rosa. And thats also going to make that firefight very tough up near the geysers as well. Extended forecast not about news for us. While we do see that wind calm down as we head through tomorrow afternoon, new signs continue to point towards another wind event on sunday. Right now this looks like it could be stronger. 25 to 50mileperhour gusts possible on sunday. And the way it looks now we could get those wind gusts all the way down to sea level. So it wouldnt be just a mountain event right on down to sea level. Wed see those extremely gusty winds and then 60s for the rest of the week. Inland valleys well go from 93 on tomorrow down 2077 on sunday. But that wind does ramp back up. So not only this wind event but in other ones the way things are showing it right now looks to be on sunday. Were going to get more timing and intensity information on that sunday event as we hit tomorrow. But of course the most immediate concern is up near the geysers. And that wind, its ferocious. If you get those evacuation orders please take it serious. Were expecting Power Outages in san mateo couy in about 90 minutes from now. Thank you, jeff. Well check back with you shortly. Lets bring in nbc bay areas cheryl hurd. She joins us on the phone. Cheryl is on her way from santa rosa north on the 101 toward geyserville. Cheryl, are you with us and what are you seeing . Reporter i am. Its really an eerie sight as im traveling highway 101 northbound. Im looking over to my right and i see a huge blow overhead. The hills are burning up there. And its an eerie sight because a lot of these streets were passing by and driving through weve been here before when they had the fire storm in this particular area. We were traveling these same streets. Its warm out here tonight. And during my live shot it was calm where i was but we left about ten minutes down the road and the winds picked up. So its a very eerie situation. The hills are aglow. Theres a lot of smoke. Its really dark. So its kind of hard to see. Were headed up toward the healdsburg area, to the geyserville area, and were trying to get there to see whats going on as far as evacuations are concerned. But its definitely something that you can see from the highway and it really looks scary and eerie at this time. Okay. And we do know that there are evacuation orders right now at the River Rock Casino. Thats not far from 101 in geyserville. And cheryl, one last quick question. Are you seeing a lot of fire trucks and fire personnel on the roads as well . Reporter yes. Theyre speeding down the roads, speeding right past us, headed up toward that way. Kind of toward the area of mill town. A lot of those folks whove been through there before, im sure its a serious situation for anyone who lives in the mountain areas there. Cheryl, we were both in middletown a few years ago covering those fires. So we wish this area all the best luck in these next 24 hours. We are back in a moment. Stay with us. Here are some new pictures into our newsroom. This is ag e camera now in northern Sonoma County. If youre just now tuning, in weve been covering this breaking news there in northern Sonoma County, this wildfire near geyserville. Evacuations are under way including the River Rock Casino. You can see the hills and the mountainside there glowing with the amount of flames and smoke. Cheryl hurd, our reporter was just with us. She is close to this fire saying fire crew and personnel are racing by her there on 101 in northern Sonoma County. This will be an intense firefight in the next several hours, maybe even the next day or two. You can see the evacuation orders. Geysers road to highway 128. Youre asked to leave immediately if youre on these roads or in the area. But that fire danger is very real. The flames are now near geyserville. Were back in a moment with more updates. Stay with us. Announcer 5 million kids use ecigarettes. Its an epidemic fueled by juul with their kidfriendly flavors. San francisco voters stopped the sale of flavored ecigarettes. But then juul, backed by big tobacco, wrote prop c to weaken ecigarette protections. The San Francisco chronicle reports prop c is an audacious overreach, threatening to overturn the ban on flavo products approved by voters. Prop c means more kids vaping. Thats a dangerous idea. Vote no on juul. No on big tobacco. No on prop c. We want to take a quick break and take a look at the sports world now. The Washington Nationals are dominating the heavily favored houston astros. Game 2 in houston. Thats simone biles, the gold medalist, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch like only she can. She lives in the houston area. Seventh inning, game tied at 2, our old friend kurt sues kitt former as catcher hits this mammoth home run off justin verlander. The astros have lost their mojo. The nationals are red hot. Nationals win 123. They have a commanding 20 series lead as the series shifts to washington, d. C. Were back in a moment with our breaking News Coverage of the outages and the fire next. Hey. Hey. You must be stevens phone. Now you can take control of your home wifi and get a notification the instant someone new joins your network. Only with xfinity xfi. Download the xfi app today. They give us excellent customer otservice, every time. E. Our 18 year old was in an accident. Usaa took care of her car rental, and getting her car towed. All i had to take care of was making sure that my daughter was ok. If i met another veteran, and they were with another insurance company, i would tell them, you need to join usaa because they have better rates, and better service. Were the gomez family. Were the rivera family. Were the kirby family, and we are usaa members for life. Get your Auto Insurance quote today. Increasing fire danger, looming Power Outages and growing outrage. Our Team Monitoring pg e blackouts overnight as well as the impact its having on schools and businesses. We will start today in the bay early to get you ready tomorrow. We have some new video from that fire in northern Sonoma County. This is in geyserville. Heres what we know, some new information. More than 300 acres have been burned thus far, and it is spreading quickly. This is going to be a long and dangerous night on the fire lines there. Also dangerous for all the people who are evacuating as we speak. Lets bring in jeff ranieri talking about the weather conditions and really the wind, which is so problematic right now. And thats the frightening thing right now. Brand new updates, weather observation sites around the fire showing 40 to 60mileperhour gusts. Heres the geysers. This is where the fire started near john kincade road and Burned Mountain road. If you are in that area, youve been asked to evacuate, please follow those orders. Once again, 40 to 60mileperhour winds will blow the smoke and the fire closer and closer to geyserville as we head into the Early Morning hours. If they do not get this put oup. Thats why the River Rock Casino has been closed near 128 and being evacuated. So i want everybody to have those phones on, turn your alerts on, get nixel alerts, get the nbc bay area app and we will certainly keep you up to date on this. This again is a worst Case Scenario with those 40 to 60mileperhour wind gusts. Its going race down a lot of these higher elevations. Its going to be hard to get an air attack on this at night. So a lot of the hand and ground crews are just going to have to really hit this hard. And were talking about elevations of 1,000 to 3,000 feet. So this is not a good situation. Thats why again if youre in guid geyserville, surrounding areasu get an alert toevth please follow those evacuation orders. Its eerily similar to a couple years ago the wine country fires. Looking at the map, from the mountains into the flats near 101. It looks similar to what we saw. Our overnight team is already in the newsroom getting ready for our morning newscast. Were going to start a half an hour earlier. So 4 00 a. M. You can also watch our news through our free nbc bay area app if you live in one of the power outage zones. Speaking of the outages, were about 90 minutes away from an expected outage now in San Mateo County. Parts of San Mateo County. Thats going to do it for now. Check our twitter 24 7 for more updates. [ cheers and applause steve from studio 6b in Rockefeller Center in the heart of new york city, its the tonight show starring jimmy fallon. Tonight, join jimmy and his