Evacuations here. At last check the fire is 50 contained. Evacuees are encouraged to meet at st. Monicas church on camino pablo. Is another gathering area at the safeway on moraga way and people are advised to take essential items. Lock your windows and doors when you leave as well. This fire comes as pg e shut off power earlier in the night but this time we cannot confirm how the fire started. The Emergency Management coordinator for the Fire District joins us on the phone. Good morning and thank you for joining us. Tell us what you can pick we understand its a burning away from st. Marys. The town as well at this point. Reporter good morning. The fire is not near st. Marys college. Its actually burning behind homes adjacent to sanders drive and merrill ct. We have 100 150 contains. Making good progress. We have a dozer on the scene. We have units from all around contra costa. And our partners some cal fire are here in force. We are making good progress. When the sun comes up containment numbers will also go up. Right now we are sitting at 60 contained. We are looking at pictures of the scene. People evacuating. What about homes in danger . The danger to homes appears to have passed. We have good hose lines around everything behind the homes on sanders drive and merrill circle so that seems pretty good. The smoke production is way down so we are not as concerned with number cast, embers landing downwind and starting new fires. Right now things look pretty good. The video we are looking at, the flames look dangerously close to some homes there and we can see embers flying. What are the wind conditions out there right now . Im down in the neighborhood right now and the wind is fairly calm. 12 Miles Per Hour. Earlier on the ridge they were probably 1015 and thats what caused us some concern and promoted the evacuation. Moraga pd doing a great job there for us. St. Marys college, has that been evacuated as well as a precaution . The fire is about three quarters of a mile from st. Marys college and it was a burning away from the college so no evacuation took place at st. Marys college. They were never in danger. Our meteorologist Steve Paulson is here listening in and he knows the area well. Do you have any questions . I think dennis just answer the break i was going to ask about the wind. Thats a positive so far. Do you know what direction was from on the ridge . Was it north, north east . They were north winds coming down and actually it blew the fire off the ridge and then back down and it did end up coming right down behind homes but fortunately firefighters were waiting for it down there with hose lines and were able to take care of it when i got down there. In terms of the cause of the fire, early to say, we understand the power was off as part of the pg e emergency shut off earlier in the evening so is the power out of that area and do you have any indication of exactly where it started and what may have caused the fire . The power is off and when i got here the residents were in the process of evacuating so, fortunately, everyone i got to have their flashlights at the ready. We had plenty of notice the power to go off and when it did it seem like folks here were ready to go. As far as the cause of the fire. When the sun comes up, investigators will be out looking for what that was. Right now we do not have a cause. To the power outage affect the evacuations in anyway . I would imagine the lights are out and that makes it more dangerous . All the streetlights in this neighborhood are out but people seem to have adapted fairly well. Like i said the ones i saw evacuating had their flashlights and were on the way out as i was driving in. Dennis doan that did help firefighters a lot. People that he the Evacuation Order and were out of the way by the time the majority of our fire resources got here so that really helped the people left when they asked to. What would you say for the people that say why do we need these power shutoffs and then Something Like this happens . The idea behind the Public Safety power shutoffs is to prevent ignition. We dont know how this fire started. I think the admission prevention is part of living in california and the fact that pg e is doing that. I realize that its inconvenient for us all but if we can prevent admissions during high wind conditions that is another step to make residents safer. We appreciate you being with us here on mornings on 2. Dennis rein, spokesman with the fire officials bringing us the latest on a wildfire burning overnight and at this very moment in the east bay city of moraga which we will be all over it right here on mornings on 2. We wish everyone well out there. The good news is he said homes are not threatened right now but it did come really close. He talked about the wind dying down. I have to say driving across the richmondsan rafael bridge i fell to this morning. This morning was different than yesterday morning. Its been hit or miss. Some have not had a puff of a breeze and others have had pretty windy conditions. What areas are you worried about . Mount diablo had gusts up to 63. Everybody. If you dont have a breeze its probably cold at your location but if you do you can get that gus 4050 Miles Per Hour. I realize this is one of those darned if you do and dont if you dont but the advisor still continues in the North East Bay hills and that will continue until 3 00 today. That covers areas in and around with a fire is. Thats why they post those advisories. It wasnt the wind yesterday, it was the humidity, which by the way went to 3 . 3 humidity. Usually i get a moraga temp but something isnt happening. 60s on the thames. There is a good breeze coming off black diamond. Dollar ridge, 40 Miles Per Hour. Above the oakland zoo, 44. Above the caldecott. 41 Miles Per Hour. It is very dry and in the hills its windy. Fairfield and vacaville, you dont have to go far to find no wind at all or a good breeze. Vacaville have gusts at 40. Some locations had nothing at all. The system or march east. As it does through the day the pressure gradients were relax but for the Morning Hours we are in that advisory for the wind and the high fire danger. 50s and 60s on the temperatures. The system will kick out and then things start to calm down. 60s, 70s and upper 70s to view near 80. Were going to start with the east bay commute. Take a look at the altamont pass. Lets talk about 580. Not much going on. 580 at 205 is a good start for the tracy super commute. 880 northbound at high street there is a crash with a couple of lanes blocked. You can see at the top of your screen chp is running a traffic break to slow traffic down and that is still very lightly traveled but thats whats happening right now. 4 08 am. Back to the desk. Tens of thousands of people around the bay area have no power this morning because of the pg e power shut off. Last night just after 10 pm pg e started the power shutoffs in the east bay, the south bay and santa cruz county. Youre looking at video from orinda last night in the east bay just after the power went out, plunging the area into darkness. Crews put portable stop signs up at intersections where the stoplights went out. Pg e turned off power to parts of the north bay earlier yesterday. All of this because of the red flag wind warning and the possibility of very strong wind. Right now more than 370,000 homes and businesses in the bay area have no power. The first phase of the pg e Power Outages begin in parts of sonoma, napa and marin county early yesterday morning. Then last night pg e shut off power to parts of the east bay, the south bay and santa cruz county. Several schools are canceling classes once again today because of the Power Outages. Oakland unified school says classes have been canceled at nine of its schools. Uc berkeley canceled classes again today and there are Additional Closures in sonoma, napa and santa clara county. We have more helpful information, School Closures, evacuations on that website, ktvu. Com. You can find information on School Closures and theres a helpful link from pg e that allows people to search for your home, your address to ge the latest updates in terms of the power. And many people are checking, it knocked the system out. Hopefully he can handle the traffic now. We are still following that wildfire forcing evacuations in moraga right now. We do have a ktvu crew on the scene. Sfo officials got a call from a plane that needs to make an emergency landing. After the break, what caused the emergency, forcing the pilot to turn around minutes after taking off. Not fair to make everybody else pay the price of pg es longterm and chronic calls for pg e to make changes in its protocols and the utility response. Blow a kiss, into the sun we need someone to lean on blow a kiss, into the sun all we need is somebody to lean on people ask how i can tell my girls apart. Come on. A mom knows. Like when i chose our family eye doctor at first they all seemed identical. But then i found the ones who offer more. Male narrator when you choose a vsp private practice doctor with the orange premier banner, you can expect advanced technology and personalized attention. Schedule your eye exam today. Visit vsp. Com premier. This is what more looks like. I did once mistake mr. Cuddles for mr. Snuggles. Welcome back to mornings on 2. We are still following breaking news in the east bay. A wildfire is burning in moraga called the merrill fire. Its burned more than 60 acre so far. There are evacuations. Elissa harrington is in moraga at saint monicas Catholic Church were evacuees are being sent. Reporter good morning. All the lights are out in this neighborhood. It is pitchdark at this church we are seeing a lot of people in this parking lot waiting it out, waiting to go home. Many woken up in the middle of the night from their sleep and came out here, only able to grab a few items. With me i have the perez family. What was that like this morning. How did you know there was a fire in your neighborhood . Our nextdoor neighbor came and knocked on the door and said her father heard there was a fire going on and they were getting ready to evacuate if they needed to. Our neighborhood was not under Evacuation Orders but we are being prepared. Reporter what were you able to grab . We were able to grab important papers. Passports. A few days of clothing and stuff. Just to keep ourselves comfortable if we needed to. We had plenty of time to grab exactly what we needed. Reporter who are you with . Is this your son . My son, adam. My wife, kiersten. The dog, zoe. Because we are not evacuated our other son went home. Reporter is this gary to have this happen in your community . No. Its not fun but something we have come to expect around here and unfortunately with the recent history of the north bay, and we have the tryon hills around here we can see from our yard. I had a feeling one of these days this was going to happen. Not unexpected. Reporter thank you. I to let people know about this fire. We know it is 60 contained. The firefighters making progress. They have had to evacuate the Sanders Ranch neighborhood. The fire started before 1 am and is threatening 140 structures. Still a lot of activity. Firefighters are trying to get this completely put out but at this point we know they are making significant progress. Again, 100 people had to be evacuated. They are being told to come to st. Monicas church. Elissa harrington, ktvu fox 2 news. Most pg e customers say they understand the need for safety but are still frustrated with the outages. Greg lee tells us about the changes some are calling for and how the utility is responding. Not fair to make everybody else pay the price of pg es longterm and chronic negligence. Reporter mark toney echoing the frustrations of many pg e customers. Finding themselves in the dark during this Public Safety power shut off. Tony is the executive director of, turn. If pg e had spent the money we gave them on trimming the trees and maintaining their power lines faithfully, we would not be in this position. Reporter he said the shut off should be a last resort. Pg e continues to say they dont take this decision lightly and safety is a priority. They also say the company has been working on improvements but in its latest filing to a federal judge pg e says its completed less than a third of its tree trimming work this season. Pg e has faced major scrutiny from state senator jerry hill who represents zambrana where a 2010 pg e gas line explosion took eight lives but the Embattled Company warned this could happen again. We do want to make sure our customers are prepared for potential additional Public Safety power shutoffs this year. Were still in the midst of wildfire season. Strictly United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Southern California had to return to the airport after a problem during takeoff. The captain reported hitting at least one bird on takeoff and requested a return to sfo. This happened about 9 00 p. M. The plane landed without for the incident. United is not saying it was able to put passengers on other flights. Last night or if they will be flying out this morning. We have a lot to talk about. The time is for a tinea. Not only that wildfire in moraga, sal, were watching hour commute. We are watching the commute. You never know when Power Outages hit areas and what it will do to the freeways and the traffic but so far we are off to a nice start. As we go to the Gilbert Community you can see traffic is moving along relatively well. Northbound on 101 coming up to the gilroy area. There have been no major problems in getting up to morgan hill and san jose. Its a nice drive if you want to get on the road early. It should be a decent drive. There have been no problems in san jose. We are also looking at the bay bridge. You see the traffic is light. Its unclear if today will be a lighter than usual day. If everyone will go. We will find out and about an hour. Lets bring steve in when it comes to the weather. We get right to it. For some this is so far been mainly a Higher Elevation event but things have picked up compared to yesterday when there wasnt hardly any breeze at all. Mount st. Helena, 77 Miles Per Hour at 4400 feet. Mount diablo, gusts at 3 20 am at 75. Mount tam, 36. Above the caldecott, 30 a. Ben lomond and the Santa Cruz Mountains at 23 Miles Per Hour. It hasnt really made it to the Santa Cruz Mountains yet but it has around st. Helena and mount diablo. This is the airflow at the surface. That shows you its going from land to see. Thats the onshore all clear from Mendocino County down to the Santa Cruz Mountains. That will continue this morning so the wind advisory continues mainly in the northern east bay hills until 3 00 not much happened yesterday but it is this money. Sometimes these things take a while to get their act together. 30 and 50 above 2500 feet. Red flag warning. Mendocino county until 11 am. And most locations until 5 00 although summer at noon. It depends. 40s to 60s. Lafayette, 40 men. Elsa brontk, 60. Blackhawk, 62. If you get the breeze even if its a profits holding the temperature way up and there are some good gusts coming out of the north and northeast in the east bay hills. Oakland north at 38. Atlas peak in napa, 25. Santa rosa north at 22. Fairfield, 37. Concord northeast at 6. Oakland is calm. Thats how its been in this pattern. A strong system is marching across the intermountain region and the great basin. We are on the drier side of it. 65 in San Francisco. Some locations, 40s, 50s and 60s. Redwood city, 51. Sfo, 64. This could system will march east. The pressure gradients will relax. That should allow the priest to tayla but not till later this afternoon or tonight. 60s, 70s and 80s on the temperatures. A lot of this is winddriven. It will be this way through the weekend and then it will be cooler. We are continuing to follow the wildfire forcing evacuations in moraga. Checking in on the conditions out there and we have reporters at the evacuation area. The nba future in china appears to be uncertain. Resident trump had words for warriors had coach steve kerr. And in baseball it was a big night last night with a blowout in one game and a grand slam and extra innings and another. We show you the majorleague baseball playoffs in just minutes. Oh, so much. I used to think that all kale was alike. Its not. Its not . Mmmm. They look alike. [chuckles] you used to think all eye doctors were alike too. Female narrator choose a vsp private practice doctor with the orange premier banner for advanced technology and personalized attention. Schedule your annual eye exam with a private practice doctor at vsp. Com premier. This is what more looks like. Thats some nice kale. Thats swiss chard. [laughs] welcome back to mornings on 2. Tonight, thursday night football resumes here on ktvu fox 2. The patriots playing the giants. The patriots are the only other Undefeated Team in the nfl besides the 49ers. And the new york giants have new life this season. They switched the rookie starting quarterback daniel jones. Our coverage of thursday night football starts this afternoon at 4 30 pm. You can still watch her regularly scheduled news on ktvu plus during the game and stay tuned after the game for a special thursday night football edition of sports rap. The 49ers are preparing for game against the rams on sunday. Rookie defensive end nick bosa has been named the nfc defensive player of the week for his performance on monday night against the browns. The number 2 overall pick recovered a fumble and two sacks. He will hope for similar success sunday afternoon against jared goff and the rams. 49ers tackle will be out for six weeks with that knee injury. He is undergoing a procedure this week. The 49ers are lost joe staley for half the season. Its unlikely the 49ers will call up a player from the practice squad to help the team on sunday but we will check. Road teams are advancing now to the National League championship series. The dodgers carried a lead late into the game last night against the Washington Nationals. Clayton kershaw came into the game pitching and gave up home runs on consecutive pitches to anthony renzo and juan soto to tie it at 3 in the eighth inning. The wild card nationals 173 after a grand slam in the 10th inning by former dodger. After losing the world Series Finale on their home field each of the past two years, the dodgers did not get that far this time despite winning 106 games this season. The Washington Nationals will play the st. Louis cardinals in the n. L. See us. The cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 131. The game was never in question. The cardinals escorted postseason record 10 runs in the first inning. They just cruised to a victory. A new poll said the tides are shifting on impeachment. Next, with democratic president ial candidate joe biden is now saying about it. And we are following breaking news all morning long. The merrill fire burning at this moment in moraga in the east bay has forced evacuations. The latest when we come back. Good morning. We do see traffic that is off to a nice start this morning. If youre driving at the bay bridge. You can see traffic is light. For some theres not much of a bruise but for others there is a roaring wind. We have advisories that will take you through most of the day. Good morning and welcome back to mornings on 2. Thursday, october 10. Im dave clark. Im pamcook. Another busy morning. We want to let you know about that wildfire in moraga. People have been forced to evacuate. Heres a look the map. The fire is burning three quarters of a mile south of st. Marys college in the Sanders Ranch area. 40 acres have burned and we are told this morning by the Fire Department that it 60 contain. The fire started around 1 am near merrill circle road and Sanders Ranch road. Police issued Evacuation Orders for the Sanders Ranch neighborhood. People living on Sanders Ranch road, merrill drive and herrington road should evacuate immediately. Go to st. Monicas church at 101 camino pablo. Some are also gathering at the Safeway Store on moraga away. A short time ago this morning we spoke with the Emergency Management coordinator with morocco when the Fire District he said firefighters are making good