They have several air tankers prepared to deal with the flames, and as you can see its spreading over a fairly wide area and its awfully hot push begun 100 degrees up there which doesnt help. Our Spencer Christian has been obviously tracking our forecast all day, and he can perhaps tell us a little bit more about how hot it is and the winds in the area and what firefighters are facing. Spencer. Okay. Its very hot and dry there, although the steady winds, the constant winds, have not been very strong. 6 Miles Per Hour out of the southwest. Temperature has varied widely across the general area there, in the 90s mostly, but closer to the fire, the reading we have is 91, 92 degrees and winds out of the south at 6 Miles Per Hour, and there are occasional gusts up to 13 Miles Per Hour and, of course, its exceedingly dry. The relative humidity in the area of the fire is under 10 which is dangerously dry. So right now heat is an issue, of course. Relative humidity is an issue because its so low. The wind, as you can see from the smoke rising almost straight up, have not been very strong, but those occasional gusts will cause the smoke to bend a little bit, and, of course, that would fan the flames and raise the potential for the fire spreading, but at the moment hot, dry, light breezes. If the winds pick up, thats going to complicate the Fire Fighting effort a bit and ill stay on top of that and let you know if theres any changes. Not likely to get much hotter. This time of the day is about the peak of heating this time. Year so low 90s is likely to be the range of highs for the day in that area. Of course, its still very warm. Humidity is not expected to rise significantly in the next hour or so, so that will remain very dry. About 10 or lower, and once again its hard to predict just how strong the winds might get as the fire spreads and expands because an expanding fire often generates winds of its own within the microclimate of the fire, but right now the winds are pretty light. About 6 Miles Per Hour with occasional gusts just over 10 or 12 Miles Per Hour. Spencer, as we get closer to sundown, unless the fire starts to generate its own wind, would you expect the winds to stay relatively calm . Know its tough to predict. Yeah. I expect them to stay relatively calm until about sundown. Good that you mentioned that because very often after sundown the winds in this area will pick up a bit, so if if they do pick up a bit after 7 01 which is sunset time that could complicate things for firefighters but if they can achieve relative containment before an increase in winds that would be a very good thing and i know they are hoping to do that. And they wont be able to fly the fixed wing after dark. Fortunately the winds are light right now, and as you said the fire as it picks up could create its own winds, and, again, this is a live look. You can see do we see some structures there . Cant tell what that structure, is but several six homes roughly are threatened by this. Whats interesting, ama, if you look by the helicopter and to the left, its sort of breaking out in different spots now, too, which is a nightmare for firefighters. Certainly, is and its just so dry as spencer was mentioning. You can see the flames just lapping up against those trees and that black smoke that it is putting off. This the southeast of 17. Southeast of highway 17 and lexington reservoir. Its just off of loma prieta and chiquita road, near Mount Loma Prieta the tallest peak in the mountains. And where the loma prieta earthquake where the earthquake original nail theed. And you see the cal fire chopper and firefighters trying to do the best they k. Firefighters from Santa Clara County fire, they have put a couple vehicles into service to get out there that can really get on the rugged terrain and try to help cal fire and the firefighters get control of this blaze that is just raging at this point. About 100 acres. Yeah, six air tankers, and you can see one helicopter there which will be making some assessments in the air as they device exactly their attack plan. And, again, they really have about probably three hours at best to be able to fly safely and dump fire retardant on the fire before sunset at 7 01. After that it just wont be safe to do that, but by then presumably they will have Ground Forces in place. Yeah, hopefully. We mentioned earlier that recreational vehicle and an out building are on fire. You can see, its sort of sparsely populated. As we were taking a wider look earlier, you could see some structures and then a lot of trees and a lot of brush in the way, but residents who can see that smoke and live in the santa cruz money chance, they are just on edge. We were talking to one of our photographers who lives in the area, and they are they have seen past fires that have done a lot of damage, so they are understandably very concerned about these flames that are breaking out in such High Temperatures today. It looks like, if im not mistaken, a clothesline in the middle. To give you an idea, this is remote. To give you an idea of how remote, astronomers want to be away from a lot of light from the cities. From 1976 through 1990 amateur astronomer daniel mchoe set up his telescope roughly 120 times a year on the south slope of this very mountain to search for comets because its that far removed from lots of civilization, lots of Light Pollution that inhibits the ability to star gaze, so it gives you an added sense of how far removed this area is. And how high and how far firefighters have to go with loma prieta being the tallest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains and makes a good spot for our transmitter. As ian was mentioning, look how remote that area. You can see the flames swirling in a circle right there. I have a little updated weather. That would be great, spencer. The official temperature reading at the nearest official reporting station is now down to 90 degrees that. May indicate that temperatures have reached their maximum for this afternoon. Sock. So it may not get any hotter which is good news, of course, but if the fire continues to spread, of course, it will generate more heat. The relative humidity has increased a little bit. It was below 10 just a few minutes ago when we went on the air. Its now up to 11 which is still dangerously low, but it does show a slight increase so that maybe that will be a continuing pattern that well see through the afternoon into the evening. Winds have diminished a bit. The steady winds have diminished to 3 Miles Per Hour. However, occasional gusts are still between 10 and 13 Miles Per Hour and if the fire spreads, as we pointed out earlier, it could generate Even Stronger winds within the microclimate of the area of the fire. Well, thank goodness those winds are down because imagine, ama and spencer, how much it would be spreading if it was this hot and the winds were really active. The fact that you said its down to 90 degrees, thats scary, and weve had a couple of days of this high height and you can see the cal fire chop they are thats just landed, and can you see some. Crews getting off there and doing at best as they can to get out there and fight the fire. Dramatic pictures from sky 7. Certainly is. And we know Santa Clara County fire are working on sending people as well. We were talking to their spokesperson, and some people are still working on the sobranes fire and as we looked at the flames before its scary to see with this dry, hot weather that were having now. These men and women with cal fire are real pros. They know exactly how to attack a fire, but thats what they are doing initially here, making those assessments, you know. What do we do, job one, job two, job three to try to begin to slow the advance of this thing. And to help give us an insight on this as we look at the cal fire chopper that just landed we have matt struck with cal fire with us. Matt, whats the update on the fire . Right now around 175 acres. The fire started about an hour ago t. Initially came in as a report of a structure fire that then spread into the vegetation, and, unfortunately, that area is on one of our higher ridge tops so it gets a lot of wind from a lot of different directions. As you said, weve got great interagency cooperation and agencies throughout the south bay and including Santa Cruz County and Santa Clara County fire are responding at this time. Matt, 175 acres in about an hour. Weve all seen fires spreading a lot faster but this one is moving pretty good and advancing pretty quickly. You know, northly, throughout california we have droughtaffected vegetation and it doesnt take a lot for a fire to spread rapidly through the area and its another good reminder of the critical drought weather and geographic conditions coming together and having a fire that spreads pretty rapidly. Yeah. We cant let up on being vigilant about making sure, you know, things dont catch fire, making sure that we have Defensible Space around our homes. Absolutely. And speaking of homes, this is kind of a sparsely populated area because of where it is located, how high and how rugged it is. But can you talk about structures that have burned, structures that are in danger of burning at this point you know, im down in our dispatch center in morgan hills so im actually looking at what you guys are seeing. Obviously there are homes that are threatened by the fire. Ive heard some preliminary reports that theres been dang to homes, but at this point in the fire our key issues are to evacuate people and suppress the fire and Damage Assessment for us comes later in the process and we encourage people if they feel threatened by the fire to get out of the path sooner rather than later. Matt, let me ask you the same question i asked stephanie from Santa Clara County fire department. Just prioritize the jobs for the cal fire crews, in any situation like this. What do you do one, two and three . Our First Priority is the safety of the public and the safety of our firefighters, making sure that people that are in the path of the fire are okay, and then we identify objectives. We try and identify landmarks or geographic features where were going to try and stop the fire, and then from there we get into the mode of protecting rhett sources and protecting the property thats in the path of the fire. Can you talk a little bit about some. Response vehicles that are heading out there now. As we said, we talked to santa clara count de, and i believe they sent three vehicles that could really get to the that rugged terrain. Youre looking at a structure burning there in the middle of your screen and one other one looks like its completely gone. Yeah. Yeah. We have agencies throughout the south bay responding. Local, municipal departments and then Santa Clara County, Santa Cruz County and cal fire are all responding from a variety of areas. Like you said it is a rug and remote area but well get there as soon as we can. You saw the helicopters. We have several helicopters assigned, several air tankers, bulldozers and inmate crews are on their way to fight the fire. Inmate crews. How many people do you think youll have on the fire lines in the next before sundown would you estimate . By sundown we would hope to have at least 200 people there if not more. Oh, wow. How strempd would you say you guys are because of how dry its been and all the other fires that have been burning throughout the season . You know, north natalie we had like had a little bit of a lull the last week or so so it gave us a chance to regroup and get people back into the area and reenergy so we have as maiy will sources as we could expect to have at this time of year in this area of california. I guess thats fortunate, you know, if nothing else. All right. Well, we want to thank you so much for talking with us and taking a moment as youre busy dispatching and getting all the cruise out to the fire. We hope that all your firefighters stay safe, and well probably check back in well in just a little bit. Thank you so much. Well, good afternoon. Were glad youre with us for this breaking news. Im dan ashley in for larry biel. And im ama daetz. Cont all right. Lets take you back to live breaking News Coverage of this fire burning in the santa cruz money tabs off loma prieta and chiquita roads near Mount Loma Prieta. Its about 175 acres in the past hour or so since it broke out. Yeah. It broke out just around 3 00. Calls came in that it started with a structure on fire and then went over to the vegetation, and as we know the vegetation is just so dry, and its been so hot today. Spencer tells us the temperature has come down to about 90 degrees in the area, but youre looking at some towers there. Abc 7, we have our transmission tower up there because its such a high and such a remote location, but, of course, that makes it difficult to get to and difficult to fight these flames. And also on this array of towers, Cell Phone Companies have their repeaters on there, probably Emergency Services do, too. Im getting at that, but you see all the round repeating units on those towers, and so its a you know, its an Important Communications point for that part of the bay area. Certainly is, and cal fire is responding and santa cruz fire, Santa Clara County fire. You can see a chopper, a cal fire chop their landed there a short time ago, and the flames have just been spreading at this point and we almost saw them moving a circular motion just swirling. Its very intense and frightening to see with our droughtaffected vegetation, but, you know, cal fire was mentioning fortunately we had been in a little bit of a lull with major fires burning, so they were staffed as well as they could be for this time of the year and whats happening in our state with the drought going on our dry vegetation. A good example of this. And this time of the year, september and october, most treacherous time of the year for our fires as the summer comes to an end. Look at these pictures from santa cruz now. Imagine if youre in santa cruz looking at this in person, not just live on television, and you see this ominous, ominous plume that is so wide of smoke going up into the sky, and then as we pull back a little bit, you can see how it is just filling the skyline, all of this smoke. The good news, as really ominous as this looks, is that it isnt moving very much. Right. Because as spencer told us the winds are 3 Miles Per Hour with some occasional gusts up to 12 miles an hour. Thats a very good thing, especially given the heat that is on the Santa Cruz Mountains, on the fire lines there today. And you can actually see just by looking at the vegetation in this live look that just Gentle Breezes right now, but here, this is what were worried about. Were worried about those winds picking up as it gets darker and the flames, because they are already raging with these light winds. Spencer, can you i can add something to that. The wind trend overnight, hour by hour, right now the winds are calm and steady winds are calm with an occasional gust, and they are expecting not to increase more than two or three Miles Per Hour over the next several hours, so thats good news. The winds will remain relatively calm and relatively light except for the occasional gust up to maybe ten Miles Per Hour. However, the winds may increase early tomorrow, but the good news is that for the rest of this evening and into the late night hours the winds will be no more than two, three, maybe four Miles Per Hour. Right, unless the fire start generating its own wind. Yeah. Right. Thats the concern. Ful fire spreads, of course, large fires tend to generate their own stronger winds within the microclimate of the fire. Good afternoon again. Dan ash my and ama daetz and Spencer Christian in with you covering the breaking news that happened so far. Reports of a structure fire and an hour later nearly 200 acres have burned and could be a long night for firefighters though we heard one firefighter from cal fire come on telling us that they hope by sundown they have 200 people on the fire line. A couple of hot dates so the vegetation has been getting even drier. I know we were expecting kind of a trend where the temperatures would start to come back down to normal. And youre right. The last couple of days have been extremely hot with temperatures above 100 degrees in many locations but tomorrow the cooling trend begins so thats good news, and later in the week its going to be much, much cooler so the fire risk over the next few days will diminish areawide so heres a look at live doppler 7. Weve got clear skies everywhere all across the bay area. Theres no fog at the coast though this time tomorrow well probably see some nothing returning to the bay area bringing us the areawide cooling that we certainly need. Near the fire right now, its 89 degrees. Temperatures continue to diminish gradually and relative humidity at 11 and continues to increase gradually and the wind is calm with occasional gusts to 8 Miles Per Hour. Not much of a gust. This is our expected wind pattern over the next 24 hours. You can see that hour by hour or at least every three hours we see winds remaining in that very calm range about 2, 3, 4 Miles Per Hour and not expected to increase significantly until tomorrow afternoon. Thats good news for the Fire Fighting effort. Meanwhile, a heat advisory remains in effect for the entire bay area until 6 00 this evening and under the extremely high conditions heatrelated illness is a possibility. Dont leave your kids or pets in cars and dry to stay cool if possible and hydrated in the very High Temperatures. High temperatures, a couple of records, 105 at gilroy. Not a record but thats a very high, High Temperature. San jose at 98 has died its record high and 101 in salinas is a new record high for this date and numerous other locations as you can see have topped 100 degrees. Current reading as we look northward, our temperatures are beginning to taper off again. 86 degrees in San Francisco. San jose 104, 84 at half moon bay. This is from emoriville looking at a clear western sky. Its upper 80s right now in santa rosa and napa and nevada, concord, 101 still in livermore and the view from our roof top camera shows that the forecast eases heat tomorrow. Third consecutive spare the air day and much, much cooler by the end of the week. Air quality poor in the east bay and Santa Clara Valley and it will improve all across the region on wednesday. Heres the forecast animation showing overnight conditions mainly clear but low clouds and fog return to the coast tomorrow afternoon. That will begin our cooling trend, and that will continue right on through the week. Overnight lows near 60 degrees and tomorrows highs warm inland with mid to upper 90s in the warmest locations. However, it will be getting cooler and heres the sevenday forecast, by thursday, by friday only reaching into the upper 730s and low 70s around the bay and low 60s on the coast but its going to be a gradual cooling trend over the next couple of days. It wont feel like were getting any significant relief until near the end of the week. Okay. Thanks, spencer, very much. And firefighters are hoping for some of that relief and hoping the winds stay relatively calm as they continue to battle this fire that broke out in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Stay with us. Were continuing our live coverage of and we continue to cover our breaking news, this fire that has broken out in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It happened just after 3 00 southeast of high what 17 in the lexington reservoir. This is just off loma prieta and chiquita road. And this area has seen some fires before, some really terrible. This is about 175 acres, probably a little bit more. On the phone is abc 7 News ReporterKatie Marzullo in that area. Can you hear us . Reporter i can hear you. All right. We cant hear you because youre in the mountains. Try it one more time and well try you back if we cant hear you. Youre in the mountains and its a bit garbled. Reporter cell service is in and out. Its gone from zero and one bar. Thats our best. We are in the mountains where weve made the drive. We left san jose about 30 minutes ago. All right. Were going to interrupt you because we just cant hear you. Well try you back in a few minutes. She said she was on her way. Left about 30 minutes ago. They left from san jose, and they are doing their best to get there, but, again, were reaching the commute time. Yeah. And through 17 is a tough go to begin with and then add this fire. Fire crews trying to get to this scene, and all the smoke that is coming off of the flames. And, you know, as you like from sky 7, we saw something that we have not seen yet and beginning to see now. I just saw fixed wing fighter fighter, fixed wing tanker go by and seen a cal fire helicopter, but now they are starting to get the fixed wings in that area. Six have been dispatched we understand that will carry fire retardant, and thats how they will really begin to battle this fire from the air as they move Ground Forces into place which takes a little time because, as weve been talking about, very rugged terrain. Its hard to get up there. And, of course, they will try to get as much of a handle as possible before it gets dark. Spencer said sun goes down at 7 01 tonight so, you know, just a few more hours there for lack of a better term burning daylight. The and theres a fixed wing aircraft at the top of the screen. And cal fire doing the best they can. They also have Santa Clara County and Santa Cruz County and have sent some vehicle that can get to the rugged terrain and we have our kga transmitter up on loma prieta. As do some. Cell phone providers. Stay with us. Welcome back. At 4 30 here, were continuing to cover our breaking news. This fire that broke out around 3 00 in the Santa Cruz Mountains and just continues to grow right now. All right. We want to get some more information for you on the ground. Changing roles in front of the camera instead of behind it as it usually is. Our terrific photographer and journalist ian back sandercock with us live. Ian, are you there . Hi, dan. Yes, i am here. Take it away. This fire does look like its continuing to grow. Yes, on a slight delay here, yeah, sorry. From this vantage sitting near the wharf. You can probably see that from my live picture and the pictures here are daunting and this thing is growing and growing and still burning very dark and very black. Its kind of looming over the city as we speak. Ian, how far are you from the fire, would you say . From this Vantage Point . Pretty far. As a crow flies, dan, probably oh, geez, could be 15 miles, maybe as a crow flights. Very intimidating even from that distance. And ian, were you saying all your neighbors very concerned because of past fires that have burned in the area. Yeah. Weve had fires in the bonnie dune area years past and that was daunting. A lot of evacuations with that one. Lost several homes and people with horses, you know. I saw people with horse trailers, you know, getting up into the hills as quick as they could so they could get all their animals out and i think this is much the same situation up there as we speak. Im sure a lot of people are nervous about their homes and their pets, and are probably trying to get there and maybe having a hard time doing it at this point and real carrying along fast. I know you know that area very well and report for us in that area. Are you starting to see any increased activity from the air . I saw a fixed wing tanker a few moments ago which was the first one ive seen in our live coverage. Are you seeing any more activity that you can tell . From this distance, dan, ive seen a couple helicopters go by. One was a cal fire chopper but from here not so much. I think they are probably circling, you know, up close ter to the fire itself. I mean, i am a ways from it, but you cant miss it. Its literally sitting right over the city. Yeah. Those beachgoers have to be chatting about it is a well. What are they saying . Yeah. People are a lot of people are coming by and and with concerned look on their faces. Its a Beautiful Day in santa cruz. A little bit of wind, not much. Feels like it might be coming up just a little bit, but not too much which could be a good thing. Temperatures are still scorching here by the beach. Got to be at least 90. An ideal beach day though not an ideal fire day but at least the wind is not too bad. Ian, thanks so much. You got it. Hopefully the winds will stay calm, but, again, the fire could create its own winds and firefighters are doing the best they can to get as much of this much of a handle on it as they possibly can before it gets dark. Ian babcock, our photojournalist, terrific job. Yeah, thats the thing. They are kind of up against the clock because this thing broke out about 2 45, 3 00. Yeah. And because its so remote the good news is there are not a lot of houses in danger though there are several. The bad news its so remote that it takes a while to respond. Yeah. And, you know, they have really until nightfall to fly their tankers with retardants, and they have to ground those, and when its so remote thats the fastest way they can get at this fire is they try to get Ground Forces up there. Spencer, we would love to hear more from you. The temperature continues to gradually diminish. Earlier it was 91, 92 degrees and its now down to 87 in the area of the fire. Relative humidity was 8 , 9 , and its now up to 12 . It was 11 about five minutes ago. So thats good. The patternch decreasing temperatures and increasing humidity is a good pattern for the Fire Fighting effort and the wind relatively light up to 6 Miles Per Hour right now and generally thats considered a pretty light wind, so the the pattern of weather conditions is favorable for containing the fire. Yes. But, of course, it has spread a bit and thats concerning. Yeah. Look at that ominous, ominous site from sky 7, just an enormous amount of smoke and when you see it from ians point, the boardwalk, because loma prieta is the tallest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains it almost looks like a volcano. As he mentioned in past fires people are evacuating and you have the livestock and horses and things like that, though things that need to be evacuated as well. Thats the picture i was talking about from it the dark peak and then all the smoke billowing off. Theres an amazing amount of smoke. I saw a column of flame leap up 40, 50 feet in the area so its still a real problem and spreading. Keeping i have out this. We will have more on this coming up, and all getting latest information on twitter and the a, youre abc news app and stay up to date on the late esinvitation. Theres a Major National story to talk about tonight as well that were following closely. The countdown to the president ial debate and about an hour and a half to go. This will be the first faceoff between Hillary Clinton and donald trump. The estimates are 100 Million People will watch this debate. The audience could rival the super bowl in fact. Abc News ReporterMarcy Gonzalez is at Hofstra University in new york with a preview of tonights showdown. Reporter tonight, facing off for the first time. Hillary clinton and donald trump taking on the issues and each other in the first president ial debate. The they have to actually switch positions. He needs to be less visceral and more rational and more head and less heart just like she needs more heart and less head in the course of this debate reporter 90minute showdown broken down into 15minute segments with clinton going first. Each getting two minutes to reply, and with the latest polling showing a close race, tonight could be a turning point, even with only about 3 of voters still undecided. The debate absolutely can have an impact on the outcome. Election. With such a small undecided vote but its also hardly any different between the the candidates in the polling so a 1 or 2 change can make all the difference. Reporter both candidates taking different strategies in preparing. Clinton holding mock debates, studying video of trump in his past 11 debates and meeting with trumps ghostwriter for personal insight. Trump downplaying the amount of work hes putting in to getting ready saying he wants to make sure hes himself. About flee out of four americans say they plan to watch tonight with estimates this would be the most watched debate in history, topping the more than 80 Million People that tuned in to watch carter and reagan face off in the 1980s. Marci gonzalez, hemp stead, new york. The debate will be followed about dancing with the stars and then followed by the abc 7 news and jeopardy and wheel of fortune respectively followed by the abc 7 news at 11 00. The first time donald trump and Hillary Clinton have been on the same stage as president ial nominees. This is a title fight, a live look at the debeat venue at Hofstra University which is in hempstead, new york. And the debate begins at 6 00. You can watch it right here on abc 7, and for a preview of what we might expect tonight were joined by political reporter and abc 7 news political analyst carla marinucci. Talk about the stakes tonight. This is going to be a throwdown. I mean, this is a highstakes political reality tv and these two get one chance to make a First Impression on the 100 million voters. A lot have not been paying attention. Hillary clinton has to do a couple of Different Things here. Shes got to show donald trump is not prepared, doesnt have the demeanor, doesnt have the knowledge. Shes got to speak about the trust issue and address the honesty issue which has dogged her from the start, and i think, you know, i mean, shes got to get out there and just really make her case to the american people, and for donald trump, this is all about showing he has the demeanor, he has the maturity. The knowledge. The knowledge is huge, dan. I mean, this is these issues are going to be deep dive, granular and he better know what these issues are about, and he better not cross the gender line. Crooked hillary, thats not going to go over well with a lot of women who are watching this debate. This is working without a net tonight. Totally. Who has the most to lose . When you are talking about working without a net. Hillary clinton really i think the bar is high for her, highest for her. Shes the most experienced debater in modern political history. Shes the most experienced candidate, but shes up against a guy who knows reality tv and has been before these audiences. And sun predictable. Many times. However, there is no safety net. Theres no doovers, no edits. You get one shot at this. So, look, the stakes are high for both of them. I think the bar is higher for Hillary Clinton. Do you think thats why so many people are expected to tune in because if you talk to people around, they are like which one do we choose, i dont like either of them. Most of them. Youre actually right. This is an election like none weve seen in our lifetime. Youve got a hugely experienced politician against somebody who has no experience ever being elected to anything, and no military experience. Thats very unusual, and the fact is that this is going to be one of the most interesting and historic elections ever. Its about change that weve seen world wilde, the change elections. The question is can Hillary Clinton make the case that change with donald trump would be dangerous for this country . Either way were in for quite a show and quite a spectacle. Stay tuned. Okay. Carla, thanks so much. Carla marinucci, our abc 7 political analyst. Stay up to date on tonights debate on the abc 7 news app. A list of watch parties and up to the minute coverage once that debate gets is that righted. I want to go to one. Watch parties. Thats going to be fun. The drama. Lets talk about something thats really scary, and that is this fire raging in the santa cruz money chance. Still, [ laughter ] we got an estimate. Now its at 1,000 acres. Oh, my goodness. And about 30 minutes or so this was as 175, 200 acres and now its at 1,000 acres. Keep in mind, this all is within less than two hours time its spread that rapidly. Thats with light winds. The winds arent even fueling this. Thats the dryness and drought and how hot its been over the last few days making the situation even worse as crews try to get a handle on this fire. This is on loma prieta, and we are keeping a close watch 1,000 hours and spreading very quickly. Live 1,000 acres and spreading very quickly. Live in the Santa Cruz Mountains from sky 7. Once again this fire continues to burn unabated in very rugged terrain. Several structures have been burned and several threatened but it is a fairly remote area. Spencer has been keeping a check on the weather and the temperature is coming down, spencer. Gradually coming down. It started out at about 92 degrees when we first went on the air and now down to 87 degrees. Relative humidity is also increasing. 90 when we first went on the air and now its up to 13 and winds are out of the south to southwest at about 6 Miles Per Hour so this is all encouraging news for the firefighters. There have been occasional gusts above 10 Miles Per Hour and not very strong, so lets move along and take a look at our overall weather picture. Tomorrow is going to be another very warm day inland and not nearly so hot today. Mid to upper 90s. 80s around the bay and no 90s are expected. On the coast where we had mid80s and low to mid70s tomorrow. Cooling will continue tomorrow and for the week ahead were using livermore as a High Temperature trend indicator. Notice the high tomorrow into the upper 90s at livermore and down to about 90 on wednesday and then down to the average range on thursday and guess what, looking ahead. We have some rain. Maybe nokes monday. Heres the forecast animation starting at 5 00 a. M. Theres a slight chance of some light rain moving into the area next monday so not only do we have cooler weather coming our way later this week but a chance of early autumn rain next monday and that would be very good news as well. Thats a headline. Real, that is. Cant get here by tonight for the fire. Trying to push it. I dont have that kind of power. Thanks very much. All right. Live pictures as you look at this fire continuing to burn now at about 1,000 acres. Yes. Southeast of high what 17 in lexington reservoir. We are keeping watch ove at at t, we believe in access. The opportunity for everyone to explore a digital world. Connecting with the things that matter most. And because nothing keeps us more connected than the internet, weve created access from at t. California households with at least one resident who receives snap or ssi benefits may qualify for Home Internet at a discounted rate of 10 a month. No commitment, deposit, or installation fee. Visit att. Com accessnow to learn more. We continue to take a look. Look at that orange glow right now half. Live look from sky 7 at this fire burning in the Santa Cruz Mountains near loma prieta which is the tallest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Its now probably over 1,000 acres right now. It started just about 3 00. Right. This all chance about two hours. On the phone with us is Abby Figueroa from pg e. Abby, can you hear us . Yeah. Oh, great. Thanks for coming on. Tell us whats happening in terms of pg es responsibilities on those fire lines. Theres some homes up there. Theres some transmitter towers up there. What are you doing and what are the concerns . Well, right now i can tell you that our top priority is the safety of our customers and First Responders and our employees, so as of 4 30 this afternoon, no pg e customers had lost power as a result of the fire. However, we do have one electric distribution line thats currently threatened over there in Santa Clara County. Crews are en route, and they will be available to deenergize any electric lines if requested by fire officials and well be working with cal fire and other local First Responders and the most important thing that we want to tell our customers is that we encourage them to stay safe, follow evacuation orders and to have that plan ready in case they need to leave tonight. And abbey, is there a propane tanker with 1,000 gallons up there in the fire zone thats actually near your pg e facility . Do you actually know anything about that . Sorry, that is unconfirmed right now. Thanks so much, Abbey Figueroa with pg e for coming on. As the firefighters do, pg e will play a role in this as well. As she said, there will be a crew up there ready to deenergize line if need be. This is what we need. More of these fixed wing tankers dropping retardant to try to stop the advance of this fire. Thats on tape, but neve been on the scene for the last 45 minutes or hour or so. It took a while to get organized and get them up there and now they are actively involved in dumping water and retardant on the snir. And, you know, or kristein sze has been she masters all things social media, and she has been working it and seeing whats happening and what people are posting on twitter. A lot of people seeing the flames and you take pictures and share them. Kristen, what are you seeing . If you want to get the very latest on social media regarding the fire use the lomafire and youll be able to find a lot of information. I want to pull up some of the pictures that people have tweeted of the fire. See if we can get this up from jamie. Hes nearby and can show you the smoke. Want to show you what radar is doing. Spencer christian is telling me via radar, green usually picks up rain but thats how much smoke is in the air right now and its being picked up due to the loma fire and tina tweets this picture of loma fight. Not a sight you want to see. You can see the smoke coming up and a lot of homes feeling like this is all too close for comfort. Animal hospital tweeted a picture for us. They want to tell you if you have pets that are evacuated or are running off or if you need pets boarded, contact them at the vca animal hospital. A few other tweets to show you right now. This is the San FranciscoState University power lab. This is the weather lab showing you the smoke there as well. Cant swipe that for you. Having a little glitch but do want to show you the pictures and this is from san jose downtown. They can see the smoke as well and our david louie from downtown san mateo. I want to give you the latest tide bits of information. Evacuation centers at call high school and loma prieta and evacuations for the croy road area in its entirety and surrounding areas so together as the abc 7 news team well continue to keep you posted on the fire. Excellent. Kristen, thanks so much. Great job there. And, again, we take a look at this fire. This is what we were seeing earlier as the flames get closer to the top of loma prieta, and thats actually where we have one of our transmitters, cell phone towers. Cell phone repeaters, and they do have that space in terms of clearing Defensible Space. The brush has been removed from that area, but, of course, its still threatened. Look at the size of this fire. 1,000 acres and all of this with the Global Warming and the a lot of its a hoax. Its a hoax. Itll get cooler. Itll get warmer. Its called weather. We need some Global Warming we need leaders who get it. So that we can move away from coal and oil to clean energy. Im tom steyer. If you want to do something about climate change, you can. Please. Register and vote. Nextgen California Action Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising. And coming up tonight on abc 7, the first president ial debate is set for this evening. You can watch it here on abc 7. Abc News Coverage starts at 6 00 p. M. Its followed by dancing with the stars. That comes on at 8 00. Then there will be a special edition of abc 7 news at 9 00. Jeopardy and wheel will then air at 10 00 and 10 30 and then, of course, that will all be followed by abc 7 news at 11 00. And we continue to follow this fire that has broken out in the Santa Cruz Mountains. This is a live look from sky 7. Youre seeing some. Smoke coming off of the fire, but weve been seeing a lot of dramatic pictures coming out of this. Now you can see how the helicopters are flying through some of that smoke and so you cant see as well, but you can see those flames there. This is all happening southeast of highway 17 and lexington reservoir. This is just off loma prieta and chiquita roads. Its near Mount Loma Prieta. Were told its about 11,000 acres at this point and it started just at 3 00 so in two hours thats how much it has grown and the winds arent too terrible today, although the temperatures have been quite high. Its been hot over the past couple of days, but the temperature is coming down. We continue to follow this, and we will have the late on abc 7 news at 5 00 as dan fire object mountain and breaking news tonight as the combination of hot weather and dry trees and grass proves to be too much. Buildings and homes are going up in flames as firefighters battle a brush fire in Santa Cruz County. Lets give you a live look from sky 7 now. You can see that this thing continues to produce enormous amounts of smoke and continues to spread. It broke out almost exactly two hours ago and has now spread to at least 1,000 acres burned. Good evening. Im dan ashley. And im kristein sze. Thanks for joining us for continuing coverage. The fire is burning just off loma prieta and chiquita roads near Mount Loma Prieta. It is about ten miles south of highway 17 right now. Now, were told the blaze began as a structure fire about 3 00, as i said. So far san jose fire says it has burned more than 1,000 achers in very rugged terrain and spread quite quickly. Weve seen at least one structure burn and reports say at least six homes are threatened. Weve also seen one recreational building and one out building on fire. You see the cal chopper hard at work. Cal fire has deployed at least six aircraft to fight the flames. Six fixed wing aircrafts to carry fire retardant. Theres several chemical fire retardant drops from the aircraft that were talking about battling this fire and trying to slow the path of this very fastmoving fire as they rush to try to get Ground Forces there to try to fight on the fire lines themselves. Weve seen crews on the ground. Theres several welldefined fire roads along the ridge line allowing crews to get close to the flames and one good bit of news is they are saying the soberanes fire is where cal fire can release some of the crews and send them up here to respond to this fire