Soberanes fire has burned for weeks and soaked up so many of the states resources, in the only in terms of money but manpower. Mount loma prieta is just under 3,800 feet higher, the tallest peak in the santa cruz mountain, visible from miles around, the site of several Television Transmission tires, including one for abc 7. On the phone with us right now is Sergeant Chris clark with the Santa Cruz County sheriffs office. Sergeant, thanks for joining us and lets start with the evacuations in the area. Hearing different areas evacuated. Can you give us the latest in. Thanks. Were asking for voluntary evacuation in the area on the summit as well as the mt. Bocce right area. Our deputies have assisted in that and weve set up an evacuation site that have chosen to evacuate at the high school at the gymnasium there. At the socal high gymnasium and voluntary evacuate for mt. Bochy road. Sergeant chris clark on the known, appreciate you taking the time. Any idea how long the evacuations will last . Do you think people will be out of their homes for the night . At this point were getting more details. Its kind of an evolving situation but well be sure to let you know as soon as we get you the information. What can you tell us about the power lines down right now. Again, im not too familiar with that. And, again, were asking for folks to evacuate if they can from those areas, and theres also road closures that the Highway Patrol is putting in place there. Abbey figueroa from pg e told us during the news at 4 00 theres one transmission line thats threatened but so far no one has lost power which is good news but as you suggest, kristen, that is something that they are going to be very concerned about to make sure that they have power and they need to cut it off if they need it for peege toe do that. Absolutely. Chris, what are your priorities . What do you guys try to do first . At least point its santa cruz safeguarding people and trying to get them out of harms way with, you know, setting them up with a place to evacuate if they choose to leave their property and assisting in whatever way they can. Were hearing of more Fire Departments and crews arriving to the loma fire now. What is the response youre getting from neighboring agencies . I would imagine its going to be a wholehearted effort absolutely to prevent and then stop the spread of this fire. Im at c. T. English middle school off summit road and i cant give you a specific number of how many folks i see from my location, but i would imagine that they are giving this absolutely 100 of their effort. Last question on this, chris. This we know this is rugged terrain. Kristen talked about the fire roads that are in there. Still not easy to reach so how much of a challenge is this, the geography in. Its a rural area, summit road and small roads that kind of intersect with that off both sides of the summit. Its very rural terrain. Thanks so much. Sergeant chris clark with the santa cruz sheriffs office. This fire has really spread quickly despite the fact that the winds were relatively still this afternoon. Thats been hot and although the temperature is coming down and apparently the humidity is inching up which is good news. Meteorologist sandhya patel is following the latest. Check out the smoke, a pretty good indication that the winds arent terribly strong. Yes, its been hot there. In the low 90s. Right now the conditions near the fire line, 87 degrees, so it is warm there. Take a look. Relative humidity 12 . It is slowly creeping up and southerly winds gusting to 10 pushing the smoke north ward towards parts of the south bay and places like san jose so you might be seeing that smoke. Here is a look at the winds. They are expected to remain light. Generally under 10 miles an hour which should help the crews there. Hourbyhour temperature trend for that vicinity. 82 degrees at 6 00 p. M. And notice the temperatures sliding. At least the cooler weather will be coming in, and even our live doppler 7 is picking up some of that smoke on the radar beam there. Thats the radar down there in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Heres a live look from the mt. Tam cam, and you can see the plume of smoke. Ive been getting reports on twitter from people saying they can see the smoke. They can see it actually spreading. Obviously one of those Touchy Situations as the night goes on. It is going to be difficult because it is rugged terrain. Were talking about a drought. Were in the fifth year of the drought so really dry vegetation and dry brush and when you combine that with the low humidity in the area, were not expecting the humidity to really rise rapidly, so thats going nothing make it tough for those firefighters there. Dan . Thanks very much. Great update on the conditions on the fire lines. Lets take you back and look at live pictures from sky 7. This broke out at about 3 00, maybe a few minutes before 3 00 as a report of a structure fire. I came on the air with ama daetz at about ten till 4 00. At that time it was estimated to be about 75 acres and by the time we got on the air. Fast forward two hours later and what weve watched is this thing really grow inside very quickly to more than 1,000 acres now so kristen, even thought the conditions in terms of the wind are fairly benign, its the heat and the rugged terrain and the dry trees and grass in a are obviously making this thing very tough to contain quickly and its spreading fast. Absolutely. And ive been following the tweets on loma fire, and people are telling me they are seeing the smoke all the way down, the state park and downtown san jose a lot of tweets from people there about the smoke and the latest road closures and want to give you an update as we to look at sky 7 over the fire. We have road closures at Loma Chiquita and cassel ho maed a mckeen and croy at uvis. Mt. Madonna and the poy line, that is, so youre seeing more and more road closures as the fire continues to spread. And its not hard to imagine why people are seeing this from such great distances. As you know, kristen, this is burning on Mount Loma Prieta and its 3,800 feet high, the tallest peek in that area and then this fire with the enormous plume of smoke in the area and heat is forcing caltrans to run at lower speeds. At heat restriction is in effect between redwood city and san jose. The hot weather and potential fire risk will force the closure of allen rock park tomorrow. Again a hot day but in the as hot as today. Well start the calling. Well move on to other necessary and well say on top of this. On our newscast and fire still spreading in santa krus. Weve been pending out push alerts and we do have debate niece to get to. Trump and Hillary Clinton will eledge in the first high skiks president ial debeat and clintons camp wants it and trumps people do not. Abc 7 News ReporterCarolyn Tyler joins us live outside of the a watch Party Sponsored by the Commonwealth Club will be held. Carol . A large crowd is expected to watch. Here and as they skrultnize the president ial candidates they will be checking out the moderator to see how he handles inaccuracies. I cant even talk about the debate, sorry. Im not even watching. Its too depress. Reporter more than 100 million americans are expecting to tune in for a debate in a may be unlike any other in a president ial campaign that has been rewritten the playbook. And in that new environment the role. Moderator is getting a fresh look. Is it simply to ask tough questions of Hillary Clinton and donald trump, or to also call them out on lies . And let the chips fall where they may. Reporter kgo radio political commentator john rothman has worked for both Political Parties and says the moderator should not be the fact checker nondoes he believe it would make a difference. People are going to be looking at what they look like, whether someone makes a mistake, whether Hillary Clinton coughs, whether donald trump erupts. The winner or loser is not based on content. The winner or loser is based on perception. Reporter micheely mcbride, a professor of politics at the university of san francisco, thinks the facts do matter. If someone is going to stand up there and say blatant untruth after blatant untruth after blatant untruth and that stands for an hour and a half, then theres a concern that actually voters are getting misinformed. Reporter but she believes a factchecking moderator would interrupt the flow. I think they are just going to have to let it rest. Reporter whatever happens tonight to result in future changes for the president ial debate format n. San francisco, carolyn tie lire, abc 7 news. And a reminder well live stream the debate on our website. Again, the debate begins at 6 00 p. M. And well, of course, have the live stream on the abc 7 news ab as well download it for free. Going to be an interesting night. Still ahead, learning from a disaster. Submerged and in trouble. The important lesson First Responders want to teach all of us. And another live look at sky 7 over the loma fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains. You can see the heavy enis really built into theat foundation of the company. Whole foods market is engaged with pg e on many levels, to really reduce energy and reduce our environmental footprint. For a customer like whole foods, saving energy means helping our environment, and we can be a part of that. Helping Customers Save Energy is a very important part of what pg e does. We can pass those savings on to the environment, the business, and the community. Pg e really is an expert in saving energy, and that partnership is extremely exciting. Together, were building a better california. Officials in the north bay want all drivers to know how to rescue themselves and their families. The effort comes after two tragic accidents claimed the lives of four children this summer. Abc 7 newspaper reporter Jonathan Bloom has the story. Reporter divers in the water, a crowd on the shore, all waiting for this. The man at the wheel is a trained diver from the sheriffs department, but the driver of this truck wasnt after it landed in the Russian River a month ago. She tried and failed to get her two kids out of the back seat. A week later this mom lost her two daughters when her car landed in the petaluma river. Parents are worried if that happened to them how would they get how the . Reporter police and firefighters staged a demonstration. Here two adults are in the front seat with two kidsized dummies in the back. The adults take their seat belts off and roll out the windows and the driver jumps out and unbuckles the children and hands them to safety. If you dont have your windows down youre not going to get out. Break the glass with a sharp object in the corner. Theres one thing you should absolutely not reach for is your phone. Calling 911 is delaying your ability to get out. Reporter each second is precious with one adult and two kids. Seat belt off, window down and rescuers say put the older child out the window. To me as a parent i was terrified of thinking of letting the older one go off. They will be able to keep the head above water whereas the infant will need our help to keep the head above water. The diver escaped with the babe second before the back seat was under water. Hopefully when it happens, hopefully never, they have a better chance of making it out. Lets continue to bring you live coverage of this fire burning now. More than 1,000 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains as you look live from sky 7. Chief pablo beretta from the Watsonville Fire Department is on the phone. Chief, are you there . Chief, can you hear us. Yes. Thanks for coming on. Give us the quick update. What do you know . Basically what we were doing is on Santa Cruz County side we were sending resources to assist the fire at this time and we do have a cooperative response with Santa Cruz County and Santa Clara County unit, and the fire is up at the top of the mountain, very similar to the location that we had several years ago at summit fire. At this point where are you targeting your efforts most . Honestly we dont have anything going on here in the city. As far as what i can see and hear on the radio, cal fire, its their fire and they currently have aircraft, helicopters and airplanes, tankers flying over and fighting the fire, but at this time i dont have very specific details on the incident. Okay. Chief, give us a look over the next few hours what you hope to achieve there with the other officials who are dealing with this. Give us kind of a sense of what the priorities are and what you hope to accomplish before it gets dark. Well, that Santa Cruz County fire agency will be supporting cal fire and helping in any way they can the residents. Were basically on standby to assist any way we need to. Theres some worry that the fire is going to spread southeast. If that is the case, watsonville seems to be in the area that could be affected. So are there any measures that you might consider taking at this point . At this time for our city were in the lower part of the valley or near the coast so were not too affected by it, but what we will be doing is sending resources if they need it and were ready at a moments notice to help our neighbors out. Chief Pablo Barreto from the Watsonville Fire Department, thanks for coming on. All right. Lets take a look at you continue to look at live 7 pictures of just this enormous really amount of smoke that has continued like this for the past twoplus hours. Staggering really just how much smoke Something Like this can produce, and because its so still relatively speaking, winds are relatively calm, its still hanging in the air. But will the winds stay that way . We understand humidity is on the rise and sandhya, that would be a good thing with firefighters. Lets check in with her. Absolutely, dan and kristen. The relative humidity continues to come up. Its at 13 , but were not expecting the fog. Its a South Southwest wind gusting to nine Miles Per Hour and its still pretty warm in the vicinity. Heres a look at the heat advisory thats up until 8 00 p. M. Tonight and covers the entire bay area except for solano county. Take it easy out there. Highs so far, numerous records to report. Highs so for. 99 at kent field, thats a report and 95 move fit field and salinas 101. Those are all records indicated by the asterix. 91 so far in san francisco. Pretty hot in concord. Livermore, santa rosa, in the triple digits, so everyone is dealing with the heat, and that fire is getting picked up by our live doppler 7 on radar. Thats the smoke thats showing up from our santa cruz camera. Lots of sunshine and obviously they are dealing with some warm weather there. 84 in san francisco. In the 90s from oakland to mountianview and 96 in san jose and Half Moon Bay youre still warm at 82 degrees. Look at this dramatic picture and thats the loma prieta fire. You can see the smoke and 97 in santa rows az, still pretty hot ant concord ain the upper 80s. Heat eases tomorrow. The third consecutive spare the air for your tuesday and much cooler by the end of the week. South beach camera looking at the smoke and the air quality will not improve immediately. By wednesday were talking about moderate air quality. Heres whats going to happen. The reason firefighters wont get a big hand from mother nature. The fog will be slow to return. 10 00 a. M. Tomorrow. Its only near point reines. Well have to wait for it to start spreading along the coastline and by 11 00 p. M. Well see fog moving in raising the humidity levels. Tomorrow morning when you get going, mild, and most areas will start out in the 50s and 60s. Mildest readings will be inland in the low to mid60s and along the coastline youll be in the 50s. Highs for the tuesday, 21 degrees in san jose. Its still going to be hot in gilroy. 77 degrees. On the peninsula looking at mid to upper 80s from redwood city to palo alto. Mild at the coast and cooler today in the low 70s. 15 degrees and the fog comes back at the coast. In the north bay 88 in napa and 86 san rafael and east bay, oakland, berkeley so we take the edge off the eat a bit and inland areas still hot. 95 in livermore and concord. Saturday theres a dramatic drop in temperatures. Temperatures only in the 70s so much cooler, and then as you take a look at monday, this is might be something you look forward to. A slight chance of rain and contract doppler 7 and all the changes with our abc news app. The accuweather sevenday shows you the heat easing tomorrow and cooling trends on wednesday and in the low 90s inland. Thursday in the 80s. Friday, saturday, sunday and monday well drop you down to the 80s, so even cooler than average early next week with the 60s. Once again a slight chance of rain on monday. Its not definitive but im just letting you know about that, dan and kristen. Thanks, sandhya, very much. Well give you another look at the loma fire as seen from santa cruz. Imagine youre at the beach frying to seek some heat relief and you see this ominous smoke from this fire that is just growing so quickly. A friend of mine who works as a firefighter in the san mateo area says that they would like to help and they cant because city engines cant get to that terrain. Its going to be a tough one. I puppet. Theres a helicopter up there as well and they are rushing Ground Forces in, but it is rug we want to continue our loma fire coverage now with our photographer ian babcock in santa cruz. Ian, great reporting youre doing for us. Hi, guys. Thank you very much. Sitting, you know, right over the beach, and its such such a stark contrast of images that were seeing from that im seeing from here. Judgment weve got a Beautiful Day in santa cruz. We had temperatures well into the 90s, just an amazing beach day, but with this huge black looming fire, you know, coming over the mountains from us here, its just been quite a sight to behold here. Ill bet, ian. So ominous. Imagine if youre sitting on the beach and imagine you came out to get the sun and now youre staring at this strange site. Appreciate all youre doing in santa cruz. One of our quick phorographers. Weve been talking during the break and just go the an outbreak saying it was 1,000 acres and now they are scaling back saying it has the potential of being. We still neat to tried to find out that start the fire. Thats really the center of it. It was a Supreme Court tour fire and the 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. All right. Live back now as we continue to cover this fire burning in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Youre looking at a fixed wing dumping retardant live from sky 7. They need a lot of those runs tonight to try to keep this thing from spreading any further. Now estimated to be 400 to 500 acres bunchltd thats the new estimate. Theres another plane chasing right behind it. Into the meantime, as we also continue to look at the fire retardant being dropped on the area. Want to let you know that were getting word from pg e that there appears to be a propane tank at the repeater site up there, and they are having trouble finding resources to handle that. Obviously a very scary situation for everyone up there. That is why they are being asked to evacuate. There are evacuation areas and evac Agent Centers sent up at Socal High School right now and it all began with a home on Loma Chiquita road. That is where the fire began and spread. Also. We have some chp road closures to tell you. The chp have closed these roads, mt. Bache road at high landway and mt. Bache road at loma prieta way and mt. Madonna and pole line road closed as they try to assess the danger and get people out of the way. Its a remote area and not many houses up there but several have been threatened and a couple have burned, at least a couple of buildings that we know of. And while lives are absolutely the most important, theres a lot of communication equipment up there as well thats being threatened. As this continues. Well be following it for you on abc 7 news. Meantime, world news tonight with david muir is coming up next. Im kristen sze. And im dan ashley. Appreciate your time. Stay tuned now for president ial debate coverage. Well be back. Tonight, breaking news. Hillary clinton and donald trump, the headtohead matchup finally here. The first time for donald trump on a debate stage against just one other candidate. The stakes enormous for Hillary Clinton, too. Trying to earn back trust. The race, a dead heat. We have inside reporting, what each candidate has in their arsenal, ready for tonight. Also this evening, the rush hour shooting rampage. [ gunfire ] the suspect taking aim at drivers. Nine people wounded. What was discovered inside his car. The flood emergency at this hour. Thousands urged to evacuate. Rivers rising. Flash floods from texas to iowa. The system now moving east. The tragic death of a Major League Player and his friends. Authorities tonight investigating. And we celebrate an american