Where are we at now . Caller currently, we have numerous Fire Departments on scene. We started getting calls about 4 00 this afternoon. On scene are cordelia fire, travis fire. Cal fire. And there may be others that are arriving as we speak. What im asking you is how many homes are on fire at this point. Are people in that neighborhood being evacuated . Caller the area has been evacuated. The Sheriffs Office and Highway Patrol are involved currently in Traffic Control. We are urging people to stay out of the area if at all possible. We need the roadways for Fire Department to get into and out of the area in order to fight the fire. So we absolutely encouraging people, if theres any way they can avoid this area that they do that. Do we have any idea how this started . Weve seen this hopscotch from different areas, not necessarily houses nexting door to each other but from several areas. Do we know how this started, and are there any injuries . Caller at this point i havent heard any injuries. How it started will be an investigation by the Fire Department. That obviously has not been started at this point. Their objective is to get the fire knocked down, to get it put out. And that will be the backside of the investigation, of how it started. Its my understanding that the fire started on one side of the roadway and jumped the roadway. Thats when the north west corner of cordelia road and lopes began fire. This is a semirural area in the sense that they are not a housing tract. They each have small lots, maybe up to an acre or two each. Some are larger lots. But its not your typical residential neighborhood as you can see in your footage, im sure. Its sporadic with houses. At one point i heard that one of the issues was that maybe there was a downed power line on 680 and that was also impacting traffic . Can you confirm that . Caller i cannot confirm that. It would not surprise me. I know pg e is either on scene or on their way. And the Fire Department is on the way and deal with it accordingly. What is the status of traffic right now . Caller traffic is an issue. We are conducting Traffic Control as we speak at various areas around the area. Were trying to keep people out of there. But weve got the friday commute. So theres a lot of people on roadway. Lopes road runs right along 680. Theres roads on the other side of 680 which are heavy with traffic right now. Were encouraging people if they could stay off of 680 and lopes and ramsey, that would help out. Cordelia in itself, where the fire actually is, that road has been closed for some time now. 680 is open, and thats where you want people to stay. Caller 680 is open and we encourage them to stay on 680 in whatever direction they need to go. Whats the biggest concern for you at this point . About an hour ago it seemed like it was fairly contained. But now its jumped to several other houses. Whats the biggest concern at this point . Caller our biggest concern is evacuation and traffic and keeping the people out of there. I would imagine looking at it, one of the biggest concerns right now is the wind. The heat and the wind are definitely fueling this fire. So i think we have enough fire personnel on scene. B but, as we say, until the Fire Department gets it knocked down, i think the wind is whats fueling it at this point. Indeed. Thank you for your time. Well keep you on stand by if need be through the night. The wind direction, that is the concern right now coupled with the heat. Lets bring in jeff ranieri. Weve been tracking this for a couple hours now. It seems as if its intensifying almost. This area is always very typically windy. What were dealing with is this wind tunnel. Winding sustained at 18 miles per hour. Weve seen winds gust as high as 24 miles per hour. That wind still can carry some of these embers and produce more fires in more areas of this zone. Because we are not expecting this wind to die down over the next three or six hours. It will likely stay this gusty all throughout the evening. Theres that junction, 680 and 80. It has been known for embers to travel a quarter to half a mile. That could, potentially, worstcase scenario start fires on the other side of 680. We dont want to go there, but if you are close enough to smell the smoke and see the flames you are close enough to have fire. You can see some of the tracks here and also some of the driveways and some of these homes. It is, you know, maybe considered rural to urban to some people, but there are a lot of homes very close together, and thats going to be the conditions were going to be tracking. Were looking at wind all through the weekend not only for tonight but for the next couple days. Seems like we got off easy with the brush fire in oakland earlier this week, but this time not the case. The wind directions and wind speed not helping the firefight. The pictures really tell it all. Several homes on fire in this neighborhood. Evacuations are under way. The good news here is that no injuries thus far have been reported. But several Fire Departments are on the scene, including Fire Departments from vallejos, vacaville. We will continue our live helicopter footage online. Now the nations highway truck fund is headed for a crash this summer. The second in command predicted dire consequences if nothing is done. Mark matthews is trying to get them to talk details. Reporter it was a bumpy ride. And it gives you an idea of how difficult it is when the second in command cant tell you where the monday even is coming from. What she did say is money is running out and projects across the country are in jeopardy. Potholes, not a deep problem. One that is spreading. Right here in lombard. I believe its lombard here. I really have to say it is. Reporter the real problem is money to fix the roads is running out. Highway trust fund is going to go insolvent, we predict in august. Reporter this is deputy administrator at t federal transit the administration. And she says the Highway Trust Fund must not be allowed to crash. There has to be a fix for that or were going to find ourselves in a pretty dire situation. Reporter so i asked her what the administration is proposing. We believe that revenue can be generated from a proroad Business Tax Reform over all proposal. Reporter would the taxes go up or how would that work . The details of that are, have been put forward. Reporter the fact is, she did not have the particulars. Where the rubber meets the road is their socalled pro growth Business Tax Reform, that means businesses will be stuck for much of the mondayie the only pothole is that businesses and their Interest Groups like the u. S. Chamber of commerce are working to scuttle the deal. There is an alternative plan. It has been suggested to raise the gas tax by 12 cents a gallon. Some drivers think it makes sense. You use the road, you have to pay. Reporter but others hate the idea. Californians are already paying the highest pergallon tax in the country. Its tough to fill up your tank as is right now. Reporter californias gas tax and the federal tax added in 71 cents a gallon tops in the nation. And the bottom line in all this is the general fund is going to be used to supplement the Highway Trust Fund for the rest of this year, because this is an Election Year and with all the members of the house and a third of senate up for reelection, getting a tax hike, thats a big political pothole, mark math urks nbc bay area news. When we return back to our breaking news, in the fairfield area, near the 680 80 interchange, a traffic mess at this point. But this neighborhood near Rodriguez High School in flames. Several homes. Well have the latest report, next. Welcome back. Youre looking at live pictures from our nbc chopper near fairfield, near the 680 80 interchange. The fire has been burning for more than two hours now. This neighborhood, from house to house, people are fearing that their home might be on fire. At least four to five homes are on fire. Two have been destroyed at this hour. The firefight continues. Its a fivealarm fire. Well continue to have updates on air and online. Will this be the key to more safety for students. Theres a new task force in preventing attacks on campuses. Janet na pal taun owe introduced it. Berkeley was one of 51 high profile universities under investigation for possibly violating federal law. A spokesperson says berkeley has been focused on addressing the complaints and engaging survivors. The task force will involve students and regents. The first report will come in of july. And thats when they will move forward with their plans. Well be right back with more in a moment. Want to take you back to that fire weve been watching since our 5 00 newscast. This is the cordelia neighborhood where weve seep numerous houses go up in flames. Were finally starting to see some of that smoke dissipate. We want to bring in battalion chief robert staufl. If youd like to make a call, please hang up do we have the fire chief . Weve lost him. We had about four houses on fire. Weve had some dramatic flames. At least two houses we know have been destroyed. There you see some of the earlier video from when it was fully engulfed in those homes. 680 who been closed down, northbound, for about an hour or so. That is now reopened and firefighters are going people to day on 680 and not to go off in the lopes area, where the fires are concentrated. Now we do have the fairfield fire battalion chief with us again. Chief, if you could tell us exactly where we are now in the situation with the homes that have burned. Caller well, were still assessing the homes that have burned right now. We dont have a complete number. Well be working on that for the next couple hours. Weve turned the corner on the fire. And were still working, were just going to get a better assessment of what we have. We have five acres and two buildings damaged right now. We dont have a total of any more yet. It seemed that more than two buildings were on fire. Is that just were not seeing it correctly . Or whats the analysis from the ground level . Caller it could be houses. It could be outbuildings. I havent been able to walk on the ground and get there yet. Im trying to get through traffic to get there. What about evacuations. We were hearing that your firefighters had more 30 to 40 homes evacuated. Where candidate homeowners go . And when do you think those homes will be available to their homeowners . Caller well work with the sheriffs. Theyre out there right now. Theyve done the evacuations and the road closures for us. When i get there, ill be working with their p. I. O. To get a full handle on what we have. And the most difficulty has been the wind and the heat for you today . Caller im sorry, repeat . The most difficult aspect must be the wind and the heat and the dryness. Caller yeah, i havent seen a video of it. I just know from what weve seen this year from fire behavior already, were burning as if it were october. And were just right here at the middle of june. So the intensity of the flames are a lot, what was expected. The fire chief is approaching the fire right now. Thank you for your time. Jeff ranieri has been tracking this with us. Were talking about the wind. Anything in terms of wind direction or notice next hour . The chief did say theyre getting a handle on it. They know because they live there. This is a notoriously windy location, even when youre not looking at a wind event per se. So with that said, it is now right now gusting in the low 20s. Sustained wind at about 18 miles per hour. We are expecting winds to stay that strong all the way through this evening. So while they may be getting an a little better handle on this fire, hotspots still could push embers in vicinities near that fire. So youre going to need to watch that closely if you live in cordelia and lopes road, that is where the epicenter of this fir. You can see for the entire area, hills above 1,000 feet, it is going to stay windy throughout this weekend. Winds from anywhere 12 to 21 miles per hour. Looks the worst on saturday and sunday. Then by monday well gradually see them decrease. So even wind that speed is good enough to keep that fire danger up there with our threeyear drought currently in effect. You can see blue sky across the north bay. Currently 81 degrees. Fog at the immediate coastline, but were getting a little bit of sunshine right now across the golden gate bridge. And for the south bay we do have high cloud cover spreading across. Winds out of the northwest at 16, decreasing humid its down to around 20 . So even elevated fire danger continues across the south bay. We have a thick fog bang from point race to santa cruz. If youre heading to the beaches you can see its going to be 63 degrees. Well take you to the micro climate forecast. Were going to keep sunny skies in san jose, a little bit hotter as you get away from the bay. Morgan hill at 87. For the peninsula, 73 in san mateo. 83 in belmont. You head further doubt peninsula and you are going to see temperatures are a little hotter with some mid80s. Lets take a live look outside at the sky camera networks. Youll see incredible weather here in and throughout portions of the bay area. Well have more of course at nbcbayarea. Com. We can see from the way the conditions are outside, it is going to be a long, hot, difficult summer. It will. Well be back in a moment. Stay with us. Well, it is what we call orange friday around hire. Were counting down towards giants baseball right here on nbc bay area. This is a team thats struggling. Theyre looking for anything to get them out of this rut right now. We will soon find out if another off day this week can help the change of fortunes for the giants. The orange and black starting a fresh set in arizona, hoping to reverse a bit of a nosedive over the past two weeks. Theyve gone 18. While still arming almost four runs a game, theyve pitched just. 260. They led the league in twoout rbis. Also check out the staff era. For a preview of tonights game, here are the men who are calling it. Jon miller and mike krukow. The giants come into arizona and they do not come in fully healthy. Angel pagan is still not healthy. Theyve lost eight out of nine and five in a row. Theyre finding new ways to lose. You go back to the big threegame sweep to the colorado rockies, and they had leads in all those games. Two they lost in the ninth. One they lost in the eighth inning. And those are very painful losses, and it clearly affected their confidence as it did in chicago. So, having lost eight of the last nine games, they need to play better in all aspects of the game. They need to tighten things up mentally and come up with the things they did earlier in the year. So lincecum will try to be the stopper and try to get paul gulchman out. Im jon miller with mike krukow. Lets go back to you. Have a great call. Full highlights at 11 00. The programming note for you. Because of the giants game that starts at 6 30 in about four minutes from now, dateline will air at 8 00 on tv 36. Crossbones is scheduled to air at 10 00 right here followed by our 11 00 newscast. Want to take you back to that fire burning near fairfield. Its going to be a long night for firefighters watching this. The captain for the firefighters is on his way to assess this. Numerous people have been evacuated from their homes. There are tense moments trying to figure out exactly when theyll be able to get back in and if their houses are still standing. Traffic still an issue in that area. Theyre asking commuters to stay on 680. Not to go down lopes or ramsey. As it starts to get dark, we could see some of these fires reignite again. Yes. Certainly, the wind is not expecting to die down as we head throughout the next three to six hour period. The wind is pushing the smoke and flames off to the north. Its gusting at 24 miles per hour. So it could carry some of these embers. If you are close enough to smell the smoke you are close enough to still be impacted by this fire. Thats why the evacuations are still in place. Theres the location right near 680 and 80 at cordelia and lopes road. Lets look at the fire forecast for the rest of the bay. And what you are going to find is throughout this weekend, hills above 1,000 feet, winds anywhere from 20 to about 23 miles per hour, you still need to watch that. Its not extremely gusty, but with our drought in place its enough to be concerned about. From the heat here in the bay area, the heat in phoenix, atz az. Live pictures from downtown phoenix, giants baseball is next. [ grunts ] what . You expect me to stay up there all day . [ car alarm chirps ] [ humming ] just like you, i love everything the golden state of california has to offer. So i stay golden by managing my energy use. Energy upgrade california taught me how. Like to replace old bulbs with l. E. D. S. And i got this programmable thermostat. Some activities require no electricity at all. So join me and help california stay golden. Learn to manage your energy at energyupgradeca. Org its lincecum against goldschmidt and the dbacks, game one of the series next. Its a hot night here in the desert. The roof is closed. Giants and dbacks open a three