Transcripts For KPIX KPIX 5 News At 6AM 20170707

People in the area have been evacuated from their homes. Because this started at such an early time in the morning, people were probably woken up by this probably by alarms or trucks coming through with the sirens and didnt have time to evacuate and leave. So katie was saying on the ground, a lot of people were coming out in their pajamas, grabbing pets and anything they could coming out of their homes. We are going to go back to katie, who is live out there on the scene. Katie. Reporter good morning. So right now we can actually confirm there are two burning homes next to the building. It looks like firefighters are trying to start a ground attack on those flames. Right now, they have crews with ladder trucks. They are spraying water from above. And what were seeing is they are trying to fight it from above. Firefighters say right now, they dont have any reports of injuries because they were able to evacuate people out of the area before the fire started spreading to nearby homes. We have seen many of the walls of the building, interior and exterior collapsing. Theres all this ash and debris that has been raining down on the streets in this area and people can just stand by and watch. This is just a mixed use area. So were not too far off auto row here this oakland. There are smaller homes and older multiuse buildings where youre seeing some of these businesses a Little Market called merritt market with homes and stores. A few people have been evacuated from the area. Firefighters doing their best to keep this contained and keep this fire from spreading to nearby businesses. I can tell you that when we first got here this morning when the flames were absolutely massive, we could feel this incredibly intense heat from the far even hundreds of yards away. Now that heat is not quite as intense. It appears the fire might be running out of fuel. Much of this building has already burned. Many of the exterior walls that we could see when we got here have collapsed. We watched as a portion of the Building Collapsed and all that was left was the scaffolding on the outside of the building. So again, firefighters doing their best to fight this from the air. But now they are also making a ground attack trying to put out the fire at some of the local homes next to the property. Katie, as youre talking right now, we are looking at what looks like maybe across the street from the structure, there is a vehicle that appears to be on fire. It doesnt seem crews are really surrounding that or or focusing on that too much. Of course, the more important is the structures around that area and the homes. Yeah. Looks like several cars might actually have caught fire around that area. But thats certainly not anything that is a priority. The area that they are spraying water on right now, were looking at it from chopper 5 on the righthand side of your screen, that does appear to be an adjacent building. But its difficult to see exactly at this point they are trying to protect the buildings on either side of the complex. You can see that by them dousing that side of the it looks like a home but it could be a business right there. They are dousing that side of it that faces the fire right there in the area. We do know in the area, theres a Retirement Community there. Theres a pet hotel. It is not far from some of the big theaters there by lake merritt in oakland. And this fire is so big that people can see it from all the highways leading to the area. We have even seen it from our roof cam here in San Francisco. So you can see it across the bay. Massive amounts of smoke and some of the flames have laid down at this point now that the fire has been burning for 45 minutes now. But this is something that you can see all over the bay area. And it has been affecting this is our sutro tower camera that you can see from the left hand side of your screen. It is affecting the morning commute obviously when it comes to the visibility. Jaclyn dunn has more on traffic. Reporter right now, were seeing the major slowdowns and the impacts on the surface streets surrounding this area. So we are seeing along broadway and west grand as well as harrison and 27th of course. We are seeing thats where were seeing the biggest delays and likely theres many street closures in those areas. Like you said, theres that pet hotel, the doggie daycare center. Theres also a retirement home. The downtown ymca and many, many car dealerships, also a paper kelly Paper Company is located in the same area which would likely just light up if those flames got close to that. That hasnt been reported in the area but we are seeing many more businesses and it looks like apartments, possibly just other Retirement Homes in the area not houses but more big dwellings, buildings right there. So this is more residential than i think we initially thought of. I think its important to note that anyone who is driving on the highway right now, youre seeing if you are seeing these flames, seeing this smoke, that curiosity often causes issues on the road so keep your eyes ahead of you. Absolutely. Just know that fire crews are on the scene and they are aware of it, they are tending to it. But yes, likely to see a lot of folks, you know, stopping to see whats going on, the visual distraction, the curiosity. But eyes forward, just keep going. No lanes are impacted along 880, 580, 980, highway 24, 13, those are all still in the green moving at the limit. And this has not shut down surrounding freeways in the area. In the immediate area there around this fire, which is in a building that was under construction, a mixed use development, it was going to be a couple of hundred apartments and thousands of feet of retail space. Just northwest of lake merritt, this is near valdez and 23rd street. They are dealing with massive amounts of smoke. You can see the entire area they have seen ash raining down for blocks around that area. And a lot of buildings for blocks have been evacuated. So we dont know the exact number of people that have been evacuated. But when you go past the police and fire lines there near lake merritt, you can see a lot of people standing around in their pajamas with their pets in their hands. We are look at the flames on the lefthand side of your screen there and that looks as if its another building this this fire may have spread to. Thats been the main concern. When you look at the initial property where the fire started, it was a building under construction. Its not going to impact anybodys home or Small Businesses directly, but the spread of this fire has been really worrisome. We saw it before our very eyes about 45 minutes ago spread to a building next door presumably a home. It looks like a home. And nas because some of the exterior walls thats because some of the exterior walls the shell of the building fell outward, allowing that fire to catch other buildings. The neighborhood is very tightly packed with all of these mixed use buildings. Okay. So kpix 5s jackie ward is trying to get more information from oakland fire. What can you tell us, jackie . Reporter michelle, oakland fire isnt saying much. Im at grand and valdez so im on the other side of where katie is. Right now they are focused on putting out the fire. The flames have significantly decreased since i have been here since my drive from San Francisco over here and the smoke is now white. At one point it was an incredibly dark gray black smoke that was you could see from the bay bridge basically from the time i got on the bridge in San Francisco, you could see just how big this was. Sorry. Someone is yelling in the background here. As we approached oakland we could feel how hot this fire is because everything was so intense. The ash, soot and debris is for blocks. Im doing Facebook Live now. As i take steps im crunching the debris thats from the building. We are trying to get more information. They have a huge job on their hands. Thank you. Jackie is talking about the flames dying down and decreasing significantly. We can just see this from chopper 5. 20 minutes ago, flames and smoke you could see it across the bay in San Francisco. Huge visual hazard there. Looking a little bit more as if the building that was under construction, it was 2400 valdez, was the address of this mixed use development, and it only got approval last april. So it has they have been working on it for about a year. They have been working on it quickly. It was obviously going to be a big moneymaking extravaganza for this project near lake merritt involving homes and businesses thats once again sidelined. To put this into perspective, we have seen two or three other massive infernos burning at buildings under construction in the oaklandemeryville area over the past couple of years so this is another one of those cases, obviously not to say that anything is related but, um, one of them was deemed arson recently. So the investigation into the cause how this happened is going to be going on for some time. But obviously, the immediate concern youre looking at it there getting those flames under control and we can see the burning debris left behind right now certainly as michelle said a different picture from what we saw just a halfhour ago. These other fires were you talking about couple of years ago, i remember coming into work at 3 30 a. M. And seeing this huge structure on fire that early in the morning just as this one was pretty early, too. I think the first call came in around 4 30 this morning and we started doing reports around 5 00. So another earlymorning fire of course like you said, anne, we dont know if this is connected at the time, but investigators will have to think about that, will have to look at that. Thats probably going to be questioned to see if there is any type of connection because there have been a few fires one fire in may, one in march, so around this oaklandemeryville area. When you look at these fires and how they materialize in these buildings under construction, theres a lot of open air so this is something that allows a fire to really explode quickly. Also theres obviously no sprinklers there yet because it is a building under construction. So they are allowed to just, you know, form into these massive infernos very, very quickly. And certainly its a huge hazard to the surrounding neighborhoods. We are going to check in with Katie Nielsen again. She is live for us on the ground near lake merritt. This is northwest of lake merritt on 24th and valdez streets. Katie, hows it looking there now . It looks like maybe the air is a little clearer . Reporter in a way. So not as much ash raining down on us at this point. But whats interesting is now were actually feeling the mist from the water and firefighting efforts. You can actually see my shirt is covered in ash and also some drops of water from the mist that were feeling right now. And whats interesting is we can actually see at least one building on fire. We believe there is one other house thats on fire as well at this time. About 15 minutes ago, firefighters brought in ground crews to start attacking those fires from the ground. They have had ladder trucks in the air all morning. And at this point, you can see the smoke is getting much thicker much denser. Hopefully that means that this fire is close to being contained. The main concern right now as we have been talking about all morning [ coughing ] excuse me. Really smoky out here. The main concern that we have been talking about all morning is trying to prevent this fire from spreading to these nearby homes and businesses. This was the tallest building in this block. And the other structures near it, most of them two to three stories, some singlefamily homes that we can see. And were close to auto row. So where were standing right now is 24th and harrison streets. We are behind one of the fire lines along with a number of residents down the here. You can see people walking down the street in their pajamas, in their slippers. So of course, well stay here all morning and bring you the absolute latest as we have it. Reporting live in oakland, Katie Nielsen, kpix 5. We want to go to kpix 5s jackie ward right now at the media staging center. Jackie, what can you tell us . Reporter michelle, we are at grand and valdez right now on the opposite corner of where you just saw katie and right now, you can see behind me that this area is actually pretty good from what it was even just a halfhour ago. When we got here, you could see inside the building was completely shot up in flames. Right now, i can only see flames on the lower part of the building. Of course, a ton of smoke still is coming from this structure. But its a lot clearer than it was 45 minutes ago as we were making our way over here from San Francisco. When we were coming from that direction, there were huge grayblack plumes of smoke that were taking over oakland and into alameda. Right now, firefighters are closely watching this building that you can see. I think you can see it from your vantage point. Just how close these buildings are. Theres a parking lot on one side of the building. But then it looks like what could be Apartment Buildings are across the street in another direction. So right now, with all of the smoke and ash and soot flying from this structure, they are trying to make sure that there arent any embers that are catching fire and causing another building to go up in flames. A lot of firefighters and police are on scene right now. In fact, fire trucks and engines just keep on arriving since they have been here. Albany and oakland are here from where i can tell and berkeley. Also we just saw probably 100 or so people walk out of the building. Im not sure i havent gotten my wits about me and my surroundings just yet, but about a couple of hundred people or so seem to have been evacuated because some are in their pajamas as katie was saying over on her side as well, a lot of pets being taken care of, a lot of people just taking this all in. Its quite a respect come. As bad as it looks now, though, responders have done a great job of getting this under control as quickly as possible because here we go, almost two hours of burning, this is quite a fire. But this is far better than when we got here. Michelle, anne . We can see its far better also from the chopper 5 shots, as well. Jackie, thank you. We are going to check back in with you in just a few minutes. We want to go to Council Member Lynette Gibsonmcelhaney who is on the phone right now. Council member, can you hear us . Yes. Good morning. Good morning. So obviously, the big effort right now of firefighters and crews out there is to protect the structures around that structure that was on fire. A lot of residents are worried about their homes being impacted. Yes. Im very confident that the, you know, hearing from the department, the fire is contained. It was a fouralarm fire. Early reports indicate that we have no human injury which were grateful for. Reporter Council Member mcelhaney tell us about the lake merritt area. What are firefighters dealing with when it comes to the other buildings, homes, businesses near that fire scene . So this is an area of our downtown known as broadway valdez. Its part of the specific plan area this particular project was one of the first to come in under that specific plan. Residential over retail. We were pretty excited that we recently just heard that we had landed a major retailer for that corridor. And yes. So its very mixed income, there are low income, older apartments there, theres some new development in the corridor as you come up broadway. This is part of a commercial revival district. This is the property that used to be known as biff. A lot of people remember the old diner that was located. It was razeed to make room for this condominium project. Can you tell us more about what this was supposed to be . We know it was a Residential Business complex is what it was supposed to be and took up close to three city blocks. Yeah. It was an exciting project. I believe this is hanover developer that was to do this project and again, part of the specific plan which the neighbors and Community Around that area worked for i want to say five years on an area plan that would talk about bringing mixed income residential and retail. Oakland has a retail gap so we have been very much interested in bringing back retail to downtown. This is a bit disheartening this morning to see the building, which was making Good Progress and i think slated to open in the early part of 2018, but i need to confirm that, go up in flames like this. It looks like it had been under construction for about a year. So they had made significant progress on it. Council member, whats next for this area when you see a massive amount of devastation . Were not sure how many buildings nearby have also burned. But is there anything you would like to tell the people in your district this morning as far as, you know, what were looking at here Going Forward . Well, um, we want folks who are in those buildings that have been evacuated to make sure that theyre safe and secure. We understand that oakland fire has the flames under control but we always have to be very careful for sparks and flare ups until its fully extinguished. The air quality downtown in the surrounding areas has been compromised with this smoke. So for those folks indoors not going outside, to make sure that especially if they are in older buildings that they try to secure their windows with towels to minimize the smoke intrusion. And for people who are really sensitive to the smoke to make sure they care for themselves appropriately as they come into work. So right now, you know, im waiting to hear back from the Incident Commander and to know more about whats going on. But Oakland Police are working with oakland fire right now to evacuate some of the adjacent buildings to make they have evacuated earlier i believe the evacuations i think have been completed at this point. And we look forward to getting the results of the investigation. You know, i want to make sure that were you know, that people know that oakland is a great place to invest and that developers and investors will continue to restore to our community. Oakland once a very thriving downtown, lots of restaurants and diners and shops, theres been a real revival in this area, small shops like a few blocks over you have soul space, independent retail, having some other anchor retail come into the area to augment this would be really great for our residents and our community in the region and we look forward to the developer being able to get this Building Back on track and to move this project and other projects in the corridor forward. As you said there has been this real revival effort in the oakland area with businesses and restaurants and things like that. Is there any concern we talked about fires in this area. Unfortunately, oakland is no stranger to massive structure fires one that hit not too long ago in an abandoned it was one under construction, and it was supposed to be a residential complex. Is there any concern that this could be some kind of trend in the area . Reporter i have not heard anything that would indicate that this is a trend. You know, we just want to be mindful of, you know, whats happening on our construction sites. There was a structural failing in a development in my district further up the street at hawthorne in the city view condos so we want to make sure that the developers are take all the precautions they need to secure the sites and make sure Electrical Systems are going in well and that, you know, ill reserve judgment until we hear more from fire investigators in terms of the cause of this. I know there was a fire in emeryville right on the oakland border not that long ago. So i think were always concerned about structural fires, wanting to understand, you know, was it arson, was it accidental, was it something structural . But theres a real revival in the town. We are in the middle of a major housing crisis and, you know, causing rents in oakland to escalate. I would like to see more development and in this corridor in particular that we have called for a mix of Income Development some market rate some below market rate. We are beginning to see movement in that direction. And some of the developers are taking advantage of the density bonus by building on site affordable units and workforce units so we can retain housing within our urban core for our teachers and paramedics and nurses and janitors, you know, Everyone Needs a place to live and so i think thats one of the things that is just so troublesome to me now is that in the middle of a housing crisis that these units will be delayed in coming to the marketplace. But we definitely want to make sure that we know whats going on, that we plan for it and we want to continue to encourage the developers to build here. Its a great place to build. Theres a strong need and demand for both retail and housing. And this building in particular had been borne of a lot of effort around that from the community. Theres low income seniors that live just across the way there. And they participated in our planning process, you know, nostalgically thought about the offering that biffs used to be as a place where the wealthy and well to do along with people who were marginalized extremely poor homeless come in for a cup of coffee and wanted to see this area revive in a way that would provide Dining Options and Retail Options and we certainly are looking forward to the development moving forward. It is back to the drawing board at this point. And yeah, when you talk about the housing crisis, that was going to be about 200 apartment that are now on hold. That was oakland city Council Member Lynette Gibsonmcelhaney on the phone. Thanks for joining us this morning. We know you will have a very busy day ahead of you. Yeah. Jaclyn dunn is tracking how the fire is impacting traffic in the area. Right now, were just seeing the biggest impact along surface streets. So none of your freeways surrounding the area of the fire highway 24, 580, 980, and 880 and 13, none of those are seeing any delays. Thats very good news. But you will experience major slowdowns along many of the surface streets. We have broadway that we see a lot of our slowdowns and youre seeing a live look from chopper 5 of the fire there. This is right over valdez street at 27th, 24th, many delays that we are seeing along those surface streets. If you can avoid the area, please do. If you know someone particularly who travels to this area, give him a call and let him have an opportunity to find an alternate route. Its a visual distraction for drivers as well as the smoke they are seeing on the morning commute and along the freeways. But again, no reports of any accidents or stalls on any of the surrounding freeways in the area. And right now, bart still just dealing with tenminute residual delays. So that is some good news for folks making their way on the morning commute along the freeways and mass transit. Again, for the surface streets, expect delays in the area. That is a check of your traffic. Lets check in with roberta. In the past several minutes just the past five minutes, we have seen this right here. It is a blessing to firefighters in oakland this morning. It is a finger of low clouds and fog that came in under the Golden Gate Bridge and surrounded the eastern portion of the bay primarily oakland and also the port of oakland and the estuary. Alameda, as well. And just moments ago, whattist looking at was just flames coming what i was just looking at was just flames from the oakland area. Now looking towards the port of oakland is a bit of haze that is surrounding the bay and this haze is all associated with that fire that was burning out of control that fouralarm fire over that sevenstory building called the waverly in the oakland area. So with that haze, overall the fire was surrounded and drowned. It is in control at this particular time. We havent seen reports of ash and embers flying. The winds are currently on the calm side. It is 60 degrees in oakland. Again, this fire is in the 2400 block area of valdez street. We do have the entire bay area now with moderate air quality. Got off the phone with the bay area air quality district. Because the flames are still going south and southeast, san jose now even picking up a little bit of smoke. So as you venture out on this friday, you will indeed encounter moderate air quality in the bay area. High temperature in the low 70s in the oakland area. But again, this fouralarm fire in the oakland area appears to be out. I did call the faa. We do not have any airport delays in oakland due to the fire. With that ceiling down to about 700 to 800 feet with the haze, thats the wrapup as far as the weather is concerned in the oakland area. Thank you. This fire has been burning since 4 30. Our reporter Katie Nielsen was on scene soon after. Whats it looking like now . Reporter so right now, a lot of smoke. We cant feel the mist from the firefighting efforts anymore. Theres no more ash raining down on us. But if you take a look back here, you can still see theres a lot of activity from firefighters. They are working on the ground at this point. You can see a lot of water running down the gutters. All of these trucks full hoses and still trying to contain it and keep it from spreading. We have a resident from the area that we are going to be talking with. She doesnt want to appear on camera because she is still in her bathrobe and slippers. [ laughter ] but she wanted to talk to us. She lived here for 39 years and lives across the street from this property. Ethel richardson, walk me through what happened this morning. What happened this morning, i was sleeping, i heard banging on the door, banging bang, banging and the police broke my front door and told me i had to get out. So i had to get out of my bed and they said got to get out, cant get anything. So i wasnt able to get anything. I left me cell phone. I did get my id and everything and that was it. That was it. And they told me i need to call the city to have them fix my door. Reporter so what were you feeling . Scary. When i got up, you could feel the heat. You could just feel heat from the fire. It was like its infernal. Just see it. Its so scary. Reporter have you been watching this under construction . Yes. Yes. In fact they had just posted something on the door saying they were going to be working on saturday hopefully they wouldnt be causing a lot of noise and confusion to the neighborhood. And if we had any complaints, to call. Now they wont be working. Reporter yeah. You said you lived here for 39 years. Have you ever seen anything like this before . Never. Never. This is a quiet neighborhood and i go to the gym right down the street. Sports fitness. And its just really scary to me. Its just unbelievable, you know. Reporter im sure youre seeing a lot of your neighbors out here just because everyone is evacuating. You have nowhere to go. Youre standing here on the sidewalk in your bathrobe and your slippers. Yes. What are they saying . What are you guys talking about right now . Reporter we are okay. Glad were okay. My neighbors i have talked to my neighbors and they are okay. My neighbor mike he tried to alert everybody to get out, get out, get out. But i didnt hear anything until the police just banged on the door. So yeah. Reporter and i know that weve seen a couple of these homes from where were standing that weve actually seen that look like they have caught fire. Do you know any of the people that live in those homes . No. I dont. Yeah. None of the neighbors all these neighbors are influence new to me. I know the neighbors on my side of the street. Reporter tell me about this neighborhood that is right around this area. Is it mostly homes or businesses . A little bit of both . Its mostly homes. Yeah. Its mostly homes. And its a parking area and then over its the a lot of buildings at the end of the street, but mostly homes and all of us have been living here for quite a while, yeah. I probably lived here the longest. Reporter thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us this morning. Thank you. Reporter and we wish you the best with everything. I know this is a very scary situation for you and also all of your neighbors in this area. Thank you. Reporter so again, what were seeing at this point is a lot of smoke and activity from the firefighters. Again, as i have been talking about all morning, trying to keep this contained. Whats interesting at this point is when we first got here this morning, around 5 15, this building was very unstable. We were seeing interior walls that were falling, exterior walls falling into and away from the building and falling on to some of the adjacent properties. At this point i cant see any flames at 24th and harrison street where im standing. What we can see is a lot of smoke. We can still see there are efforts going on to try to attack this fire from above with some of the ladder trucks. There are hoses. We are starting to see these fire crews come in and attack this fire from the ground, as well. When they first got here this morning, it was so intense, it wasnt safe to get firefighters that close to the building. At first there was a lot of ash and debris raining down. Now the street is covered but were not feeling the ash falling on. We are not feeling the intensity of the flames. We havent seen any of the walls or any of the scaffolding on the outside of the Building Collapse in the last 30 minutes or so from where we are. When we first got here, we literally saw the walls come down within about five minutes. There is still some concern about the stability of the construction crane that is in the middle of the complex. As we have been talking about all morning, this was a massive mixed use building under construction. Theres a lot of concern and confusion of residents about, what are we going to do . When can we did home . How did this start . Back to you. Thank you. It is good to hear that the firefighters were going door to door at such an early time in the morning telling people to get out. At this point we have not heard of any injuries in this fire so hopefully it will remain that way. Going forward, the concern will be the Structural Integrity of the building. Kpix 5s jackie ward continues our Live Team Coverage from the immediate staging center. Reporter like katie, we have seen a significant decrease in the flames of the structure. When we first got here, this whole building was engulfed in flames. There were flames that were taking over the inside of the building. There was still a little bit of dark smoke now from where im standing. You can see nothing but light gray or white smoke. Thats always a good sign in a fire. Hundreds of people have been evacuated. Theres an Apartment Building right next door across the street from this structure. And im here with one of the evacuees. Adam, you were woken up about 5 30 a. M. Told to evacuate . Yes, i did. Yeah. 5 30 the alarm went off. We had one of the apartment managers come on the call thing and say get out, theres a fire next door. Pretty scary. Reporter were you scared their building would catch on fire . I had no idea. I live on that side of the building so i calm out and looked and saw flames, they were huge. I thought, my biggest concern was the crane because the flames were engulfing the crane. I thought it was going to fall over. The flames were all over it. Reporter how long has this building been under construction . Probably two or three years. Its been a while. They just put in the black netting in the past two or three months so reporter we came from San Francisco and you could see the flames and smoke from over there. It was crazy. Its huge. I mean, right now, have you been told where youre going to go, what the plan is for the rest of the day . No. We dont know. I mean, thankfully, the Church Parish thing is hosting everybody around here thats, you know, been evacuated but we dont know how long its going to take to get back in the building. Reporter do you have any idea how many people live in your building. There are 20plus floors with i think 10 apartments each. So i dont know, do the math. Its a lot. Reporter theres a lot of people i mean, has ash or smoke gotten into the apartment . No. Reporter did you get out and we just got out and said see you later. I dont think any ash or anything got into the apartment. But some windows are open so some must have got in. Reporter thank you for being with us this morning. Obviously, the evacuees are figuring out where to go next, as we just heard from adam. Back to you. Thank you. Lets take another live look from chopper 5. And we can see that it is over one of those ladder trucks down there. This is a much different scene of what were looking at just a halfhour ago. You can see a lot of that white smoke in the area as crews are trying to douse any hot spots in the massive structure fire. But again, as we said, a very, very different picture now where the fire is now contained. And now they are just trying to figure out some of those ais end buildings if any of some of those adjacent buildings, if any of those have caught on fire, trying to protect the buildings. A lot of vehicles on fire in the area. That will all be part of the damage assessment. But as michelle was saying earlier, certainly a different picture. We saw flames shooting into the air huge plume of smoke that you could see all around the bay area. We are getting reports from the far east bay. We saw it from our roof camera here at the studio in San Francisco. And lets take a look at this twitter video that was actually taken by jackie ward who you just heard from. This is the view as she headed to the scene of this fire on highway 80. You can see the flames and the smoke for miles around. Jaclyn dunn has been tracking the commute. It hasnt seemed to have too much of an effect on your morning commute. It was something that everybody is going to be talking about this morning. Reporter you may remember another earlymorning fire erupted at a structure under construction in emoryville. This was back in may. Investigators later discovered Surveillance Video showing a suspect riding a bicycle up to that site minutes before the fire just started in. A 7story building was destroyed. It had will be been burned in july last year. Another building fire last march killed four people in west oakland. More than 80 low income residents were living in transitional housing when the building caught fire overnight. Investigators say a burning candle was blamed for the fire and that it was accidental. We want to get back to pictures from the fire thats still burning. This is a live look from chopper 5. You can see that dark smoke still pouring into the air. But the flames have laid down as the Oakland Fire Department continues to spray water from above. This is near lake merritt. It is northwest of lake merritt. Valdez street near 24th street. This is also very close to oaklands auto row. And firefighters are on the scene. They will continue to be on the scene for probably the next 24 hours to make sure that all of the hot spots are out as the people that live in the nearby buildings still under evacuation orders. No end in sight for that. Still wondering if their homes are in danger of catching on fire or if they in fact caught on fire. The building is known as alta waverly set to be completed next spring. It was to include 196 market rate apartments and up to 32,000 square feet of retail with underground parking for residents. This is what it looked like before the fire what it was supposed to look like. A very massive residential and business complex. They were looking forward to this in the district because this is all part of the revival effort of oakland. So obviously, a very heartbreaking morning for people in that district. Yeah. It was going to be a big project for the neighborhood and also adding more housing about 200 apartments for that area of lake merritt that was under a major revitalization effort. On the lefthand side of your screen, thats the live look from chopper 5. On the right hand side, this is what it looked like about an hour ago. It was an inferno as the flames engulfed the building at 4 45 this morning, portions of that building under construction could be seen stripping away falling to the ground as the fire raged some of the walls falling inward, some of them falling outward. Some buildings nearby caught on fire from a few blocks away. Neighbors and area workers watched the building just gutted in that intense heat. It was about 4 45 when the calls came in when the fire started. But what you were talking about, anne, happened an hour later about an hour later 5 45 when the building started collapsing in on itself. We are going back to Katie Nielsen at the scene. Katie, what can you tell us . Reporter hey, good morning. So we have been here all morning and right now i can tell you firefighting efforts to contain this fire still going strong. But what were seeing right now is that firefighters are actually getting on top of the roofs of the adjacent buildings. What theyre doing is looking for any burning embers that could start fires on those other buildings. So they are doing that right now to try to make sure that this fire thats now contained does not spread to any adjacent homes or businesses. And we actually have one of the residents who was evacuated this morning with us. He is going to share a little bit about what happened. So michael, tell us what you experienced first thing this morning when were you waking up . The fire engines showed up at 4 30. I figured that someone was in there who shouldnt be or something was wrong because i didnt smell smoke or see any signs of anything else. I went outside, saw smoke above the building. And then walked around to the other side of the building and then before we knew it the fire had spread to the elevator shaft on the opposite side of the building and once it hit that it just took off. It went up so quickly. And saw the firefighters scramble and start to hook up hoses and set up ladders and the ladder trucks, and went back to the house and woke up the kids. I knocked on neighborss doors and yelled for people to get up and get out of their houses. Reporter did you guys have time to grab any of your possessions . We did. We grabbed passports, birth certificates, things like that, and then after we got the kids out of the area, i went back in to try to get more things. And thats when i saw the crane circling very ominously above and i didnt want to take any chances that thing was going to collapse so i wisely decided to get out and keep a safe distance. Reporter we have seen a lot of the people who have been evacuated just kind of standing here at the corner of 24th and harrison not knowing what to do. What are you guys saying . What are they concerned about . Now its just a concern of the structural safety of the scaffolding and the crane. When can we get back . When can we see we want to get back home. My neighbor she sleeps with earplugs. She didnt hear me knocking on her door or anybody yelling and screaming, the firefighters had to knock down her door to wake her up and get her out of the house. Everybody just wants to get home and see whats going on. At first the concern was, will my house catch fire . And it was pretty scary. The heat from the fire and how quickly it got out of control. So it was a question of is my house going to burn this morning . Reporter and youve been a resident here for quite a while. You have seen this under construction. I heard some of the other neighbors in the area talking about some of the other recent fires at developments under construction in emeryville. Did that ever cross your mind when you were seeing this being built . It did. We saw increased security by the developer after that fire and by the construction company. They had security guards on the site 24 7 patrolling the perimeter of the building. They had cameras they put up. They had fencing. So i didnt think this was going to happen to be honest. I thought they had done a good job locking down the building and i felt good about that. But somebody im assuming its arson. Thats my assumption. That somebody got in there and they did a good job burning that building down. And its shocking how quickly it burned. The one in emeryville they lit the fire in the staircase and so thats what happened as it went to multiple floors. When i saw it hit the elevator shaft, i thought the same thing. So i wondered whether it was the same person to be honest with you. Reporter so we did see a couple of homes that were adjacent to the building that you described were across the street from your house that did appear to be burning. Do you know the residents of those homes . I do. I didnt i saw some of the roofs kind of smoldering and some damage but i didnt see any of the homes burning. But i saw everybody safely get out of the one fourplex that was the closest to the site of the fire and most concerning. Reporter michael, thank you so much for talking with us this morning. And good luck. Thank you. Reporter with everything. I know this is a very scary situation for all of you. Thank you. No problem. Reporter thank you so much. What were seeing right now not a lot of flames. It appears that firefighters have this fire contained. What were seeing now is a ton of smoke. As you just heard michael describing, residents are still very concerned about whats going on, when can they get back into their homes and also, if there is any damage, and if there is any danger of that crane instability fallingtive. That crane was spinning as we have shown you earlier almost out of control being pushed by some of the winds created by that massive fire. Firefighters on the roofs of adjacent buildings to see if any of the embers that blew from the fire landed on the roofs and could potentially start another fire. Some people were getting their cars and driving their cars out of the area but then we started seeing a lot more concern and so people were then just fleeing on foot from these flames. Reporting live in oakland, Katie Nielsen, kpix 5. There are no delays in the area. High 24, 580, 980, 880, those are all at the limit. In fact, its eerily light this morning. Friday morning traffic is usually light but this is very light. No lane closures along any of the the freeways. We are seeing a backup over at the bay bridge toll plaza which is typical. But you cant see any smoke or at least from this camera shot this does not appear to be slowing any drivers down along 880 as you head through oakland. This is right near 56th near the coliseum. No delays, but you will see slowdowns at the bay bridge toll plaza and we are back on time with bart. 56 trains running on time. We do have some delays with capitol corridor. Back in oakland with the structure fire, the biggest delays along grand avenue. We see it along 27th and broadway. That is a check of your traffic. Lets check in with roberta. This is the best view i can get at this particular time looking out from San Francisco east towards the port of oakland. We can see haze. Whats remarkable about this, we werent able to see this view 4 hours ago due to a deck of stratus in the form of low clouds and fog. But we can see it because we have been seeing the burnoff a lot earlier today. As you take a look at the flag on the fly on top of pier 9 that tells you that the wind is variable all over the place. Up to 13 Miles Per Hour in San Francisco. Due east of the bay bridge, in oakland, where the fire was previously burning out of control, good news is that the winds are calm this morning and that is the first time at the 6 00 hour all week long we have had a calm winds, which is a blessing to oakland firefighters that have been battling doing an incredible amazing job with this fire this morning. Now, again, it was a massive fouralarm fire. Oakland Fire Department said that their main approach was to surround and drown the fire and they did so admirably. Ash and embers continue to burn this morning and fly even though the winds are calm just caught up in the upper atmosphere. Even reports in san jose this morning say they are starting to see a little bit of a haze in the atmosphere due to this fire. So the bay area air quality district tells me that the air quality is on the moderate side for the entire bay area today. Not so much just because of this fire, but we do have a heat wave with temperatures into the triple digits away from the bay. 60 degrees currently in oakland with calm winds. That is the latest report on the oakland fire here on this friday morning. Michelle . Thank you. Kpix 5s jackie ward continuing our live Media Coverage this morning. Grand and valdez, jackie. Reporter yeah. Anne, we are on the opposite corner of where katie has been all morning. We are by an Apartment Building that has about 2,000 people in it. And hundreds of them are out here on the street right now. Take a look behind me, so the Police Actually moved us back away a block from the fire. This is a much better scenario than when we first got here. Crews have been trying to out the fire out for 2. 5 hours. We spoke to a woman who lives nearby. She tells us what she experienced earlier this morning. Around 5 30 a. M. , there was a evacuation notice. And we all ran out. Yeah. And then when we came out, the fire was crazy. Did you think your building would catch fire . Are you nervous about your building catching fire . Yeah, i was really because it was just next door building so it was very scary. Reporter everyone in this area is covered with some amount of ash because theres a lot of debris thats flown from the structure and on the ground here. These evacuees havent been personally approached by anyone, but we have seen the red cross on scene. We got here about 20 minutes ago. Hopefully they will give evacuees some guidance. We are told there is a center being set up at the cathedral on21st and harrison for evacuees. Hopefully they can get more information there. In oakland, jackie ward, kpix 5. And one person who was covered in some of that ash is Katie Nielsen live at the scene. Katie, when it all got started, the flames were so intense, that you could actually feel the heat from a block and a half away. Obviously, a very different story right now. Reporter absolutely. When we first got here this morning, it was literally raining ash on us. We have had to kind of clean ourselves up as we have gone along this morning. The flames were so strong, it actually felt like a Blast Furnace coming at us with the intensity of the heat. At this point were not feeling that anymore. It was really interesting because we were feeling the heat and the flames, feeling the ash. And then it switched to mist. We were actually feeling water from the firefighting efforts. And at this point, a lot of smoke but really no more ash, no more of the mist from that aerial attack with the firefighters. What were seeing now is firefighters are on the roofs of these adjacent buildings. They are trying to see if any embers that have been blown off of that fire were starting fires on nearby buildings. Were not seeing that right now. The structures that are across the street appear to be okay. The main concern is those homes and businesses that were right adjacent to that building. Of course, well know more as the morning goes on. Reporting live in oakland, Katie Nielsen, kpix 5. Thank you. And heres what we know so far. The fire started at a sixstory construction site at valdez and 24th near lake merritt. Flames and smoke could be seen across the bay. We could see smoke from the sutro tower and also from the tower above our kpix 5 studios when we were looking at the bay bridge. You could see this huge plume of smoke. At one point the fire reached four alarms. Crews knocked on the doors very early this morning to evacuate people from other buildings in the area. Katie actually and jackie talked to a couple of those people who were woken up from their sleep by firefighters. One woman in particular, her door was knocked in by the firefighters to evacuate her. Evacuees are being taken to christ the life church on harrison and grand avenues. So far no reports of any human injuries. The cause of the fire of course is under investigation. Too early now to say what caused that fire. Firefighters are going to be on the scene there near lake merritt throughout the day today making sure that any hot spots are put out not only at the building where the fire started, that building under construction, but all the rooftops nearby. Were talking about the debris and ash raining down. The concern will be that maybe some of those burning pieces of debris might have landed on roofs and they want to make sure that thats not going to start up any more fires. You can see a live look right now from chopper 5. They are spraying water on that building and nearby buildings, as well. They will continue to do this as long as there is smoke out of the building and well beyond to make sure that fire does not reignite. So thats certainly going to affect the air quality in the neighborhood. This is a neighborhood north of lake merritt that was under a big revitalization effort. This project that was under way there was to be a massive housing and retail space. A lot of high hopes from that that we talked about that with the Council Member over that district Lynette Gibson mcelhaney so she said she hopes the developers will eventually decide to rebuild. These are some of the pictures that we saw after the fire originally broke out. It started at 4 30 this morning when a lot of concern here centered around that crane. Yeah. We have been looking at that crane all morning long because at one point it looked to be spinning out of control there. So that was definitely a concern. As far as the safety for the buildings around that area and the people around that area, if that crane were to collapse, another huge concern were the power lines in the area. The flames came dangerously close to some of those transformers, as well. We know when fire hits those transformers, that causes quite the explosion. You can see this is video taken earlier this morning of the fire crews dousing that roof of the structure and it looks like a home that was right next to the structure on fire. Trying to protect the buildings in that area that were adjacent to this big structure. That was the concern is the fire spreading once some of those exterior walls fell. And that will continue to be the concern. Firefighters are going to have to check exactly how structurally sound those walls are right now before they even consider reopening some of the roads around there. We have roads closed down for blocks. Not only do we see homes and businesses catch fire from that massive structure but also vehicles in that area, as well. We are going to continue to cover this fire. We are going to bring you updates throughout the morning. And your next local update will be at 7 26. And you can also get updates throughout the day at cbssf. Com. Well keep you posted there as we leave you this morning before cbs this morning with a live look from chopper 5. The fire is out. Thanks for joining us