the fires in california s wine country that destroyed nearly 9,000 structures and homes in napa and sonoma counties in october continues to impact that region s tourism industry. only 22 of the area s 700 wineries were damaged or destroyed but following weeks of media coverage, the worry now is that people whose livelihoods are tied to the wine industry could lose their jobs because of the perception that the entire region was devastated. senior correspondent adam housely has more. we know we re going to rebuild and we know it is going to be a nice building again. this wine maker says he has hope as he looks over the spot where the winery once stood. the october wildfires destroyed this winery and raged through wine country killing 42 people and burning down nearly 9,000 structures. it s important for people to
dana: california, the thomas fire continues to push further into santa barbara county. the fire is now the fifth largest the state has ever seen. it s burned through 234,000 acres, but fire crews are making progress. adam housely is north of los angeles. adam, there are multiple fires in southern california but the thomas fire is causing a lot of the damage, right? reporter: the others are basically out. this one is still burning. it was the most concerning. they made incredible headway on that one. the smoke has just been sitting here in carpenteria. i didn t pinch this off the ground. that s just by me scraping stuff up. that s the ash that covers and
in order for containment to come up they have to walk around the edge of the fire to make sure there s something still smoldering. they ve done about 30% of it so they still have a long ways to go. right now the most confident they ve been in eight days. this fire has just been chewing everything in its path up for eight days. yesterday, all this were flames. today we really don t see any flames, so that s good news. dana: have people been allowed to go back home? reporter: yeah. lot of places they have. they saw some flames this morning in the high end area montecito. here everybody has been allowed back. there s still a few homes scattered in the hill sides, too. dana: all right. adam housely, be safe. we ll check in with you. and we ll be right back.
answering any question about moore s potential future in the senate. listen. if roy moore wins do you know whether or not you will seat him? also would you invite him to participate in conference? david, all of those are good questions for tomorrow. we await the outcome of the alabama senate race. dana: stay tuned to fox news all evening to find out who wins in our special election coverage. largest wild fire in southern california still burning out of control. adam housely is in the middle of it all. i understand the smoke is pretty brutal there. i see you have your mask again. reporter: it is thick here causing problems to people who live here, also firefighters on the line. good news, it s not being dispersed. that smoke is just sitting here. there s no wind, allowing firefighters to get a great handle on this fire. details coming up.
officials say the southern california fires have burned through more than 100,000 acres in los angeles and ventura county. parts of highway 101, a major thoroughfare shut down as the inferno jumped the freeway. adam housely is live where are you? what s going on there? it looks very serious. you are having to wear a mask. reporter: yeah. the air quality here is brutal. it s obviously bad all over southern california. lot of school districts have closed. you put this on, this fitter keeps that out. firefighters are fighting in this as well. this is the front edge of the fire. thomas fire is more than 100,000 acres. we re roughly 30 miles from where this fire started. it s now threatening the town of carpenterina. we are into santa barbara county.