Contained and the czu august lightning complex fires burning in san mateo and santa cruz counties. Now 19 contained calfire seeing cooler weather and extra resources coming from outside the bay area has certainly helped crews gain some ground on these fires and weve got Team Coverage of the czu lightning complex fire in san mateo and santa cruz counties. And you can take a look here at the map and it shows you the areas burned by that fire or complex of fires which has destroyed more than 440 homes and other structures kron fours will tran is live now at the Cal Fire Base Camp in Scotts Valley with the latest well. No i can tell you the conditions are favorable for firefighters at this particular time it is cold, its still smoky. And yes, the fires are still burning but slowly its not chewing through all of that dry vegetation that we saw over the fast the first couple of days of this fire, lets get right to the video it is tearing through parts of Santa Cruz County including bonny doo
Mountains, highway 101. There may be foggy areas. Back to you. Thanks so much, mike. Our breaking news that were covering, this week will be critical more than 14,000 firefighters battle 17 major fire complexes sparked by lightning storms burning mostly in Northern California. The wildfires caused at least seven deaths statewide and destroyed at least 1,200 homes. And in the bay area there is a lot of ground to cover. Our team once again covering every inch of it this morning. Today in the bays Cierra Johnson is live in wine country where workers were nervously hunkered down there. But we begin with kris sanchez in Santa Cruz County. Were actually hearing from an evacuee. Reporter yeah. Weve been hearing a lot of these harrowing stories of how fast people had to pick up and leave. Sheriffs deputies are still looking for four people who are missing, reported missing from the evacuation area. That means no one knows whether they made it out or not. Maybe theyre among the 77,000 evacuees.
The air and from the freeway you can see the flames. We are at cherry glen and Pleasant Valley road and chp blocking that intersection only letting law enforcement, First Responders in to try to prohibit that traffic to do their job. For hours folks have been working to evacuate, preparing to evacuate from this fire. Earlier you heard from one of our own discussing how stressful it is. He said he could see the flames from his home and began taking photos of the belongings, photos of the home in case to document the damage. Good advice in this vacaville area. May be best to prepare or get a plan together to leave. When we were here we were actually parked next to a car of a gentleman and his dog. They left their home seeking higher ground. Take a listen to what some of these folks are going through as they prepare to leave this area. Been through fires before. Ive never evacuated before but why this time . Because it was it was coming hard and coming fast and winds were probably about 4
In the terms of fresh firefighters, theyre stretched thin, but they are making a lot of progress 17 can tame and thats up from 13 and good news to pass along they hope to make significant inroads in the fire over the next several days because the conditions look really good meaning winds are down humidity is up and that means they can launch their aircraft once again which yesterday they did for the First Time Since the fire started more than a week ago and they were able to drop 200,000 gallons of water down to the flames. They hope to do as much if not more today unfortunately because the fires are still burning in a lot of times theyre in rugged hard to reach areas that the new number to pass along this morning. 330. Thats the number of structures are homes destroyed thats up from around 280 yesterday so the fire has been destructive although not as deadly. No fatalities in the overnight hours, no major injuries as far as evacuations people. 77,000 people have been told to evacuate
Theres a lot on your plate this morning but we want to get you up to speed with the information we have to get you going. Well start with meteorologist kari hall with a look at that forecast today. Were starting out with smoke once again, the main issue weve had besides the hot temperatures. Live look outside in walnut creek once again a smoky start to our morning. The air quality as we look from parts of the north bay, we have an unhealthy air quality for people with breathing problems as we head to the south bay. Its still been pretty bad but its the worst right now in the trivalley and parts of the east bay. This will change throughout the day. Well be monitoring this with also updates on the temperatures in the forecast for the weekend thats coming up a little bit mike, hows it looking getting out the door . Were okay as far as the commute goes, i am watching a crash over my shoulder on 101 on a map. You dont see any slowing. There is an overturned vehicle with a couple lanes block