Know. J. R. Stone is in calistoga where entire neighborhoods are still in the dark tonight. Reporter complete darkness along these neighborhood streets on the western id of calistoga, a city where 40 of the people are without electricity and that includes tv. Tough for youngsters. Its hard, really hard. Reporter taylor may only be 6 but this is not the first time her family has lost power due to fire dangers. Now, though, they have a small generator that powers only the most essential items. I can only watch stuff on my ipad if its charged. If its charged. Have you been charging it . No. Because our charger doesnt work. Reporter across the state at least half a Million People are in the same situation. Dealing with Public Safety power shutoffs over fears of power lines falling and sparking a fire. You realize how much you depend on electricity when this happens. Reporter in calistoga you can hear the hum of generateors in neighborhoods. Winds are expected to pick up. Calistoga mayor chris canning says it is concerning, especially after monday night. Back in 2017 with the tubbs fire, last night was the first night that reminded me very eerily of that evening. Reporter while many that we talked with are remaining optimistic, taylors mom is doing the same. Trying to keep her kids busy as her husband and their father, who is a firefighter,n. Its one day at a time, and just trying to make the best of it. Reporter now, generators like this one here in calistoga are on full blast right now, but there is a hope that the electricity will be back on by wednesday night. In napa county j. R. Stone, abc 7 news. And we saw that apocalyptic glow of the sun through the haze in the bay area today. This is what it looked like in san ramon. The smoke and the fog was so thick in some places tonight, dan, it blocked out sunset. Eawo. Rllyhats a ri it was eerie. Very strange. And as you said, apocalyptic. How long is that going to continue . Abc 7 news meteorologist sandhya patel has more on the air quality and the dangerous fire conditions that sandhya still persist. Reporter absolutely. And dan and ama, were going to start first with the winds. Right now gusting on mount diablo to 41 miles an hour, its a north wind that is really drying out atmosphere even more. We mntver r wind atime ag east cruz mountains. Wind gusts will be very drying. Low humidity. And so any fires that do develop will spread rapidly. Take a look at the fire danger index. Fire danger in the north bay will be running anywhere from high to extreme during the overnight hours. So definitely watch out. Now, the fires burning to our north creating bad air quality. Ukiah is unhealthy right now. Although we are starting to see a slight impochlt rovement in o parts of the bay area. Still poor in the east bay as youll notice in orange for sensitive groups. When you take a look at this time lapse from earlier tonight, san jose cameras showing you just how smoky the skies were. You couldnt even see the sun. It was dimmed by the smoke and the fog. I do have good news for you. Ill show you when the air quality will improve coming right up. Ama, dan . Sandhya, that is good news. Thank you. Well, breaking news here tonight. A new wildfire is exploding in Northern California right now near the town of paradise. Paradise, of course, was just devastated, ravageed in november 2018 by the massive camp fire. Tonight its being threatened by the bear fire burning in the Plumas National forest. There are mandatory evacuations in parts of plumas, butte, and yuba county. So far nearly 41,000 acres have burned and it is at this moment 51 contained. And tonight the creek fire remains out of control in fresno and madera counties, forcing a new round of, everybodies. Daring rescues of hikers and campers in the sierra forest have taken place. Helicopters lifted more than 150 people overnight and this morning to safety. The missions have been dangerous, not just because of the raging flames but because of the intense smoke. Crews had to use nightvision goggles after their first attempt failed. The fire is northeast of fresno and has exploded in size, scorching more than 152,000 acres since friday. Its 0 contained. As awful as this fire sounds, not a Single Person or firefighter has been hurt. It was such an anxious wait, not knowing what was going to happen and when they were going to be here. So its surreal just having them here in the flesh. The smokes been so thick that the pilots dont have a visual of the terrain to land safely or to identify the locations where the evacuees are. This fire has also been tus fire. More than a dozen firefighters were hurt, some severely, while fighting the dolan fire in Monterey County this morning. They had to deploy their emergency shelter. Think of it as sort of a fireproof or fireresistant sleeping bag. Three firefighters were airlifted to a hospital in fresno, and one is in critical condition. The fire has been burning for three weeks now and just exploded in size overnight. Pretty busy night for us last night. The fire in general grew anywhere between 50,000 and 60,000 acres from where we were yesterday to now. Officials say the dolan fire was started by arson on august 18th. A man has been arrested. Cal fire is worried about flareups because of the weather thats triggered a red flag warning through wednesday morning. The big concern here is with the czu complex ineoan mateoe three fires, it also has the lowest containment. Yeah, so we continue to monitor, that but california isnt the only state dealing with raging wildfires. A large portion of medford, oregon has been ordered to evacuate tonight. The city has about 80,000 residents and is being threatened by a wildfire. The fire started this morning and also caused 25 miles of i5 to be shut down all the way to the california border. And in washington a fastmoving wildfire all but destroyed the town of malden. Its about 30 miles south of spokane. The fire station, post office, city hall and library all went up in flames along with nearly all of the home Officials Say it took just three hours to town. And you can follow the latest details on the fires all across california with our exclusive wildfire tracker. It its7news. Com and the abc 7 news app. New developments tonight, tiburons police chief has announced his retirement as the department deals with a racially charged incident. Chief Michael Cronin was appointed chief in 2007. The manager says theyve been discussing cronins retirement for some time now. His last date will be on sunday. Are you guys restocking the store . Theres no problem going on t bck says he was racially profiled by police at his store. The sergeant involved in the confrontation has now resigned. The marin independent journal reports that cronin denies his departure is connected to this controversy. Now we want to tell you about a possible setback in the race for a vaccine. The bay area was set to begin its phase 3 trials of astrazene astrazenecas covid19 vaccine, but now the entire study is on hold. K happened . Reporter wella ma, a trial participant actually became ill. So now they must stop to investigate whether it was a serious side effect or completely unrelated to the injection. There is actually some surprise and disappointment within San Franciscos department of Public Health since theyve beeg so ha bay area phase 3 trials of the vaccine. But they cant comment right now, since all inquiries must be deferred to astrazeneca. The final stages of astrazenecas covid19 vaccine trials are on hold after a volunteer became ill. In a statement sent to abc 7 the company said they voluntarily caused vaccination to review safety data, which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials. A source says the affected patient is in the uk, where astrazeneca is based. It is reason to be concerned, but its not unusual thathi would ham, especially with enrolling thousands and thousands of patients. Reporter dr. Yvonne maldonado is a stanford epidemiologist. Shes not part of the astrazeneca trial but shes conducted clinical vaccine trials all over the world. The only reason you need to do this trial these ways is because of exactly this reason. Its possible that the safety signal will be determined to be unrelated and they can move forward. Reporter last month abc 7 got an inside look at a San Francisco trial site for the astrazeneca vaccine. The bay area trial was already delayed because of training and parwor reasons. Generally speaking, when theres a stopping point, when our trials able to resume again . The product sponsor needs to investigate what happened. Every single detail about this patient. They need to meet with the data safety monitoring board. Theres a lot that will need to be done here. Reporter so astrazeneca has said they are working toex piety the review of the single event to minimize any potential impact on the timeline. A usf doctor told me it could be a matter of days or even much longer depending on exactly what happened. For abc 7 im kate larsen. Back to you. Okay. Thank you, kate. Coming up, caution and reluctance over new reopening guidelines. Business owners in the south bay say they understand how quickly conditionschge , if you ever go back to the office, how lu get to your office . See how risky a highrise elevator really is when it comes to coronavirus. First, a look at whats coming up tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live with guest host josh gad. Thanks, dan and ama. Im josh gad. Lets see how this goes. Please welcome all the way from arandale kristen bell, idina menzel, and Gillette Proglide and proglide gel. Five blades and a pivoting flexball designed to get virtually every hair on the first stroke, while washing away dirt and oil. So youre ready for the day with a clean shave and a clean face. Where you can find games, news and highlights. All in one place, right on your tv. The xfinity sports zone. Use your voice to search every stat, standing and score. Follow the teams you love. And, even get notifications with breaking news alerts and more. So youll never miss an update. With the xfinity sports zone everybody wins. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Click, call or visit a store for details. To deliver your packages. And the peace of mind of knowing that important things like your prescriptions, and ballots, are on their way. Every day, all across america, well keep delivering for you. Santa clara and santa cruz counties moved on the states colortiered coronavirus tracker. The change from the purple to red tier means gyms can reopen with modifications. Amanda del castillo found for many Business Owners theres a sense of caution and reluctance when if comes to these new indoor reopenings. Reporter the owner of blossom nail spa in campbell says her employees are now tough as nails as theyve had to maneuver constantly changing reopening plans. Its one reason linda doe admits to feeling some reluctance when her employees and customers told her the county was allowing her to finally move indoors. Im like you know what . I will believe it when Governor Newsom says it, its official. Reporter she was happy to see governor asd from purple to restrictive red tier. The change also means nail and waxing salons and tattoo and piercing parlors are able to open their doors with modifications. Museums, zoos and aquariums can do the same at 25 capacity. Shopping malls at 50 capacity, up from 25 . If the county remains in the red tier for 14 days, k through 12 schools can reopen. Fitness centers can also move indoors at 10 capacity. We were open for 48 hours exactly july 13th and 14th and had to shut back down unfortunately very quickly. Reporter on tuesday retro fitnesss outdoor class continued as planned. Owner jason bumgar he move indoors will come once staffing is in place. Both he and doe admits they must return with caution knowing other counties have experienced reopenings only to be shut down again. I know my members and my staff who have been unemployed for six months dont ever want to shut down again. Right now we get to do indoors. Im going to invite my customers indoors if they feel comfortable. If not we still have outdoors, and we just take it from ere. Ti abc 7 news. Imits. Some parents want their children return to school and today they made that opinion known. A small group of parents along with their children held a rally in Pleasant Hill outside the Contra Costa County office of education. It is safe for kids to go back. Of course we have to take the precautions necessary. But i do believe that inperson instruction is overall key right now. The group wants parents to have a choice about whether their children return to the classroom. Bart is makin som cha aye arting n hos interlslines. Mmu eubal cyndrysaesill e channgeene frequencies. However, they will be starting about 15 minutes earlier. Keep that in mind. Bart has been so badly affected by all this. And because of the pandemic bay area workers are all facing, ama, new job realities. They are, dan. From new safety protocols to working from home, changing careers and managing worklife balance, everyone is looking for solutions. And as part of our commitment to building a better bay area, were spending this entire week looking at our changing workplace, highlighting ways people are starting to make it work. Today abc 7 mornings anchor reporter this is the lm orne pandemic reality at some places in the bay area. Little did i grams on the elevator floor with people carefully moving to their spots. Signs limit the number of riders. People push buttons with their elbows. And lots of reminders to nderst anxiety is stance while. High. But the reality is that risk in the elevators is quite low. Reporter thats joe allen, a harvard Public Health expert who says riding an elevator even with other people on board is relatively safe if you take precautions. Allens top tips always wear your mask. Dont talk when you get on the elevator unless it is absolutely necessary. And if you have to cough or you have to sneeze, turn and face the wall and do it into your elbow. And that will go a long way in keeping airborne viral particles low for that short ride. Reporter there have been so many questions about covid19 and elevators. Allen even has a facebook video with more advice. Load in a checkerboard pattern and maximize spacing. Everyone should face forward. Announce your own floor. 28, please. But the person who is closest to the buttons should push them and use your knuckles. If you do touch something, many buildings now have Hand Sanitizer near the elevators. Some Elevator Companies are selling buttons you can tap with your feet and air purifiers. We know this virus has spread. That means we know which controls should line up to prevent the spread. Reporter even so, many of the bay areas tallest Office Buildings are still mostly empty because of Public Safety restrictions. Tisencrup is one of the bay areas largest elevator providers with thousands of elevators digitally connected to monitor activity. The company says bay area elevator use was at its lowest in mid april and is rising slowly. During the last week of august the number of tisencrup elevator trips in San Francisco officesa normal. And san jose 40 . In oakland 46 . And its likely most of the elevator cars on each trip up and down were not full. The companys Hightech System can assign people to specific elevator cars. Elevator traffic is down across the board. So what that allows us to do is actually reprogram those elevators so it doesnt dpele tr or less people onto a cabin so they have room in that cabin to socially distance. Reporter another big Elevator Company called schindler is also using its advanced systems to make rides safer. At the post montgomery building in San Francisco, employees have schindler preprogrammed cards that tell the elevator which wo pushing buttons. Schindler is now piloting the next phase, using smartphones. We can put bluetooth beacons inside the devices and it will connect to your phone through a schindler app so you could actually maintain your social distance in the lobby and enter your call using your own smartphone. Reporter california regulations that are slowing the return to work are also allowing more time to get innovations in role as well. Companies are going to have to do their job in terms of extending the workday so we can have standard arrivals and departures and dedensifying the office. Reporter no matter whael vaitor enhancements turn up, experts say you should still use your common sense. So if the elevator comes and its crow next one. Kumasi aaron, abc 7 news. I like that theres a way to not have to touch the number at all because ill be honest, dan, i never wanted to touch it even before covid. I know, ive become a little more aware of it before covid as well. I like the Elevator Buttons you can push with your feet. Thats a clever idea too. Yeah. Were talking about our changing workplace all this week because its such a huge focus of whats happening and whats changing. With a variety of topics and stories that you can see on your screen right there. This will be all week long on abc 7 news and you can find all of these reports on abc 7 news. Com and on the abc7news. Com app as well. Its going to be an interesting week with these topics. But ama, lets focus on our changing weather, which is also very welcome news. A lot cooler. Yeah. Id like for tomorrow maybe not to look like end of days, sandh sandhya. Is that possible . I know. It was so eerie today. Yes, it is possible. Ama and dan, were going to have the sea breeze clear some of the smoke late in the day tomorrow. So hopefully it will be an improvement for many parts of the bay area. Right now, though, i want to show you a time lapse from our kgo sutro camera, not the roof camera, excuse me for that. Smoke and fog just shrouded San Francisco earlier tonight, and if you saw it you know exactly what i was talking about. Visibility was really poor. Now take a look at the smoke forecast. You will notice the north bay midnight tonight still pretty bad as we look at the improvement for tomorrow evening notice most areas are going to be in the lighter shades of blue indicating less smoke than what we experienced today.