In Ventura County. The first bay area reporter to arrive on the fire lanes. Reporter were told the fire is now advancing in a northwest direction. Here in Ventura County, ashes continue to rain down as new areas come under threat. Ventura fire captain is doing something hes seen countless fire victims do through the years. Walking through ashes of his own burned out home. Its nothing. Its gone. Ive watched people my whole career sift through things and feel for them. Its obviously hitting home now. I dont know. Its all gone. Reporter he had planned to spend his birthday, yesterday, with his family. His daughter is an intern for nbc bay area and a san jose state student. She was in ventura for what was supposed to be celebration when her dad got called to the fire line. It all happened to fast that it just really unreal. Reporter theyre far from alone. Thomas fire has destroyed home after home. Amy just helped out with nbc bay area north bay fire coverage only to come home to this. I was helping them at the station do the santa rosa stuff and like god this is awful. I cant imagine and now im someone with a go fund me. All these are home videos. Reporter they were able to pack their cars with photos and other irreplaceable belongings before the fire swept through. I got one of my dads helmets. Reporter tom took the day to regroup with his loved ones but hell be back on the fire lines soon. They need to get out. I lost my house in the fire. It happens. Insurance will take care of it but it will never bring back a life. Reporter its covered with ash. New areas are being evacuated tonight. Folks are gearing up for another stressful night. Reporting live, im Jodi Hernandez, nbc bay area news. A driver shot this video. Its an inferno again gulfing the houn tan side. That video quickly went viral. Thats the scurball fire weve been telling you about. To the east of the 405 is ucla. Students Wearing Masks to deal with the poor air quality. The basketball game has been cancelled. Take another look from our chopper. This is one of those four fires. You can see the flames down below. This has been the situation for the last couple of days and moving forward what well see for several more days to. The dangerous santa ana winds could be increasing and the fires could be spreading. It could spread north toward Santa Barbara now. Lets bring in our chief meteorologist tracking the conditions. Jeff what are you seeing now . It doesnt look good. Its giving you that sick feeling in your stomach when you look at the weather data and think about whats burning here in Southern California and how gusty these winds could get. Creek fire at 11,000 acres. Rye fire 7,000. Thomas fire, the largest at 65,000 acres and the scurball fire at 50 acres. The wind forecast ramps up again tonight. Generally wind gusts 20 to 40. In the hills it could hit 60 plus miles an hour. Were going to see similar winds as we head into thursday morning. It doesnt let up thursday evening as you can see here. Still generally 20 to 40 miles an hour gusts possible. Even into friday morning. Really from tonight through friday morning, were under this gusty wind event and eventually by saturday morning, well begin to see a little bit of a break. When it comes to wildfires, especially right now in Southern California, they are using whats called a fire burn index. The key factors is how much dry brush is there. Meteorologists get together and meet agent this and determine that forecast. Were going to talk more about the fire burn index at 6 19 tonight and the levels that may not have ever been seen in history. Thats at 6 19 this evening. Good evening. A lot of science involved in this fire fight. We want to show you the view from space. Its incredible to see. This is right along the coast of los angeles and down in Ventura County as well. Those arent clouds. Thats the thick smoke hanging over the Pacific Ocean. This photo taken by nasas satellite. You can see just how hazy and smoky that Mountain Ridge is all the way from the Pacific Ocean into the l. A. Basin. I want to give you another live look from nbc bay area chopper. This is what we understand is the creek fire which is actually in Los Angeles County in San Fernando Valley. Thats burning very dense housing there as well. Our coverage of the fires continuing throughout our newscast. Well take you back to Ventura County to check this with jay gray for update on the thomas fire. Back here in the bay area other headlines this evening. Were following developing story in san francisco. Police are searching for two pit bulls who attacked a woman and her shi wchihuahua. Investigators releasing surveillance photos. You can see the pit pubulls. They are suspected of knocking the woman doin. It happened last month. The pit bulls ran off. Police say those dogs are a risk to Public Safety and also looking for the owner as well. Did the jury get it wrong . Many people in the bay area questioned the acquittal in the kate steinle trial. The question and confusion is convinced when an alternate juror to come forward with an explanation. Spoke with sam brock and says he supports the jurys decision. The role of a juror is to connect the justice thats enshine ee enshrined in the law of the united states. Thats what the jurors did. They could not have done otherwise lawfully and i think we should commend them instead of calling them despicable. Reporter a stanford educated mechanical engineer he sizes up the crucial evidence jurors relied onto find accounts of the accidental shooting reasonable. The ricochet was important. The fact the bullet hit the ground 12 feet in front of him and traveled, seems to be important that he wasnt aiming at kate steinle. You dont remember hearing the word brandishing coming up . I dont. Whats so surprising about that is that is a requirement for finding the defendant guilty of that mms charge. He had to be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Reporter the jury deliberated for six days. Theres a reason. Mounds of evidence and testimony. I thought after waiting for six days before the verdict came in that probably what was going on was there was like one hold out who they needed to flip and i found out in talking to them that wasnt the case. What they were doing was just diligently going through the evidence. Reporter this case probably took a tremendous toll on the jurors involved. I can tell you every single day after they released after court was over for the day they would walk down the hallway and stare at a parade of cameras. They felt the spotlight, the attention. They understood the high stakes of this case but still they kept their cool and did they job. Reporting live, sam brock, nbc bay area news. Thank you, sam. Interesting perspective. We posted sams entire raw interview with that juror to our website. If you want to hear more go to nbcbayarea. Com. Its one of the top stories on our homepage. Did the oakland as just strike out in their hopes to build a brand new ballpark right there in oakland in the stunning turn around today. The as plan to build that ballpark near lady college. The College District just pulled the plug on the deal for now. This is the 15 acres owned by the college right now lake merit. Nbc bay area robert handa joins us from oakland. Is this just negotiating ploy by the college . Reporter a lot of people are wondering about that. The as organization react with extreme disaappointment and acted as if the deal was dead. Later the chancellor said not necessarily and for those who are against development, private development of any kind on that property, that statement got a lot of people very upset. Reporter it should have been happy day for this group, last night the community College District board told the chancellor to end talks with the team. In statement the as express shock and disappointment. He said the district wanted to step back and evaluate options with the community. Why dont we bring everything together and kind of assess, compile our assets, compile it and then reach out to potential partners. Reporter that statement that kept the door open for a future deal ignited coalition made up of students, faculty and Community Members who marched on the Community Office and demanded a meeting with the chancellor and got one. We have the chancellor here. Whatever we do in the future, were going to involve our internal community. Its our college. Its not the as college. Its not a corporations college. Answer the question. Are you going to sell this land to a corporation at any point in the next ten years . Do you want to do that . No. Thank you. Youre welcome. Reporter you heard it. The chancellor reassured the coalition that he did not intend to sell the land to any socalled privatize corporation for any development and whether he sticks to it literally or not, it doesnt bode well for any as deal to reemerge any time soon. Problems with the payroll. The reason bay area teachers had money taken out of their bank account. Opening statements today in the courtmartial of a u. S. Coast guard member accused of child endangerment in connection with the death of his 3yearold daughter. The 911 call played in the courtroom. Coverage of the wildfires raging in Southern California. Want to get back tour bre o breaking news. The area is the San Fernando Valley. Its north of burbank. This particular area surrounded by three freeways. Were talking about the 210, 405 and the 5. Its a very busy area. The fire still raging tonight. One of four throughout Southern California. We have new developments tonight in exclusive nbc bay area investigation. The criminal case is moving forward against the u. S. Coast guard member facing charges in the death of his 3yearold daughter. Senior Investigative Reporter broke the story in august. Reporter 31yearold jimmy barlow faces four counts of child endangerment. Prosecutors say he saw scratches and bruises on his daughter. He knew she had been soiling herself even though she was potty trained and knew she had eaten her own feces. In ste instead of taking her to the doctor, he went to work opinion the defense painted him as the victim. He was a new dad and portrayed by doctors and social workers who suspected him of abuse. 3yearold eden lynn mp died from Blunt Force Drama to the head back in september of 2011. The coroner ruled her death a homicide. Six years later her father returns to face a military judge High Pressure prosecutors say he failed to protect her or seek medical attention for her serious injuries. The defense argued doctors and social workers could not explain edens head trauma so they blamed barlow. They said eden was in this care of his then girlfriend, now wife, holly. We heard the 911 call holly made telling the operator she has been acting weird, banging her head on the wall, scratching herself. Shes convulsing, very breathing. Paramedics said she was unrespons unresponsive. The couple said she had fallen down seven to eight concrete stairs a week earlier. Edens mother and maternal grandparents traveled from Southern California and maine for the trial. She was a joy. She was an angel before she became an angel. She was an amazing child. What is it that youre hoping to see as this trial unfolds . I hope justice is served. I want to see justice served and i believe it will be served. Reporter the barlows have decline tods d to be interviewe. After we started asking questions about the death they file add felony child abuse charge alleging she failed to seek medical for eden. She exercised her fifth amendment right not to testify. Petty officer bar low has chosen to have a bench trial. A judge will decide his fate. Not a jury. We expect the verdict in the next week and when it comes down, well bring it to you. Nbc bay area news. It cost 3,000 Oakland School district employees their paychecks this week. Some say they havent gotten paid yet. The employees had money taken out of their accounts earlier this week after their checks cleared. The School District admits to making what it calls a human error mistake. Some of the employees told us they found out when they tried to use money to pay bills or make their rent. T terrib terrible. Its the holidays. People paying property taxes, paying their bills. We want to do everything we can to make it right. We apologize. The district insists it was an accident and says it will work with the banks to not only get the money back to the employees but also make sure the employees arent charged any overdraft fees. Tomorrow city workers in oakland say they will be on strike for Third Straight day. Today thousands of those nonemergency workers continued to march. They want higher wages and improved working conditions. The city council did meet behind closed doors to discuss the ongoing issue. The strike is unlawful since both sides are actively negotiating and theres no impasse. Jeff the situation down south could go from bad to worse. Now were going to see a ramp up of these winds again. Looks like strong winds for the next two days. Its really kind of off the charts when you take a look at a fire index. Were going to get a closer look at how firefighters rate whats happening down there. I want to give you an overall perspective of what is happening in Southern California. Theres four primary fires that are still burning. The largest one remains the thomas fire in Ventura County at 65,000 acres. Red flag fire warning until 8 00 p. M. On saturday. Generally winds 15 to 40. Thats your sustained wind but in the hills we could see it gust 60 miles an hour and higher. Again, as we head throughout tonight also into thursday and fridays forecast. This weekend we should see the wind beginning to calm down a little bit. As we mentioned firefighters put this all into perspective. Use whats call a burn index to rate how bad it is. Here is some of the key factors they look at. How dry is that brush. They take moisture readings from it. Meteorologist meet up from different organizations and they put that forecast together. They then assign a number to the fire risk and what youre about to see here is the chart. Then were going to explain the number that were looking at here. Zero to 37 for the burn index is relatively low. 162 is extreme. The burn index for tonight also into tomorrow is 296. It is off the charts. This past monday and tuesday it was 266. The fire chief in los angeles have never seen it at 296. Thats really what they are up against here in Southern California with the dry winds, low humidities, no rain in sight. Our forecast here does have dry weather and a bit of wind. Well talk more about the bay areas wind forecast coming up at 6 48 tonight. Well see you then. Thank you. Times person of the year isnt just one person. In fact, its a group of women who started a movement. Youre going to hear from the bay area woman who is on the magazine cover. On our homepage a shakeup at stanford. A data breach at stanford s business school. The chief digital officer resigned saying he takes full happening now on our homepa homepage, the chief digital officer has resigned saying he takes full responsibility after a student discovered that breach. On our twitter feed, a california congresswoman was arrested for participating in rally in d. C. She was charged with crowding and obstruction. She was protesting trumps decision to end daca. Silence breakers today several women who helped lead the fight against Time Magazine is calling them the silence breakers. Today several women who helped lead the fight against Sexual Harassment were named person of the year. Shes the woman who organized an open letter signed by more than 140 women that address years of harassment in sacramento. We cant all be crazy. We cant all be sluts. We cant all be asking for it. Software engineer also featured on the cover. Her blog post to address Sexual Harassment at uber. The silence breakers honored by Time Magazine include actress ashley judd, taylor swift, along with Hotel Employees and farm workers. Were expecting an announcement tomorrow from al franken. His political career might be over. The democrat is being pressured to step down by his colleagues. This comes after another allegation today of unwanted touching against franken. New york senator tweeted he must step aside. Two dozen other Democratic Senators joined in including some california senators. President trump mover to recognize jerusalem as the capital getting praise and condemnation. These are live pictures. This could be spread ng the Santa Barbara county. Were live on the scene with some more answers. Machine [baby crib musical mobile] millions are still exposed to the dangers of secondhand smoke. And some of them cant do anything about it. But you can. Protect your family. Visit tobaccofreeca. Com. News in souther california. 4 major re. Right now at 6 30, inferno down south. We continue to follow the fires in Southern California. Youre looking live at the creek fire which is burning in San Fernando Valley in l. A. County. One of four fires burning in Southern California tonight. Control of theses blazes. La s fire chief say s tomorrow s fire threat level will be the highest he has eve l. A. s fire chief says tomorrows fire threat level will be the highest hes seen in his career. Winds could reach 80 miles an hour. That means the fires could multip multiply. Take a look now. This map illus