destructive fire in california recorded history. more destructive than the 1991 be elbowed hills fire. more than 2 dozen people have been knitted to hospitals because of the smoky conditions. we have live team coverage let's begin with robert handa in cal stowinga evacuated in the last 24 hours. robbed. >> it has been quite a day here. as you will see at times the fire fighting seemed almost surreal with all the flames and swirling smoke. but it was all too real. thick smoke and fast spreading flames engulfed the area the fire already causing damage the past two days seemed to escalate bolstered by swirling winds. home owners in the path have been evacuated. >> it's wooded and steep. lots of big ravines. and really no power could get up

there. we're relies on them to stop the fires. >> cal fire says it has to. >> as we move further south from here there are less opportunities of existing roads and infrastructure that we can get resources in and attack the fire. so that's why we are making a big stand on this right now. >> but by noontime cal fire decided the fires around calistoga were too hot and began moving us and crews out of area. >> we had to shift the objective and reengage and pull back and reengage depending where the wind is and where the spot fires are occurring. >> residents who stay had been warned. >> they said we will leave you caution time in case you leave we want to you hang that on the driveway so we know we don't have to go look for corpses. >> quit a grim warning but cal fire says it's making good progress in halting fire here at highway 29 but adding they have

seen things change quickly here before. live in cali stchlt toga. >> okay robert thank you so much. >> not just there, other neighborhoods under evacuation. parts of santa rosa, mandatory evacuations, guyser rl is an advisory evacuation. but east of there also mandatory evacuations. you can see advisory notices in napa, parts of sonoma, the town of sonoma also under advisory evacuation and fairfield area, which means residents should be prepared to leave at a moment's notice. another area of concern heading into the evening, the town of sonoma, right near the historic sonoma square, mandatory evacuations were issued this afternoon. nbc bay area thom jensen joins us from the scene. thom, flames behind you during the 3:00 newscasts what's the status now? >> reporter: raj, they really

have been hitting the flames with wert pb looks like they made headway. there are mandatory evacuations in the northeast corner of sonoma proper itself. coming up this road, la value valley homes. a lot of concern. the video you look at now the live shot where you see smoke there are homes up there too. we drove up there. there are homes destroyed. they put the mandatory evacuations in late this afternoon. and some people said they're sticking around, soaking homes mp bru one guy came from idaho to safe his parents home. they're soaking it for two days. other people are grabbing valuables and getting out. >> just a few things just we have an 8-year-old daughter just fun things for her to make sure she feels -- it's stressful for her but some fun things. her halloween costume, just stuff, her books, art supplies, things that while we are there

it doesn't look like it's ending any time soon. >> they tell you to go you go. i am. we came to hose the house down and grab pictures. >> they're elderly and disabled. i got to have some place to bring them back to. >> reporter: and this is why this situation is just so desperate here. you see the flames get knocked down and they kickback up. the flames have been moving this which toward town. some of them less than a file away. we will keep you posted on what's going on up here raj and jessica. for now it looks like some headwayen a the home owners shoep so back to you. >> thank you thom. 20 miles north of santa rosa right along 101 we mentioned guyserville a few minutes ago. advisory evacuations meaning you have to be ready and goo are goen .bustling and historic town now at a relative stand still. >> i'm from hawaii from the big

island where we have laugha, hurricanes, civil defense lighting up our phones all the time. this is way worse. i'll take the laugha over this any day. >> well today instead of being on the defensive part fire crews went on the offensive mode trying to attack the flames hoping to get work done in terms of the fire fight before more winds come in. >> sky ranger is over geyserville right now. and our chopper zooming in on big buildings there threatened pl geyserville advisory evacuation. but north of the town in vinyard club there are mandatory evacuations right now because flames are fast approaching. this haze and smoke getting to a lot of people. let's check in with the chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. >> i think the haze and smoke will be a problem over the next three days. but the main headline i want to bring everybody is the fact that

we are not done with the wind just yet process. we have a brand-new wind event through the week. right now still breezy after the winds this morning, 15 to 25-mile-per-hour in the fire zone. we have it anywhere from 6 to 10-mile-per-hour out of the north. seven active fires still the largest is the atlas fire near yountville, napa pushing to solano county at over 40,000 acres. in terms of the wind we get break tonight, 4 to 6 piper. tomorrow i think it looks good for not extremely gusty winds through the day on friday. it's saturday morning we are keying in on for possibly winds to gust 20 to 40-mile-per-hour. you can see it potentially up to 41-mile-per-hour at 5:00 a.m. saturday. 43 nornda. this could continue into about 9:30 in the morning on saturday. saturday morning is the next zone we are tracking. i'll have details on the seven-day forecast and when rain could move in to help us out.

>> thank you, jeff. we'll check back in a short while. the distance here from geyserville over to fairfield, 80 miles. now talking about the atlas fire started in napa spreading toward fairfield. nbc bay area jodi hernandez livers in the area and has the latest this evening. jodi. >> reporter: raj, cal fire tells us things are looking a little better. but they have a long and tough fire fight ahead. we are going to show you why. we are standing right at the base of one of the hot spots here in solano county in green valhalla, on mason road at the mas mason ranch. just a few hours ago the hillside was on fire. this morning the fire jumped the ridge. fortunately you can see some of the fire crews out here hard atwork. these are guys are from southern california. fortunately they were able to knock this fire down a few hours

ago. there are similar hot spots around solano county. crews once again attacking the hot spots from the air using helicopters to drop water. we saw a lot of that going on today. ner also working in from the ground. we are told the number of firefighters has tripled since yesterday. so that is really good news. that's helping the fire fight. but for those living in the fire zone it's still a very scarey situation. we talked to the owner inform property out here. he says he has been on opinions a pins. >> i haven't had any sleep the last three nights. we've been getting up checking every hour. depressing. >> and we are back here live where you can see the situation here on mason road at the mason ranch. the family has owned this ranch

since 1862. they've opinion working around the clock to save the property. so far the homes are okay but lost land and fencing. that's the latest situation from here in green valley. jodi hernandez, nbc bay area news. >> okay, jodi thanks. the devastation is so overwhelming. full neighborhoods reduced to ashes as you can see, many of the victims are still thankful even though they lost everything. >> nbc bay area garvin thomas joins from you santa rosa. we speak for so many people we put ourselves in their shoes and try to. what are they telling you, the people who lost everything. >> reporter: well it's tough to do that to try to imagine what they are going through. everywhere in town whether to the evacuation shelters or stores people have remarkable story base the experience in the fire. but few as remarkable as the family that well used to live in the house that used to be here matt and jenny. they weren't here sunday night

when the house burned. because jenny had gone in labor. they packed up and left the day before. you can see where it's heading. we had remarkable video sunday night of the kaiser hospital because the fire encroached on the hospital at that time. now matt and jenny were a part of that because hours before they had given birth to the second child a boy jackson, like many people at the time in the hospital they were oblivious to what was going on. they turned on the tv saw the fire. he raced back to crest view drive but only within a few houses of his house before the fire turned him around. he returned to the hospital to tell jenny the bad news. but then the hospital was filling up with smoke. >> we are dealing with the fact that the neighborhood is burning down and we open up the window and trying to see the neighborhood from the hospital room. as that's happening we can see the fire getting close.

we can see the mobile home park go up in flames from the wend. right outside the window. >> any took jackson, jumped in their truck and drove off to one relatives house. had to evacuate they finally made it to jenny's mother's house in windsor. matt got back to the house and searched through. the only thing he could find to salvage with you their wedding rings pap. and raj and janelle as i was talking to them at their mother's house even though they've been there a few days they haven't unpacked a single thing they saved because everybody around here is still worried about what direction the fires are going next. >> we don't know that answer. garvin thomas in santa rosa. the bigds question we are receiving around the community. how can we help? go to the website, nbcbayarea.com to find out how to donate safely to the various agencies in the north bay. coming up many say they

never got a warning. we investigate sonoma county emergency alert system and asked the man in charge why they didn't use the one that would have notified everyone. >>. quite a bit of smoke continuing across the bay area. the atlas fire spreading the most all the way down to san francisco. we'll track when a little bit of rain is possible in the forecast. details in 8 minutes.

i want to get back to live coverage. you're looking now live from nbc bay area sky ranger. down below is one of the many cal fire aircraft monitoring the area. this is over the atlas fire. this is the fire that's straddling two counties from napa into solano county nar fairfield dropping fire retardant and other materials as they continue the fire fight, about 5% contained there. so we have several more days of the fires. the death toll rose to 29 today in the fires. some of those missing. some still may not have received the evacuation notice in time. vicki nguyen is find out why. she joins from us the coffey park neighborhood that was des mated pap and what you learned. >> reporter: four days after the initial fire and it's a sight you can't get used to. stunning here in coffey park. many here and throughout santa

rosa wanted to know why they didn't get the alert sooner? today we learned that emergency leaders do have access to a mass cell phone alert system but decided not activate it. instead they used the soco. that went to a lot of land lines but no where near all the residents. emergency manager christopher said he was worried if he sent out a mass alert he was worried people would flood the streets. >> if you have access to send out the alert to everyone. >> i probably just explained that. what happened is the because the evacuation areas were specific areas. if i send a message out to 500,000 people simultaneously, what's going to happen with -- those mass of people trying to leave at the same time? especially in the middle of the night. >> but the people in coffey park

in mark west zaets fountaingrove and beyond many people said any didn't get the alert are you saying us that that's because timothy weren't signed zblup i can't answer that question. i don't know if individual people got the alert or not. all. >> i'm telling you they didn't. >> and so if -- and i'm saying what i'm trying to say is that if dsh if they weren't signed up they weren't going an alert on the mobile devices. >> but knelled have had you activated the other system. >> that's true. that's true. >> and you decided not to. >> i think i've justified my reasons. >> reporter: he says he was not in santa rosa until 6:00 a.m. and did not realize the' normt of the fires until he saw them firsthand. raj and janelle back to you. these are sensitive and delicate topics we will continue to find the answers.

thank you, vicky. a live look in san francisco you can see what we are seeing through the bay area. the poor air quality. the university will be shutting down tomorrow. you're consumer reporter chris chumara is in santa rosa to us asking questions about insurance claims and providing the key necessities during the fires and we're talking about the breathing masks. chris. >> reporter: raj, i can tell you we are up to 120 masks we have distributed and we have 1600 more. we are here at the finley. the the mask the pulmonologists say we need for the poor air-conditions. we have them free of charge. if you want one come here we are here until 8:00. we will be at napa college tomorrow 800 more to distribute free of charge. over to the right we have the recharging station helping people without power in this

neck the woods recharge devices. earlier today we distributed the masks in napa and we are planning again to do it tomorrow. we think this is a great public service. we know people need these all over the bay area. and we are happy to do it become to you guys in the studio. >> emfemale desperately need them not just the fire zone. people across the bay area let's check with christie smith with how school districts with dealing with the issue. christie. >> well districts are either limiting outdoor activity or in some cases cancelling class altogether again tomorrow. here in west contra costa they point out a number of of the classroom are like this. that open up right to the outside where the air quality is poor. in oakland schools were open the district held classes but said students staying home would have an excused absence. >> we just want to continue reaching, right. and we know some of the kids being at home maybe the

conditions they're facing at home aren't better. >> the unified spokeman says they are keeping kids inside and had considered cancelling chases outright. >> we are seeing blue skies yesterday downtown you didn't see blue skies. >> we are hit with more spoke. >> with the west contra costa schools where classes are cancelled through tomorrow because of the bad air. reaction is mixed. with some noting kids face the same conditions at home. >> you have to go outside to get to the restroom or get to the cafeteria keeping them in one classroom at many schools isn't pb whereas at home hopefully that's self-contained and parent can keep a koser eye on children. >> in downtown oakland masks are a common sight as everyone tries to keep from breathing the smoke. >> did we get the m-95. >> at the hardware the phones ring with requests for masks. >> 90% if not more.

you got the mask? you got the m 95. >> christie smiths we see it in beijing and mumbai now across the bay area. jeff ranieri will give us an update on what to expect the next 48 hours. >> we will get the improvement in the air all-time on the extended forecast. you got to stick around for that. we've been hearing from so many of you that you wanted to see where the fires are and what the acreages are. even the winds didn't top 50 miles an hour for a lot of the hills. 15 to 259-mile-per-hour winds did help the fires to spread. we saw acreage increases on the nuns fire, 14698, the largest, the tubts at just over 34,000 acres. the atlas over 43,000 acre as well. the billion in the weather is we are not done with the wind. we have another wind events coming our way. right now it's breezy outside. anywhere from 7 to

12-mile-per-hour throughout the north bay where the fires are burning. a dry wind from the north pushing smoke and embers to the south. where do we go? no big issues for firefighters tonight. generally calm, 4 to 6-mile-per-hour. even through most of the day friday it's 4 to maybe 10-mile-per-hour at most in terms of the wind gusts. that's the good news. but here we go again. we are ramping back up with more gusty winds. that's why we don't want to you let the guard down. if you are asked to evacuate, even today while the wind doesn't seem that gusty throughout the afternoon hours it's all due to the fact the local officials are looking at the same data which are that's the increase in the wind potential. you can see saturday morning 5:00 a.m. possible ily up to 40 in napa abo, 22 in santa rosa. and we could see the wind gust through 10:00 a.m. saturday. 5 to 10:00 a.m. saturday.

that's the next zone of wind we will be watching closely. we heard about the air quality and that's been a continual problem across the bay area. today with the atlas fire that spread most of the smoke here all the way down into the peninsula toward san mateo even into redwood city. and we think we will undergo smoke through the next few days. sure you get blue sky by the parcels in the air keep is dangerous and unhealthy down towards the south bay. you can limit outdoor exposure, wear a breathing mask, temperatures tomorrow help firefighters continuing to remain in the 70s throughout the north bay. low 80s in concord and antioch. extended forecast biggest change in air quality comes tuesday and wednesday, improved air quality with a change in the wind, more of the on shore flow and check it out next thursday possibly some rain you guys. we are thinking trace amounts to

maybe.05 of an inch thursday into friday. >> thank you so much, jeff. we go back to the sky ranger a live shot near geyserville where there is a fire fight right now. flames approach the town and advisory evacuation right now. but parts of geyserville on the outskirts under mandatory as you can see flames are ferocious, a very aggressive fire fight going on. we'll have an update. not just the bay area..

but north of us... a fire in mendocino county. near 101 and hhw happening now, not just the bay area but north of us, a fire in mendocino county near 101 and highway 20. so far containment is only 5%. 250 homes destroyed. and 8,000 people evacuated.

8 people have already died in mendocino county. the overall death toll is 29. we're back in a moment with more news. flames are approaching fast.

firefighters aggressivley ... fighting this fire. sky ranger over the geyserville area where you can see flames approaching fast. firefightersing aggressively fighting the the fire. . the town under advisory evacuation order but being told to be on alert. they may have to leave on a moment's notice. residents outside of geyserville in vineyard club area. mandatory ee vac, get out now.

back in a moment. my name is cynthia haynes

and i am a senior public safety specialist for pg&e. my job is to help educate our first responders on how to deal with natural gas and electric emergencies. everyday when we go to work we want everyone to work safely and come home safely. i live right here in auburn, i absolutely love this community. once i moved here i didn't want to live anywhere else. i love that people in this community are willing to come together to make a difference for other people's lives. together, we're building a better california.

4 days now since the deadly wildfires broke out -- and the go back to the breaking news in the north bay now. if you are traveling on 101 north of healdsburg. you'll see all the smoke from the pocket fire near

geyserville. we'll take a short break and see you back here at 6:00 with more live updates across the fire zone. thanks for joining us. & tonight, hostage family freed. an american woman, her husband and three little children rescued five years after being kidnapped by terrorists. a daring mission to save them. damage control. a surprise appearance from white house chief of staff john kelly, pulling back the curtain, putting to rest rumors and making clear he's not the president's minder. growing fire disaster in california. crews racing to save neighborhoods even as their own homes burn to the ground. targeting obamacare. blocked in congress, the president signs a new executive order for potentially major changes to health insurance. and breakthrough for blindness. helping a young man see. doctors say it could be the key to unlocking the answers for everything from heart disease to