history. and then the lmu fire which is the north bay burning in several counties including napa, sonoma and solano. and the poor air quality, jessica, it is not going to get much better. the smoke is hard to escape. i will show you the worst places in terms of the air quality right now, and g the smoky smel minutes. >> thank you, janelle. the czu lightning complex fire is burning on the san mateo and san marino borders. 44,000 people have been evacuate and at least 50 structures have been fully involved. we go to where robert handa is down in the fire's path. >> i'm in felton along highway 9

which feels like a ghost town. i was in boulder creek yesterday and the homes i saw then are gone today. >> firefighters from agencies all over the bay area, and state are trying to stay on top of the relentless flames that are ravaging the czu area from here in the santa cruz mountains from here in is to hope. >> they are busting their butts, and they are exhausted and tire and they don't have enough resources and they are tired and not enough support. >> reporter: and the homeowner is one of the handful of people still in boulder creek setting up his sprinkler to keep the roof soak. >> if i can preserve my property and keep it from a statistic, that is great. >> reporter: it is not hard to see what the evacuating residents are worried about. some of the friend's neighbors have been reduced to rubble, and the fire is still moving. do you plan going

to go? >> when it is necessary. >> what are the parameters? >> flames inside of my home. >> reporter: but the homes down the street show how fast it can happen. >> reporter: when is that? >> we are not heroes, we are just guys. we are out if it comes. >> reporter: and from the destruction that we saw from yesterday to today, there may not be much choice n. felton, robert handa. >> the choices are hard no matter what. we are watching this, and developing situation in santa clara county. live look from the sky ranger, and crews are on the ground there working to get a handle on the series of small fires and this is in south san jose, and what you are watching is along highway 101 and we have video from an hour ago and you can see how hazy from the ground, and this is the coyote creek area west of the highway and bailey avenue, and firefighters say they expect to have the fire

contained and maybe two hours and multiple structures have burned and the wind is a big factor in how this particular fire spread so quickly and became a series of fires. >> over to the north bay and the big collection of fires in napa, and sonoma and solano counties has turned deadly with more than four people acres burn and more than 125 structures damaged and 7% containment at this hour. we will bring in nbc bay area reporter jodi hernandez, and you have been on the eastern side of this fire on solano county and now you near gurnville, and it is a big scope of things with so many fires. >> this fire is huge now, and again, we are now today in sonoma county at the foot of the wallbridge fire in the town of gurnville, and you can see the dark smoke behind us.

that is where the fire is burning. cal fire tells us, this is the number one priority in the lmu lightning complex fire as it continues to burn out of control. >> reporter: matt gillam is keeping a close watch on the hills above gurnville where the wallbridge fire is burning out of control. gillam lives in town, and while it is under mandatory evacuation order, he is not planned to leave. >> i am planning to stay here and protect my house from fire. i am going to spray down any embers and put out anything i can, and leave if i have to leave. >> reporter: cal fire says that lmu is the biggest worry tonight. it has scorched some houses in the hills of hillsburg, and firefighters are doing all they can to keep it from getting to populated areas, and destroying more homes. >> we are seeing the increased fire activity as we anticipated

this afternoon, and we need people. if you not heeded the warning, please, please get out of the area >> reporter: the helicopters have been dipping into russian river and dropping water on the fire all afternoon, and meanwhile, new evacuation orders have been issue and tonight, hundreds are praying that the homes will survive. >> you live out in the hills, and you know that anything is possible. mother nature is a lot more powerful than we are. >> reporter: and we are back here live, and you are looking at that dark smoke. that is where the fire is burning, and that is down sweetwater springs road, and we took a ride out there earlier today, and it is really that narrow roads, and some sections that you can only, there is enough room for only one car to pass, and this is why they need the residents to heed the evacuation warnings and get out of here so they can make sure they get the equipment where it needs to be. we did see active flame and lot of helicopters dumping the fire

-- dumping water on the fire all afternoon. this is the number one priority. tonight, new evacuation warnings in place, and they are concerned about the towns of gurnville, hacienda, forestville, and of course, hillsburgh on the other side of the fire. one of many fires burning, but this is the priority tonight. reporting live in gurnsville, i'm jodi hernandez, nbc bay area news. >> they have gone through a lot in that area with the flooding and now the fires. thank you. we will see you later this evening. the sooes beast bay and the sou and this is burning in the scu complex fire. there are five county, and it is 10% contained. that is good news. encouraging, because the last couple of days it was zero. and 20,000 structures are threaten and five structures are destroyed, and two firefighters have been injured. now, today, the fire is driving towards morgan hillsh and th, a

the biggest threat facing the crews. the flames seem to have spread to east san jose hills and they are headed south, and morgan hill is on alert. they don't know when or if the flames will arrive, but morgan hill is bracing for the worst. this is at the roadside and roadblocks preparing for anything that might come their way. the crews are fighting the fire to keep from reaching their town, but the force statewide is deplet depleted. >> the fact that there are so many fires, the resources are depleted. so we cannot rely on the normal service, and that has everyone concerned. >> well, like so many families, the meyer family here is packed up and ready to go ifthey got t last night, and many of the neighbors have already left. >> we will give you another look at the nbc bay area sky ranger over the czu fire. this is the one in san mateo and santa cruz county, and we have been saying that the evacuations

for fire and the bay area are huge. chris chimura is keeping track of those, and what we are talking about is this fire at 64,000 people evacuated. >> yes, and i'm taking a look at the air traffic overhead, and ordinarily when we are looking at the fires, i can show you air tankers and smaller aircraft, but i can't find it, because, again, the resources are stretched thin. i can tell you that over here with the czu fire, there is a ch chinook helicopter, and this is looking like it is returning to livermore, and how there is intense fireheevac sonoma county where jodi was talking about gurnville, and here, the large swathes of evacuation orders in red and warnings in yellow. the going situation is in santa clara county and here we are talking about the chinook which is operating in this area, but

this is santa clara, san jose, morgan hill, gilroy, and you see the red evacuation orders and the evacuation warnings just on the edge, and it is entirely possible that if you are within this evacuation warning zone, these could be switched to an evacuation order at any moment, and keep up to date and on alert, because these things do change quickly. jessica. >> thank you, chris. another good resource for the evacuations is the website, nbcbayarea.com. we are posting them as they come in and change, and again, nbcbayarea.com/evacuations. in marin county, a new evacuation warning because of the woodward fire. sky ranger overhead along the coast and the people in the communities ofelemma and d up t. now, it is evacuation warning is to be ready and order is to get out. now, woodward fire has charred more than 2,000 acres in the

points ray area, and zero point containment. cooler today than throughout the week. we will bring in our meteorologist rob maeda, and what are you seeing in the next 48 hours and lightning a few days away. >> yeah. that is the short term concern, and it is going to be these shifts of wind that we typically get in the afternoon, and the riskf seeing more thunder and lightning reappearing in the weekend forecast. looking at the conditions on the fire lines, and first to the east of san jose, and the scu complex, and the large towering clouds off to the east of san jose, and fire activity has picked up here with 84 degrees wind out of the north with and mountains improved and we had 85 degrees, and this is the problem with the weather for the north bay fires. where we are seeing the hotter temperatures around the bay

area, and the lmu lightning complex, and you can see the band pushing outward from the bottom of the screen there? it is the late afternoon delta breeze, but it is seeming to give that fire a push. i stau winds pick up by 20 miles per hour in two hours' time and strong southwest winds into solano county and we will have to watch out for that. the top concern is sure, air quality is one of them, and the risk of seeing more thunder and lightning, and the nbc bay area weather map, and fire weather watch is in effect, and starting this weekend and early next week to bring another round of dry lightning th, and what to expect in the rest of the weekend forecast in>> al thank you, rob. we talked about the lack of resources for firefighters and to give you perspective, we talked to a cal official at the czu fire, and he said 1,000 personnel are working the fire in the santa cruz mountains in san mateo mountains and

adequate. the 1,000 firefighters are adequate for a fire measuring 1,000 acres. this fire is 10 times that, 50,000 acres. we are told that would normally require 8 to 9,000 firefighters to combat, and instead, they have 1,000 personnel on the fire lines. >> that is a lot the wrap your head around. all right. we will continue to watch this for you, after the break, and look at how fast a fire can move. new video from a woman looking for her horses as the fire bears down. >> and our smoky air is s no signs is of clearing up. look at that, you can hardly see the bridge and just how bad it is right now, and what you can do to keep it out of your house. >> when we welcome our west coast viewers, the families facing the gut-check moment decision of sending the children to school or not in the pandemic. also i will speak to the new hampshire teen who struggled with stuttering and moved the nation all ahead on nightly

news. with fires burning in almost every bay area county, it is important for your family to be prepared and nbc bay area responds can help. we have put together a new resource page on our website. go to nbcbayarea.com and click on the wildfire resources tab and bookmark the page. there you will find a lot of good advice like what to put in the go bag, and important insurance information and much more. being fire ready means to have a plan, and our website is a great place to start.

this is over san mateo county. over 60,000 people have had to leave their homes because of this massive, massive cloud of smoke and flames. >> the anguish felt by so many fire victims was captured by one woman in solano county desperately looking for her horses. >> oh, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no. oh,o.>> she is out of breath, a is in tears. she's crying there. she doesn't find them at that point, but they were located, and they are safe tonight. she's a rancher. her name is krista hefner. she posted this on facebook, that she lost nearly everything in the fire just as her business was coming back >> it is tough to trailer a horse when they are scared. that is for sure. all these fires polluting our air. a live look at the camera, the air quality just got worse today. janelle wang joins us, tracking the worst. you can only eat outside if you want to go somewhere. that's kind of difficult. >> i know. maybe just get take-out now and eat inside with your windows and doors closed. the spare the air alert in effect until sunday. could be extended if we can't get containment on these fires. many parts of the bay area have seen fire conditions get worse.

this is our emeryville camera looking at san francisco just after 2:00 this afternoon. socked in with smoke the city is. you can barely make out the skyline. check out that same camera now. you can't even make out the bay city. this is another picture from the san jose studios. the south bay has a thick blanket of smoke. another area that hasn't seen relief for three straight days, the tri valley. they have smoke coming in from the north bay and the east bay. and take a look at the current data by the air quality management district. most of the bay area is in red. san francisco and the peninsula getting better at this hour. they're in yellow, but as i mentioned, a spare the air alert remains in effect through sunday. >> if the firefighters cannot get a handle on the surrounding fires that are producing all of the smoke, we will have to extend the alert.

and the thing that we are very concerned about is we are forecast being lightning, possible lightning storms early next week, monday to tuesday, and that's completely terrifying, given our current conditions. >> so thinking of the firefighters, they've been on the front lines in excessive heat all week. as for getting the smokey smell out of your house, that was my problem this morning. i opened my windows last night because the air was really clean along the peninsula but this morning we had a lot of smokey air. so i raead that you mop down yor floors and counters with vinegar in it. i did it, it worked. also you can spray baking soda on fabrics and it will neutralize the odors. i have my air purifiers going, smoke is out of the house. >> those are good tips. >> come prepared. you can't forecast where the flames are going to go, but what about the smoke?

in what direction? >> it's interesting, the push of the late-day say breeea breeze. visibility is trying to improve. when you look outside in san francisco, some of the haze is starting to clear, but that's piling the smoke right now on the other side of the bay. san francisco still has smoke around unhealthy for groups. the wind speed, 33 miles per hour. winds are starting to pick up around san francisco. 83 in san jose, also seeing the wind pick up. this time it's a wind about 18 miles per hour. walnut creek, 92 degrees, west wind at 14. unfortunately, not much change in air quality tomorrow. better hope for that i think on sunday as we see a chance of some tropical weather coming our way that could involve thunderstorms, which, as you know last sunday did bring quite a bit of wind. one thing the smoke is doing is trapping some of the heat.

so our nights are trending a bit warmer. days trending slightly cooler as the smoke blocks a little bit of that sunshine from warming up the ground. for tomorrow, i think we're going to see similar temperatures, upper 80s and mid-90s from san jose south. tri valley in the mid 90s. bay side near oakland into hayward, coast side in the mid-60s for half moon bay, 80s down the peninsula, san francisco, kind of like you're seeing now, 71 degrees outside. in the same ballpark tomorrow. winds out of the west for san francisco. the best hope for the best air . and let's talk about this fire weather watch. by tomorrow at this time, if it still looks likely, these will be upgraded to red flag warnings. you may get that next alerts on your nbc bay area weather app. you will get the warning, it's a pretty large area covered by this. here is the feel for the potential setup.

it's what's left of storm genevieve. you see how the clouds move off to the north? we may see high clouds approach later tonight. but the mid-level moisture which can sometimes trigger thunder starts to increase during the day sunday. and i think especially monday morning and then again tuesday, that fire weather watch starts at 11:00 a.m. sunday through 11:00 a.m. tuesday. so the day in the midst of that is your monday forecast. so, as we start to potentially see slightly better air quality, we got to contend with the threat of more dry lightning. that is going to up the weekend. we'll be watching that very cleese lim closely. the big headline is will we get lightning out of this, the odds are higher for lightning to start. maybe we get some rain, that would be great if we can see a little bit of that on tuesday, but it present as big new challenge, because even with the lightning strikes. if you don't get lightning where you are, as the thunderstorms

collapse, they can cause gusty winds, very challenging weather environment as we wrap up the weekend. it's something we have our whole weather team in this weekend to cover. we'll have more news right after this short break.

there are some other headlines this evening. the man known as the golden state killer will spend the rest of his life in prison. that's joseph deangelo who pled guilty to raping and killing he 1970s and '80s. >> today deangelo was unmasked and spoke publicly to his victims. >> reporter: before the sentence was handed down, joseph deangelo stood up out of his wheelchair and spoke clearly to victims. >> and i'm really sorry.

>> reporter: few words from the golden state killer, a man whose crimes prosecutors say stretched from 1973 until 1986, and who continued to terrorize women even up until his arrest in 2018. >> no window is ever opened or unlocked at night. >> reporter: sacramento district attorney ann marie shubert raiding from a 71-year-old woman's letter. they were calling for life sentences for someone they described as monster and sociopath. >> a man whose horrific crimes impacted so many people. >> reporter: she's been waiting for this day almost 40 years. >> today she said i feel free. i feel like a weight has been lifted off whose mother and father were

bludgeoned to death in 1980 talked to us about how cold case detectives linked dna from her stepmother's rape kit to deangelo. >> without it, i truly don't believe we would have been here. >> reporter: following the sentence, this video was released showing a very different man than the one who came to court every day in a wheelchair. we'll have more from jennifer carroll and the local prosecutor whom many credit for keeping this case alive and why they stay we may never know all of the crimes committed by killer. in sacramento, thom jensen nbc bay area news. >> does give you pause. >> we are back in a moment. all in one place, right on your tv.

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our social media accounts have been flooded with viewer pictures and videos, we're all just really seeing andthat. >> is that a coyote? >> yeah, that's a coyote, just trying to relax and get fresh air anywhere. you see all the thick smoke with the bridge in the background. to a bright red.ou see the hue do you have a picture you'd like to share? you can e-mail it to i see it at

nbcbayarea.com. >> we'll send it over to lester holt, but we'll be back with all the latest evacuation orders and evacuation warnings. tonight, the hollywood star headed to prison, actress lori loughlin and her husband sentenced in the college admissions cheating scandal how long they will serve and what loughlin said today in court. the massive inferno in texas after a gas pipeline explodes sending flames and black smoke hundreds of feet high. the desperate search for survivors. the postmaster general in the hot seat contradicting the president saying mail-in voting will be delivered securely and on time as more states