breaking news tonight, raging infernos turn deadly, exploding in california, torching thousands of homes. tens of thousands evacuated. a massive state of emergency. not backing down. as a powerful republican senator says president trump's recklessness threatens to put us on a path to world war iii. family feud. a war of words erupts betweefirst lady melania trump and ivana trump. the president's wife battling his ex. one nation overdosed. the opioid epidemic's devastating impact on children and one courageous young woman now thriving against the odds. speaking out. meryl streep leads big name stars breaking their silence as movie mogul harvey weinstein is fired in a storm of sexual misconduct allegations.

and rays of hope rising in the desert outside las vegas. "nightly news" begins right now. from nbc news world headquarters in new york, this is nbc "nightly news" with lester holt. good evening, everyone. and thank you for being here. we start with a deadly fire emergency in california. well over a dozen wildfires raging from one end of the state to the other, destroying homes and sending people fleeing for their lives along smoke-obscured highways all fueled by unrelenting winds. among the areas on fire tonight, northern california's sprawling wine country where more than a thousand homes have been destroyed. residents fleeing, describing feeling the heat through their cars. trees were on fire like torches said one evacuee. with late details, here's nbc's joe fryer. >> reporter: across northern california fire's fury powered by winds the likes of a

[000:01:59;00] an hour. >> hell on earth. it's insane. i've never seen anything like it. >> reporter: the governor has declared a state of emergency mobilizing the national guard and joining the thousands of firefighters already on the front lines. >> up the pressure! >> reporter: at least 15 major fires are burning in eight counties including the so-called tubbs fire which quickly grew overnight from 200 acres to more than 25,000. >> this is my neighborhood in flames. >> reporter: forcing thousands to flee with minutes to spare. >> it's horrible. i couldn't stay because i couldn't breathe. >> reporter: california's highway patrol used helicopters to rescue more than 40 people who were trapped. in santa rosa, wine country's largest city, two hospitals had to evacuate, one of them moving 130 patients, rushing the most critical to safety through heavy

smoke as an entire neighborhood nearby went up in flames. [000:02:58;00] relentless at the moment. >> reporter: so far across the region one person has died with at least 1500 homes and businesses now destroyed. >> i've lived here for 26 years. raised my kids here. all our pictures are gone. everything. >> reporter: will and bev buchanan were hoping to retire in their home. late today they learned it did not survive, but they're grateful they did. tonight, more houses are burning. the massive scope of destruction still unclear. the winds have died down tonight, but fires are still burning all around here, and where i'm standing in just this one block in santa rosa, there were 15 homes. every single one of them is gone. lester?

>> true devastation. joe fryer, thank you. you're in santa rosa, north of san francisco. hundds california, another dangerous fire's on the move. let's go to nbc's gadi schwartz. he's in anaheim. gadi? >> reporter: lester, let me show you what's going on right now. check this out. these are firefighters putting out hot spots in this home, and they were protecting this home over here. in this neighborhood it's house after house that's already gone up in flames. from above, you can see it's house after house that's been destroyed by this fire. a very different fire than the one that is burning up north because these hopes are so close to each other and the wind is so strong that it's traveling from house to house, neighborhood to neighborhood at lightning speed. and this is something that you can see from all across southern california. you can see the smoke cloud from disneyland, you can see the smoke cloud from the ballpark, from the traffic snafrled all the way around here. a very stark reminder that this is the type of danger that people live with every day here in southern california. lester? >> gadi schwartz with the scene for us from anaheim there in

southern california. now to another major story we're fo republican party. president trump escalating his public feud with top gop senator bob corker after corker was quoted as saying the president could put the nation on the path to world war iii. we get the latest from nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. >> reporter: tonight, the white house not backing down. >> in senator bob corker, we had a senator that worked with the obama administration on the iran deal that sent billions in cash to the mullahs in iran. >> reporter: and the president won't back away from hitting senator bob corker again, aides say. it comes after a weekend tweet war. president trump slamming corker after his decision not to run for re-election. corker firing back, it's a shame the white house has become an adult day care center. someone obviously missed their shift this morning. corker, a longtime trump ally, slammed

mr. trump last week. >> i think secretary tillerson, secretary mattis and chief of staff kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos. >> reporter: as the chairman of the powerful foreign relations committee, senator bob corker's words carry weight. and with some of the president's major initiatives already derailed by a razor thin gop margin in congress, attacking his own party could also hurt his domestic agenda. is the president at all concerned that this feud will cost him senator corker's vote on key agenda items? >> we think that on our key agenda items, senator corker's vote will be there because he knows it's important for the people of tennessee. >> corker's indictment of this president went to the core of what a president does. they have to serve with competence and stability. so i think the agenda is almost rendered moot by corker's indictment. >> reporter: tonight republicans trying to turn down the heat. >> both ought to cool it. next question. >> senator corker is a valued member of the republican conference

in the senate, key player on the budget. he'll be a big help in getting it passed. >> reporter: also tonight the white house is dismissing criticism that the vice president's walkout of an nfl game was a taxpayer funded political stunt. pence left after san francisco players took a knee to protest racial injustice. aides say the game was on pence's schedule for weeks. lester? >> kristen, thank you. as you know that's not the only feud erupting with an occupant of the white house. melania trump tonight is hitting back in a war of words with ivana trump over who is the real first lady. the president's wife and his ex in a public spat, something we've never seen quite before. nbc's cynthia mcfadden explains. >> reporter: if there's anything ivana trump knows how to do, it's grab headlines. and today she got an assist from the white house. married for 15 years to donald trump, she is proud mother to ivanka, eric and

donald jr. her divorce from mr. trump in 1991 was on the front pages of the new york tabloids for 11 days straight. don't get mad, she famously said, get everything. in her new book she says she tells her ex-husband he should tweet more. but it's what she said to abc today that's sparking a very public war of words with the current mrs. trump. >> i have the direct number to the white house, but i don't really want to call him there because melania is there and i don't want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that. because i'm basically first trump wife. i'm first lady, okay? >> reporter: whether she was joking, it did not amuse melania trump, whose spokesperson shot back with an official statement. mrs. trump loves living in washington, d.c., and is honored by her role as first lady. she plans to use her title and role to help children, not sell books, she wrote. there is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex. this is unfortunately

only attention seeking and self-serving noise. and that is sure to cynthia mcfadden, nbc news, new york. we've just received word of some important developments in the mass shooting investigation in las vegas. the sheriff has now shifted the timeline, revealing late today that the hotel security guard who approached the gunman's room was shot by stephen paddock some six minutes before paddock turned his fire out the shattered windows, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds more. police say the security guard was responding to a door alarm on the floor when the gunman targeted him first. now to puerto rico where the death toll now stands at 39 in the aftermath of hurricane maria. the most critical need right now, rebuilding the shattered power grid on that devastated island. now some big name bhl nairs from the tech world are stepping up to offer some help. nbc's gabe gutierrez is there with more.

>> reporter: tonight most of puerto rico is powerless. >> water. we need water. >> reporter: nearl hurricane maria, 85% of the island still has no electricity. that's almost 3 million americans. the three-star general spearheading military relief efforts says he'll take whatever help he can get. >> the power of america, my own belief, is not the federal government. it's the local government. it's private organizations all coming together as one team to help people in the time of need. >> reporter: that help could be coming from big tech. tesla founder elon musk saying he wants to help rebuild the island's power grid using solar technology. how long before this project gets off the ground? >> we're getting our teams together talking already. >> reporter: the potential partnership with governor ricardo rossello started last week over twitter. >> we can't be thinking about just putting back up the old system. we need to take this opportunity to remake the system, to be innovative. >> reporter: other tech giants also want in. google's parent company is sending

massive balloons to restore cell service. facebook is launching whatt the island. but for so many here recovery seems far off. joselli says she waited in a gas line for 17 hours the other day. now she waits for food and water at a grocery store chugging along on a generator. >> we have to wake up very early to go to the supermarket to get anything. >> reporter: she waits for the day she can tell her 7-year-old son they have power once more. gabe gutierrez, nbc news, isabela, puerto rico. we'll now take a startling new look at a deadly epidemic through the eyes of its youngest victims in our series "one nation overdosed." among the hardest hit areas of the opioid epidemic is montgomery county, ohio, where this year over 500 people are dead due to accidental overdose. tonight we look at the impact on children living in a home with parents in active addiction. here's nbc's kate snow.

>> hi, baby girl. >> reporter: tori brinkman has always be s born 15 weeks early, a tiny pound and a half. and that was just the beginning of her struggle. for the first ten years of her life she lived with a mother addicted to heroin. their history together shows how savage the grip of addiction can be. today tori is a remarkably composed 14-year-old telling her story her way. what do you remember about those early years and your mom? >> she never ate. she'd have maybe a coke a day. no water. then go right back to bed. and she'd never take care of me, never feed me. i had to feed myself. i consider myself as the parent and my mom the kid. >> reporter: do you think your mom sold drugs? >> i know she did. >> reporter: she got in trouble for that? >> yeah. one time, i think i was around 7 or 8, she actually made me do a drug deal for her. >> reporter: a drug deal? like what did she ask you to do?

>> she put either heroin or cocaine in a napkin or something. and she said run up to that house, go get the money gi >> reporter: tori said she never got any healthcare growing up. >> none. until i was 10. never went to the dentist. i had never been to the dent is before. >> reporter: what about pediatrician, doctor? >> no, nothing. >> reporter: her mom told tori not to tell anyone about the things she saw in their home. but tori would call her grandparents when she ran out of food. three years ago lillian and richard were awarded legal custody. >> when she first came to live with us permanently she was blaming herself. maybe if i was better, mom wouldn't have done the drugs. >> reporter: it wasn't just tori's mom abusing heroin in their home. it was also her uncle, the closest person tori had to a father figure. what happened to your uncle? >> he passed away, november 20th, 2015, from a drug overdose. >> reporter: heroin? >> mm-hmm. >> reporter: that must have been superhard for you. >> yeah. because -- i mean, he basically took care of me instead of my mom.

like if my mom was asleep, he'd take care of me. so it was just -- it was -- it was sad. hang on. >> reporter: you want a kleenex? i have one. >> i got one over here. >> reporter: okay. come here. this is really hard stuff to talk about. at 14 years old, tori has seen enough pain for a lifetime, making her spirit and attitude today all the more impressive. here's a big question. >> okay. >> reporter: why are you talking to us? >> because i want to spread awareness of how drugs have not only affected my life but have probably affected a lot of other kids' lives. and i want to just help people. >> reporter: tori's mother knows that she's sharing this story. she's been sober for three years and working two jobs. tori said she's proud of her mother and the two see each other every week. and with over a million people in the u.s. saying they admit to using heroin, that

means there are hundreds of thousands of stories like tori's. away. she's 14? >> yeah. >> wise beyond her years, but then think of what she's seen. >> she's grown up too quickly, her grandmother says. we'll take a break. speaking out. what two of the most acclaimed actresses are saying about the movie mogul fired from his own company amid allegations of sexual harassment. also the terrifying moment caught on camera, flames erupting at a major airport. terrifying moment we come into this world needing others. terrifying moment ♪ then we are told it's braver to go it alone. ♪ but there is another way to live. ♪ a way that sees the only path to fulfillment- is through others. ♪

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dench offering sympathy and wholehearted support to those whoe kate winslet, who also won an oscar for a weinstein film, called his alleged actions disgraceful and appalling. tv news reporter lauren sivan didn't work for weinstein but says ten years ago he cornered her in a restaurant hallway. >> leaned in to kiss me. i pulled away. >> reporter: sivan says weinstein blocked her way out and began to pleasure himself. >> i've told people this story, and a lot of the people that either knew him or had come in contact with him were never surprised. i got a lot of, that's harvey. >> harvey weinstein is an example of a particularly boorish behavior, but he's not an outlier. this behavior still goes on in the industry. >> reporter: a major fund-raiser for the democratic party, 11 u.s. senators have given weinstein's money to charity, but no word from hillary clinton or former president barack

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but when we could live to. let's plan for income that lasts all our years in retirement. welcome back. another big announcement tonight in the retail wars. in a fierce battle with amazon for your business, walmart says it will soon roll out a new system to ease the process making returns to the store in just 30 seconds. for online shoppers a return will take two steps, first using the walmart app, then when you get to the store you scan a code in an express lane to prompt a refund to your account. new controversy for espn. the network suspending anchor jemele hill for two weeks for suggesting on twitter that fans boycott cowboys advertisers after team owner jerry jones said he'd bench players, quote, disrespecting the flag. espn says hill violated its social

media guidelines. last month the white house called for hill to be fired after she supremacist on twitter. a scary sight caught on camera today when a cargo loader burst into flames near an american airlines plane scheduled to fly from hong kong to los angeles. the loader operator was injured but the plane had not boarded yet. a spokesperson says the flames did not reach the aircraft, but the flight was canceled. the cause is under investigation. when we come back, the breathtaking sight.

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help protect yourself against pneumococcal pneumonia. ask your doctor or pharmacist about prevnar 13®. finally tonight, a stunning spectacle in the sky in honor of those lost just over a week ago in las vegas. the beautiful display in the desert a symbol showing that, while those lives may be gone, their lights still shine on. here's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: in the heart of the nevada desert, they come by the thousands from as many places as walks of life. >> it's just nice to see people come together. >> reporter: this is the fourth year jeff gehring has organized the rise festival where lanterns are released into the night's sky. >> they're releasing whatever's in their heart. whether that's fears,

hopes, wishes, dreams. >> reporter: you think this will be a spiritual evening for you? poignant than i anticipated it would be. >> reporter: this year the messages on each paper lantern assume a much deeper meaning. >> i put, you can't spell love without lv. >> reporter: because las vegas is just 40 miles down the road. what did you write? >> we miss the ones we lost. >> reporter: a week after the shootings, as the sun disappears -- >> woo! >> reporter: they send their lanterns skyward, like spirits, a floating field of dreams. on this night, thousands of new stars brighten the heavens in a place still struggling to find its way out of the darkness. ♪ there's some kind of love ♪ >> reporter: kevin tibbles, nbc news, in the mojave desert. >> what a gorgeous tribute.

we appreciate you spending part of your evening with us. that is "nightly news" for this monday night. news, thank you for watching and good night. ralph northam: i'm ralph northam, candidate for governor, and i sponsored this ad. narrator: ed gillespie wants to end a woman's right to choose. ed giof a woman'sd put thpersonal decisions,rge not women and their doctors. as governor, ed gillespie says,

i would like to see abortion be banned. if ed gillespie would like to see abortion banned, i would like to see that ed gillespie never becomes governor. that's where he cornered me. it was disgusting and kind of pathetic. >> as another weinstein accuser tells her story, how many more will come forward? >> you talked to harvey weinstein at all, ma'am?