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of california's wildfires. today, the park fire continues its race through butte and tehama counties, with homes already destroyed. good afternoon, i'm kristen z. firefighters from across the state are in butte county tonight trying to rebuild containment on what's now california's largest wildfire of the year. the park fire has burned 178,000 acres northeast of chico. that's more than 250mi■!s, five times the size of san francisco. there is zero containment right now. the fire has destroyed 134 structures, and more than 4000 more are threatened. one person has been arrested, accused of starting the fire by sending a burning car down a gully. this fire is so explosive because it's showing a lot of extreme behavior. time lapse video shows a fire whirl yesterday, a tornado like vortex of smoke that can send embers soaring far ahead of the fire. it's extremely dangerous, and it's one sign of just how intense the

park fire is. let's bring in abc seven news weather anchor spencer christian. spencer. high fire danger, of course, in parts of northern california today. and that's not doing firefighters any favors. >> it certainly isn't. chris. and this is, as you pointed out, a huge fire. it's sending out a tremendous amount of smoke into the atmosphere as you can see on this satellite image, the fire there, of course, near chico. and you see that plume of smoke big wide trail of smoke moving towards the southeast into the susanville area, moving across the northern sacramento valley into the northern sierra foothills. let me give you a look at the red flag warning, which covers an expansive area there. it's in effect until 11 p.m. uh- gusts up to 30mph at times, or even higher as you get closer to the fire. of course, you saw that vortex there, so as you get closer to the fire, the fire is so intense it generates its own gusts, relative humidit, dangerously low, down to about 10 to 20%. increased fire danger under these conditions. and the temperatures in all the locations here are generally

just under 100 degrees. getting back to the fire for just a moment, i want to show you that plume of smoke again, because there's been concern here in the bay area about the smoke. uh- causing a decline in our air quality. that is not the case right now. as you can see that we have generally moderate to good air quality. but some of the places covered by that red flag warning and of course, in the path of the smoke, are places in butte county, plumas county, colusa county, shasta and tehama county. so it covers a huge area of northern california once again, mainly the northern sacramento valley and now moving into the northern sierra and the northern sierra foothills. so we'll keep an eye on that. and if anything changes weather wise, christine, i will let you know. all right. >> spencer, those are just not great conditions. and by the way, talk about the climate change factor in all of this in these wildfires. well generally not just applying it to this particular fire, but generally speaking, we are seeing more wildfires than we have in, say, last couple of decades as the atmosphere warms up and as the fuels get drier and drier.

>> so climate change is contributing to more frequent wildfires, more intense wildfires and uh- fires of longer duration than we've seen in the past. and that basically applies to almost every form of extreme weather or every extreme weather condition we can think of, whether it be a heat wave or storms, uh- all those things, all those weather events, uh- occur more frequently now because of climate change, hurricanes, tropical storms. they are of longer duration and of greater intensity. and they when it comes to these storms, hurricanes and tropical storms, they are developing now more they're developing earlier in the hurricane season than we have observed in the past, because those ocean waters are warmer and they're generating more of that fuel that the hurricanes build on more moisture in the atmosphere. so every weather phenomenon you can think of, especially the extreme events, are intensified by climate change and are not likely to they're more likely to stay on this this path of greater intensity and longer

duration as the atmosphere continues to warm up. >> yeah, that's been bearing out the past decade. all right, spencer, thank you so much. when a fire is this explosive, it can be impossible for firefighters to stop it. some families watch their homes burn from their security cameras. reporter kayla mueller is inside the burn area with a look at the devastation. oh my gosh, this is the moment julia jarboe saw what's left of her home. >> yeah. there, there. really? there's no rhyme or reason. our house gone. their house. okay house next to it. you can see it's gone. >> flames ripped through her neighborhood off cohasset road overnight, and she watched her house burn down. live through her home. security camera. >> it it really is almost a numbness, right. it's surreal probably won't hit me til later. >> i'm pretty sure you know, 30

years in the military and i've been overseas and i've seen some devastation. and i thought this was a war zone, this man lives just a few houses down from julia. >> but his home made it. >> i'm so happy. my neighbor's house survived and that everybody's okay. >> after leaving their neighborhood, we went further in. this is what we saw at the end of cohasset loop road. cal fire and other agencies are using every resource available to get this fire under control. flames were creeping up in someone's backyard when we had to leave the area. we've seen planes, engines and choppers fighting relentlessly to put out flames and continue to provide structure protection. >> it puts a finality to it of just going, wow, this chapter over kayla showed us some of the devastation there. >> meantime, abc news reporter jacqueline lee joins us live from the command center. now. jacqueline, firefighters are still facing dangerous conditions on the front lines of the park fire. >> yes, that's right. and what

you can see here from just this base camp is actually this plume of smoke that has continued to grow rapidly as the hours have been unfolding, as you can see, it's billowing up into the atmosphere with this fire continuing to grow, burning 178,000 acres more than that. and that just emphasizes the conditions that firefighters are up against. so here at base camp, what we're seeing is there are firefighters coming from all over the state that are going to the front lines to relieve those firefighters that were part of the initial push, trying to get that fire under control. so some of those firefighters that were part of that initial attack, they had been working some of them up to 36 hours. so they finally were able to return, get some, get some supplies, get some food and of course, get some rest. the firefighters that have been coming from around the state are now deploying to those front lines. some of them are focused on trying to attack this fire directly. others are focused on just trying to protect the structures. so ultimately, this is a very dangerous fire. and these firefighters are really up against a lot of conditions. but

the biggest ones, of course, are the low humidity, the heat, because it is incredibly hot. and of course the wind guys. >> community is still recovering from the camp fire that destroyed the town of paradise in 2018 and killed 85 people. i know the town has not fully repopulated, but for the folks who chose to come back and rebuild, what is their feeling as they watch another devastating fire threaten their homes? >> of course, it's very traumatic and many people in the community are on edge because you have to remember with the camp fire, there are people who not only lost their homes, but then they are at risk of losing their homes for a second time. and for some, i'm told that did already happen. and, you know, we spoke with one firefighter who said when he was on the front lines over the last few days, his focus was on protecting those structures. he said that some residents did not want to leave their homes simply because they did not want to burn it down. but ultimately, safety is, of course, paramount here. kristen. >> all right. jacqueline lee, live from the command center.

thank you so much. back here in the bay area in the east bay, firefighters are making progress on a fire burning on the altamont pass. it sparked. it started just last night near northland road, just outside of livermore. and at one point it was impacting traffic along i-5. 80 abc7 news reporter lena howland talked with firefighters about the challenges on this fire. >> flames burning out of control on the altamont pass. putting off a bright orange glow from interstate 580 just after 11 thursday night. the flynn fire ballooning in size from ten acres to 500 acres overnight. >> obviously, because the fire started last night, we weren't using aircraft, so the big push was to use those ground resources to implement lines. >> nearly 90 firefighters worked through the night to gain an upper hand. and while steep terrain on the pass didn't help, cal fire says the gusty wind was their biggest challenge. >> it also makes it really hard

for firefighters to get good, what we call wet line around the fire, and actually extinguish the fire because if the wind is blowing, it's blowing the fire and it's also blowing the water. that's coming out of the hose. >> it wasn't until after the sun came up friday morning that fire crews were able to stop forward progress. cal fire says the cause is still under investigation, though the initial report from chp is. a car caught fire in the westbound direction of 580, and the flames then spread to the grass, cal fire now encouraging everyone to stay vigilant. >> another reminder that fires in california. it's not if it's when. and there's always the potential for a fire to start and for it to spread very quickly. we continue to see very dry weather, high temperatures and the vegetation is definitely susceptible to burning. >> cal fire says their crews will continue to stay out here through the day to mop up patrol

and secure containment lines in alameda county. lena howland, abc seven news. >> he's a top california democrat vying for a seat in the senate. congressman adam schiff joins me next to talk about why he called for president biden to step aside in his fellow californian, now fighting for the white house. plus, a new push for oakland police to carry out more pursuits. why the state says chases

and into the oval office. oh my goodness. >> that's former president barack obama announcing his endorsement of vice president kamala harris in her bid for the white house. the former

president posted this video to x showing the moment he and the former first lady called harris to tell her the news. meanwhile, her opponent, former president trump, met with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu at mar a lago this morning. it's the first meeting between the two men since trump left the white house. netanyahu met with president biden and vice president harris yesterday. now, one of the house members who prosecuted trump in his impeachment trial was california congressman and u.s. senate candidate adam schiff. schiff arrived in the bay area today for a weekend of campaign events. he sat down with us for an hour ago to talk about democrats new presidential ticket and his own senate race. representative schiff, thank you so much for coming in and talking with us today to be with you. good to see you. look, on july 17th, you issued a statement when democrats were still quite divided, asking president biden to think about passing the torch now that he has. how how do you feel about that? and maybe a small role that you played in that?

>> well, it was hard to make that ask because he's been such a great president. he's done so much for the country and i just have also a great deal of affection for the president. but i really felt it was time. it was important. uh- we need to win this election. and now that it's happened, i think he's done another great service to the country. i'm very excited about kamala harris's campaign. she's off to an incredible start. we're seeing enthusiasm in the party that we haven't seen in some years. we're getting young people engaged. it has been really wonderful. so even better than my fondest expectation, and i'm grateful to the president once again for making that decision. >> all right. an interesting point you made about young people. yeah, we're hearing about coconut trees and brat and all these things that we're having to check with our own kids to ask, what does that mean, but look, you've known obviously vp harris for a long time, both being in politics in california, working together on many things. what do you think

she possesses quality wise, that makes her the right candidate right now? >> well, i've had a chance to see her kind of up close and personal when we were both working on our respective intelligence committees and i've seen her attention to detail, her profound concern and interest in our national security, i've witnessed that fine prosecutorial mind. she's very much able to make the case to cross examine witnesses and hearings. she brings an incredible skill set and dynamism to the race. i think she will make an incredible president, and she's already running an incredible campaign. but what a phenomenal contrast between this former prosecutor, former attorney general who's held, you know, big banks accountable, held criminals accountable, going up against a criminal, someone who's a business fraudster or someone who's a sex offender, someone who's a serial lawbreaker. and so it's a profound contrast. but i also like the contrast between someone who has fought to make

the economy work for people again, especially working families. and donald trump, whose concern has only ever been about himself and his own wealth and that of his family members. so it's a great, sharp contrast. >> i want to turn to something that's been in the news the past couple of days. today, as you saw, trump met with benjamin netanyahu and both kind of criticized vp harris for what she said about the war needs to end and focusing on the suffering in gaza. and, of course, netanyahu spoke to congress. and you went to that address. many of your colleagues on the democratic side boycotted it. can you explain your choice and your thinking there? >> i never boycotted a an address before congress, and i also have respect for the state to state relationship between the united states and israel. i think it's a very important alliance for us. but i have deep disagreements with the prime minister, and there are times many times over the last nine months where it has appeared that the prime minister believes

it's politically advantageous for him in his right wing coalition to pick a fight with president biden, or now to pick a fight with kamala harris. i don't think that's in the interest of the us-israel relationship, i also was deeply disappointed, not surprised, but disappointed that his address made no mention, had no discussion of what this is supposed to look like when the war is over, i strongly believe in a two state solution. i want to see an outcome where saudi arabia recognizes israel. israel recognizes a palestinian state, and we have the foundation for a lasting peace. but right now, we need hamas to agree to cease fire. they have not been willing to agree to one. i hope that those negotiations are successful and can lead to the hostages coming home. >> these are issues, of course, that you would have to deal with if you should win your senate race against steve garvey this fall. another issue that you might be facing is the supreme

court and the recent ruling giving the president broad immunity to anything done as an official act, we've heard vp harris talk about possibly being open to the idea of expanding the court. i wonder where you think we're at. would you support that? and do you think there is something fundamentally that needs correcting? >> i strongly support expanding the court term, limiting the court, an enforceable code of ethics on the court. in fact, i'm one of the lead sponsors of legislation in congress to do that, mitch mcconnell, donald trump stacked the court. if we're going to change that, it means that we need to enlarge the court and rebalance it. otherwise, we're going to have this reactionary court for an entire generation. i'm simply not willing to have an entire generation of americans suffer under this court. i also think that we need to be campaigning in this election as much against the court as against donald trump, because that immunity decision, the dobbs decision, these are catastrophic. the

dobbs decision take away reproductive freedom for millions of people, endangering their lives. the immunity decision endangering all of us by essentially telling a president like donald trump, go ahead and commit crimes while you're in office. if you can cloak your actions in office, then you're going to be immune. that is, as justice sotomayor said, like leaving a loaded weapon at the hands of a president. and, that new immunity is a profound danger, we need a court that has more respect for our constitutional scheme than to empower presidents to commit crime in office. >> some of these things we've talked about already in our conversation today are national issues for sure. others that are more california specific with regard to crime, homelessness, affordability and housing. i realize you're going for the role of senate. however, what can you do in that role that could also help california's very pressing problems, maybe in

a way that aligns with both state and national interests. >> well, i'm glad you ask the question, because actually, while these are national issues, as well, they're hugely important to california, really, my whole campaign motif is get stuff done. sometimes i use a stronger word than stuff. we need to get stuff done in california. we need to build a lot more housing, we're not going to solve the problem of homelessness and unaffordability of housing unless we're building hundreds and hundreds of thousands of units of new housing. i'm strongly advocating for a dramatically expanded low income housing tax credit to make it pencil out, to build new housing. i'm introducing legislation to measure what's working and not working in the struggle against homelessness, so we know what we should be spending our money on. and so we're not wasting money on things that don't work. we need a lot more childcare as well. to me, this is one of the other crises along with housing, and that is so many americans can't find affordable, accessible

childcare. it's keeping lots of people out of the workforce. that's bad for them. it's bad for our economy, so we also need to make sure we're expanding child care facilities, and we're paying childcare providers enough to attract more and more people into that vital service. >> all right, congressman schiff, because i know we're just about running out of time. i want to touch on something that's on everyone's minds. and that's the veepstakes going on right now. the vetting process and the selection process for running mate for a vp harris. democrats certainly feel a lot of excitement, like there are a lot of good choices. so who do you support? who would you put your money on, >> you know, i really haven't picked my favorite. i think a lot of the folks that have been mentioned, the governors of various states, including our own, senators like mark kelly, these are all outstanding choices, the vice president is going to have to make that choice quickly, but i'm sure that she will pick someone who not only will be a great vice president, but also will help

her win, because at the end of the day, you can't govern if you can't win. so i'm looking forward to a great pick to complement this already. brat summer. >> all right. congressman adam schiff, thank you so much for joining us today. great to be with you and congressman schiff's opponent in the senate race is former los angeles dodger republican steve garvey. we've extended an invitation to garvey to come on abc seven news, and we hope you'll join us in the near future. the giants have a new pa announcer, the new voice ringing out over the ballpark may be a

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and cache in at cache creek casino resort. letter to mayor shen tao, the city council, and the police department. he writes, quote, chp has brought to my attention that they observed criminals often fleeing with impunity because it's common knowledge that the oakland police departments pursuit policy

allows vehicle pursuits in only very limited circumstances. i urge you to reconsider whether opd should be permitted to pursue suspects in more circumstances. this comes just two weeks after governor newsom deployed more chp officers in oakland to help crack down on crime. the oakland police commission is reviewing the current policy and could recommend changes in the fall. this afternoon, mayor tao said she supports the governor's call for the policy to be reviewed. medical issues are forcing san francisco's fire chief, janine nicholson, to retire. nicholson released a statement today saying she'll leave her post at the end of august for what she described as unforeseen medical issues. nicholson became the second woman and the first openly gay leader of the department when appointed by mayor london breed. back in 2019. the 30 year veteran statement says, quote, i am proud of the san francisco fire department and the people that work day and night to protect our city and citizens. it's been a great privilege and honor to

serve as your fire chief for the past five years. the san francisco giants have a new public address. announcer carolyn mcardle got the job. the giants shared this picture of mcardle after making the announcement this morning. she's been working in bay area radio for more than 30 years. mcardle issued a statement saying she understands the importance of bringing energy to the game day experience, and she's honored to do that for such passionate fans. she's stepping into the role after longtime pa announcer renel brooks-moon and the giants parted ways earlier this year. when we come back, one last check of the park fire as it races through butte and tehama counties. the difference in a matter of hours makes when

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is at this point. we'll update you as we learn more. all right. before we go, let's check back in on the park fire in butte and tehama counties. no containment at this point with a lot of forest to burn. the fires burned more than 178,000 acres. an increase of more than 10,000 acres since this morning. 134 buildings have been destroyed with thousands more threatened. more than 1600 personnel are on the front lines today. thank you for joining us. world news tonight with david muir starts now. and more on the park fire breaking news as we come on the air. the wildfire emergency in the west. urgent evacuations ordered.