developing news on that wildfire burning inside yosemite this morning. the burn area of the rim fire is growing and containment is shrinking. good morning, i'm eric thomas. >> i'm cheryl jennings. that fast-moving out of control wildfire that has burned into yosemite forest. the rim fire is 105,000 acres in size and is only 2% contained. >> more than 2,000 fire

personnel are on the job. more bay area fire crews are headed that way in the next few hours to help in the firefight. it's all hands on deck. >> i heard it's burning in basically all directions, meaning 360 degrees. >> six engines will leave today, 22 firefighters volunteered for the assignment. >> each year they sign up and take the wild land training. we will be careful up there. >> the teams will be gone at least 5 to 10 days. this is what awaits them. a fastmoving fire in steep and rugged terrain. >> there are areas where crews can't even access because of the terra terrain. >> the fire is now burning inside the border of yosemite forest. the massive fire has forced hundreds to evacuate the area. leaving was voluntary until now. flames are threatening about 4,500 structures.

>> it's freaky to see it this close. the first time i've had it this close to our house. >> this is classic structure protection. >> we have everything loaded and ready on trailers and stuff to go if we need to go. everybody is on high alert. >> reporter: overhead helicopters and airplanes try to make a dent in the flames. on the ground, crews focus on protecting homes. so far nine structures have been destroyed and some damage has been done to the power system that feeds san francisco. the public utilities commission is giving an update on the system at the hour. yosemite national park remains open for visitors headed up this weekend, but it will take you longer to get there. from the bay area the best way is to take highway 99 to merced

and then go through mariposa on highway 140. breaking news from texas where the army psychiatrist who went on a 2009 shooting rampage at ft. hood has been convicted of murder. major nadals hassen was convicted of killing 13 people. 30 others were wounded. the trial now enters the penalty phase where prosecutors will ask jurors to sentence hassan to death. hass the fbi and oakland police are announcing a new search for an oakland toddler and have doubled the reward for information to $22,000. daphne viola webb was last seen on march 14th. she vanished from her father's car when he was in a convenience car. a new search will take place tomorrow starting at 8:00 a.m. official also release more

details within the next hour. happening today t appears this may be the end of the road for san diego mayor bob filner, now that 18 women have come forward accusing the mayor of unwanted sexual advances. our sister station in san diego reports that the 70-year-old embattled mayor is prepared to resign today if the city counsel approves an agreement. developing news in the south bay where police hope a new sketch will lead to the man who sexually assaulted a woman a stone's throw away from santa clara university. abc's ma 7's matt keller has mo >> reporter: confirmed this morning that the victim in the sexual assault case is not a santa clara university student, but the women i spoke with around campus are obviously concerned. this stretch of franklin street

runs next to santa clara university. a young female was walking along here wednesday morning when a man pushed her from behind into the bushes and sexually assaulted her. >> she was a very brave young female who fought off her attacker, scared him. >> reporter: here's a sketch of the suspect. he's described as a white man with a light tan, six feet 20'62", weighing about 200 pounds, light brown hazel eyes with hair in a faux hawk. campus officials sent out an e-mail and this recorded message after the attack. >> an attempted sexual assault happened near franklin and sherman streets. >> it makes you nervous, am i safe? not safe? >> reporter: the popular student bar the hud is just a block away with workers putting up sketches of the suspect. some say leaving in pairs is not

always a possibility. >> i'll probably have to walk to my car at some point by myself. does it make you think twice about it? >> of course. but at the same time this kind of thing happens in any city. >> reporter: university officials say there are some students living on campus during the summer session. the fall quarter doesn't begin until september 23rd. happening now, a mental health hearing is underway for an east bay man accused in a deadly hit and run in san francisco almost seven years ago. papal was found not guilty in the 2006 rampage. last month a judge decided that papal will most likely spent most of his life in a mental health hospital. papal was accused of running over a man, and then driving to san francisco running over a dozen more individuals. a san bruno man who lost two

daughters in a crash last year is now facing two dozen charges. prosecutors have filed vehicular manslaughter charges against marvin tandel. last november he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his suv. his two daughters were thrown from the vehicle and killed. tandel also hit a chp officer who had serious injuries. the bay bridge closure is just days away. b.a.r.t. is gearing up to run trains around the clock until the new bay bridge is open after labor day. the question now is will b.a.r.t. have enough people to run those extra trains? amy holyfield joins us from the bay bridge toll plaza. >> see those cars behind me? they won't have this bridge as an option this time next week, so b.a.r.t. will be vital. the plan is to run the trains the entire time the bridge is closed. but there's a wrinkle in the plan.

as of this point, not enough employe employees or trained drivers have volunteered to work the overnight hours. people in the bay area are already bracing for crowded b.a.r.t. trains at the end of next week when the bay bridge will be closed. >> it's going to be crazy. like christmas in the malls. it will be crazy. i don't know. it will be weird. >> reporter: now there's word that b.a.r.t. may not be able to run trains around the clock as planned while the bridge is closed because not enough b.a.r.t. employees have signed up for the overtime. >> we have not seen a lot of people sign up yet but we're not worried. we have a feeling when crunch time comes next week, they will step up to the plate. they always do. >> reporter: b.a.r.t. official says they aren't worried yesterday. >> the pride parade was a perfect example it was the night before the strike, no one signed up for overtime. at the end of the day, everyone stepped up. we are able do it and broke a huge record. >> dealing with whether b.a.r.t.

will be running overnight is still a week away. right now drivers have another obstacle in their way, the three lanes to the right of the toll plaza will be shut down this weekend so crews can create another fastrak lane for the new bridge with all of this turbulence on the horizon many say they're planning on avoiding the area altogether. >> try to stay close to home. avoid going over the bay to san francisco. that's my advice. that's the advice i'm taking. >> i feel everybody has got enough warning and hopefully everybody made good plans to stay where they are, stay on their side or that side or wherever he need to be. >> if you are going to switch sides, keep in mind these three lanes will be closing at 9:00 tonight this is heading into san francisco. they're scheduled to reopen monday at 5:00 a.m. next week b.a.r.t. officials will be opening that employees will sign up for shifts.

they're offering time and a half pay in some cases double time for those who work those overnight hours. i've in oakland, amy holyfield, abc 7 news. the complete bay bridge closure will start late in the evening wednesday, august 28th it will last for up to five full days over the long labor day holiday. the bridge suspected to be reopened by tuesday, september 3rd, the day after labor day. . visit abcnews.com for a detailed look at commuter resources on b.a.r.t., ac transit and bay ferry. you can also explore the realtime traffic maps to see where the worst gridlock is during the closure. as soon as the bridge opens we will notify our twitter followers. still to come, the proposed fix to prevent another flash freeze on wall street. and -- >> what we've seen indicates this is clearly a big event.

>> sounding off on syria the president responds to growing pressure to intervene in damascus. >> and the historic

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normals trading is underway on wall street right now, that's good news after a technical problem shut down operations in the nasdaq for three hours yesterday. now the sec is promising new

safeguards to prevent a similar incident from happening again. the glitch he effected the stock exchange's electronic system that accepts bids and offers. right now the nasdaq is up 12 points at 3650. developing news, president obama says the u.s. is still trying to confirm a deadly chemical weapons attack in syria near the capital of damascus. >> what we've seen indicates that this is clearly a big event of grave concern. you know, we are already in communications with the entire international community. >> president obama tells cnn that if toxic gases were used, such actions are very troublesome and will require america's attention. he didn't specify what, if any, action the u.s. would take against syria. there could be 1,000 to 1600 victims in this week's attack. the syrian government denies

involvement. new this morning, north and south korea will allow families who have been separated for decades to see each other again. the emotional reunions will happen late next month at a north korean mountain resort. it will be the first such reunion to take place in three years. 100 families each from the sort and south have been invited to the event. the announcement is the latest conciliatory announcement from the north which earlier this year threatened missile strikes and war against seoul and washington. >> meteorologist mike niko is ahead with our forecast. >> the weekend is here. knocking on the door. it's hard to believe the sunshine is coming out in some areas a lot faster than yesterday. i'll tell you about the warping tre warming trend for today and tomorrow, but not so much for sunday. >> a comet versus the sun.

>> and the latest frenzy sparked by new royal mom kate

take a look, a rare look at an explosion more than 92 million miles away from earth. a small come pt plunged into th sun and exploded. the impact created a big solar flair. nasa is closely monitoring another comet which is expected

to pass close by the sun in november. >> that's so cool. it looks fake but great. >> nasa is planning to launch a mission to study the moon's atmosphere two weeks from tonight. this involves a low-cost spacecraft. i want to show you a picture of the lunar atmosphere and dust environment explorer. it was developed, built and tested at nasa ames in moffett field it will gather field about the moon's environment and lunar dust. >> what about our environment right now for the weekend? >> i was thinking there's an acronym. there's an acronym for everything. >> it's ladee. >> there it is. >> okay, ladee. >> going to the moon, ladee. >> speaking of our forecast, let's show you what's going on. america's cup later today. it will be breezy on the bay water. look at that. at 2:00 to 9:00, a southwest

wind at 15 to 25 knots. at the same time frame, a northwest wind at 15 to 25 knots along the coast. a couple things i want you to notice. on the right side of your screen, look at all that smoke from the rim fire. that's an explosion of big proportions. it's grown four times compared to yesterday. all that smoke is going right into tahoe. there's no getting away from it this weekend. it will be hazy. the air quality will be on the poor side of what you would like to see. back here at home we're seeing the sun come out in many areas about an hour quicker than yesterday. still hanging on to the bay, but starting to pull out of here. along the coast this dry air will eat away at your clouds. today, tomorrow, sunday there will be sunshine at the coast. just not completely sunny. so we have some 50s out there still. hayward, san francisco, and half moon bay. everybody else in the low to mid 60s like san jose, 63.

a few 70s. los gatos at 71. antioch, 73. the few breaks in the sun. with the breaks in the sunshine, warmer day today. then the clouds come back and the cooler air coming down from alaska will move in for sunday and monday. plenty of sunshine, this is one of those areas that will jump the most, seven degrees warmer in san jose. same thing with concord. fremont five. if you're in the ocean, you will only jump one to two degrees. mid 80s for los gatos. most of the south bay in upper 7 tos to near 80. millbrae, 61. south san francisco and sausalito, 70. low to mid 80s up in the north day. but 20 degrees cooler at the beaches.

71 in berkeley, 80 in hercules. mid to upper 80s in the east bay valleys. couple of games today, different sports and venues. at the coliseum, bears and raiders, 65 degrees. dropping down to about 59 by the end of the game. and across the bay we go over to at&t park. temperatures will be about 61 at 7:15 dropping down to about 58 degrees. temperatures tonight in the mid to upper 50s. the area of low pressure that brought us that adverse weather earlier in the week t has pulled away. another one is coming in behind it sunday and monday. that's why we have the cooler air those two days after a nice warming trend today and tomorrow. tuesday, wednesday, thurtsday o next week, temperatures will get back to average. not total sunshine, but a bit if you're heading off to the coast this weekend. >> all right.

royal watchers, you can call it the kate effect. it seems that everything that duchess of cambridge kate middleton touches is flying off the store shelves. that includes the dress she wore for the first royal family portraits. the dress retails for about $80. the designer who sells it sold out in about two hours. >> i know if katherine wears that dress, it's sold out. >> that applies to everything baby related. british moms are stocking up on the jeweled baby stroller that

time for perfect pet, we have lynn porter again. and we have queen charlotte. we'll call her queen. >> she is the queen of the shelter. we all love her. she's our favorite. >> gets along with all the other dogs. >> all the other dogs, people. she came from a home. she's been a pet all of her life. we're calling her a mixed beagle, but she has lab. a lot of wonderful dog in her. >> she's soft. >> gentle, sweet, wants to go

home. >> we'll see if we can't find her a home. >> a senior would make a lovely home. and we still have a lot of chihuahuas. there's no fee for chihuahuas so come on in. a lot of kittens and fats. >> got to find a lot of animals homes. back to you. >> all right. thank you very much. from all of us here at abc 7 news, thanks for joining us. >> have a great weekend. bye-bye.

♪ [cheers and applause] >> hello, everybody, and welcome to magical family getaway week here at miionaire. this week contestants and home viewers have a chance to win a vacation to the walt disney world resort in florida where they can visit the magic kingdom and explore new fantasyland. they will enjoy amazing new attractions and interact with characters in ways that they never dreamed here's a look. take a trip through the world of beauty and the beast during the captivating enchanted tales with belle. explore maurice's workshop where a magical mirror becomes your doorway to an unforgettable adventure in the beast's library. there you join belle and lumiere for a retelling of a tale as old as time. this is just