children and people evacuated from surrounding homes. they made it out. the fire took place cross the street from the elementary school and the biggest concern right now are the power lines as the firefighters make sure they are bloked off. everyone was taken across the street. they are in the parking lot of elementary school with smoke coming from the fire two hours after it started. we will be here on the scene with updates all morning long right here on abc7news.com. thank you matt. happening now in san francisco, authorities are urging anyone with information to come forward after they had to release their suspect last night in the stunning case of a human torso found in a suitcase. amy hollyfield is outside the hall of justice. amy? >> the district attorney did not have enough evidence to hold

mark andrus so he walked out of jail. we have video of him walking out. he had nothing to say. he was escort by his public defender. andrus was arrested on friday. police say they had surveillance video images of him in the same spot where a torso was found in a suitcase, a headless and handless torso. they have not figured out who was killed and the district attorney thought the case against andrus was not strong enough and they had to let him go. >> mr. andrus was relieved when i told him no charges would be brought. obviously, he wants to get home. >> the medical examiner is still working to determine the cause of death and to figure who died. they could still arrest andrus but while they work on the case he is free. the public defender says andrus plans to stay in san francisco.

it is 4:32. in taiwan rescue operations are still underway after a transasia airways plane crashed after take off. it hit the river where the fuselage rests and is a couple of dozen yesterdays from sure. 23 people are dead. the death toll is expected to rise. 15 people are hospitalized and the remaining 20 of the 58 on board are missing. this is dramatic video of the plane clipping a bridge. it comes right in there and clips the bridge and smashes into the river. it took off from taipei airport when it lost control minutes after take off. officials say the pilot tried to control the plane as it descended and the aircraft wings grazed an overpass and partly

crushed taxi. the tax driver and the passenger were sent to the hospital. here is a different view of the plane before it want down in taipei. >> a map is describing the scare of his life a woman shot can killed in front of him by police. it happened at a home depot in oakland. our reporter. >> i live or die no in between. >> the man identified himself as russ was caught in bullets when the police opened fire killing a female suspect. he and his friend were unloading boxes when he her the woman. >> she had a gun screaming loudly and she ran from his car over to my car. the police were given commands and i could not tell what they were saying but they were strong commands.

then boom boom boom. >> he heard between six and seven shots shattering the window of his ford. he was not arrested or his friend. >> the call reported that the suspect was armed with a gun. >> this started at the home depot where the suspect pulled out a gun after security officers accused her of shoplift. police chased her down into oakland. >> she is running. police are behind her. before we made it to a corner another police officer with sirens paragraphed turned the corner. >> marchers protesting police violence through a brick through the home depot window. happening today two state senators will introduce legislation calling for rules changes on child vaccinations in california. details of the legislation have not been released. it is expected to tighten or eliminate the opt out chaws some

parents use to keep their children from being vaccinated. this leads tens of thousands of schoolchildren unvaccinated. leaders blame this clause for worsening the measles outbreak. the measure would require school districts to notify parents of chair piled's school vaccinate rates. >> more trouble for the new span of the bay bridge according to the "san francisco chronicle" a $4 million elevator in the eastern span new tower does not work. the glass cab was picked to give better view of maintenance. the elevator door malfunctioned in early december after a new rides. it took two weeks to fix it and two weeks after that it broke down and has been stuck halfway up the tower sin. caltran is trying to find the money to fix it. >> the first batch of 600,000 endangered salmon will be released to coincide with the run off of coming storms.

173,000 salmon juveniles will be released after sunset. the salmon association says that 95 percent of the baby salmon released last year were lost over the summer because of rising river temperatures caused by the drought. officials hope the release the next several days will be carried down the sacramento river by the storm run off through the delta, the bay, and into the ocean. >> the next few days hopefully a hilt drought relief. mike? >> hopefully. our fingers are crossed to get a dumping of wet weather and two storms coming in on the next atmospheric river event. if you head out it is mild in the san francisco area from 54 at ocean beach and west portal to 55 at sunny side and mission and coming across the golden gate bridge, downtown, through the ferry ending at 56 and 55 in the financial district. the temperatures are more in the mid-to-upper 40's compared to yesterday is we are three to five degrees cooler and 50 at belmont and 53 in pacifica. this is how it looks from the

camera, a town of haze as some of the fog is starting to make its way toward san francisco. as we head into the afternoon we will transition from fog to hazy sunshine and not a "spare the air" and temperatures are above average but not record-setting temperatures low-to-mid sick at the coast. low-to-mid 60's inland and mid-to-upper 60's around the bay. you can see and hear walnut creek south to the abyss of fog that is developing and the three day trust is rain across the north bay tomorrow and heavy at times and friday had flooding possible in the forth bay and tapering on saturday and the next storm is in the seven-day outlook. that is next. leyla gulen? >> san jose drive on 87 beyond julian street is empty at this hour and you are in good shape, good shape across the bay area in general. we do as mike has been saying have fog in some areas. you want to be careful this morning if you live in some of those outlying areas further to the east of antioch be careful there. the rest of the bay area is at

top speeds. in san francisco right new, we have a construction project and the fremont fulton street exit is close but the fremont street off-ramp is going to be partly closed this morning and tomorrow from 11 o'clock p.m. to amendment so if you are driving into the city you want to make sure you are aware of that account off-ramp is fully closed every friday and saturday night starting tomorrow right through march 1. you can always use harrison street but we have a last construction in the area so plan ahead. eric and kristen. >> next, tragedy on the rails. we are at the scene of a deadly commuter train tracks that left paramedics in disbelief. >> >> the new challenge facing people homeless by a huge san francisco mission district fire and the teen now called a "hero." >> stay tuned.

covering santa rosa, berkeley, san jose and all the bay area, this is abc7 news. welcome back at 4:41. the national transportation safety board is sending a team to a new york suburb to investigate a deadly commuter train crash. seven people were killed when train hit an s.u.v. stuck on the tracks. our reporter is in hawthorne, new york, with the latest. >> good morning overmy shoulder you can see the burned out shell of the train still remaining on the track there with seven people dead and 12 people injured. this is the most tragic incident in metro new [ inaudible ] >> sketch was so terrible that the paramedics were in disbelieve. >> the train was on fire, so i

realized this is probably the worst tragedy i have responded to. >> north of new york city, 600 passengers making their way home when the train smashed into a jeep stuck on the tracks. >> screaming, yelling, it was total panic. >> the flames engulfed the vehicle from behind with the orange light and huge plume of dark smoke. >> a passenger had blood on the face. >> can you see the massive response flashing lights up and down the rail line as crews rushed in. when the smoke cleared this is all that was left. the scorched and mangled metal and the jeep all but crushed under the metro north train. >> the third rail of the track came up from the explosion and want right through the car so it is truly a devastating and ugly situation to see. >> the injured were carried out of the front car's passenger sitting in the back had in idea how bad it was physical -- until

they saw it. >> i saw all the smoke and all the flames inside the car. >> official say the woman driving the jeep was trying to cross the track when the gates came down leaning her in the path of the train. she dayed along with several metro north passengers. the trip for so many cut tragically short. >> metro north has been under scrutiny. who are what is to blame if this accident is still to be determined. investigators from the ntsb are on the way from washington dc later this morning. people displaced by the fire in the mission in san francisco are still unable to get their belongings after a structural engineer said it is not safe to go inside. an inspection of the building confirmed the fire caused significant structural damage and now there is a temporary design to make the building safe before anyone can come in. san francisco fire chief

hayes-white said the fire started on the third floor and there was no foul play involved. >> a teen who was home alone when the fire break out was recognized for quick thinking at the board of supervisors meeting. the 13-year-old gonzalez escaped by breaking a window and tossed the dog and jumped through the fire escape landing on top of an awning and firefighters were waiting below. [ inaudible ] everyone in the building helped each other. i am grateful. >> hissing do is fine and he and the family are now staying at the red cross shelter in the mission while they look for another place to live. >> a fine young man and he said he is grateful he still has his family and dog. >> this weekend giants fans have a chance to get up close to the favorite players and congratulation them on the latest championship.

>> dozens of players and coaches will be at the annual fanfest at at&t park. fans will be able to take pictures with all three world series winners and play catch on the field. caltran is reminding fans it has hourly service at four baby bullet express trains from the peninsula. continue fest is on saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and admission to the ballpark is free. how many times can you say that during the season? >> we are watching for aing where el for fanfest. there could be rain? >> there will be rain. question is, how heavy? it will taper to the end. maybe the later you go the more likely it will be dry. there will be rain on saturday over at&t park. >> live doppler hd is dry this morning. the storm track is still pushing to the north ahead of our next system churning over the pacific ocean and you can see from san

rafael down 101 from high definition camera that fog is forming in your neighborhood. san jose is not so much just a few high clouds along 101 and 880. partly sunny with high clouds and sun and not a "spare the air" day and a couple of degrees cooler than yesterday. north pay gets the rain temperature. the rest of the us the two systems hit us friday law monday. we have extended it a little bit longer. today still, temperatures are above average and mid-to-upper 60's but not the record-setting 70's the last couple of days. tonight is milder than the last couple of nights and mainly mid-to-upper 40's inland with upper 40's to mid-50's around the bay and toward the coast. the high moisture content is so slowly including to us with the heavy rain coming in on friday and we have a flood watch on friday in the north by marin, sonoma and napa county under a flood watch because of the waves

of moderate-to-heavy rain. saturday, a secondary push comes up with the next system on sunday into monday. at 5 o'clock tomorrow morning maybe drizzle, cloudy and warmer than it should be, rain stalling over the north by for the better part of the day and the evening hours and almost through tomorrow or friday's morning commute and it is making its way across the bay and watch this line ever so slowly staying in the north by so there will be flooding and as we head to the evening hours moderate-to-heavy rain over the let of the neighborhood and you can see it tapering as we head to saturday morning. seven-day forecast shows still hooking at up to 1 inch in the south bay and 2-3 inches around the bay and 3-5isms in the north bay and up to 8 inches in san jose mountains.

>> the the bridge with southbound traffic not affect asked northbound looking empty to the north end. on the bay bridge toll plaza we have cars collecting in the far left hand lane. everyone else is moving long fine. perhaps someone is digging around for change. we have construction projects in affect for a couple of hours. this is until further notice, northbound 880 from dixon road you will find pockets of construction dotting the roadway. the east bay traffic along 580 between dublin and castro vietnam top speed is 880 through hayward and still clear and the altamont pass is slowing from tracy and the area shaded in orange is where the fog could affect the commute. >> netflix is become online after a widespread outage that

sparked a barrage of complaints on twitter. >> netflix is back on line this morning after an outage sending users into a tail spend. engineers were able to restore service to most members in less than an hour but they do not know why it went down. >> elmo is inviting your child to his next birthday party with a new app "what make you giggle," you can insert your child's name and photo in the story. the app is available for ios devices costs only $3. >> the guy on the photo messing and on the home while a humpback surfaces a few feet away. this was taken a couple of weeks ago off the coast and the guy on the phone never even looked up once. something important was beginning ons on the phone.

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>> it is 4:52. invitations are out for the president obama's fundraising stop in san francisco. the technology investor and his wife will host their event at their russian hill home. for $10,000 can you hear president obama speak and pose for pictures. those who folk over $20,000 extra are recognized on the invitations. before the event the president will attend a cyber security summit with senior white house leaders and local ceo's at

stanford. >> more east bay kids are getting free computers because of a generous donation. our media partner the "contra costa times" reports that the nonprofit oakland technology exchange west is getting $2 million from the thomas j. long foundation that provided more than 35,000 refurbished computers to low-income neighbors in oakland. others will receive a computer to help with homework pause of the latest grant. >> a recreation area is closed because of the drought until further notice. the reservoir is located in the santa cruz mountains west of highway 17. water levels remain too low to safely allow voting and fishing. the recreation area will be open only for ranger led tours the last saturday morning of each month. officials say if the region receives significant rain this month and in march the water

department could re-open the lake. the reservoir currently is at 74 percent capacity. >> the potential for wet weather this weekend is already causing at least one cancellation the san francisco spca is rescheduling a friday fundraiser outdoor "be mine," cocktail party and will waive all adoption fees at shelters february 6-8. >> now a check on the weather. >> we have rain in the north bay where we have been focusing the last couple of days. good morning, wherever you see green, which is napa and solano and marin county a flash flood warnings friday morning through 6:00 on saturday morning. we will get the heavy rains in those low-lying areas that always flood will flood. upper 60 chico and 76 in fresno, 74 if los angeles and 84 in palm springs. lake tahoe, you can see a lot of

snow is coming. but the snow level is beginning to start and will be high. >> in walnut creek it looks like traffic is not hazy but clear. moving line fine, southbound 680 from pleasant hill to walnut creek up to highway 24 northbound traffic we have a construction project 20 treat and monument. we have this construction project scheduled until 11 o'clock a.m. and we have laned blocks eastbound highway 92 between foster city boulevard be aware of that with a view of the san mateo and dumbarton bridges no matter which you take all at top speed. the sotheby -- south bay is clear and accident free. >> fell authorities say california's $68 billion high-speed rail project could harm the protected federal railroad administration are out of compliance with environmental commitments for building the bullet train line

in fresno area. the fish and wildlife service claims the contractor preliminary's work infringed on habitats for a fox. the contractor denies the claims the fox has been on the endangered species list since 1967. >> unwanted home news, mercury levels in yellow fin tuna are rising 4 percent each year according to findings published this week in the journal of environmental toxicology and chemistry. it is a trend that scientists say will continue and be worse. murk you -- mercury is dangerous if regulate women and young children and linked to birth defects. the key is to eat in moderation. >> mcdonald's mexico is apologizing if a post seen as trashing tamales saying they are a thing of the past, and facebook lit up with comments

like, how dare you insult or traditional. the post has been remanufactured but several spanish language newspapers caught the shot before it was taken doubt and mcdonald's issued a statement saying it was never the intention of mcdonald's mention we to disrespect tradition or traditional mexican food like tamales. >> don't mess with our sidewalk. the trouble a san francisco company is in for a very expensive game of hopscotch. >> uc berkeley plans to transform a huge plot of land in richmond into a global campus. >> a look at interstate 80 in berkeley and traffic is light.

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live from the kgo-tv broadcast center this is abc7 news. good morning at 5:00 a.m. on wednesday. it is wednesday, right? checking on that. thank you for joining us. i am eric thomas. >> i am leyla gulen with kristen sze and meteorologist mike nicco. >> north bay rain tomorrow and the rest of us are on friday. live doppler 7 hd shows no need for the umbrella. you do have another day or two to find it or whatever wet weather gory you will -- gear you will use. the 12 hour day planners we are milder and more fog at 39-54. 60 at noon. low-to-mid 60's at 4:00. low-to-mid 50's and mild in the evening.