raged around it? >> that's what i understand. we are snou six days into this tragedy. so far, most of these folks have lost everything. have not been allowed back in here to see what their homes looked like. cal fire says it's still not safe enough. it's too dangerous. the rain certainly helped. but it also made things slippery. >> as the containment line grows, the clean-up effort is just beginning. much of it focused on clearing the thou sands of fallen, endangered trees. some of them still smoldering that littered the burn area. still, the process of allowing residents to return to their homes to see what's left is a ways off. >> it may look like the fire is out because there's no smoke and flames. but the potential of a hot ember from the wind getting ignited on the other side of the containment lines, that's what we don't want to do. >> did anyone tell you to leave? >> no.

>> dana dimartini never left her hill top home on cobb mountain, even though flames were right up to her yard on saturday night. she's been here for six days. >> though she has no tv or internet, dimartini is aware that her house, still standing, is among very few like it in this part of the area. >> i feel very blessed. i'm probably going to sell it after this, but, yeah, i'm very blessed. >> we should tell you once again, we did make some calls for dana. i talked to her son and let him know that she was okay. obviously, he was very relieved.

laura anthony, abc 7 news. >> residents in a rural division are being allowed to go back into their homes tonight. just over and hour ago, officials listened to mandatory evacuation order. residents have been kept away from their homes since sunday. the nearby pope valley elementary school will reopen tomorrow. many of the school's students and staff live in the area. >> fire evacueees have many questions. >> michael finne spent the day in calastoga trying to offer some answers and he joins us now from if the evacuation center. >> we have many of our consumer counselors here talking to people. we're solving problems everything from cell phones to

places to live. a lot of the issues are arn insurance. people have lost a lot, if not everything. joining me right now are a couple people from state farm. first one is martin ream. you've been over there taking reports. what kind of numbers are we talking about? >> we have. we've been here since sunday morning. it's been a great opportunity to get here and help pooem right away. we've taken in over 300 claims so far. the biggest thing that i'd impress to our customers, you can reach jeanette and our fellow ajents. you can call us at 800-sfclaim. or you can reach out to us. we're here, also. there's multiple ways to get in touch with that. >> right. jeanette squire works in calastoga. grew up here. you're an agent. you must be seeing friends and client that is are just hurting. >> absolutely. people come into my office with only the clothes on their back.

it's really incredible to give them money right then and there. try to help them get back on they're feet. i am so proud. they have done such an incredible job of helping everyoneout. it's a good time to be able to help people out. we're going to be here until 7:00, if you want to drop by, we wish you would. reporting live from calastoga. >> great job up there. thank you so much. there are so many wonderful good samaritans doing all they possible lid can to reduce the misery. abc 7 news reporter. >> reporter: waking up to damp groupds and the real sooigs that everything they owned is gone. it's enough to make you roll over and fall back asleep until you catch the smell of coffee in the air. >> kpaathleen green lost

everything including her teeth in the fire. >> that's great. >> many of the volunteers preparing meals are calastoga native. the retired schoolteacher showed up saturday night and has helped every day since. she explains her role as organizing chaos. >> people just want to get so much. >> richard john son returned from vacation and got straight to work. >> it's the right thing to do. >> each day, the same goal serves with a smile. >> it's really sad to see what people have gone through and to see what people have lost and, if you can just give them a little bit of encouragement and a little bit of comfort, i think that that's a good thing. >> and this man travels around the world to help with disaster relief. hayman says the suffering looks very similar. >> people have lost a lot. a lot of their pictures and stuff they've had, things that

don't mean much to other people but mean a lot to them. >> vol untiers plan on being hereto to help out and provide those three meals a day through at least this sunday. in krarks alastoga, tiffany wilson. >> now, so far the valley fire is 35 pnt contained. it has burned nearly 74,0 0 acres and destroyed 585 homes. state officials say more than 15,000 people are displaced. >> a san francisco plif is recovering tonight after a motorcycle accident. police say the officer was riding on a training trip. he suffered non-threatening life injuries and is currently recovering at san francisco general.

>> the way police handled a kidnapping case back in march may cost millions. they accused police invetsz gaitors of causing denise and her boyfriend great physical and emotional harm by treating the kidnapping as a hoax. what we are saying is they shouldn't have rubbed sault in the wounds of victims who came to ask them for help. >> two claims police could have intercepted a ransom demand if they had not disabled quinn's phone while they interrogated him. >> the city of california regions decided today to go back to the drawing board when it comes to creating a policy spelling out tolerance on their campuses. >> reporter: cheryl, the regions

have formed a new committee to take another crack at a pool sill that will impact this campus and all the others in this uc system. uc berkley is considered the home of the free speech movement. now, over half a century later, the uc regions concern that free speech has become hate speech, considered a formal policy for all of their campuses. the draft they debated today condemned intolerance, including violence, harassmented, hate speech and derogatory language. students on the cal campus we talked to say they don't feel there's a problem here. >> people tend to be very willing to listen to other people's opinions. >>. >> i feel very welcomed on campus. >> the reasons that their

proposed bri ed principles don' adequately address. the professor says he gets antimuslim reactions. for example, hate e-mails after posting about the muslim boy arrested in texas this week. he says the university should not be a place where any topic is off limits. >> what defines tolerance and intolerance? what defines acceptable and unaccented speech? how can we make sure that tolerance is not con flated with unpopular decision. >> just ahead, incriminating text in the death of an inmate. coming up, a bomb shell revealed regarding the guard accused of

the fatally beating of a prisoner. >> a high profile dispute between public officials and the general contractor has just gotten worse. >> and, after a series of security breeches, san jose international air port gets some help from them ever happening again. >> we're bringing help to where you live.

a car slammed into a house this morning causing a fire and sending one person to a hospital. fire investigators say that home is now unstable. the homeowner may have saved the life of a man. he actually pulled the tractor driver out of the truck. we don't have any word on the driver's condition. new evidence today reported

in the case of three santa clara correctional officials accused of beating an inmate to death. chris? >>. >> reporter: hi, cheryl. these documents include incriminating text mes angerers and more details about the questionable use of force. the prosecutor has made it clear he does not want these three men released from jail. prosecutors have filed a motion opposing the view. a new document submitted to the court, questionable text messages spent one month prior could come back to haunt them. just twist fools up. but write paper. don't trust those peeps up there. i love of a. no camera and no group. i hope i keep it.

san jose resident richard gomes was just released this morning. >> all of these are truth that is are going in there. and they go in there with a chip on their shoulder thinking they can just put their hands on anybody. >> some say more need to be done than to protect inmates from harm. >> it is deeply problematic and really raises the flag that we have to look at our jail systemically rather than lacking at just three individuals. >> defense attorneys who did not return our questioned for comment paint a pirnt picture. in san ole sai, chris winn, abc 7 news.

they say noisy new welfare checks are keeping them up at night. so ear plugs are being handed out and guards are being told to walk with a lighter step. >> the faa has awarded the airport a million and a half dollars to investigate ways to reduce the potential for runway incursions by aircraft, vehicles or pedestrians. san jose international will be one of the first u.s. airports to undergo this kind of study. remember, last month, the airport received a $3.5 million dwrant. >> santa clara county fired turner construction company from the $300 million project. the county also filed suit claiming months behind schedule. turner claims county was to

blame for the delay citing thousanding of inquiries and design change requests. >> joining us live now from the napa county fairgrounds in calastoga. >> good afternoon, you guys. we've been set up here all day. trying to help people out. everything from price gouging to finding a place to live. as you can see, everyone is working. we'll be here until 7:00. one of the problems that we've been running into is getting a bill paid when you can't get to your home or your money. that's kind of what's happening here. what's happening? your house is still standing. you can't get back to middle town. bum what's your immediate issue? >> my phone service was shut off for nonpaymentment and we usually pay it in person. and we can't even get over into middle town.

>> we've been dealing with metro pcs and that i mean're trying to turn on your phone. do you want to turn it on and see if we can get it going. let's see if it's working right now? what happened? the phone just turned off today? >> well, last night, i got a test saying it was going to be turned off today for nonpayment. please pay this amount. and so i texted them back to the 611 and said we are evacuated in the valley fire and we can't get to pay the bill. and i got no response. and so a little later, i texted them again and said i really needed -- oh, wait, just a second. is it on? >> yeah, i'm on tv talking to you. our phone was just turned on. >> perfect. we're happy we could help you guys out. metro pcs was fabulous right from the get go. we called them up, they jumped right on it, they turned on two phones for these people. they'll deal with the bills later. reporting live, michael finney, seven on your side.

>> we ant to thank you abc 7 viewer who is donated nearly $60,000 to our give where you live hotline. 7 on your side man the phone lines all day yesterday. it's terrifically successful. you can still doe fat $10 by texting red cross to 90999. for more information on how you can give where you live. >> that was quite a spekt kal on the bay today. there will be six winners, each getting trophies and special watches. >> that's spectacular. will the weather cooperate for them? they need some wind, of course. >> well, dand and cheryl, there will be a little bit of wind. right now, no chop on the bay, but it should be great weather for the event the next several days. it is lovely out here right now. a little bill warmer. we're going to turn up the heat

as we head into the weekend. a few clouds right near the coastline. otherwise, it is clear. and in the last 48 hours, here's how much rain we received. >> all right. there may be a lot more rain in our future. maybe is the underlying part here. the climate prediction center just issued an update on the winter outlook. it looks like wetter than normal for the southern tier states. drier than normal for parts of washington and oregon. where are we going to play into this whole thing? well, it's trending weter, wetter than normal, certainly. so we will wait and see certainly as encouraging news.

for the time being, though, this might be a pop yup lar place for the upcoming weekend. it is foings r going to get hot inland which means warmt add the coast. 70 degrees in oakland. 73, san jose. half-moon bay, you're cooling coin. and sown jose is looking at briets skews right now. 81 in livermore. how so far, low 60s to low 820 ds today. that's what we have in store for yur morning tomorrow: sunny and warmer tomorrow afternoon. it's going to be cooler midweek just as fall begins. tomorrow, not foo bad.

70 at the beaches. and then triple digit heat inland on sunday. tomorrow morning, mostly clear. a few patches of clouds on the school side in the 50s. so you may need to put on that extra layer. and then, for the afternoon tomorrow, 86 in gill roy, 81 san jose, south bay.

still pretty warm on wednesday. mid 6 0s to low 80s. we're going to end summer with some hot weather and bring on cooler weather as the seasons change. >> all right, still ahead, capping a ride. the amazing moment capturing a surfing seal. >> cheryl and dan, donald trump set to speak at who was the real winner last night. the deadly earthquake triggered for the american coastline there on the west. one of the biggest settlements ever for an american automaker with the deadly defekt. hope to see you shortly. >> thanks, dave. new, at 6:00, a look at the coca-cola ad that is fizzling.

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female announcer: get sleep at the guaranteed lowest price. plus, pay no interest for three years on the best brand name mattress sets. get your best rest ever from sleep train. ♪ your ticket to a better night's sleep ♪ . china is planning to help build a new high speed rail system between los angeles and

las vegas. china railway, international and express west laid out a deal today. the tracks would run adjacent to interstate 15 and would not disturb highway or foot traffic. the project would cost close to $13 billion and take three years to build. a round trip fair would cost $89 and get passengers from lchlt a. to vegas in about 80 minutes or so. >> the commander in chief invited alex carlotos to the oval office last week. there they are. the childhood friends stopped a man with a gun. the president says their quick-thinking save add lot of lives. >> i just wanted to make sure that having talked to them on the phone right after the event, that i had a chance to shake their hands in person. they represent the very best in american character. it's these kinds of young people who make me extraordinarily

optimistic and hopeful about our future. >> their trip also included an awards ceremony at the pentagon. all three men received medals. >> a free ride can be a feeling for anyone, of course. take a look at these pictures of a seal riding a hump back whale. they were taken 300 miles south of sydney by a photographer who was documenting a pod of whales at the time. animal experts say the pa partnership is incredibly rare. >> speaking of cool, another incredible new look at pluto tonight. nasa released this panoramic image taken by the new horizon's spacecraft. this picture was taken just 15 minutes after the spacecraft closest approached pluto back in july.

nasa is expected to release more pictures in the coming weeks. >> from san francisco to calastoga, it's a little like christmas. >> like santa. wait until you see their reactions.

♪ ♪ grow old with me ♪ let us share what we see ♪ just you and i ♪ ♪ grow old with me ♪ let us share what we see ♪ and oh the best it could be ♪ just you and i ♪

tonight, who won? after fight night, donald trump set to speak, and who was the real winner on that stage? some now pointing to the only woman running for the republican nomination and that one moment. breaking developments. we are just learning, authorities say a man tried to steal a jet from a texas airport. senior justice correspondent pierre thomas standing by. the deadly earthquake and tsunami advisories triggered for the american coastline. the sirens going off, the grocery store shelves tumbling down. the 8.3 quake, the biggest this year. the major headline for american drivers tonight. one of the largest settlements ever from an american automaker after a deadly defect. and elton john breaking his silence tonight after that radio prank. he thought it was president putin. he's sounding off tonight.