nging and worthwhile mission of all. thankfully, friends, family, and communities are standing by their service members and veterans now more than ever. ♪ we're all in this together. when you recognize something isn't right, make the call to the veterans crisis line or military crisis line. during times of crisis, reach out and call. dial 1-800-273-8255 and press 1. it is 5:00 a.m. i'm reggie aqui. at least five fires burning as we speak. >> we want to show you where the fires are burning now. let's show you the map. all across the north bay, those fires are raging. some of the strongest ones and the most evacuees we've heard

from at this point, santa rosa, calistoga, and we continue to get information several areas burning. we're working to confirm if there are any fires burning in lake county. these are the ones confirmed on the map for you and there are hundreds of people evacuated at this point, hundreds even in just one shelter. >> we know there are a number of structures burning including homes. that number we can't tell you now because it is just too early to have a complete number. video of napa county along the silverado trail between napa and you can see a home engulfed right now. this is the scene repeated throughout the north bay this morning. >> silverado trail where all those wineries are, there are homes along the way. it is such a famous stretch through napa county. i was just there saturday. it is heartbreaking to see these images come in. so many people across the bay

area are familiar with napa county and silverado trail because of its fame and because of the wineries there. these are people's homes that are on fire right now. this is their livelihoods. we've heard from so many people evacuate this had morning, reggie. >> our photographer spoke to a woman, kathy simmons. here is what she said. >> fire burning a lot of houses down, a lot of wineries are going, and we are just up here trying to save what we can. >> where are we located? >> we are located in napa, california, silverado trail about halfway between napa and yautville. my son and husband and my daughter-in-law are up there with a couple of friends doing a bucket brigade and wetting our house down to try to keep it from burning. >> what is that up there? is that the winery? >> that's the winery. that's cinderella winery that's on fire. >> how big is the winery?

>> it's not a really big winery, about appointment only. it's one of the several boutique wineries in napa. >> oh, boy. and this is the scene we are seeing repeated throughout the north bay and we've been telling you there are two hospitals being evacuated in san rtaa too those structures, that's of utmost importance right now. they are working feverishly to get people out of there especially those who are critical need patients. the voice you heard talking about this winery is patrick who is on the phone with us. patrick, where are you physically located? what are you seeing? >> right now -- good morning, reggie. right now i am closer to i-80.

we were by the winery earlier. we got a call at about midnight that things were getting out of hand. the smoke started getting really thick and ash was in the air. it looked like a snowstorm almost. the closer we got, the fire department truck after truck after truck kept going and going. the closer we got and by the time we got to this winery, the james cole estate winery and cinderella winery, this is where we met this lady, kathy. they had taken their pets out and had gotten out. they were worried about their homes. as far as we could tell nobody was hurt.

the hospital hadn't been evacuate evacuated as of yet. the thing is the wind was really whipping up around those hills. the wind was 15, 20, 25 knots. the fire -- there was a fire in one place and you could see another fire 14 miles away and then another one seven miles away. the fire department is doing an incredible job. they can't fly yet. >> patrick, this is jessica. we were watching the video of that home up in flames. are there structures around you still burning right now?

can you also tell us how strong the winds are blowing right now at this very minute? >> i am closer to i-80 getting away from the fire. the fires are west of me closer to napa. i can see it blowing to the right of where the fires are. the wind is still really, really strong. you know what that means. that means it is not good for fire. one of the people's home, i talked to a gentlemen, the fire was 20 feet away from his home. and it cut out the electricity to his well so he couldn't even hose his house down. he got his two dogs and two cats and sent his wife to stay with

friends. he stayed with the house and he said he picked up his personal computer, medicine, pictures, as many clothes as they could. i believe he's been here more than 40 years. it's very serious out here and is still very dark outside. maybe there will be some air support to get these fires under control. as of right now the smoke is still stinging my eyes. there's ash everywhere. it looks like it's snowing. >> make sure you don't inhale so much of that smoke. we want to get now to some new evacuation orders coming in here. patrick, thank you. stay safe. more mandatory evacuation orders coming in from lake county what we've been working on, our whole team, trying to get information from lake county. we have some of that information

confirmed. people living between second and 17th street in clear lake park are being evacuated right now. >> yes, this is the first time we've heard of lake county evacuations. they're telling you to go to the twin pines casino in middletown. so now as a result there are five counties that are involved. yes? >> yes. >> four? five, i believe, because we're talking napa, sonoma, mendocino -- so five counties that have fires burning and as a result are asking people to evacuate in certain areas. we have evacuation centers including those in napa and calistoga. tiffany wilson has been at one of the evacuation centers throughout the morning and, tiffany, the last time we talked to you you're saying your location was getting quite full and that it might be a good idea for folks to head in a different direction.

is it closed yet to new arrivals? >> reporte they have shut down the parking lot so it's harder for people to access cross walk church. we have seen some people continue to trickle in. some of them may have been sleeping in their cars and are going in for food and water. it's hard to tell. they are encouraging people rather than coming here to cross walk to go to the napa junior college. i know so many people here are concerned because they left as their house was being encircled in flames. i spoke to one man who lives on atlas peak and he said the fire was just raging. it was 30 feet high and 100 yards away from him. he says his home was getting encircled, he had trapped, he had to be escorted out. he did make it here safely. another man whose home is uncertain, he spoke to neighbors, not sure if it's still there standing.

he's from carneros. what can you tell me about the situation your family left? >> we have a residential care facility in the carneros area. i was, unfortunately, in sacramento at the time. in the middle of the night i get a call from my sister who was there. she was yelling at me to get back home because they're trying to evacuate the residents, the elderly that we care for. and they said that the fire was just across the highway from where we live. >> reporter: i understand they were able to safely evacuate? what was that like? >> we had run resident bedridden they had to take to the hospital but the rest are safely here. and so we're unsure where -- if the house is up. we had some neighbors trying to douse down their property and they saw flames in the area of our house, but, again, we don't know if it's there. >> reporter: were they able to

grab anything of significance or was it just get the people and get out? >> we got the residents and pets out and that was it. >> reporter: i mean, i know you say your neighbors tried to stay behind to wet that down, of course, not what the firefighters and first responders would recommend. were they able to get out safely? >> as far as i know they are all safe. again, i just don't know. the fire is everywhere. >> reporter: and that's what we're seeing. just this constantly changing situation. we've been here since 2:30 this morning. the evacuation shelter has been open since 11:00 p.m. and, again, the fire has changed direction. people who thought their homes were safe got calls they were no longer safe. people who went home after voluntarily evacuating and then having to evacuate because the fire crept closer to their homes. so we know that structures have burned. so many of these people are

wondering if it was their houses and that is the biggest question, this desperation for information and, unfortunately, nobody really knows at this point. live in napa, tiffany wilson, abc 7 news. >> tiffany, while were you talking we got new information that napa -- i should say santa rosa schools are closed today. that joins calistoga schools that have been closed. two of the areas most affected in the fires this morning. calistoga schools closed and so are santa rosa schools. >> it's certainly no surprise. we want to get that out to parents watching. we want to check in now with amy hollyfield. amy, you were at -- i guess we're going to check in with mike right now and talk about those strong winds that firefighters are dealing with. we'll get to amy -- can someone in the back let me know? she's there. hi, amy. you were at that kaiser permanente in santa roser being

evacuated, how are things looking now? i see another bus behind you. >> reporter: right, another bus -- two buses have arrived. that's good news so they are still able to transport the patients out of here and they want loved ones to know don't come here to pick them up because they are getting them out of here. i did ask the guy in charge of the transit part of this, where are he taking them? he said everywhere. we have been told they are going to try to get to terra linda hospital or any kaiser hospital. they weren't sure whether they would make it there. they're going to try the veterans memorial building. but know that they are safe. and while there might be some miscommunication here and there in these frantic moments the people are okay. we're watching them being cared for very lovingly, all wearing masks, all being gently carried out. it's been very orderly and it's not a frantic evacuation because the building is okay. cal fire was just here briefing us. we said, are we safe here? is this okay? they said yes. this is a precaution, and you

can see there is an orange glow in the air. the fire is nearby. this is a good move but they do feel like these people are okay, and cal fire told us we are okay to be here. so if these are your loved ones, just know that they're being cared for. i did just get a briefing from a spokesperson for cal fire, a battalion chief. he told me it is unheard of, unprecedent that had a fire would go from napa county to jumping highway 101 right next to us here in sonoma county in a matter of hours. he said they are just wrapping their arms around what they're dealing with when we ask for numbers, containment, structure numbers, he says too early for any of that. they don't know if they have any containment of the fire. he mentioned maybe 8,000 acres but right now they are just in human safety mode, evacuation

mode. you can still see and hear emergency vehicles coming into the area. northern california has been mobilized. so many resources are headed this way. and so he said the focus now is just the message he wanted to push out to everyone is if you don't feel safe, evacuate. don't wait for an order. don't wait for official word. here comes a public information officer from the hospital. >> judy gooden, and i want to let you know we have no comment other than we are evacuating as you can see. >> reporter: okay. we just want to get the information out to loved ones -- >> we're going to be sending most of our patients to our sister hospital in kaiser san rafael and they're waiting for them all standing by. >> reporter: that's excellent news. so they have a place to go. we have been noticing that your team has done a wonderful job caring so lovingly for them. >> thank you. >> reporter: thank you for the word. great information there. hospital ready to go, ready to receive these people and take care of them. that will be happening in san

rafael. good news. buses are here to get them out of here and earlier you may have seen we had a fire right down next to us at the end of this pavement but firefight wrers here and looks like they have put that out so that threat is over. still very smoky here, though, very windy, and they're concerned about the weather. i was able to tell cal fire, they were worried it's going to be windy all day. it sounds like 11:00 or 12:00 we might get a break from the wind so they were happy to hear that. i said any idea on houses, structures, they said we have lost structures but they don't know how many. they did point out what a hard push this fire made overnight into santa rosa. reporting live from santa rosa, reggie and jessica, back to you. >> amy, thank you. what a relief to know they are going to the kaiser permanente in san rafael so they have a safe place to go. obviously the smoke is not going to be good for any of those patients, for any of us across

the bay area, people are waking up smelling the smoke and really heavy winds. >> before we go to mike, sutter hospital is the second hospital being evacuated. have not heard yet where they're taking their patients. as soon as we find out we'll let you know. other precautions at other north bay hospitals where even though they have power they are going to generators because they know that power is intermittent in the area. they don't want to risk that for the patients so they are having backup generator run their systems and they can run those for days. let's go to mike nicco. you just heard cal fire being concerned telling amy that they were unclear just how long these winds will last. what can you tell us about that? >> that's the key, reggie. i'm glad you asked. gusts around 34 at atlas peak up around the mid-30s most of the time during the overnight hours. if you don't know where it is, it's just north of napa up in the mountains. even faster winds. checking hawkeye north of

santa rosa. they had a wind gust to 79 miles per hour during the overnight hours. you could see the fresh oxygen being fed into the fire, the flames. once the embers get into that they head south. that's why we could see it jump possibly several times before they could get it under control. so the winds are definitely devastating. they will come down. so let me tell you about how they're going to come down or at least a timetable. now in the valleys we're already seeing napa drop. this could be an anomaly, down to 14 miles an hour now. flanked on either side fairfield still gusting. santa rosa at 28. novato, that one just changed. it says it's 54. let me double-check that and see just in case because that would just be nolt good, a little too

fast. max number at 24. that was misprinted. you look at concord and oakland. that's why people in the east bay have poor air quality just like in the north bay and also why it's been so noisy and why you're going to have limbs down and why you're going to be driving through debris. here we are at 6:00 in the morning. you can see the wind gusts taper around santa rosa and napa but not in fair field. by 9:00 the winds are 20 miles an hour less. and then by noon high pressure is taking over and that is going to calm our winds. that high pressure will nudge the winds to the south along with the cold front that create ed all this wind. napa at about 7:00, northeast wind at 25. by 10:00 you're down less than 10 miles per hour. so fingers crossed this particular model which keeps being the most bearish or

bullish on seeing the winds drop comes to fruition. a look at san rafael right now. it looks a little bit cleaner than it did just about an hour ago. you have the highest level of poor air quality. the first time i've seen that in 11 years here in the bay area and poor air quality. what does that mean? 227 in napa. 442 in napa valley college. unhealthy begins at 151. so you can see definitely some scary amounts of toxic chemicals. wind advisory, i just checked with the weather service. they're going to keep it up until 11:00 for all the areas you see shaded in yellow which is the north bay. and also down into the diablo range, east of san jose. and the fire danger even when the winds start to drop, the humidity is still going to be bone-dry and so is the

vegetation. the high fire dang they're co s until 5:00 tomorrow morning. we will lose the gusty winds but two out of the three still constitutes a very high fire danger. so we've got to keep our guard up and try to do all those things that prevent fires from starting like chains dragging behind cars if you're towing a trailer. heaven forbid if you're smoking, don't throw the cigarette butt out. and just other things, sometimes even flat tires, if the rim hits the ground and cause as spark, stuff like that is what will cause some of the high fire dangers there. so you can see these flames just being fed. now, remember, the storm air rises when it gets hot. so it's going to suck in all the air around it to replace that rising air. the wind is predominantly -- or we call the environmental wind is coming out of the north. however, closer you get to the fire, the air is going to become very erratic and it's going to

be changing speeds and changing directions as it's feeding into the flames like you see right here next to me is that house, unfortunately, i know what they're going through, at least that's what my parents' house looked like when it burned this time two years ago. those folks, it took my parents two years to get their lives almost back together. they're still working on it. that gives you an idea how long some of these folks will be without their home possibly, without their possessions. i mean, my parents, just an example because they've been through it, they filled out hundreds of forms of stuff that they lost, stuff they had to try to itemize, the stuff they had to turn in to the insurance company to try to get reimbursed for. they had to try to remember all the stuff they had. so here in earthquake country, we're in fire country, take your phone and go to each room, i don't know, every couple of months, take a video, take a picture, pull out the drawers,

take a picture of all the stuff you have. oh, this is a winery, okay. but we do have homes, true, that have been destroyed. this is particularly a winery. thank you, noah. getting back to my point you don't realize everything you have because there's stuff you don't use. you have stuff stored in the garage. you may have it stored in the shed. you may not realize what you have and once it's lost if you don't have documentation of it, you're not going to get it back or will have to pay for it and the insurance company is not going to pay for it unless you have that. just let me put that out there from seeing what my family just went through that here in earthquake and fire country always have documentation and video proof, even put it on a thumb drive, keep it in your car, put it on a thumb drive, keep it at work. put it on a tin amb safety deposit box at bank. make sure you have records of all the stuff you have because

after the fact it's an incredibly sad journey to try to remember all that. jessica? >> hey, mike, on that note, tough to hear you say all those things as someone who has witnessed having to go through all of that because we just got this video literally seconds ago from someone named coastal cooper. i want to read the caption here. it's heartbreaking. it says sitting here for a while now taking it in, seeing my parents' house, the house i grew up in burn down in my hometown has been surreal. the second video is their house burning, water pump was dead. i couldn't spray down anything. i felt pretty helpless. swarm how powerful fire is. pae s of bees. neighbors' houses would burn instantly and randomly. some explosions. the whole neighborhood in flames. and then #abc7now. this is what our viewers are sending in to us. that heartbreak of seeing their

homes, their parents' home where they grew up in, in flames this morning. so many people waking up having to leave at a moment's notice, just grabbing whatever they can so if you are at home right now watching and preparing for an evacuation please if you feel in any way threatened, go ahead and prepare. you may not get a knock on the door right away and we want people to be ready to go and, of course, it will take some time to evacuate the area, alexis. roads are slow going. people, as they panic, are getting on to those roads. we want everyone not to panic, to take it slowly, to evacuate now while they are still safe, right? absolutely. i want to show you some of the backup on our traffic maps and live cameras. if the booth can hear me and give me the shot that would be great. we're definitely starting to see more congestion as more and more folks start to try to evacuate.

we have a full closure of 101 between bicentennial and mark west springs. as we head south of here, folks coming over from state route 12 and that's where we're really seeing gridlock, surface streets as well. we are seeing really slow going on a lot of these side roads trying to get around this closure. definitely gridlock there for folks heading to rohnert park trying to get to the san francisco area, just getting away from these fires. also, this happened about 15, 20 minutes ago, we have a full closure of state route 37. a fire around sears point. they are still working on that obviously. look at how long the stretch of purple is. purple indicates closed on our traffic maps. you are fully closed now on state route 37 from 101 in novato all the way over to interstate 80 in vallejo and, again, that is a long-term closure. novato fire department is saying they are likely going to have state route 37 closed the entire

day today. i want to take you up to the calistoga area. a full closure at tubbs lane. we have a collision just west of there. a couple vehicles that were involved in a fender-bender and those vehicles caught fire as well. so obviously this is a tough situation this morning and you can smell the smoke throughout the bay area. we're smelling it here in our studio. a good chance you're smelling it wherever you are today, too. i want to show you how hazy it is, how poor the air quality is% if you're coming from the east bay, i know you're smelling that smoke. those metering lights did flip on just a few minutes ago. one of those days you want the windows up. no major problems. we did get this pulled up here 101 and state route 12. reggie and jessica, just look at the difference even in the last 15, 20 minutes or so. the main line parking lot now along with state route 12 interchange so these are folks coming on the access road trying to join in with southbound 101.

they are all evacuating so you have to have some patience and remain calm. >> alexis, thank you. >> it is slow moving and that will be the case for a while. of course our coverage o

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we continue to counties and at least five fires.

at least five confirmed. here are the fires right now on your screen, a map of those fires burning currently. >> and in addition we should add there is a fire burning in the berkeley hills right now and we're trying to get a better idea of just how big the fire is. that fire has not prompted any evacuations thus far. i just want to put that on your radar to let you know it's not -- it's mostly the north bay but there is a fire in berkeley right now saying that it's a grass fire in the north berkeley hills at ajax place and golf course road happening now. these are the fires we're focused on, fires burning that smoke south of the area why folks who are living in the east bay, people living in san francisco, you have been smelling this all night long. there's a good chance you were woken up by it like i was in the middle of the night and wondering if there was an emergency in your neighborhood only to find out this has been as a result of strong winds pushing all that fire

the area, and though are making their way any way they can to get south to get to a safe evacuation center to get to friends' homes so that they can wait there and find out what the information is. a lot of them fearing that their homes may be gone. >> yes, and we are getting some new evacuations from napa county sheriff's department. if you live in napa, lien elis wooden valley is being evacuated to the library parking lot. the wooden valley area, your evacuation area is the sonoma library located at 4000 susen valley road. that is in fairfield. and we also have just gotten word from sonoma county that

sebastipol hall is closed. now residents are being asked to go to anna lehigh school. that address is 6960 anna lee avenue. >> i want to show you video out of napa county along the silverado trail between napa and yountville. this gives you an idea what folks are dealing with there. this is about four miles north of the city of napa. and as you can see that fire is incredible. we have been watching as a number of structures have also burned. our photographer patrick is in the area and spokeday to gibson. gibson says the fire is getting very close to his home. >> the fire is coming down the hill. it looks like it's 50 feet from the back of my house. >> what happened with the electricity? >> i was watering with the hose and the power went off. so my well -- that means my well won't work.

i'm out of water now. it is emotional. the fire is within 20, 30 feet of the house right now. there's nothing i can do to stop it. like i said, at my age it's hard to start over, i guess. hopefully the wind will change. the wind has been going back and forth all night. >> it's picking up. >> and gusts. every time i think it's safe it gusts like this. we lost years ago this house burnt in a fire also from here. we've had scares but this is the worst so far. >> scary to hear from that man and his story is not unique. we've heard from a number of people who are at shelters who had to leave with their dogs and not a whole lot more.

we heard from a man who didn't even have a shirt on when he left, someone gave him a shirt at the shelter. that's the kind of emergency we are facing. people were asleep. neighbors were knocking on doors. a neighboring honked their horn. people who have never evacuated before having to do so. >> it's heartbreaking to hear them go through this one more time. such a large scale. so many people having to do this for the first time. one is at cross walk community church in napa where our tiffany wilson has been reported all morning long. >> reporter: and seeing the shell shock, some people

breaking into tears when i just asked how they were doing. you be unloading red cross supplies. many people did not have minutes to evacuate, one woman with just one shoe on her foot. this is a dire situation where people ran out with what they could if they could. one is james bell. what was the situation like when you were leaving your home around 2:30, 3:00 this morning? >> it was terrible. when we left we could see in the mirror that the whole hill was on fire. it was just devastating to see that. >> reporter: you said you looked back in your rear-view mirror. describe what it felt like. >> the flames were just huge.

you could tell it's not a good place to be. >> reporter: one of your friends lost his home. where was he located? >> he lives in the canyon and i heard almost all the homes there were burned down and i heard about a home on hagan road burned down. they were family friends of ours. >> reporter: a tough situation to find yourself in. what would have protected your house, was there a fire line, a street, or was the fire coming straight toward it? >> our house is located in a neighborhood. it's not near any we have the streets to protect us. >> reporter: and hopefully they will. thank you so much. a lot of uncertainty here. many evacuees have left here at

cross walk church hoping to find out a little bit more information and then coming up against roadblocks on the main roads, taking side roads thinking they would get a way around coming up against roadblocks on those side roads as well. much of the north bay is inaccessible. people here for anniversary trips or birthday trips staying at the carneros inn. where should we go? many people are not familiar with the streets. they're not sure where to head. so much uncertainty here at the evacuation center but, again, i want to point out how impressed i have been by the number of people who have stepped up. we've seen many nurses just arriving here at the evacuation center. of napa currently safe, coming - here to ask what they can do to help. we've seen a number of individuals g

personal cars and bring people here who needed to be evacuated with assistance. really inspiring the amount of help that these neighbors have provided to the ones most affected. but, again, 300-plus people at crosswalk church and they are now asking people instead of coming here because the parking lots are full to instead report to the napa junior college. so if you are just evacuating now, go to the napa junior inst reggiell aegnd jessica, back to. >> thank you. yes, important to go to the evacuation centers just opening up if you are listening and tuning in now. those are quickly starting to fill up. here are the centers on your screen. napa valley community college as tiffany mentioned is the go-to place right now. they are still open. plenty of room there. if you are listening from napa, if you're tuning in from napa, head there.

napa county fair grounds also available in calistoga. crosswalk community church is the evacuation center where testify any was reporting from is full. you heard her say the parking lot is closed off. they're asking folks to go to the community college instead. let's get the other ones. this is from santa rosa. finley community center and analy high school in sebastopol. in santa rosand lawicol enforcement asking people, adults that are able to go and help in some of the volunteer centers if they can get there safely to do so. they are calling out for volunteers in santa rosa. >> okay. santa rosa city schools are closed and so are the -- calistoga, thank you. that just cleared out of my head. calistoga and santa rosa both cleared for the day. i think for obvious reasons, two

of the areas hardest hit from these fires. speaking of that over to amy hollyfield live at kaiser permanente. now that is intaan of two hospitals that started their evacuation process because the fires are getting too close. amy? >> reporter: good news. this one is about wrapped up. the pharmacist said the last few patients are coming out and some buses just pulled away with patients. they brought ambulances in to take the last few who looked like they were in intensity care and needed to be transported by ambulance. this has been very orderly. i asked her how the patients reacted, she said everyone as been very calm. they understood. and here is an image for you to show you what we're dealing with. you see the orange glow right behind the hospital, and this is on the other side of the hospital from what we've been showing you. if you saw my earlier reports i was showing you fire coming from highway 101. this is on the other side of the

hospital. truly fire in every direction you look here in santa rosa. steve, would you pan this way. i'm not kidding, it's in every direction. people are run to go smoke here on 101 where the ambulance is heading right now. as soon as he turns i think you'll be able to see it. here comes another one but there's smoke and orange glows and ash falling all around this hospital. and that is why they decided to evacuate it. they told us they're taking these patients to the hospital in san rafael. that hospital is ready to receive them. it's standing by ready to go and they're safe. erev tneos get that word out to anyone watching this who has a loved one at this hospital. everything is okay. the hospital is still standing and it is fine. fire has not reached it. they wanted to get them out of here while they had time. they wanted to be careful. we talked to cal fire. cal fire is staging a little further away from here but has

been briefing us when we need information but saying they don't have as much information as we would want right now because they are still in just the evacuation, get people safe mode. we asked about injuries. they said too soon to say. some said they have to treat smoke inhalation. a person's mother was brought to the hospital, her heart condition was acting up because of the smoke. she got here to find out the hospital was being evacuated. information right now tough to come by right now. it's just getting resources in and helping the situation and keeping people safe. the word cal fire wants to get out if you don't feel safe, get out. just evacuate. don't wait for someone to give you the word. what's really notable here as we stand here is the sound of sirens. it's constant. resources coming in from all

over northern california which cal fire told us has been mobilized. we just lost all power. did you see that? it's completely dark here. it is dark here, the hospital just went dark. what a great call and great timing to get these people out of here when they did, because this hospital now has no thewer. only light is our camer light. i don't know about generators. the good news is they gotheople. we did see some people still in the lobby but this is the last few people. the lights just kicked on, must be generator power. >> you're absolutely right. >> reporter: that's good. we saw everything work like it's supposed to. power went out, generator kicked on, but the people are safe. they've gotten them out of here so that's good news. so eerie with it being this dark. >> no kidding.

>> reporter: now you can really see the orange glow. >> i know they're being taken care of. it's so hard to see these people in such critical condition having to escape, but we're glad they are. >> and just in the nick of time. >> reporter: they're handling them so gently and lovingly and they've done the best job they can. we've watched them come out and have masks put on them so they would be safe while being transported. they're doing all they can to care for these people. can you see the smoke kicking up again on highway 101. it's just relentless. and cal fire said that. this fire has done such a hardge push into santa rosa. and he was really struck by the speed that it would go from he said napa county to jumping highway 101 in santa rosa in just a matter of hours.

he's calling this a once-in-a-lifetime fire. that's from a battalion chief at cal fire. >> that is saying something. amy hollyfield, i appreciate your reporting. we'll continue to check in with her. she has the mask, as you can see, it is very necessary in the north bay. right now where we are it is quite smoky. i can't even imagine what it's like for her up there. >> and she mentioned so many evacuations, that fire moving so quickly and so many people having to get out of their homes, that we have had a constant change of information. wye mentioned finley, that was closed. residents told to go to the santa rosa vets memorial on 1351 maple avenue. i just sent that out on twitter. i've had some people question where that information is coming

from. we are trying to get that to you on social media as soon as we can as well as, of course, here on the air. >> this fire, the tubbs fire, information from santa rosa, 20,000 acres. that's the first number we've had of the size. the tubbs fire, 20,000 acres. chip is joining us on the phone. how is yr area right now? did you have to leave your home? >> no. rohnert park is safe. east of petaluma road, we can see the hill is on fire. we've had one homeless person come by and people are evacuating from the petaluma hill area.

snyder lane is not congested. our church is open for an emergency shelter. >> we've heard several people opening up their homes and resources. we noticed a costco gas station giving people water. you mentioned the roads are pretty clear in your area. >> yes, people can get up and down snyder lane. they can get up and down highway 101, rohnert park expressway. at this point we're looking at the fires which are east of the crane canyon area not diminishing. >> your church is opening up. do you have an estimate of how many people they might be able to house? >> we can house at least 200 people. >> chip, are you prepared to

evacuation if that is necessary? >> we would evacuate if rohnert park pd told us to evacuate. at this point the fire is at least two miles away from the city limits of rohnert park. >> and do you have everything in order in case you do get that notice? >> we're like everyone else with a half a tank of gas and we're ready to go. >> i hope you never get that call and this is just a fire that skips rohnert park completely. we're hearing of shelters filling up this morning. chip worthington calling us saying the fire is about two miles from the city limits. thank you. >> thank you. bye-bye. >> thank you, chip. we are hearing about people stepping up this morning and trying to help some of those evacuees especially folks on the road. there were people handing out water at a gas station in

rohnert park so places not impacted right now with flames may be smelling the smoke but they don't have flames there. they are trying to help people just trying to get out of harm's way. >> you heard amy hollyfield tell us she talked to fire up there, the firefighters up there, and they're telling her this is a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon happening especially in the santa rosa area and, mike, a lot of the firefighting equipment we need to get into the air is only going to be able to do that once we have some daylight. just waiting for the sun to come up to help us out. >> sun rise officially 7:12 today. they can get up there possibly before that, before the sun actually crests the horizon. 7:12 is an hour and a half away. and that's very sad to think about. been following twitter a lot. all i hear are sirens in petaluma. another gentleman who follows us

on social media and a faithful viewer said he heard my story about my parents and his mom is going around taking pictures of their house before they possibly have to evacuate. so they will have documentation of all of the stuff that's in their house. just a quick recap. my parents' house burned down two years ago. two years later and they're still trying to get all of their stuff replaced and their lives back in order. it gives you an idea what they're going through. that's a winery from earlier this morning. and you can see the winds just fanning the flames. that's what i wanted to start with when we go back to the graphics. it is cleaner but the air quality is still brutally bad. let me show you just how bad it is. in the north bay it's severe. that's the highest level. i haven't seen that in more than a decade. the coast and central bay which

means the coast and central bay which is the entire san francisco bay near the water unhealthy. inland east bay, that is our inland east bay valleys, poor. and then the south central bay you get around the dumbarton bridge because the wind is blowing from north to south. your air quality is getting worse but it's not unhealthy yet.east bay hills, you can see camera bouncing around. it gives you an idea how fast the winds still are and you can't see anything. on your tv right here you can see all the purples and reds in the north bay. you can see some of the reds developing in the central bay and coast and that's what we're looking at right now is the central bay and coast as we look from the east bay hills back towards san francisco. you can see how bad the air quality is getting there. here is the setup. we had a dry cold front go through yesterday. look at these desert like humidity levels.

the highest is 33% mountain view. look around napa and santa rosa. it's 14. it's 13. there is no moisture in the air and that allows the air to combust even faster than it normally would if it had the right amount of humidity. i've seen gusts up to 40, up around knoxville creek winds gust up around 7 miles per hour during the overinto the hours. actually that was at hawkeye which is pretty close to there. oakland hills, 29. what is it doing where most of us live? the winds are being funneled into the valleys by 28-mile-per-hour gusts in santa rosa and that could be the fire itself creating that in fair field at 36. 21 concord. most of those arrows are pointed just about due south and that's why as we head through the next hour and a half to two hours before they start to try and contain this that the air quality will keep getting worse and worse.

also once the sun comes up and heats the ground that heats the air and you know hot air rises so the hot air will rise and pehoyll air from above will come down into it. so that could also help us increase the air quality just a little bit to the positive side as we head through the morning hours. look at the wind gusts at 7:00 this morning. this is our most positive forecast model. you can see we're down to 22 in napa. still 36 in fairfield. everybody else less than 15. as we head to 9:00 you can see we're down less than 20 miles per hour in most neighborhoods and as we head to noon, high pressure is moving in. that is going to stagnate the air which, unfortunately, means the smoke is going to get worse in the north bay because you're not going to evacuate it to the south anymore so the air quality could get worse in the north bay while the rest of us it could during the afternoon hours. let's talk about napa

specifically. this model very positive on the winds dropping down by 10:00 from 24 mile per hour down to around 3 to 8 miles an hour as we head throughout the afternoon hours. let's go over what is still possible today, winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour. northerly winds blowing to the south ind an yellow is the north bay, the east bay down to the diablo range east and one last thing to think about when the winds start to slowly taper, we have so much dry vegetation, so much dry air that the fire danger is going to remain high. the only difference is it may not spread as quickly as we've seen this almost unprecedented spreading of this fire during the overnight hours because the wind will be a little bit slower. if you -- if we're going to take a look at some of the things that we've already driven through, alexis, i know i had debris flying sideways at my

car, it almost looked like wie we we were in a hurricane, i had to drive over tree limbs and debris. any issue because of that or is it because of the evacuation? >> i'm focusing on the closures in the north bay. you could have debris. i know we had trees down, tree limbs down and, yeah, with those wind gusts around 40 miles an hour across the bay area early this morning we could have a lot of dark stoplights as well. i want to take you up further, 101 is fully closed between uva drive and ridgewood. between bicentennial and mark west springs road. i want to go down south of here and check out what happens out of santa rosa and petaluma. we have gridlock on southbound 101 that is very unusual.

it takes a long time to really ramp up. just slow down, have some patience here this morning. it will take you a while to get out of the north bay. there are so many mandatory evacuations. and that being said if you're not in an area where you are being forced to evacuate, if you are safe, if you don't have to head out on the roads, chp is urging you to stay off. we have a lot of emergency personnel trying to get through. taking you up to the calistoga area, closed at tubbs lane both directions due to fire. we have a major closure along state route 37. that is closed all the way from 101 in novato over to i-80 in vallejo and that will likely stay that way the remainder of the day. that is just miles and miles of full closure of state route 37 and, again, due to that fire that is right around 121 in the sears point area. we do have sky 7 up so they're on their way to check out some of these fires here this morning

and then i was hoping to show you 101 at state route 12 in santa rosa is jam packed. we're getting word of a lot of new side street closures in both sonoma county and all across the north bay. i obviously don't have time to give you all of those right now. if you go to my twitter page i am constantly updating that. it's a lot to keep up with. if you head there that is probably the easiest way. i believe we'll check in now with jessica castro. i quickly want to show you this from sarah. stony point and sebastopol road gridlock as people are trying to get out and also quickly i want to show you some of the new photos coming in from atlas peak, a photo from nicolai joseph, huge flames. i want to show you this from jason mcallen, clearlake and there is a fire burning. we are going to go to

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