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good morning. it's 6:01. i'm reggie aqui alongside jessica castro, mike nicco and alexis smith. we're following a major emergency talking about at least five fires that are burning. here is a look at where they are. we have been talking about this fire, these fires, since 11:00 p.m. nonstop coverage until now and we're continuing on. >> yes, we are sending out push alerts so please follow along if you have your phones with you, if you sign up for push alerts we are trying to get you the very latest updated. the evacuation centers keep changing as those continue to fill up and grow as well. there are so many roads stuck. >> full closures of 101, state route 37 is closed from 101 all the way over to interstate 80.

major closures across the north bay. >> and those are the major ones. small streets are clogged up as people try to get from their homes and air quality issues for the entire bay area. >> that's when i knew it was serious when i got the push alert that said 101, it had jumped. we're in for a long morning. have those mobile devices charged up because you'll need them because of the rolling blackouts. we have poor air quality everywhere and it's going to get a little bit worse as we head through the next couple of hours. it's not until the sun comes up we get the winds to calm and let the smoke evacuate just a little bit. i'm afraid the north bay, of course, since you're near the fires even when the winds come you're going to be under poor quality. stay inside if you can or wear one of the masks. it doesn't look pretty. it's not fashionable. you don't want that fine particulate matter getting into your lungs causing irritation the least, lung damage at the

worst. all the areas in red which is everything except the coast and san francisco bay down into the santa clara valley. high fire danger, the highest it gets until 5:00 tomorrow morning. >> and those winds certainly have been an issue this morning, mike, as you mentioned. of course some new video from napa county. this is along the silverado trail, one of the fiercest fires burning this morning and throughout napa and yountville. so many people are familiar with this area, so many wineries. but people's homes, more importantly, people who are living there year round who needed to flee from their homes this morning as those flames have taken several structures. this is a winery that you are looking at right here on your screen but, again, there are numerous homes that we know have also burned in these fires. this was taken by abc 7 patrick and he spoke to kathy simmons.

here is part of that interview. >> 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? >> napa, california silverado trail about halfway between napa and yountville. >> and is your house okay, do you know? >> right now my house is okay. my son and my husband and my daughter-in-law are up there with a couple of friends doing a bucket brigade and wetting our house down to keep it from burning. >> i'm going to point that camera -- what do you see? what's that up there? is that the winery? >> that's the winery, that's cinderella winery up there. >> how big is that winery? >> it's not a really big winery. it's by appointment only. it's just one of the several boutique wineries in napa. >> several. there are so many in that area. exactly which locations have burned down right w.

napa, sonoma, lake, mendocino trying to get people out of their homes. >> and the tubbs fire is the one we have information on. we're told right now by santa rosa officials that fire is 20,000 acres big. it is too early to talk about what percentage are under control. so we're going to wait to hear that as we have some daylight in the next hour or so, able to get a better idea how big these areas are that are burning. kelly court lives in rohnert park. kelly, i know rohnert park itself is not under evacuation. i assume you're ready to go in case that evacuation order comes down? >> we are indeed. we have our animal cages ready to go. all of our essentials in the car. >> kelly, have you lived in rohnert park for a while?

>> just a few years now. >> have you ever had to evacuate? >> no, but my mom did. she was part of the cobb and lake county fire. >> is she safe this morning? >> she is. her roommate's daughter is evacuating out of santa rosa to their home now. >> kelly, we were on the phone with another gentleman from rohnert park as well. he was telling us he thought the fire was about two miles away from the city. i know that you can smell it. are you able to see flames where you are? >> yes, actually we can see a glow from our home, so i went out to petaluma hill road and the fire is about a mile up the hill burning. it looks to be slowly down the hill but a mile up petaluma hill road. >> kelly, are there a lot of cars going through the area? is traffic still okay? >> absolutely. you could see what i imagine to

be the residents of northeast rohnert park evacuating the hill area because they're back-to-back lined up on lake roberts road and crane canyon road and petaluma hill road is moving very slowly. >> kelly, you sauound very calm cool, and collected right now. i assume that's maybe not how you are feeling. what is your level of concern? >> i'm freaked out. completely. having witnessed everything that my mom went through in lake county with the fire, i woke my husband up after i went and saw how close it was, and we're ready to go. >> even way down here in san francisco i was woken up by the smell. is that what woke you up or how did you know there was an issue? >> i did wake up around 1:30 this morning to the smell and then thought maybe in the morning it will dissipate. i woke up again around 4:00 and

the smell was certainly no lighter, so it was time to investigate. i went outside, saw the glow, took a ride, came home, woke up my husband. >> kelly, what are your plans now? is your plan to evacuate despite not having a mandatory order or are you going to stay in your home? >> at the moment we're holding still here at the home. i will not hesitate to bail and get to safety. i'm not sure what i want to do just yet. i'm inclined to pack everything up and get out of the way. >> please be safe this morning. we wish you the best as well as your mother who is evacuating now. >> thank you. >> before we let you go, if you're still with us, you said it was the smell that woke you up. i don't know how close you are to your other neighbors, but do you get the feeling people are all aware this is happening? i'm a little afraid people have slept through this. >> i agree with you.

i kacame home, my husband was asleep, and i don't see much movement in the neighborhood. if the wind picks up there could be a problem and that's what's got me concerned. >> well, kelly, i'm glad that you are ready to go. i hope that your neighbors are able to figure out what's happening in the next couple of hours or so because that will be critical. and let's just pray for the firefighters that they're able to get these fires under control quickly. kelly, thanks so much for calling and good luck. >> kelly cort calling from rohnert park. that location right now is not under evacuation orders, but napa has been hit hard as well as santa rosa. so many people having to evacuate. one of the first places an evacuation center at crosswalk church actually filled up overnight and now there is a third location in napa open but tiffany wilson has been standing by at crosswalk community church

talking to some of those first people that were evacuated and got that terrible notice to leave their homes. tiffany, what's the latest there? >> reporter: jessica, as you and reggie were just talking about, so many people asleep when this fire really started raging. some said they had the sheriffs come to their house. it was lights and sirens that alerted them. one man says that somehow he just woke to an orange glow. he doesn't know how he woke up or why he woke up, but when he woke up the fire was in his yard. he didn't even have time to grab a shirt. he grabbed his dog, ran out the door in his car. the flames basically licking the driveway as he fled. so a lot of different situations of how people knew about this fire. another woman told me that she woke up to the sound of someone just laying on the horn. she thought, oh, my gosh, how rude. instead that person could have saved her life. she was under that mandatory evacuation. another man who evacuated, robert lives in napa county and,

robert, talk to me. you were monitoring this fire a little bit overnight. >> that's correct. we actually turned on the news, the 10:00 news, and saw an alert saying there was a fire raging in ellis peak. we thought that's close to us and the property that we live on is shared and our neighbor called us and said you need to step outside and take a look. you could see the flames to the north of us. we were watching it for probably at least an hour and you could hear propane tanks and maybe transformers blowing up. we started getting things ready knowing if it did turn it might come in our direction and we were getting nixel alerts. i think around 1:00 or later an evacuation order through nixel. i went to get them out of their house and my son and wife came here to crossroads so they're here.

my son was here. he's getting excitement he probably never would have had. >> reporter: he was just in town going to the raiders game. >> he came for the raiders game and all of a sudden we're sitting here 6:00 in the morning right now evacuating from our homes not knowing if we have a home to go to. >> reporter: what finally convinced you you got the alert and said the conditions in and around your house had changed? >> we were seeing high clouds and the smoke and flames going up high. it was getting unbearable. it's time to leave. didn't want to risk it any further with my wife and son. even if we didn't get the nixle

alerts we would have been moving out. >> reporter: how at risk is your particular home? >> we're on the east side of napa. it's basically relatively rural where we live. a lot of vineyards around us and a lot have gone through harvest. we have dry leaves and dry growth right now. we have all these leaves falling down so there's a lot of fuel out there. there's just nothing but fuel out there. >> reporter: thank you so much, robert, for joining us, for sharing your story. one of about 300 different evacuees here. they have opened up a third location in the napa area the napa junior college. jessica and reggie, back to you. >> so many of those evacuees getting help from the red cross.

joining us on the phone now is cynthia shaw, the regional director of communications for the red cross and, cynthia, thank you for joining us. can you tell us what your resources are right now? >> so the red cross has volunteers that are staffing seven shelters across four counties, two in sonoma county, one in lake county and two in mendocino county. we have volunteers mobilizing to move more resources into the area but, of course, roads are very difficult right now. and so it is taking longer for us to get the people where we >> we heard earlier this morning that there are more volunteers needed if any adults are able to safely get to some of these evacuation centers because there is such a shortage of volunteers that are able to get to some of those safe places. tr

ue?is t >> reportter: i believe there ae many evacuation centers open. not all of them are red cross. the ones that are not red cross they're looking for volunteers. with the shelters we do have staffing at the time for those. and as i mentioned we are bringing in more volunteers and more resources into the area. >> is there any way for people to help if they are not necessarily in the north bay, perhaps a safe location where they can drop off items that you might need here in the bay area away from the north bay? is that set up? >> we don't have anything like that set up. we'll be looking with our partners to see if there are any resources. right now our focus as with all of the first responders is on the safety, shelter and safety for those evacuated. >> right. >> once we get that sort of stabilized then we will look at what additional needs. we don't have the ability to take goods because we're really focused on shelters and food.

>> okay. cynthia, thank you. you said seven different shelters across those four counties? >> the red cross has seven different shelters but numerous have been opened up by local governments and people should look a localthe t county or city websites for the details on current shelters because they are changing quickly. >> you mentioned nixle alerts. i urge anyone in the north bay who may be affected this morning to make sure you're signed up for those. text 888777. after you enter those numbers, you then send your zip code and as soon as there is an alert for your area you will receive it on your phone. really important information, cynthia. i'm glad you mentioned that, cynthia shaw from the red cross. we appreciate you and of course all the work done by your folks and the volunteers who are now showing up to help. >> okay. and now we want to collected in with reporter amy hollyfield who

is in santa rosa. she was at the hospital earlier but since then has moved. amy, you are near a mobile home park that has been affected by this fire, right? >> reporter: jessica, hi. look at what is left of this mobile home park. this is the journey's mobile home park. it has been destroyed. fire is still raging. firefighters are on scene doing what they can. the fire is in charge right now. i have the battalion chief standing next to me. we'll keep the camera on these stunning images. what can you tell us you have learned, first about people, what do you know about injuries? >> we can confirm throughout the evening there are numerous civilian injuries that have occurred. we don't have the number and extent of those injuries. there are injuries. >> reporter: is most it have in

santa rosa? >> this fire is 20,000 acres. it's burned from basically the napa county line towards calistoga all the way in to santa rosa which is quite a few miles. the rate of growth and how fast it's pushed into the area has made priority getting people out of the way. what can you do? >> this is the fire where it's impacted santa rosa. getting in there and putting out what they can. there's a big operation going on to get people out of the way. evacuations a obe reprti srity,t of their home safely and out of harm's way. we're going to prioritize getting people out of harm's way.

>> reporter: is it still racing through this valley, jumping freeways and jumping from home to home or do you have -- is it dying down at all? >> at different places it's dying down and kicking up. it is actively moving fire. we're really at the mercy of the winds because it's a wind driven incident. by no means is the fire contained. >> reporter: i can't get over the call of sirens. it's constant. what kind of call did you put out? >> it's no small feat to evacuate a hospital, you have fire agencies from all over california on this incident, law enforcement, just a real coordinated effort to get people out of harm's way and get some containment. it's a large effort.

>> reporter: i know you're so preliminary but i have to ask because people want information so badly, do you know about any other neighborhoods or homes -- we were able to show them this mobile home park that will have people wondering what about my neighborhood, do you know anything? >> law enforcement is leading the evacuation process. the sirens are going out in front of this fire and with firefighters determining the areas that need to be evacuated. if you feel as though you're in danger or you feel you need to get out, get to a safe place as soon as possible. this fire is no joke. you can tell by the speed of this fire what can happen. >> reporter: but no concrete info on this street or neighborhood, it's just too early? >> yeah, it's 20,000 acres right now. >> reporter: i'm sorry to be so demanding of my questions. i know people are watching and waiting. >> sure. i agree. >> reporter: okay. we just have to wait. when the sun comes up hopefully

that will help get a better handle on how bad this is. >> we'll get a better assessment of the scope of this incident. we'll be having additional resources here and starting to come up with the plan for containment. >> reporter: once the sun comes up will you be able to do an aerial attack? >> as soon as the sun comes up aircraft will be available.ther on in this area of california right now so there's a real strain on resources especially air assets but there will be aircraft in the air as soon as the sun comes up. >> reporter: on behalf of everyone watching, let me tell you, thank you. you're doing an amazing job. we appreciate you keeping us informed as well. did i miss anything? >> no. >> reporter: thank you so much, battalion chief jonathan cox as we look at the journey mobile home park. i'm sad to bring you these images. this is what the fire has done. as he said, a hard push through santa rosa. this is right behind the hospital along highway 101. this area has been really hard

hit. we'll continue to work to get more specific information about any other neighborhoods. i know people are anxious for that. they're working on it. we're working on it. but right now this is something to just take in and feel the impact. reggie, jessica, back to you. >> amy, when you made your way there, did you see any residents, any residents that might have been inside the mobile home park? >> reporter: i don't see anyone, no, no, no. it looks like a war zone. i mean, you know, just complete devastation. no sign of life. >> it is heartbreaking. it is difficult to sit here and watch that. can you also paint us a picture as far as the drive from the hospital there to the mobile home park. >> reporter: this is right behind the hospital. this is right behind the hospital. so we are up on the parking structure looking down on it. so this whole area, this is the

orange glow that we have been seeing behind the hospital. this is why they evacuated the hospital because this was burning right next to it. >> and can you tell from your vantage point whether or not you are safe there or if those flames are making their way towards the hospital building? >> reporter: i feel safe. they don't look like they're making a move toward us. it looks like they're just simmering what they're currently burning and there is a fire hose on some of the fire right now. so it does feel like the worst is over right here, if you could say at that. it doesn't feel like it's advancing. it just is burning. >> and one more question for you, amy, the firefighter you interviewed may have said this but how many firefighters are currently there on scene trying to get a grasp on this particular fire at the mobile home? he mentioned that resources are strapped right now. >> reporter: battalion chief, do

you know how many firefighters are here at this mobile home park? >> you know, i don't know specifically. >> reporter: he doesn't know specifically how many are here at this mobile home park. we see this one engine putting water on it. that's all we see. what is your priority level when you have something like this here? >> it's really you make gains where you can. firefighters are engaging and making holds where they feel they can and that's what you're seeing down here in the mobile home park and all over the north part of santa rosa right now. >> reporter: you don't feel can you make gains here? >> i can't speak to the incident right now. i'm not on the ground with them, but they are utilizing the tactics that are universally used as far as when and how to engage. >> reporter: okay, thank you. make gains where you can, that is the situation we are in right now. >> amy, i'm sorry if i missed this, i'm seeing that journey's end mobile home park may be a senior citizen mobile home park? >> reporter: oh, i don't know

that. i don't know that. >> that's just what i'm seeing right now. and, of course, that even brings up the level of concern. >> reporter: and i asked him -- yes. and i asked him if there were any life threatening injuries and he said they don't know the specifics yet but did say he won't be surprised. if you look at the scope of what we're looking at, you know, it won't come as a surprise if some injuries will be life threatening but that is not confirmed at this point. >> all right. we'll continue digging and looking into that. this is amazing what we're seeing and of course horrible. amy hollyfield, thank you very much. i want to get on the phone with matt pollack, principal in santa rosa. >> at the laurence cook middle school which, matt, we just heard has now been made an evacuation center. is that correct? >> yes, ma'am, we are open. we have salvation army here. we have medical assistance here. we're using our gym for shelter.

>> how many people can you receive? >> i would say a few hundred at this. if you have pets private residences for pets as well. >> do you live in santa rosa? >> i was wondering what woke you up. how did you know this was going on? >> i look out the window and realized we have to get moving. >> how close to where you live? >> about a mile away in the annandale area. >> you made your way to the school. it's now open, i understand. do you have any evacuees there right now? >> we have a lot of helpers. people came out when they heard we are an evacuation center. >> and just -- i know where this is, what are the cross streets there in lawrence? >> lawrence cook is stony point

road in sebastopol about a quarter mile west of that cross street, 2480 sebastopol road. >> i'm sure you're concerned about the families that you serve in your community. have you heard from any of them at all? >> not yet. we haves going to high school and some speople streadg in here. >> what are your resources, do you have enough? delivering food, water, other supplies. we have some health assistance, some assistance from kaiser. they can't work because it's shut down. >> that's matt pollack -- >> santa rosa police department has a person here as well. >> matt, good luck to you today >> matt, good luck to you today and of course our cover get 35% off on coit residential cleaning services

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including carpet and hardwood, tile, stone, even air ducts and window treatments. and your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed or your money back. that's 35% off everything coit cleans. call or click today. good morning. it is 6:30. we have been on the air here since 11:00 last night following an emergency situation in the north bay.

a 20,000 acre fire in the santa rosa area although it has gone way past the city and is affecting so l of our friends and neighbors. we've been sending push alerts to keep you informed and our live continuing coverage continues right now. >> and we have at least seven fires burning in the north bay. here is a look at all of those burning right now. we just got word the berkeley hills fire is now out and that is certainly good news this morning because look at all of those fire that continue to rage on. this is affecting roadways all around the north bay, alexis. >> absolutely. we have full closures of 101 in a couple locations. you can see there's a major fire there at sears point, state route 37 is closed from 101 all the way over to interstate 80 in vallejo and then surface streets you're seeing the clear lake park area, calistoga. we've got just significant road closures and where we don't have closures we have gridlock. we have tens of thousands of people evacuating and normally

this point in the morning is okay for the north bay commute but not the case today. we're seeing a ton of traffic. >> we have evacuation centers on your screen now. napa valley community college is the latest to open up in napa. that is the suggested evacuation center if you are in napa right now. they do have room. we have the napa county fair grou innd as ll calistoga. the elsie allen high school in santa rosa. new life christian church in petaluma. i believe we have others, petaluma community center, sebastopol community center in sebastopol. analy high school is a new one for sebastopol. that one opened up within the last hour or so. the solano community college in fair field. and lawrence cook opened up within the last half hour or so. >> this is video from kaiser

permanente in santa rosa taken about an hourin ing ago. we're looking at what appears to be a critical patient who is being taken away from the flames burning very chess lose to the . the flames you saw in that picture, those are now out. the fire department was able to show up and put that fire that was very close to the hospital out but, of course, the larger fire continues to burn not very far from kaiser permanente so they have been evacuating their patients. our amy hollyfield has been there and she saw the electricity go out and generator kick in. that evacuation has been successful. >> my sister lives just off redmond highway and may have lost her house. she has my mom with her. she brought her to this kaiser -- i think it's this kaiser. now i just came in from san jose so i was supposed to pick her

up. >> reporter: why kaiser? why to a hospital? >> she just had some stents put in and the smoke was really bad so she brought her over here. now i have to find them. >> reporter: and now they're evacuating the hospital. >> all of the patients have been evacuate there had now at kaiser permanente in san rafael or are on their way there. a cal fire battalion chief told amy resources are stretched thin and that at this point it is too early to know how many structures have been burned but we know that they are burning now. >> an entire mobile home park has burned down. amy was at the hospital but has since moved to have a vantage point of this mobile home directly behind the kaiser building. and let's check in with her now. amy hollyfield, what is the latest from the scene? >> reporter: this is the journey's end mobile home park. fire

we looked online and people online say it is a senior community, that this is for 55-year-olds and up, that they visited grandparents, great-grandparents here. we don't know anything about whether the residents all made it out okay. cal fire is telling us in this entire fire from napa to here they do have confirmed injuries. it's just too early so i'm not able to tell you at this point how the residents escaped this mobile home park. but we don't see anyone in there right now so there's no signs of life here right now, just devastation. and this is just one corner of santa rosa. if i can get you to look over in this direction, you'll notice there's an orange glow beyond this mobile home park on the other side of highway 101.

a large orange glow. so that's -- i mean, i can see flames beyond this mobile home park looking directly north along highway 101 so fire is everywhere. it has made a hard push into santa rosa and is just doing so much damage here. firefighters don't have any word right now on what, if any, containment they have. they are just right now trying to evacuate people and get people to safety. that is their main priority and they're trying to make gains where they can. the wind is still a problem. a lot of embers and the flames are being fueled by a lot of wind out here. this is burning right behind the kaiser permanente hospital here in santa rosa and this is why they evacuated the hospital, concerns this would spread over to the hospital, and it takes a lot of time to get people out of

a hospital. they wanted to while they have the time go ahead and get them out of there. i doesn't look like it will threaten the hospital at this point. the patients are out of there just in case. cal fire also telling me that they are estimating that this fire has burned 20,000 acres and it is still growing. reggie and jessica, back to you. >> in addition to kaiser that sutter hospital also evacuated in santa rosa. amy, thanks for all the information you've been able to gather a lot in the time that you've been up there. >> right now we have a photographer in the area that is joining us on the phone. thank you for joining us. what can you tell us? what have you seen this morning? >> well, good morning. i first got a call, an emergency vehicle going behind me here -- i first got the call about this this morning at 12:47.

came over the hillsburg fire department pager that there were three houses on fire on mark west road and there was a sheriff's officer that was on scene that was trapped, and he jumped into a swimming pool to save himself. throughout the morning i tried to find out more about the sheriff's officer and his condition, if he got out of there. nobody seemed to know anything about that. but that was how it was reported on redcom. >> where was that again? >> that was on mark west springs road right next to the end. there's a road that goes up next to the end with some houses up there and apparently that is the first call that i got. >> gerard, where are you in comparison to that? >> i live in hillsburg so i

could smell smoke in the air. it wasn't windy but down in the low-lying areas and down towards mark west road it must have been -- the wind must have really whipped through there. that's the only way that a fire like this can spread so fast so quickly is with the enormous wind and it spread across the freeway. luther burbank center was on fire, fully involved in the rear section of it. the front section with the theater in it seems intact. but even the shrubs were smoking around there. the artwork that was in the parking lot was on fire. there were houses -- there were so many houses on fire that there weren't enough fire personnel to put it out. so they were just burning. cars were on fire. i've got a lot of footage of that with me, unfortunately, you know, i'm stuck in traffic right now so i can't get it to you. >> when you say you're stuck in traffic what road are you on

now? >> i'm on 116. it's like a parking lot. i'm heading to san francisco. when the sun comes up they'll start an aerial attack and get a handle on it. at the moment the winds are calmer, but things are still burning and there's more fires than there are firefighters at this point. >> and, gerard, before we let you go, one more time, where was the artwork burning, in the parking lot of what building? >> well, that was sutter hospital. even the shrubs were burning in the parking lot. and the artwork next to luther burbank performance center, wells fargo center i guess it's known to some people as. >> okay. >> and both sides of the freeway. you look at the freeway on the east side of 101 where luther burbank is and sutter hospital. that's on fire.

houses all up and down that side are on fire. and then across 101 there's fires over there as well. and i didn't even get into the areas because there were so many areas. it was so vast. it went in so many different directions. i'm hearing when you're reporting today there are fires down in sears point, i didn't even know that. it's amazing that it's so large. it's hard to believe this could happen so quickly. >> thank you for joining us on the phone. please be careful and thank you for the insight into what scene was like near sutter hospital. t that hospital was also evacuated along with kaiser in santa rosa. >> we'll get to mike nicco in just a moment. we got a message from sonoma county sheriffs. we've been talk to go people in rohnert park and up until now it has not been an evacuation area

but east of rohnert park, the sheriff's office is heading in that direction to crane canyon road and they say they are going to begin an evacuation there. so if you live anywhere near crane canyon road, again, east of rohnert park, prepare to evacuate right now. mike nicco, what are we seeing? >> i wish we were seeing the sun so the planes and helicopters could be up. they're not up but it's getting close. quickly i want to talk about one of these, it's a respirator, something you may want to have if there's a place, walmart, target, you want to filter out the black soot. alexis said i could mention she's been wearing one most of the morning. she's pregnant. she doesn't want to breathe in that smoke. we had some of these around for her and hopefully you can find one, too. here is the reason why. to the graphics, if we can, scott, and i want to show you the air quality.

this is why the air quality is getting worse. this is a winery up in napa. earlier this morning, i believe -- or was this up in sonoma county? either way it's a total loss as can you see. you can also see the winds around it were guing. we had gusts about 2,000 feet up to nearly 80 miles per hour in hawkeye. that is hurricane speed winds. all right, so the north bay, you're in the highest ranking of unhealthy, severe. where is the coast in central bay? it is the coast and the bay. inland east bay is the east bay valleys. you're not having poor air quality now even though it may taste like it, smell like it, look like it. south central bay is south of dumbarton bridge in the santa clara valley is good now.

that's exactly what we love social media for and why we push it so hard. reports of smell there. reports of ash and soot down to sunnyvale as the winds continue to push to the south. the winds the big issue. let's talk more about those and theatest wind advisory. it's running until 11:00 this morning. now the national weather service as has been their protocol throughout the years will push it a few hours later than possibly they really think the most dangerous winds will end. my fingers are crossed that the new computer models that we're seeing are showing the winds calming in the next couple of hours will come to fruition. atlas peak down nearly 40. steady in the mid-30s. we've got knoxville creek and the hawkeye area which is now

running around 50 miles per hour. what happens is these winds get into the valleys accelerate a little bit and that's why we saw the gusts pick up. 37 in fair field. 18 in santa rosa. let me quickly show you the forecast so everybody can understand you see the winds down to 27, 17 in napa, and you can see them even lighter by 10:00 and almost nonexistent by the afternoon hours but what that means instead of all that pollution and smoke moving from north to south, it's mainly going to stay just up in the north bay so your air quality will be poor all day long. the rest of us it may improve just a little bit. it's time to bring alexis in here. a lot of evacuations going on. a lot of gridlock. she has it all for you. >> take a look at 101 and highway 12. this is in the santa rosa area and we're looking better. i realize this is not the best

quality camera here but our caltrans one. we were totally gridlocked about an hour ago. a little bit after good sign there. however, that's one of the only decent spots. i'll show you where you have the full closure bicentennial where northbound and southbound 101 is fully close this had morning and of course that is due to the fires. once you make it down into penn grove, petaluma, highway 116 where we talked to someone there, jammed, 12 miles an hour, iles an hour.8 a full closure of state route 37 between 101 in novato all the way over to interstate 80 in vallejo. we're starting to see some delays on 80 due to this. some are cutting over on 580.

as you know that carries a lot of traffic. so this is really tough. 1 miles an hour through vallejo. and then i wanted to show you emeryville. this is just totally jammed so some folks heading down to the bay bridge because so much of the north bay is cut off. that is really crawling along there and you can see that poor air quality in the north bay as well into the east bay, basically all of our traffic cameras at this point. we are seeing hazy conditions. so one of those days you will want to have the windows up and, yes, possibly get yourself a mask this morning, too. a lot of surface street closures, a lot of gridlock areas, reggie and jessica. i'm trying to keep up with this on my twitter page if folks want to head there for more details. alexis abc 7. >> please follow alexis on twitter. it is such a great resource for all of those smaller streets that are closed right now. and we do want to note we are going to stay on the air for this continuing breaking news coverage as long as we need to, past 7:00 when we usually finish our show.

we have been on the air since 11:00 last night as a station with all of our colleagues mobilized right now to get you the very latest information. >> there is, of course, a lot of information on our website that shows you exactly where these evacuation centers are and where the mandatory evacuations are which is an ever-continuing to change process. tiffany wilson is live for us in evacuation center at crosswalk community church in napa. this is one of the first centers open and, tiffany, you were telling us they have essentially stopped accepting new people because there are just so many folks inside. >> reporter: yes. so many folks inside. they estimate about 300 inside. the parking lot is also completely packed. in the last couple of minutes i saw an infant in arms and a toddler as well, so we're seeing a trickle of evacuees continue throughout the morning. i also want to mention we just saw a fire truck full lights and sirens going by north on 29 and

then a police officer again full lights and sirens going south on 29. the situation continues to develop around us as more and more sirens are heard throughout the morning. again, this evacuation in napa began late last night and one of the evacuees, jean, you went to sleep about 9:00 and woke up around midnight. what were the circumstances? what did you hear? >> we heard evacuate now. just get out. get whatever you can or what you need and leave. the first thing i thought of was getting my next door neighbor who is 93 years old and making sure we got her in our car, and went to knob hill supermarket where a lot of people were hanging around waiting for an evacuation center and found out to go to the fair grounds or to this nice church here, crosswalk.

and so we came here about 1:00 and have been here ever since. i heard that the fire is back in the silverado area on maui way and devastation. so it's not over. >> reporter: and i understand you didn't even have time to grab your medication, you just walked out the door. >> that's right. that's how they are taking care of things. >> reporter: you said the devastation. you know that you told me you're not sure if your house is still standing but one of the neighbors inside found out her house -- >> more than one. in fact, just recently, one that started back up again in silverado she was told that her house is burning right now. so it's -- i heard the highlands is completely gone. the crest is not looking good. there might be a few houses

safe, but it all depends on the wind and how everything is moving. >> reporter: and when you're talking to your friends in there, the ones who found out their house was burning, describe the emotion, what they're going through. >> well, they're numb. they just don't know what to think right now. they're just hoping that, you kn know, or praying for others and are glad that most everybody in silverado is safe because we had early notice. we're just devastated. so i'm hoping our home was there when we get back but it's more on the south side of silverado down mere monticello road and atlas peak. and all you can do is just hope and pray that all of our friends find a place to stay and we'll

be taking care of. >> reporter: jean, thank you so much. finding a place to stay is getting a bit more difficult.io full. they are sending people over to the napa junior college, but finding a hotel in the area very, very difficult. my photographer was able to secure one in vallejo. again, for families here that are trying to find a nearby hotel, those rooms are completely booked up and, in fact, a number of hotels that have been evacuated and those guests, many on vacation, have come here and so many told me they really don't know what to do because they're not familiar with the area. they don't know which direction is safe. they're not familiar with the roads. we've had a lot of questions from those out of town visitors. but right now it's pretty quiet. there are a number of people inside the shelter who are trying to rest on cots. there's a paramedic here. the red cross has set up with multiple trailers full of

emergency supplies, there's food, coffee, water inside. there are bathrooms. so, for the most part, people are relatively comfortable here but, again, there's just this desperation for news, what happened to my neighborhood, what happened to my house and, unfortunately, at this point that is the one thing no one can tell them. reggie and jessica, back to you. >> tiffany wilson, thank you. we thank all the people who have been talking to you. it can't be easy under these trying circumstances. we have talked to a number of people who had to evacuate. here is what they're saying. >> i just saw flames all up on the house behind myse so i h panicked and am still shaking. went out and they were screaming fire, fire, fire, get out. that's when i called my neighbors. we're all together. >> we got stopped by a couple of ambulances and fire trucks and they told us to evacuate the other way. go the other way. and from our view we were driving into the fire. and at the last moment the road

turned and there was a whole street full of people watching it and it's just crazy to see how it can come out of nowhere and affect so many different people. >> it is emotional. the fire is within 20, 30 feet of the house right now. nothing i could do to stop it. >> and you were just hearing from ray gibson, his house located in napa county along silverado trail in napa county and you're looking at video there of what we believe to be one of the wineries on fire earlier this morning. there are a number of school closures today because of the fire emergency. here are the schools that we know are closed so far, sonoma valley unified schools, napa valley, santa rosa city schools, all schools in calistoga. and we also just learned that sienna high school in napa is closed. the power is out at that campus. of course we'll update you here on air as we get more information on those closures. you can download our abc 7 news

app to get the latest information sent right to your mobile device. we're going to go over to my colleague jessica castro who has been looking at the video you've been sending to social media. this is our big board where we get social media information, videos, pictures from our viewers. this one, though, is actually from our colleague amy hollyfield who sent this out just a few minutes ago and it's a stunning image i want to share with you. this is the kmart in santa rosa that is now on fire and let me zoom in here to get a better idea of that structure up in flames. this is the kmart in santa rosa and it's incredible to see such a huge store like that up in flames right now. also want to show you pictures from our viewers here. this one from someone named josh. wine country burning. this is the tubbs fire. this is the fire we learned was about 20,000 acres this morning and it is still continuing to burn. this is from leslie ryder saying outside my backyard in

yountville this fire keeps moving downhill and north. this is one from the user name hammertime hamilton. rohnert park, petaluma hill road. rohnert park, as far as we know doesn't have mandatory evacuations but we heard to the east of rohnert park that some of those evacuations might be put in place but this is the view from petaluma hill road. here is a video we have also from that same viewer. and along the roadways you can see so much of this fire and we have seen numerous videos like this from you, our viewers, sending them in evacuating the areas that are affected and seeing these fires along the hills, the flames that are still burning along the roadways and been a concern this morning and you'll want to follow our colleagues out in the field, tiffany wilson and amy hollyfield. alexis is tracking the roads, the situation on the roads, the amount of traffic that is building up because people are

trying to evacuate. one last one from amy hollyfield. that's in santa rosa that went up in flames earlier this morning right behind the kaiser building. the kaiser hospital that was evacuated earlier this morning. so these pictures and videos are helpful if you can take them safely, please send them out and use the #abc7now. this gives us a better idea. we don't have hundreds of crews out on the ground and this gives us a better idea what people are experiencing, reggie, if people are sending in their photos and videos we can get a wider view of what is happening in the north bay to share with people as those evacuations continue to come this morning. >> that picture that amy sent of the kmart -- >> let me pull that up again. >> that is so hard to see. i believe this is the kmart on cleveland avenue. and just to watch that go up is incredible. i actually have a couple friends who live in santa rosa and they

are understandably just freaking out right now because they happen to not be in town and so they've bn information but i've certainly passed this kmart on the way to their home on a number of occasions and i'm crossing my fingers for them and you wondering what is going to come next. we're going to take a look at some of our traffic cameras. the reason we're doing this is to show you just how thick that smoke is even in areas that are not immediately affected right now by the names. this right now is san rafael and you can see the glow in the air and the long line of traffic. just so much smoke in the air. so many of you who are far away from the center of the fire have been affected. there's a look from our mt. tamm cam and mike has been warning us about the terrible air quality right now particularly in santa rosa and the north bay unlike what he's seen in all the years he's worked here but even in

areas like oakland and san francisco the air quality is quite bad and we have been smelling this and breathing this in for a while now. if you have any protection you can wear on your face or can pick it up, we would highly recommend that you do that even if you aren't in the north bay. here is a look from our east bay hills camera and, again, just seeing how much smoke is in the air. that is not smog. that is smoke we're waking up to this morning. no matter where you live in the bay area you are being affected by the fire in some way and of course a lot of the folks in the north bay trying to make their way here to safety. >> even in san francisco, though, we are seeing the poor air quality right behind us. cau the haze from the fire heading south here. >> and we're smelling it. >> we're smelling it in the studio even. so this is far away from where those fires are burning, so to speak, relatively speaking. and so it is affecting the entire bay area and that is going to be a concern throughout

the day is the air quality. >> andy woulsd leave you for "good morning america" but i want to let our if you have to leave for work or are about to be stuck in traffic we can continue to stream us live on that app as you are in your car. here is a list of evacuation centers. >> napa valley community college on highway 221. that is an evacuation center that opened up within the last two hours. napa county fair grounds has been an evacuation center. we have numerous evacuation centers throughout the north bay. there are being run by red cross and other resources coming in.