good afternoon, again. >> we have reporters and camera people throughout the north bay bringing you the very latest on the fires right now. i want to give you a quick up in, a look at the latest statistics. we have 70,000 acres that have burned, at least 1,500 structures that have been destroyed and we do have at least two people confirmed dead. >> and that figure could well have gone up significantly. we don't know. you're looking live at sky 7 at some of the fire lines over wine country. this thing spread very quickly overnight because of 50-plus mile-an-hour wind gusts, spot fires broke out in every possible direction. so it just spread really rapidly

and was just tcon contain those fires. >> we have this report fromments ago. >> reporter: i'm standing in a community in santa rosa. unfortunately what you see behind me, a home engulfed in flames is sight scene all too often. we have been sanding here for just about five minute and we've seen the roof collapse and flames completely e e e structure. neighbors tell me this is an area of million dollar homes. as we've been driving around, we've been seeing pretty much everything leveled to the ground. we're told that these million dollar homes often have cars packed in the driveway. we've heard from self homeowners

who are frantic knowing their neighbors are out of town and will come hom e to this devastation. all around me, there are responds are from different agencies. i try and flag them down and got information from them but as you imagine, there are at last 50, if not 75 homes in this area that have the same situation, that are in flames. i can tell you we can hear chopper overhead. in a nearby community, the fountain grove village, that is where a barbecue restaurant is, that is also a residence area that has been completely leveled. and the oakmont assisted living facility has been evacuated to a nearby church. on occasion you'll hear an explosion. we were told by cal fire that

often times it's a propane tank, it's a gas line or it is some other explosive material. so they are sending a strong warning to anyone in the area to stay away. because even though this is a virtual ghost town here in santa rosa where we are at, we're seeingoccasion, come by, take pictures, try to sift through the remains -- right there, another small explosion coming from that house. we will stay in santa rosa and try and get a better scope of devastation that is now affecting undoubtedly hundreds upon hundreds of home. dion lim, sky 7 news. >> these numbers do change as we go along. at least 1,500 structures in

napa and >> right now sadly zero containment on these fierce. >> there are at least two fatalities, one in santa rose a. the c.h.p. said a woman who was blind was found dead in her driveway. >> and several others have been injured as well. more it and 20,000 have been evacuated, not to mention the many, many animals as well.

>> and now laura sill vr hiver highlands when th caught fire and was completely destroyed. firefighter himself been on the scene but they've been just overwhelmed. they had to let the homes burn and concentrate on saving the homes that have not caught fire yet next door. they have to move on and save the one that isn't burning because they have to make decisions. >> very tough decisions. and the world's now largest air tanker is now making its f its s retardant drop this morning on the atlas fire burning in napa county. that was at about 11:30 this morning. that's 20,000 gallons of

retardant being dropped. that jet, the super tanker, can drop retardant, gel, foam and water or the combination of any two of those agents that can be used in firefighting. the supertanker can reach virtually any point in north america. >> it's just remarkable the size of it. it can travel long distances and dump this enormous amount of fire retardant. on the phone with is tell us what's been happening at valley medical center from your pr expect perspective. what's going on? >> we're here at napa valley. we instituted our facility in

preparation of receiving moments. so far we've received between 40 and 50 patients. primarily we're seeing issues related to smoke inhalation and minor burns. we have more recently seen a few more significant injuries related to evacuation. so unfortunately we've had a few car crashes and broken bones from people falling as they move about and try to evacuate. so we really want to put out the message there that everyone remains as safe as possible, if you have to evacuate, to be very safe. we don't want to see additional injuries as people try evacua evacuate. >> earlier you had trouble getting information out to

staff. are you able to handle the influx of folks you've gotten? >> we are. we really appreciate you helping get the information out, along with social media, it helped a great deal. we have all the physicians and nurses that we need and we appreciate your support. >> and wondering, vanessa, giving the fact that kaiser and santa rudder had to evacuate their facilities, are you normally the facilities to receive them? >> we would normally but since we are also in a disaster area, we have not received any patients. our sister hospital, santa rosa memorial hospital in santa rosa did receive patients from both kaiser and sutter earlier this morning as those hospitals

evacuated. so, for instance, we received about six babies from sutter and two moms that were in active delivery and then multiple patients from kaiser as well. for the most part, those were more emerge ent statements thate treated. >> vanessa, thank you so much. van's degier with squeen queen n valley medical center. treating people coming in, a number of accidents, people tripping and falling as they try to get out of the way. >> our reporters are doing great work showing us what's on the ground. in napa unfortunately, laura in the

neighborhood. >> reporter: one of the pop told me about 17 homes in this immediate area. the home behind me is clearly one of those. if you look past me up the hill, can you see the path of what was clearly a fire storm last night. as it came through here starting right around 10:00, i think, and this is part of the fire that came up out of the canyon above us here and came right through here. there's homes above it that look okay, there's homes below it that look okay. you can clearly see there's a path right through this home and all the way down to the left, you can see there's a home down on the other side and then more down below that. it was clearly a path that just ranled right through here. let's hear now from the man we ran into, a resident, he was in a golf cart. he had his mask on. he was going around to his neighbors' homes. he was literally trying to stamp out any hot spots he could find.

>> i'm trying to figure out how to describe it. i man, it was just -- the wind was like hurricane force winds. i mean, the sky was filled with it seemed like a billion fire flies from all the embers and what not. the wind would keep changing and so next thing you know, a house over here would burst into flames and a house over here would burst into flames. it wasn't a whole lot of fun to see. and we're still seeing them go up today. there are things starting to float around and all of a sudden you start to see smoke coming out from underneath and they can't do a whole lot about it. >> at least today the wind has died down. i've talked a lot with the firefighters that have been up here. they seem to be doing a pretty good job -- actually, i think they've been doing a really good job, just trying to contain as best as they could, especially with the wind. >> it's more than people can handle. >> this is crazy. >> and the wind has died down quite a bit. but we are still seeing every so often we'll see a black plume of

smoke and another home is going up. some of these homes, they thought they were okay even into this morning and then there's a lot of embers flying around and suddenly there will be an ember underneath a house and a house you thought survived and people were thankful is suddenly going up in flames. and your house was okay fortunately. and the house across the street you thought was okay. what happened? >> i was here recall this morning. i would have told my friend across the street his house was going to be fine. i came back about two hours later, his house was totally engulfed in flames. about half of the houses here have been lost. it's so random. i lost the house on both sides of me and across from me. there were obviously

firefighters in my house. i could see that people had been in there. they saved my house. these guys are just spectacular. >> reporter: this is obviously an emotional time for you and for your neighborhood. >> it's tough. it's a tough great, great neighbors, but it's tough. these people are losing their homes. you know, you just can't feel worse about it. and it happened so fast. i had cars were honking their horn at the street at 10:00 last night and i couldn't figure out what the problem was. i went outside, they yelled "fire." i ran up the street because we had a canyon fire here about ten years ago, and the fire came from that direction. and i wanted to see how close maybe it might be. and as i ran up the street, i could see like orange smoke right over the house that was across the street from me. i ran inside and said this time

we're packing nothing, just get in the car, we got to get out of here. i left my garage doors open, the front door was unlocked, firefighters obviously found a way to save my house. they were in there. and when i arrived this morning the garage doors were closed and my house is safe. it's amazing. >> reporter: as we're standing here, there's a family above us. maybe could you take a look. these folks just arrived and they are not as fortunate. these are your neighbors, right? >> totally lost. their place is totally lost. and then this fella right here, his place is fine, jack. his place is going to be fine. so it just -- it's devastating what's happened here. >> you guys will rally together. >> we will. >> reporter: all right. >> we will. >> reporter: wirt cook, thanks

some for joining us. the weather right now pretty good. every so often a gust of smoke, it's nothing like we saw early this morning and like what mr. cook described last night. and now have an update of what we can expect going forward. spencer? >> let me give you a look at our nasa satellite image. a big cloud of smoke, that's been the pattern, the smoke moving away from populated area and out to see. still the smoke remains with lots of particulate matters and pollutants. it looks like it will continue for a while. in the hills we have gusts 10 to 20 miles an hour in the north bay. generally moving offshore as i illustrated there with the satellite image. so that's good news. down at the surface, the wind is quite a bit lighter and it's

variable, near the coast and up in the north bay, it's been coming out of south, sou wethwe the last few hours, which means cool are and more humid air has been flowing in the areas of the fire. that may reduce the possibility of more fires developing but it's probably not a significant help to the firefighting effort currently going on, though it certainly hasn't made things worse. that's good news. let's look back at the atlas peak area the hawkeye, a gust of 69 miles an hour measured around 2 a.m. or so. 68 miles per hour gust at santa rosa, and napa, oakland, petaluma and knnovato at 28. that 79 is stronger than a

category one hurricane. you can see why the wind has driven and swept these fires so widely. over the next 24 hours, the good news is at least at the surface level we are expecting very light wind. you can see here from 5 p.m. until about 2 a.m., wind will be anywhere from about six or seven miles per hour to almost no wind at all. then we'll see the light wind picking up again between 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. we're talking two, three, four miles per hour. it won't be until late tomorrow afternoon that woo expect the wind to increase to above ten to 15 miles per hour. that's good news for the firefighting effort. and the high fire danger red flag warning is sill in effect. even with cooler air moving in and temperatures dropping a bit and with the wind not quite so strong, we till have high fire danger. the air is so dry.

all the vegetation is very dry. of course a wind gust can develop unpredictably at just about any time and flames are out there now to farther reaches. so the high fire danger, the red flag warnings in effect until 5:00 tomorrow morning. in higher elevations gusts from 30 to 50 miles an hour still, even those they'll be lower in the lower elevations. humidity dangerously low still, 10 to 20% is what ewe expect an with those conditions, fires can easily start and spread. if it is any encouraging news, it's the smoke is blowing offshore away from populated areas, the temperatures are dropping a bit. it hasn't been hot but it has been warm across the north bay. humidity is picking up a little built as those winds flowing onshore are bringing cooler, more humid marine air into the area. but we still have high fire danger. the air is still quite polluted

in areas where the smoke billowing out there and their fires create their own weather conditions and microclimates and the air is hotter near the fire and the air is super heated and gusts of winds in air rush in to replace it and generally the winds are are are are are are ae the fire, those gusts near the fire makes the firefighting effort more difficult. >> so many people have been affected by the haze over the fires since the fires broke out. >> millions of people had noticed around the bay area, smelling the smoke and noticing the hazy air all across the region because of these fires. >> and you can see along the martinez waterfront, smoke is in the air. looking to the north, one

resident told us the smoke woke her up in the middle of the night. >> we looked outside, saw it was not in martinez. i picked up my phone to look at my phone alerts and that's when we knew what was going on in napa and santa rosa. >> now you're looking at what people in walnut creek see, smokey, hazy, visibility very poor. a there are tips to reduce your exposure. limit outdoor activity. set the air conditions in your home, office or car to recirculate the air and if you do have to be outside, you saw some reporters had a mask they could put on. >> and avoid being out as much as you can. just a little bit of news in, the ronart park school system

has reached out to us, their telephone communication system is down and school is cancelled tomorrow. they asked us to help spread the word, no school tomorrow. >> jonathan? >> we're here at the napa county sheriff's office where even this far away from the fire, we're still feeling ash raining down on top of us as we're standing here. with me is kristie jordan, a public information officer for the county of napa. you guys are fighting multmultiple fires right now. >> there are three fires burning in napa county, in different areas of the county. resources are deployed throughout the county. we finding collecting information and getting the information out to folks about evacuation has been one of the top priorities. >> you have two conditions, one

mandato mandatory evacuation and one is voluntary. >> the advisory is over as sausko creek to north kelly road. we're telling people if you have a mandatory evacuation in those areas, please follow those instructions. first responders are out there trying to save lives. >> our apologies. we lost jonathan's signal. it was a little weak to begin with and kind of a tough area at the moment. you're looking at video from sky 7. you just saw that massive super tanker, that 747 that can dump

20,000 gallons of retardants. they're using a number of helicopters doing water drops. here's where they literally slurp the water up into the helicopters so they can then drop it on to the fire. they'll find a reservoir or lake somewhere nearby. look at this fixed wing. it's not the 747 but a smaller craft dumping that orange fire retardant on to the ground. >> they have been able to take to the air the past few hours pause the visibility has improved. it allows for aircraft to take to the air, which early, early on in this process, they were unable to do so. >> it's really a strange because it's so desperately needed. if they can't fly, they can't fly for safety reasons. >> and we go live to yountville. we see another one of these devastating scenes behind you. >> that's right, dan. i'm in one of the neighborhoods that got hit very hard by this fire. we've counted about ten to 15

homes completely homes completely destroyed, including this one. one thing that i noticed about this house is there were halloween decorations out front. there was clearly a family living here and i did learn two children lived at this house with their parents. they were able to get out with their parents but they are not coming home at all. we have a neighbor here, doug, the fire took out certain homes and left others untouched. you're one of the lucky ones. tell me what your reaction is seeing your home standing. >> we're very happy it's standing. we thought we had a nice 30 to 50 foot defensible space and that's what saved our house. we had a lining of trees and a lot of dirt between the trees and our house and that's what saved us. in front, in back and on both

sides, the houses burned down. >> reporter: when did you realize something was really serious? >> we started watching it around 11:30 last night. we were hoping it was going to run up the hill. around 3:30 it crested on the ridge line and we knew it was time to go. we saw the police as well as the fire department going door to door at that point in time. we found out at 7:30 this morning that most of our neighbors had lost their houses. >> what's that like, even though your house is here, a lot of your neighbors are going to come back to something much different? >> i agree. these are families. they have mementos and heirloomheirlooms you can't replace. we hope that everybody got out and books's safe, including their pets but when you lose everything you own, there's always going to be a lot of loss and heart ache. we hope they can recover and get back to normal as soon as

possible. >> reporter: it must have been very scary when that fire got started. >> it was. there was a lot of dirt and debris flying around and a lot of people were panicked. there were 30, 40 cars around us anas panicked. it was 3:30 in the morning. it was dark. it was very chaotic. almost apocalyptic. >> thank you for talking with us. we're glad that you're safe. we're looking at one of several homes in yountville. we're on mt. george avenue. we've seen several homes that look just like this. the fire destroyed all sorts of homes, different properties. another couple up the street led in their house for 30 years. they actually had an animal sanctuary there and they came back hoping they would be one of the lucky ones and they did find that their home burned down. we also talked to a family who

ended up pumping water out of their pool. they were fighting the fire themselves. this really happened so fast last night that firefighters weren't able to get to some of these places. some of these places are very rural, you have to go up one-lane roads. some of these naeeighbors triedo stick it out and fight the fire themselves. one family in the napa area, their house was saved and their neighbors all lost their homes. >> we've been here all night fighting the fire. we were one of the lucky ones. all of our neighbors up the road lost their homes. >> reporter: what was that like when you were here during this fire? >> horrible. horrible. >> reporter: were you scared? >> well, you couldn't breathe. so we were wearing masks and stuff to try and breathe. and it was just buckets and pumps and trying to keep the house and everything wet and not burn down. >> reporter: now an issue that

we've had here is there are all sorts of road closures. there's really no cell service at all so it has been very hard for people to communicate. we had people asking us for help, wanting to drive into the closed off areas to find family members to find out information about their home. it's very difficult for residents to know what the situation is with their home, is their home still standing, are their neighbors and friends okay? there's a lot of people helping each other. one neighbor said they started a text and e-mail chain so people can spread information and keep each other in the know. i saw people giving others bottles of water, everybody trying to come together during this very difficult time here. back to you. >> all right? why thanks very much. look at what's left of that area. just remarkable devastation. >> right now we want to show you

dramatic video from santa rosa. this is whether kaiser hospital was being evacuated. firefighters pulling an intense of care patient still in his bed toward an ambulance. >> the fire reached the very edge of the grounds before firefighters did manage to beat it back. >> kaiser said it evacuated 130 patients from its santa rosa medical center. one family came to the hospital looking for her husband. imagine the panic. >> my sister lives off the highway and it sounds like she may have lost her house. she's got my mom with her and she brought my mother to i think it's this kaiser. >> reporter: why kaiser? >> she just had some stept s constituenconstituenstents put in and now have i to find them.

>> reporter: and now they're evacuating the hospital. >> all the of patients have been evacuated to kaiser san raphael. resources are being stretched very thin, as you can imagine, and that it is too early to tell how many structures have actually burned but we're hearing at this moment the official count and it's probably greater than that at this stage because that number is a little bit old but 1,500 houses and structures have burned. what a remarkable and powerful image as they evacuate a patient with flames right behind them. >> now let's look at pictures poeted from c.h.p. that division has been so busy rescuing people and doing an amazing job. they've rescued 42 people today, ranging in age from 5 to 91 years old. >> and