now from abc 7 live breaking news. >> that breaking news about the wildfires that continue to rage in the north bay. the death toll now climbing to 13. and as the flames continue to spread, a frantic effort under way right now to slow them. thanks for joining us, i'm reggie aqui. six fires tearing through the north bay have now engulfed more than 81,000 acres and here's the number that is so hard to comprehend. zero containment the. vice president mike pence just spoke in sacramento. he said president trump has approved a major disaster declaration for california to assist in the response to the wildfires. so that means fema will mobilize and provide additional equipment and resources. >> we will continue to work very

closely with governor brown, with the state of california, with each one of you to support your courageous first responders and come alongside the families affected through loss of persons and property. >> vice president went on to say that cal fire is inspiring the nation through its tireless work. now give you a closer look at where those fires are burning. napa county is grouping three of these fires into a larger one. the atlas fire, tubbs fire and partrick fire now being called the napa complex fire. those three are marked in red on this map. combined with the fires in sonoma, pend semendocino, lake s p 1,500 structures have been destroyed so far. we have live team coverage on the fires for you. abc 7 news reporter amy hollyfield in santa rosa. matt keller in solano county where evacuations have been under way. first we start with abc 7 news anchor dion lim in napa where

officials gave us an update a short time ago. >> reporter: that's right, reggie, here at the napa county sheriff's department, they sent a somber yet very strong message this morning asking for patience. napa county is in what they describe as energy response mode where they're still assessing damage and coming up with these numbers. two dead including a 98 and 1 100-year-old couple and 0% containment. the other thing cal fire asked for was safety awareness. >> typical of time of an incident some areas where we don't see smoke that understandably people want to get back in. however, it's not safe to do that until we secure the utility, the gas lines, ensure trees aren't going to fall down on top of someone. so that area of repopulation is a process that we're already starting to work on. however, it is not as easy as one would hope to ensure that safety. so i ask that people please be patient. as we work in these areas.

>> reporter: now, on that note of safety, even though a lot of people want to go back to their homes and assess the damage, the folks here, they urge everyone out there do not use drones. do not fly them over airspace to check out your home because this prevents them from using their own aircraft to assess the damage, themselves. reporting live in napa today, abc 7 news. >> thank you. north bay congressman mike thompson says requests for federal assistance have been september sent to washington. >> people need the help and it's the government's job to provide that help. congress has a responsibility and they need to live up to that responsibility. >> thompson says he is concerned federal help could be slow in arriving due to all the other natural disasters being dealt with right now. he says napa is still waiting for funding following other recent disasters that would include floods and earthquakes. certainly communication is key. and right now, a lot of people are unable to connect because they just don't have electricity or cell phone service.

comcast is now offering free wi-fi service in the fire zone to help people communicate and that is going to be available through friday. we know that many of you are having trouble connecting with loved ones, in fact, more than 150 people are still reported missing right now. today, napa county officials announced a new tool to help find them. my colleague, jessica castro, from abc 7 mornings, has more on that. jessica? >> reporter: hi, reggie, if you're looking for someone, all you node eed to do is go to the website safeandsound.org. this is a tool set up by the red cross. it they use it often for catastrophic events. you can see that they last used it here. there's a phone number for the las vegas mass shooting. it acts similar to a facebook safety feature, if you scroll down to the bottom of the website, search for someone that is missing. and you click on that bottom link there and then what you can do here is very easy to use, all you need to do is fill out the person's first and last name and then you have two options.

you can either choose to put in their phone number, or you can also choose to put in their full address. >> shelters are registering evacuees at this time. for confidentially reasons, we're not able to release those names that has to be done through that website. >> one more thing that's very important to note, if you're watching this and you have evacuated and you do not have help from your shelter or perhaps you're at a friend's home, you can register yourself on this page. you just scroll to the very bottom and here it is, all it is is a button you click on, says "list myself as safe and well." you fill out all of the information. only takes a minute. do remember that evacuees can choose not to register so if you don't find someone, also no need to panic quite yet. reggie, back to you. >> i hope that helps. okay, jessica, thank you. santa rosa did not need any more fires to spread. that's exactly what happened overnight. the nurkns fire affecting the o

lawn area north of the city. amy hollyfield has been monitoring that today. amy? >> reporter: hi, reggie, this intersection, highway 12 and malit t malita road is closed to residents. they can't check on homes in the oakmont neighborhood which is frustrating. the fire was headed to that neighborhood last night. we've been watching as residents try to negotiate and plead with police to please let them in. they are not letting them in. we did get to go in and take a look for everyone and we did see some good news. look how close the fire came last night to this home in oakmont at the top of white oak drive. >> my family is so immensely grateful for the work that they did to save this beautiful piece of property. >> reporter: the santa rosa firefighters made the stop. it took them several hours but they stood their ground and held the line. they not only saved homes, but also brought in good mental victory for themselves. >> feels good because the whole yesterday, we were, you know,

kind of mopping up and trying to not make much of a difference on some solve the structures, but in this case we actually were able to make a stop and save a home and save a number of homes up here. >> reporter: oakmont faced the biggest threat overnight. from what we saw, the entire neighborhood looks good. firefighters don't want to officially say that yet, though. >> we've not heard of any homes but i can't confirm that. that would be speculation if i said there were none. >> reporter: the neighborhood is still closed to residents. causing a lot of frustration this morning. >> and i have no updates as to when i'll be able to check to see if my home is even there. i'm concerned. it is frustrating. >> reporter: some people couldn't take it and drove in, anyway. bypassing the police barricade. firefighters say they understand that frustration, but say they really need everyone's cooperation. >> staying out of the area is actually the best thing that can people do to help us be successful. because it allows our

firefighters to deploy their lines, deploy their equipment safely and move around the neighborhood quickly l. >> reporter: we've heard a lot of people say we don't see any flames and that's part of their frustration. firefighters tell me think of it like a campfire. it may be out, but just a little bit of wind and it can flare up again. that's what they're worried about especially with the winds that are forecast for tonight. so i ask when will these residents be allowed back in? at this point, they don't know. reporting live in santa rosa, amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. >> you offer us a glimmer of hope today, amy, thank you. another new area of concern today, solano county, where the atlas fire spread late last night. abc 7 news reporter matt keller has been there all day long. matt? >> reporter: good morning, reggie, a lot of work is taking place past these road blocks. firefighters are trying to strengthen their control lines in preparation for the winds. much of the light was covered up in fairfield this morning. the smoke dimmed the sun creating a red ball in the sky.

road blocks were set up on sasoon valley road, only emergency vehicles allowed in. residents can't return until it's safe. barry and karla evacuated early yesterday but are having trouble getting information. >> we have fire on either side of circle oaks but we still don't know, the fate of our neighborhood. is it still safe? is the fire getting close? we don't know. >> that's a big kitty. >> reporter: the air was much better inside the shelter at solano community college. most of the people here were told to leave their homes in the green valley area late last night or early this morning. >> they told us that it was, like, a mandatory evacuation. we had to leave. like, there wasn't a time limit but they recommended we should leave, like, as soon as possible. >> reporter: jim wagner had already packed his important documents when he got the late-night call. >> trust sheriff's policies, passports. >> reporter: jim has been through a big fire before back in 2008. this time feels different.

so much devastation. >> we're in good shape here relatively speaking, other than i can't go home. >> reporter: one school about three miles past this road block on sassoon valley road is closed. it's the sassoon valley k-8 school. no word on when it will re-open. reporting live in fairfield, matt keller, abc 7 news. >> matt, thank you. we're getting a new perspective of the fires burning in the north bay. the chp posted these pictures on its facebook page. they show skyline park in napa county. the photos were taken from chp helicopter h-2 as it patrolled over sonoma and napa valleys. you saw there the scope of the phifire. meteorologist mike nicco telling us it could spread more tonight because of the potential of winds set to get dangerous ag n again. mike, what are you talking about here? >> well, same thing that happened sunday night, reggie, just on a smaller scale. we had a dry cold front go through sunday night on the back side of the cold front, that dry air rushed in, speeds up to nearly 80 miles per hour. that is going to repeat itself, but with slower winds. still fast enough it could cause

a problem. right now let's talk about the positives. up to 11 degrees cooler in the north bay right now with temperatures from 55 to about 64 in napa. that's good news as you look around, everybody else in the 60s and 70s. let's focus on the humidity. this time yesterday was in the teens. now in the 40s and 50s. lets look at winds. only gusting to 13 miles per hour on top of mt. tam. as we head through the afternoon hours to 11:00, it's going to start picking up. look at that during the overnight hours, 15 to 30 mile per hour gusts and 15 to 20 during most of the day tomorrow and then we'll ramp them up again, reggie, 15 to 25 tomorrow night. so it's going to spread. >> oh, it could be a very long night for those firefighters. okay, mike, thank you. many schools are closed today for a second day in a row. they include almost all of the 40 school districts in sonoma county except for horicon, ft. ross and montgomery. sonoma state university says the campus is safe but they're canceling classes today as a

precaution. also closed today napa valley unified school district, all schools in calistoga and suisan valley k-8 school and fairfield. get more on school closures on our website, action a. we got an update from pg&e. more than 91,000 customers still don't have power. most in the sonoma area. 53,000. 23,000 in the napa area. 13,000 throughout other parts of northern california. some customers also had their gas shut up. depending on the damage, pg&e is going to begin assessing those lines today. many victims of the north bay wildfires have lost everything they own. there are laws to protect them. how to make sure that your loved ones don't fall victim to a scam. that's next on abc 7 news. new baby brother for the mcclure twins. >> we're going to be the bestestest ever. >> next "right this minute."

and i am a senior public safety my namspecialist for pg&e. my job is to help educate our first responders on how to deal with natural gas and electric emergencies. everyday when we go to work we want everyone to work safely and come home safely. i live right here in auburn, i absolutely love this community. once i moved here i didn't want to live anywhere else. i love that people in this community are willing to come together to make a difference for other people's lives. together, we're building a better california.

here's today's morning money report. in light of the fires air bnb activated open holes program for those who had to flee. open their homes for free until the end of the month for families and relief workers who need a place to stay. they've done this after other emergencies including the las ves hurricanes. state's attorney general office is warning about price gouging laws in counties where an emergency has been declared. the law applies to hotels, rental housing, repair or reconstruction services. emergency cleanup services, transportation, freight, and storage services.

businesses that sell food, emergency supplies, medical supplies, building materials and gasoline are also prohibited from raising their prices by more than 10%. our 7 on your side team checked online, made a lot of calls to hotels in petaluma, rohnert and marin. a lot of hotels were sold out. those left are in the 00 to $200 range. with tragedy comes triumph. hero ek stostories of air rescu and air quality trouble. live look at our mt. tam cam. heavy smoke across the bay area this morning. where you can go to seek rel

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back now to breaking news coverage of north bay wildfires. going to look at video from chp's golden gate division air operations. since the fire started. the chp has rescued 44 people. five dogs and a cat using helicopters. on sunday night, a chp airplane pilot doing general law enforcement nearby vallejo spotted a glow, realized it was a fire and mobilized his colleagues. >> the helicopter that here in the napa airplane immediately responded, overhead within about five minutes and could see it was a major incident. the pilot and the flight officer activated the siren and the public address system and self-initiated evacuations telling people to leave. >> the helicopter is on the ground right now because of the smoke, but when that clears pilots are expected to head back up. and let's talk about that air quality. it's a big concern as the fires continue. this look from our east bay hills camera. it shows what we're talking about. the visibility is awful. we're used to that because of fog, but in this case, it's all

that smoke drifting down. that video taken around 7:45 this morning. the same time, we captured this video from our mt. tam cam. as you can see, that sunrise making that orange glow across the sky. take a look now at sky 7. this is a live picture as it is flying now to santa rosa. see that thick smoke hanging in the air. because of the public health concern, san francisco is inviting people to four of its main library branches that have air faciliilters to escape the air. find those lists on our website abc7news.com. mike noekco is joining me. earlier this morning i was looking at a website that was showing that san francisco was still in a moderate range. >> right. >> now that has really gone up. you can tell. >> the winds shifted just a little bit. just a very light northeasterly wind. brought all that thick smokemoke that we've wan been watching in napa, the visibility was down to three quarters of a mile. started to draw it back toward us in san francisco and the coast. it's going to continue to do

that the rest of the day. the air quality may be good right now but the possibility of it getting worse is almost an absolute. here's a look at san rafael, lowest we've seen the visibility all day, we look south on 101. let me throw up the air quality right now. we're unhealthy for everybody in the north bay. unhealthy for everybody along the coast and from the san mateo bridge northward. around the san francisco bay. now inland east bay, we're poor. those most susceptible, asthmatics, young, maybe the elderly, same thing in the south-central bay which goes down to about highway 237. then south of highway 237, that's where we actually have some of the better air quality, if you will, in the santa clara valley. right now it's moderate. what does all this mean? unhealt unhealthy. if you look right there, it means we're hittingticulate mat. everyone may begin to experience health effects if you haven't already. members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects and may have to go to

the hospital. the thing that really, i don't know if it scared me but startled me this morning, we had levels all the way down here in the 480 range in napa, almost to the top of the scale. that's how devastating and how just polluted the air was this morning. you can see because of all of those fires, this is usually our fog product i put on live doppler 7. that is all smoke right now. the visibility, down to a mile in napa. a mile and a half in petaluma. can tell you what is in santa rosa, but they don't have electricity at our official reporting station. this it what it looks like in walnut creek. lower fire danger because we don't have the winds. it's going to be breezy the next few nights. going to enhance the fire danger, spreading the fires. if you're in the north bay, have a bag ready to evacuate. have all your documents in it. just be ready. i think we will see a spreading of the fires, another dry cold front goes through tonight. now as we head toward the weekend, temperatures will be seasonal. the air will still be bone dry.

it won't be breezy. 66 to 71 coast and san francisco. high temperatures today. 74 to 78 around the bay and south bay and north bay. low to mid 80s in inland east bay neighborhoods. here, again, is a look from san rafael. see putrid the air is out there. as we break down your 12 hour day planner. 64 at the coast at 4:00. 75 around the bay. 38 81 inland. where warmest weather is. thinki inin ining about going o tonight, temperatu50s at noon, down to the 40s and 50s tomorrow morning but the air quality is going to get progressively worse once again during the overnight hours as the winds pick up and start to push some that smoke all the way down into the south bay. so the next two days, wednesday and thursday, we're going to have the worst air quality and the worst conditions for those firefighters. but then it will improve. and it does get a little bit w5r warmer as we get an offshore breeze this weekend which means more smoke is going to head toward the coast, reggie. everybody is going is to get it sometime this week. >> okay. two days of bad conditions,

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we're going to recap our breaking news on the north bay wildfires. this is what we know right now. the number of people killed stands at 13 after mendocino county announces two more

deaths. right now the six fires continue to burn in napa, sonoma, mendocino and lake counties. there is no containment. >> that's scary. >> the fires have charred more than 81,000 acres so far. the office of emergency services is getting ready to hold a news conference in the next few minutes. we're going to bring that to you as soon as it starts. of course, you can download our abc 7 news app. enable push alerts. you'll be the first to know about breaking news. you can also watch that live streaming news conference on our news app or on your computer if you want, if you happen to not be by your tv when that happens. want to let you know, of course, we will give you that information as soon as it comes on. we do expect it in the next couple minutes. if there's a delay,

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