it's me and it's you. don't stop now, it's easy to add to the routine. join energy upgrade california and do your thing. a glimmer of hope amid all the devastation in the north bay. new progress is being made in the fight against ten wildfires now raging. firefighters taking advantage of calmer winds for now. as they work to gain the upper hand. we have live team coverage, our crews in sonoma and napa counties with more on the race to save homes and lengths some are going to to guard their own property. thanks for joining us. i'm kristen sze. new this midday, firefighters have increased containment of the two largest north bay fires. the atlas fire and the tubbs fire. let's give you an update by the numbers. atlas fire burning in napa and solano counties climbed 48,000 acres.

tubbs fire burning in napa and sonoma counties burned nearly 35,000 acres but containment has more than doubled for both fires since yesterday. we'll show you the numbers in just a moment. now officials say at least 31 people tragically have died in the fires. 17 of them in sonoma county. the fires have destroyed at least 3,500 structures. and that number is expected to climb. new information on the fires burning in napa county now. officials say they're making better progress today than yesterday. the atlas fire is now 27% contained. the tubbs fire is 25% contained. they have burned more than 82,000 acres combined. officials say all the mutual aid firefighters coming from everywhere is making a huge difference. some evacuees in eastern napa county are now being let back into their homes. >> the avenue have been open up as well as monticello park. people can return to their homes in those areas. silverado country club has been opened up to residents only.

like to remind all the residents as they go back in just because the roadways may be open does not mean you will have lights and water. >> now if you do go back, health officials say you sneneed to we protective gear including masks and gloves. >> want to urge caution in going back to your properties. wear protective equipment such -- 95 mask, goggles, construction boots, and clothing that covers your arms or legs. do not touch the toxic debris with your bare hands. ali additionally if you have food that's left in the refrigerator was power was out, do not eat that food. >> okay. that includes nonperishable items, they, too, could be toxic. for people still needing shelter the county is also reminding evacuees shelters will not ask about your immigration status. >> we do not want anyone sleeping in their cars, we do not want anyone in harm's way. we do not want you to fear leaving your home because you do not have a place to stay.

>> this morning, napa county officials ordered additional neighborhoods to be on standby to evacuate at a moment's notice. they also lifted evacuations in other areas. a new evacuation advisory is now in effect west of highway 29, from oakville grade to rutherford road. abc 7 news reporter matt keller is live in the area with mixed news for napa county residents. matt? >> reporter: kristen, while some people are being allowed back into their homes others are edge. take a look at the nuns fire. the smoke has really intensified over the past 30 minutes or so. a lot of residents are wondering if they're going to have to evacuate. the fires are intense, the smoke relentless. the hills separating napa and is a noma counties are still being blackened. eventu ventura county firefighters wrapped up a 48 hour shift. overnight on structure protection. >> our goal is to help the community to heal, get people back in hair home their homes ae

back to somewhat normalcy. >> reporter: the nuns fire is concerning enough, an evacuation advisory west of highway 29, oakville grand ade, rutherford . >> does not mean you have to go to immediately, means you should be prepared to go. >> reporter: oscar came to check out the fire burning near his property on mt. veeter. he was evacuated on tuesday. >> we have a farm with animals we had to release and beautiful vineyards up there as well. we're waiting to see what happened to the property. >> reporter: oakland police are patrolling the city of calistoga to make sure nothing is happening to homes and businesses. everyone has been evacuated as the tubbs fire continues to burn. well, almost everyone. >> we ask, there are a few residents remaining, we ask that they leave the city. >> reporter: the nuns fire has been burning in he ye in he year lot of smoke coming off the fire. full containment is not expected

for another week. reporting live in oakdale, matt keller, abcsonoma county, suffered the greatest loss in lives and homes. firefighters are battling to prevent more losses. abc 7 news reporter amy hol hollyfield is live from sonoma, with video from the front lines and real story of success, amy. >> reporter: hi, kristen. we do. it's from a visiting fire team. they say often when they go to these far-away fires by the time they get there, it's over, they're just on mopup. not this one. here we are on day five. behind this police line, there's still an active fire fight going on. here is a close look at the fire lines. of firefighters saving a sonoma home. this was late yesterday on east 7th street. up in a rural area locals say is known as the ranch. >> we are just literally running from house to house, and, you know, these houses are on 10, 20 acre parcels. not like they're right next to each other. >> reporter: this is just one team from the livermore pleas t

pleasantpleasan pleasanton fire department. these firefighters with their one engine estimate they saved six homes from late afternoon until 9:00 last night. >> it's super smoky, super hot. you really can't see very well. pretty neat that, you know, somebody that doesn't know is going to be able to come home and find their property there. >> oh, no. >> that's in the ranch. >> is that in the ranch? that's where we live. >> that's above our house. >> reporter: we showed the video to evacuees who are desperately waiting for any information. >> yeah, it's terrifying because it had been two ridges away, now it's on doorstep. >> reporter: any information we do have is always welcomed but often there's a follow-up question. >> do you know if the fire's come to the top of the hill or come over the top of the hill? >> reporter: along with anxiousness amongevacuees, also a lot of gratefulness. >> one windstorm away from having the town demolished. so sad, so many friends and family here, there's so much love here, the responders are

absolutely incredible. >> reporter: they're channeling a lot of that anxiousness in different ways. look at this home. this has not been evacuated but this home just in case, you can see the homeowner's got his garden hose up on the roof ready to go, we also had residents stop by and ask us if we need coffee, if we have gas masks. everyone doing what they can to help. as for that fire team, we featured, they have been on for 28 hours. they told us they're really hoping to get a meal and some sleep soon. reporting live in sonoma, amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. >> a real sense of community there, amy, thank you. you know, hundreds of people can't get near their homes right now to find out if their house was destroyed or spared. abc 7 morning's jessica castro shows is us how a new online tool may be able to help. >> reporter: i want to show you a really great tool for evacuees or perhaps you know someone who needs to check on a property in the city of santa rosa. they sent out a tweet thus morning with a link to a map that actually has an aerial view

of the city after the fires hit. zoom in and look around santa rosa. the red her is vegetation, it is not the fire. i'm going to zoom in to the cof if, fey neighborhood, hard hit, just around coffey park. look at that. you can't make out any home. if you zoom in closer, there are some areas, this is what the tool steally great for. look at this. see exactly where that stopped and homes that are in fact next to a fire. brandy lane, some homes are okay. crimson lane, also there are some homes that made it through and were spared by the fire. we've put this tool on our website, abc7news.com. just click on the link that says maps. i'm jessica castro, abc 7 news. the abc 7 news app sent out a push alert this morning to let users know about this new resource. you can download the app for free and you'll see a link to the interactive map when you open it up. be sure to enable push alerts to get breaking news updates as

they happen. we've been getting updates throughout the day. the california office of emergency services is holding a news conference at 11:30. that's in about 21 minutes. we're going to bring that to you. we're also expecting to hear from sonoma county and cal fire official s at 1:00. we'll air both the news conferences live on abc 7 news and of course watch them live on the abc 7 news app. firefighters are also battling huge flames in mendocino county. redwood and potter fires burned 34,000 acres and are just 10% contained. crews are chopping down unstable trees to prevent any further wildlife or wildfire flare-ups. officials say eight people have been killed, 8,000 others displaced. the situation is changing by the day. >> i'm telling you eight fatalities, and unfortunately i'm going to tell you tomorrow once confirmation has happened, the number will go up. >>

closed all week but they helped unload water for victims. because of all the smoke from the fires, see behind me, here's the view from the east bay hills camera looking at a smoky, hazy unpleasant mt. diablo there. air quality officials say the smoky aer we've been having is unhealthy and unprecedented. i've lived in the bay area for over 40 years, never seen anything like this. prompted the clowe shower of schools all around the bay area. >> this is the worst i've ever seen. this is the worst air quality the bay area has ever had. >> if it gets much worse, are we going to have to move out of the -- move temporarily auto aua the area to get where it's not so smoky? >> to protect yourself, officials recommend wearing a mask that has n-95 written on it, it filters out the particulates. let's get to meteorologist drew tuma with the latest on the air quality. when can we expect things to improve?

>> yeah, kristen, behind me t typically you should be able to see the east bay. your visibility stops at the bay bridge. the air quality is poor to very unhealthy, the worst air quality currently in the north bay where we have active fires and doesn't get much better over the weekend. saturday and sunday, the air quality will range from anywhere from poor to unhealthy. across the entire region. winds right now part of the problem because with a calm wind in most spots, it keeps the smoke near the surface. calm winds are good news for firefighters. however, those winds will be increasing the next 24 hours. close to midnight tonight, early tomorrow morning, those winds will be gusting over 20 miles per hour mainly in the north bay. we'll take a much closer look at those winds and a chance for some rain coming our way in the north bay. that coming up in the full accuweather forecast in a few minutes. kristen? >> drew, thanks so much. now to a truly incredible story. we're hearing from a sonoma county couple who survived the wildfire by huddling in a

swimming pool. for hours. >> tried to get out in our cars. >> ran down here and we found our way into this pool. >> abc news obtained this video from the "l.a. times" of jan and her husband, john. they survived the firestorm monday morning by running out of their home and into the neighbor's swimming pool in santa rosa, used a wet t-shirt to protect faces from burning embers and also went underneath, under the water periodcally to keep from being burned alive. they were in the pool for six hours before the fire died down. many of those who lost their homes to the fires have also lost their jobs. at least temporarily. how the government is helping make it easier to claim unemployment benefits. plus a new venture from apple co-founder steve

breaking news now out of santa rosa. this is a live look at the journey's end mobile home park. abc 7 news has learned there are about 50 search and rescue personnel at the scene right now, in fact, see them all there. they are searching the perimeter. what's left of that mobile home park that was burned. alameda county is providing assistan assistance. they're using drones with infrared technology that could help find possible human remains. or if there's any heat, maybe someone's alive. so hard to imagine, though, when you look at the devastation. but we do know there are some others who are reported missing that resided at that park

including ellen wade whose relatives actually posted her picture on our own abc 7 you report website to try to locate them. there are others we know who are missing who live at the journey's end mobile home park. our crew is at the scene. we'll have much more on the search coming up on abc 7 news this afternoon. we do know of at least one death, sadly, at journey's end mobile home park. earlier this week we told you 69-year-old lynn zainda tunis d there when flames engulfed here home. going to shift gears now and talk about today's morning money report. many people who lost their homes in the wildfires also lost their jobs. at least temporarily. there is help. according to 7 on your side's mi michael finney, waiving the seven day waiting period to claim unemployment benefits and those injured in the wildfires may be eligible for disability benefits. if you take time off work to care for family member injured in the wildfires, you may be eligible for paid family leave

benefits. family members include kids, parents, grandparents, in-laws and domestic partners. some local assistant centers opening in the disaster zones will be offering help in applying for benefits and help in finding a new job. michael finney posted links for all of this on his facebook page. new this morning apple co-founder steve wozniak is forming a school to offer affordable tech education. the apple blog, 9 to 5 mac, reports wazu is launching online first. wozniak says there are plans to offer brick and mortar campuses in 30 cities around the world in the near future. he says the goal is to bring people into the workforce and provide a snew source of traine tech workers for companies looking to hire. we do have another day of dangerous air quality. let's take a live look now for you. getting our cameras up. really, you can see the air quality if you just look out the window, it is very dangerously bad. meteorologist drew tuma is up on

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and in accuweather, our smoke from the north bay fires creating poor to very unhealthy air quality, also creating issues at san francisco international. current flight delays at sfo arriving flights delayed over three hours. so you want to check with your carrier. oakland and san jose are doing okay. right now we're warming into the 50s and 60s. 61 in san francisco and oakland. 65 the current number in san jose. it's really all about the winds today. right now really good conditions for firefighters on the front lines. winds are generally light. it will not stay that way the

entire day. future tracker wind gusts shows you late tonight, early saturday morning, we expect those winds to increase in the north bay, gusting over 25 miles per hour and that even continues by 8:00 saturday morning. so there will be a window coming up overnight where firefighters are battling gusty winds. it's for that fact a wind advisory will go into effect at 11:00 tonight in the north bay hills and the east bay hills. gusts could get close to 50 miles per hour at times. that's not only the wind we're watching, it's the humidity. and that is dropping as well. earlier this morning, our humidity in the north bay was at 80%. now it's dropping to 40%. so the combination of gusty winds, low humidity, fire danger is running high once again tonight and into tomorrow. fires can easily start and easily spread under these conditions. highs today, 60s and 70s. the big takeaway, it's hazy and the air quality is very unhealthy. and that's not going to change overnight tonight. we'll see temperatures fall into

the 40s and 50s. those winds are going to dramatically pick up around midnight and early tomorrow morning with those gusts over 20 miles per hour. fast forwarding into next week, we are watching thursday. the chance is there for showers to develop in the north bay thursday evening. that's something we're going to keep tracking but the model guidance continues to show this outcome playing out. let's hope that trend continues over the next couple of days. here's the accuweather seven-day forecast. it is smoky today and that poor air quality continues over the weekend. it turns warm around here on monday before temperatures drop off. and by wednesday, kristen, those clouds will increase and then all eyes are on thursday. we want those showers to come through. we'll keep you updated on that. a good idea to download the accuweather app. check the forecast each and every day to see where and when those showers will hit. >> sure, we're entering a dangerous period, drew, thank you so much. 234next on abc 7 news helpi furry friends during the north bay fire disaster.

the effort under way to give shelter and care t

new this morning, news out of the east bay, traffic is moving once again after a dump truck fire in the tunnel overnight. we want to show you the front end of the truck. it was just charred.

it broke out shortly at midnight. when crews first got there, the tunnel was blocked with traffic. they had to walk in. and once they saw the fire, the chp closed all lanes of eastbound traffic on highway 24 to get cars to turn around. no one was hurt. the tunnel's vent system was activated to remove the smoke. now it is friday. this is when we usually introduce you to this week's perfect pet. but because of the north bay fires we are doing something a little different. you know the marin humane society wants us to get the word out about evacuated animals. the shelter is offering free boarding. they posted th eed this video o facebook page referring to these puppies as their tiniest fire evacuees. animal can be brought to the shelter in novato preferly before 9:00 p.m. staff will accept animals 24 hours a day. and drew, there's so many pets that have been displaced that this is really a necessary and important vital service. all right. we'll talk more to drew in a

little bit. we'll have continuing coverage of the north bay wildfires on a special edition of abc 7 news today at 3:00. then on abc 7 news at 4:00, tonight's cal football game versus washington state is expected to happen. what about the raiders? will the games go on despite the bad air from north bay fires? and new questions about the rescues of dozens of elderly residents at a santa rosa care facility that lost a building in the fire. tonight at 5:00, the new troubling claims from the family of a resident who was found inside the facility. all right. abc 7 news is not over yet. we're going to talk a lot more about the weather, air quality, all that. coming up at 11:30, we'll bring you a live news conference from sacramento. the office of emergency services will be making public

news. >> i'm kristen sze. we are continuing with abc 7 news an preempting "who wants to be a millionaire." because we have a news conference about the fires, giving us the latest information. this of course the live picture at the emergency operations center in sacramento county. we'll bring you that news conference when it begins, but right now we'll get to meteorologist drew tuma who is tracking the weather and after a few days of relative calm in terms of the winds they're about to pick up. >> yeah, they are. the biggest issue is the air quality. it's ranging anywhere from poor to very unhealthy at this current moment. the north bay has the worst air quality where the fires are, the smoke is