near shore line boulevard. you can sight vantage point of the lanes that were closed. this is the eastbound direction, and it is backing up traffic there. they are supposed to reopen soon. >> the crash happened at about 3:30 p.m. we are told that drugs and alcohol were not a factor in this crash and that the driver who hit the police officer is cooperating with investigators. good evening. i'm dan ashley. >> and i'm in for kristin sze. to our other top story, alameda might start installing license plate readers on all the bridges leading in and out of the city. they are hoping to curtail a spike in crime. some worry they'll be too invasive. laura anthony is live at the webster tube. laura? >> reporter: hi, they believe that installing these readers will help significantly cut down on crime. but others worry the devices

could amount to a major invasion of privacy. there could be a new feature coming to the webster tube that connects oakland with alameda. license plate readers. >> theis is about pushing the needle back and trying to reduce a recent spike in property crimes. >> reporter: crime has gone up 12% this past year. two-thirds of that driven by burglaries, car break-ins and robberies. now he wants his city to spend $500,000 for fixed license place readers on tunnels that lead on and off the island. >> it's not just for crimes committed in alameda. it could be a stolen vehicle stolen in another city somewhere and then that car comes into alameda or that license plate comes into alameda, we will be alerted. >> reporter: he points to other cities like piedmont which claims a 34% reduction in property crime since license plate readers were installed in

2014. alameda already has readers on four patrol cars. >> we are seeing glass broken on the streets every day. we should all get behind this and support it for the sake of our community. >> we see this as a virtual surveillance wall on the border of oakland. oakland seems to make the news for the wrong reasons. >> reporter: and some worry alameda might share its license plate data with federal immigration officials. >> we do not share our license plate reader database with ice. it specifically has been turned off. >> reporter: they will take up the issue tuesday at are you looking at the aftermath of a frightening multi-car pileup in santa rosa e a dump truck crashed into

many asini nine vehicles. it happened at fountaingrove and mendocino. we are going to walk exactly through what happened. >> reporter: what's going on now is the intersection still is not open. the investigation is complete. but now if you look over my shoulder and down the way, they're doing road repairs. that is where the pickup truck finished as of now, the pickup truck is the object of investigation by the santa rosa police department. they'll be looking carefully at the brake system. it is the kind of sight santa rosa has seen too recently. in the middle of the another apocalypse. >> this area is hell, this area is cursed. >> reporter: caused not by brush but a dump truck carrying fire debris that appears to have lost

its brakes. the truck barrelled through nine cars and a fiery chain reaction crash. >> i hear honk, honk, honk, see a truck coming down with no brakes. i get to the intersection and boom, right behind me. >> reporter: larry broderick barely made it through. what he saw seconds later? >> a "terminator" movie, debris, pops, booms. >> reporter: and something else, though larry wasn't the person to tell us about it. >> if it wasn't for him handling the situation and the timely fashion he did, those people would have perished. >> reporter: larry broderick grabbed bystanders, went door to door, saving victims. >> steering wheels forced into people's abdomens and heads hitting windshields. >> reporter: and that from a man who lost his own home in a firestorm last october. >> everybody's alive. that's main thing. no fay satalities.

>> reporter: so says the firestorm victim. wayne freedman, abc 7 news. well, there was also a nasty accident on the san matte yeo bridge. pieces of a u-haul truck lit ir literred the freeway. the driver of the u-haul is hospitalized with major injuries. crews removed the wreckage while the lanes were closed. all lanes opened shortly after 11:00. many investors saw their portfolios shrink as stock markets fell. the dow plummeted 4.5%. many tech stocks lost with the nasdaq decreasing by 5%. alphabet loh alphabet lost more than 5% of its value with its total worth falling by more than $39

billion. facebook fell by 4.7% and apple dropped by 2.5%. big investors lost what seemed like fortunes to the rest of us. mark zuckerberg lost $3.6 billion. jeff bezos, $3.2 billion. google's founders, $2.3 billion and bill gates, $2.2 billion. a huge homeless sweep is taking place along highway 101. the encampment dubbed "googleville" prompts conversations about how much is being done to address homelessness. >> reporter: the piles and piles of trash out here along highway 101 near storey road are astonishing. this makeshift village is home to roughly 100 people and today it's being torn down by cal trans crews. do you want to be in housing? >> yes, of course, i'd love to be in housing. i'm not out here by choice. >> reporter: the lack of

affordable housing is what prompted people to come out here and hold up a sign dubbing the encampment "googleville." some say the city and county are not doing enough to solve the problem. >> the plan is not meeting the intensity of the problem. see, the plan is futuristic. we'll build 40 homes over the course of the year. 40 people are going to die before that happens. >> reporter: he is talking about the 40 tiny homes the city of san jose is building to house the homeless. 600 affordable housing units will become available. one of the complexes being built is this one on second street. >> it's about 130 apartments set aside just for people who are chronically homeless, to get them off the streets as quickly as possible. >> reporter: but homeless advocates say that still won't be enough for the 4300 homeless living on the streets in san jose. they want a permanent campsite

with porta potties. in the short term, churches and shelters are stepping up to fill the gap. it still won't solve the complicated problem with some refusing to take any help. a san francisco elementary schoolteacher pleaded not guilty to charges that he abused and endangered one of his students. andres tobar is on leave. police believe he held the student over the edge of a second-floor balcony in december. supporters say he was quote roughhousing. the rising cost of doing business could be taking its toll on retailers in san francisco. a trip around the city will tell you what's going on. there are a lot of empty storefronts in every neighborhood. city supervisors are hearing the kplaptds a kplap complaints and trying to come up with solutions.

>> reporter: doesn't matter where you go. there they are. empty store fronts. >> as a dog walker, i pass by them every day. >> reporter: he says it's getting bad. >> a lot of them are small business owners that we need in san francisco. >> reporter: on church street, there's dozens of shuttered store fronts. on castro street, nearly twice that number. >> i think the amazoning of retail has really taken a toll on small businesses. >> reporter: high rents have pushed small businesses out of business. rent can cost $5,000 to $50,000 per month depending on the space. the commercial vacancy rate was only 5%. >> i know those numbers aren't real. >> reporter: the supervisor who sits on the land use committee believes the number is much higher. this meeting was about finding solutions. a 2009 ordnance requiring landlords to pay a registration fee after properties were va

can't for 30 days has not worked. more incentives are need think say. >> if you do not want to be in the commercial rental business get out of it. >> reporter: it could impose fines for landlords with vacant businesses. many siay the process needs to e streamlined. >> a person wanting to open up a store front is in for a long haul. >> reporter: meanwhile, the counting of open storefronts continues. one san francisco business is taking a symbolic stand with its own damaged stand front. the hardware store has been a fixture for decade ts now. so when a fire gutted the interior, they decided to do something with the exterior. they brought in an artist to cover the front of the shop with a mural. they say the swirling cubic design will give passersby something to look at while repairs are under way.

>> it's unfortunate that so many businesses end up closing, and as a result you end up with an ugly boardup and trash and it brings down the neighborhood. that's not how we want to do. we want to bring up the neighborhood. >> the cause of the fire is still under investigation, but the damage was fairly extensive. the owners are expecting renovations to take about six months. stealing your phone number and accessing your bank accounts. >> it's a big problem one company is trying to fix. >> i'm meteorologist sandhya patel. and the dog who started a house fire. he could not say no to the pancake. how a green lambo

sky7 took these pictures of mt. diablo. talk about picture perfect. weird weather for february and weirder when you compare it to what the bay area experienced 40 or so years ago. drew tuma joins us with more on that. >> we had to go into the vault and dig out this video. if you were around in the '70s, 1976 on this day we had significant snow in the bay area. take a look at this. folks are actually able to make snow men out of this. kid also a field day with this, able to have snowball fights. we received officially an inch of snow in san francisco, but many spots saw higher amounts than that. you can just see kids waking up with such a surprise on saturday morning, just hopping around, it's a rare sight in the bay area to see this snowfall.

had very cold air that was aimed at tahoe make its way into our neck of the woods, and there you go. even market street had slushy snow on its sidewalk. woo we've seen recent snow as far back as 2011. but it's not unusual for us to get cold weather in february. we'd love to hear your stories if you were around in the '70s. find us on twitter, abc 7 news bay area. we would love to hear your stories. pretty cool, 40 years ago, snow flying around the bay area. >> hard to wrap your head around. drivers who use the richmond san rafael bridge may notice some signs. a third lane is expected to open for traffic in april. a video was posted showing what drivers should look like. the signs are pretty bay circumstance a green arrow in the lane is open and a red x if

the lane is closed. the lane will use right shoulder. a southern california man faces drunk driving charges after a wild crash left his expensive lamborghini under a construction trailer. this happened over the weekend down south two passengers did get out without serious injuries, thank goodness, the lamborghini which has a list price of $209,000, is, as you can see, totaled. a dog helping himself to leftover pancakes accidently started a fire in a massachusetts home. can you see we've highlighted the dog in the middle right-hand side of your screen. watch closely. the pooch accidently hit the ignition button on the gas stove there. you can see the flames begin to grow, just wait for it. there it is, setting off the fire alarm.

[ alarm sounding ] >> oh, poor pooch. you can see the dog reacting to that alarm. the alarm system was called, called emergency crews. firefighters turned off the gas and saved the home from being more severely damaged. now to today's consumer news. t mobile consumers are getting a confusing text. >> what does it mean? t mobile customers are getting an odd alert on their phones. it's going to be rolling out the next few weeks. it says we have identified an industry-wide phone number port out scam and encourage everyone to add account security. huh? it has a link. and that is really what's causing the concern. so i reached out to t-mobile. it is legit. here's what's up. they want their customers to add security, making it harder for i.d. thieves to steal their phone numbers. this is a scam i've told you

about before right here on this show. id thieves pretend to be a consumer and port the consumer's phone number to another phone, then they use that phone to scale bank account numbers and more. this affects all phone companies, not just t-mobile. they're just really going out in front. are you now being overcharged for your car and home insurance? consumer federation of america thinks so and is urging allstate insurance commissioners to cut premiums, following the federal tax cut. they say insurance customers will be overcharged $25 billion. insurance is generally regulated and priced by how much it cost to provide. costs less to provide. here in california, there is already a review going on. it is world nutella day. a big holiday in my family. the celebration was launched back in 2007 by an american

blogger named sarah rossoff. it grew to be such a global phenomenon that she transferred world nut te! world nutella day to the maker. it transfers back to the 1800s when there was little cocoa but plenty of nuts, so they put the two together. your accuweather forecast with sandhya patel. >> if you like warm weather you probably consider today's weather really sweet. let's take a look at the records for today, 77 in downtown san francisco. 79 in san jose. mo moffitt field was a tie at 76. the others were records for today. concord and clover

degrees. i know we need storms, but we're not going to see storms anytime soon. as a matter of fact what we're going to have to deal with is gusty winds. overnight tonight, a north, northeast wind develop in the hills, that is going to mean we are looking at an increase in fire danger. be vigilant. here's a look at our wind concerns in the north and east p bay hills tonight and tomorrow. the downsloemiping wind will br high fire danger in the middle of winter. so enjoy this view. not too many people enjoying the beach right now, but it is just a bright day. san francisco 63 degrees, oakland at 66. warm in mountain view, san jose in the 70s. temperatures in the low 70s from santa rosa to napa.

79 still in concord. one or live picture from our emeryville camera. nothing but clear skies from this vantage point. gusty in the hills overnight tonight. the warm winter pattern continues through this weekend. pretty clear skies to start off your tuesday. look at the warmth. in the south bay, another unusually warm day, 75 los gatos. the sunscreen and shades. low 70s on the peninsula. downtown san francisco, 71 degrees. and in the north bay, you're going to be at 72 in bodega bay. you really have to get away from the bay area to inland arieas well above averag. what the forecast is missing are the storms. accuweather seven-day forecast

sunny and spring like tomorrow. above average as we continue into midweek. then the cooling begins at the coast. breezy and cooler over the weekend but still running a little above average for this time of year. the accuweather seven-day forecast does not have any raindrops, but if you're planning your day, you'll want to download the app, because it will help you navigate those temperatures, minute by minute, hour by hour, whatever you'd like. for the time being, no storms, shades and sunscreen weather. what do women want? one company thinks cleaner snacks. that controversy next.

a california tax attorney who made his living fighting the irs appears to be president trump's pick to be america's top taxman. charles "chuck" redding is a partner in a beverly hills law

firm. he still needs to be confirmed by the senate before he can become the head of the irs. the agency face many challenging, including a shrinking budget and new rules on tax changes signed into law last month. snoop dogg is defending a student who retweeted him and is now banned from the girls basketball team. he posted this, have her lawyers hit my team. this is nonsense. a lawsuit filed for the 18 year old sierra high woman says she was suspended for sharing quotes, one from snoop dogg holding a joint. a policy prohibits students from engaging in inappropriate sexual and drug propaganda. as doritos aired a new ad, there was word the company was marketing a new snack just for

women. pepsico says it noticed men and women have different snack habits. men like to crunch chips and lick their fingers, while women like quieter and less messy snacks. doritos are look at ways snacks can be packaged differently, but this is generating backlash online with many women calling it offensive and sexist. >> not surprising. academy award nominees get together while they're still all winners. >> the event coming up. if you're cooking it yourself, you can make it into anything that you'd like. >> from salads to smoothies. meet the bay area chefs showing us how to get the most out of a growing food trend. cooking with

we have one to two fires a day and when you respond together and you put your lives on the line, you do have to surround yourself with experts. and for us the expert in gas and electric is pg&e. we run about 2,500/2,800 fire calls a year and on almost every one of those calls pg&e is responding to that call as well. and so when we show up to a fire and pg&e shows up with us it makes a tremendous team during a moment of crisis.

i rely on them, the firefighters in this department rely on them, and so we have to practice safety everyday. utilizing pg&e's talent and expertise in that area trains our firefighters on the gas or electric aspect of a fire and when we have an emergency situation we are going to be much more skilled and prepared to mitigate that emergency for all concerned. the things we do every single day that puts ourselves in harm's way, and to have a partner that is so skilled at what they do is indispensable, and i couldn't ask for a better partner.

coming up tonight at 6:00, the hunt for the torched a mobile health unit. also from seven on your side, help may be on the way for ho homeowners in the north bay fire zone. and the tacro coming up at 6:00. dion says she's tried it and says it's good. people gathered for the pre-oscars luncheon. >> many of hollywood's biggest named teamed up. the elite group included gary oldman. >> he played sir winston

churchill in "darkest hour", a film about england fighting for survival against germany in world war ii. >> what's your experience? >> dit's been extraordinary. and it's a thing that i think when a part, as a role and an actor come, come together. who would have thought? >> somebody did. >> somebody did, but i am truly gob smacked and humbled. it's a moment in the sun. >> would you ever know that was gary oldman? amazing. >> hm-mm. >> march 4th is the oscars. you can watch right here on abc 7. and with that is correct world news tonight with david muir is next. i'm dion lim in for kristin sze. >> we appreciate your time. >> the next newscast is always on abc 7 news.com.

tonight, several developing stories. the dow plunging. dropping more than 1,500 points for a time, then closing down 1,100 points. the biggest point-drop ever. what's behind it? also breaking, why the president is calling some democrats treasonous. and late today, the house intelligence committee debating whether to vote to release the democratic rebuttal to that secret memo pushed by the president. and tonight, we ask the president, will you sign off on this memo, too? the deadly flu. tonight, 53 pediatric deaths now blamed on the virus. two cases in new york city. an 8-year-old girl among them. and if you've already had the flu, should you still get a flu shot? the deadly amtrak crash, colliding with a freight train. two killed, more than 100 hurt. how was the switch set in the wrong position? and what we just learned about the engineer. the winter storm.