i don't even care about my house right now. i just want to know where he is and if he's safe. >> destructive and deadly wildfires continue to wreak havoc on families in northern california this morning. thanks for joining us. the biggest fire thcarr fire burning in and around redding. it's raging in chasta and trinity counties. killed six people, burned nearly 99,000 acres and is only 20% contained. flames destroyed more than 700 home and more than 5,000 structures remain threatened. abc 7 reporter dion lim has reaction from first responders

and those hardest rtecaireas now spread to 95,000 acres reducing many homes to little more than rubble. there is good news for firefighters, though. containment levels have tripled since the weekend and now stand at almost 20%. >> i used to fight fires in the '70s and '80s and i've never seen anything like this. it just went in any direction it wanted to. >> reporter: mor than 40,000 people have been evacuated and the red cross has setup five emergency shelters to keep up with demand. many miss the kfrcomforts of ho and are getting adjusted to the new normal. >> i can't go in and get clean clothes. >> reporter: for those beginning to return back to their homes whether they're supposed to or not bewilderment at what their neighborhoods have become. >> you talk to anybody it's it's

biggest fire they've ever seen. >> reporter: the gut wrenching tale of a great grandmother who draped her body of her two grandchildren. bledsoe recalled the horrifying ordeal. >> he just kept saying, come and get me. come on grandpa. i said i'm right down the road. >> reporter: and then there are stories of compassion. the deputy who lost his home but continues to stay on the front lines keeping his beloved community safe. many like him vow to stay, vow to rebuild no matter what. >> this is once in a hundred year thing. i don't think it'll happen again, but you never know. it just seems like each year it gets a little worse and worse. >> reporter: abc 7 news.

>> we just got word from a bit of encouraging news from the carr fire zone. the 14 foot albino pithen that escaped was found alive. closer to home cal fire is combining its effort on two fires that are getting closer to one another. they're treating the ranch and river fires as one and calling it the mean seeno complex fire. more than 10,000 instructtures are threatened. six homes have been destroyed. and more mandatory evacuations were issued last night. shelters have opened up. many evehicacuees areacuees aree pine casino. positive news from napa county, the steele fire is 50%

contained after burning 150 acres and eight structures. over the weekend it forced the evacuation of the residential community and the pleasure cove resort. one woman who lost herom she did everything possible but it still wasn't enough. >> we're prepared. we did evething back. everybody's been 100% prepared for this. it happened so fast. >> there's a beam underneath the house that caught on fire, so i have nowhere to go and i'm just going to do my best. >> the cause of the fire is still under investigation. we now know the identity of the firefighter who died battling the ferguson fire just west of yosemite. he's been identified as 33-year-old brian hughes. hughes was a captain. he was originally from hawaii. a tree fell onto him yesterday morning. earlier this morning a bulldozer

operator died in the fire -- i should say earlier this month. and here are some new photos east of yosemite. you can see how poor the air quality is right now. in some places you can only see about a half-mile ahead. full containment is not expected until august 15th. yosemite is expected to be open on friday. stay with abc 7 as we continue to track the fires. download the abc 7 news app and enable push alerts and breaking news updates on evacuations. you can also find a guide on what you need to have ready to go if you are forced to leave all on our website, abc7news.com. in other news a bay area political giant is being remembered. former east bay congressman and oakland mayor ron delms has passed away. he served in congress from 1971 until the late '90s. he was the first to

ithe integration gays and lesbians in into the amy? >> >> we are having some technical issues with amy's report. but she did get reaction from oakland mayor libby shaf. we'll try to bring that to you in a little bit. this morning the man charged with stabbing to death nia wilson on a b.a.r.t. platform in oakland is back in court for a different case. in court for the parole violation hearing. >> reporter: nia wilson's accused killer was just inside

here on the fifth floor. he looked calm and quickly answered the judge's questions. 27-year-old john cowell no longer wore the bandages on his face that were visible last week. this parole violation hearing came after cowell was charged with murder and attempted murder. he was released from jail about four months ago after spending two years in prison. another hearing on that was scheduled for tomorrow morning. cowell's next court appearance for the murder of nia wilson and the attempted murder of her sister will come on august 22 >> no pol deadly triple shooting in antioch early this morning. bullets flew in t of an applebee's restaurant.

happening now a group of mothers is holding a three day hunger strike in oakland over the white house's separation policy. called mom's rising they're outside the federal building on clay street downtown. they claim hundreds of children still need to be reunited with their families. >> so this is a way of unifying all across the nation to say that we will not accept this type of trauma and terror being inflicted upon people. >> organizers say other strikes are planned throughout the country, and they will take place one after another. today cbs could decide the fate of its ceo following allegations of sexual misconduct, but the network may not step there. the further action they'll take

in the wake of this

with pg&e in the sierras. and i'm an arborist since the onset of the drought, more than 129 million trees have died in california. pg&e prunes and removes over a million trees every year to ensure that hazardous trees can't impact power lines. and since the onset of the drought we've doubled our efforts. i grew up in the forests out in this area and honestly it's heartbreaking to see all these trees dying. what guides me is ensuring that the public is going to be safer and that these forests can be sustained and enjoyed by the community in the future.

now, we want to get back to our story earlier about the passing of an east bay political legend. live in oakland with reaction including from the mayor.>> rep. we jst talked to an emotional mayor libby shaft. she says all flags in oakland

have been ordered to fly at half staff to remember ron delems, and she's in the process of reaching out to the family to figure out how to appropriately mourn as a city. he played such a significant role in oakland's history. the u.s. congress passed a bill in 1998 to name the building after him. mayor shaft was somber this morning and a bit emotional as she remembered him and what he meant to her. >> as a girl growing up in oakland i was so was my congress member. he's always been just a giant in moral leadership. he is a homegrown hero. he grew up in this city, the son of labor organizers but someone who was so principled, powerful in his absolute insistence for justice.

>> representative barbara lee who took feel blessed to have called congressman dellums -- and lots of tweets out there including this one. congressman, mayor of oakland, free south african leader, my 1984 campaign leader and my personal friend, i miss him so much already. mayor libby shaft wasn't sure yet if the funeral will be here or in d.c. she imagines there will be tributes for him not just nationally but international as well. six women are accusing chairmve of sexual misconduct. they're expected to appoint a

special committee to investigate. there's also word the board may look into whether this is larger problem with the workplace culture. maggie ruly outside cbs broadcast center in new york. >> reporter: its regular board meeting interrupted with debates over the future leadership of the company. it comes after the head of cbs, les moonves credited with turning around the network with a string of hit shows is now at the center of a sexual abuse scandal. last friday ronan farrow broke the news in the new yorker. detailing the news of six women. >> the goal here was to expose stories that had been buried for a long time. these women wanted accountability. >> reporter: one of the women who came forward telling npr moonves made an unwanted advance

toward her. >> he said, look, you're really expensive and i need to know you're worth it. >> reporter: she turned him down and the show didn't get launched. >> and the conversation ended and he went from being very friendly to being really cold. >> reporter: cbs says that moonves has no recollection of the meeting or the phone call. now in response to the accusations the cbs chief says in a statement i always understood and respected and abided by the principle that no means no and i've never misused my position to harm or hinder anyone's career. the cbs board says they will fully investigate these claims and they'll hire an outside law firm to do so. maggie ruly, abc news, new york. new at 11 the justice department announced a new liberty tax force. critic saz this is to ensure religion when they confconfconf

new legislation. crit kz critics do say this tax force could make it easier for businesses and religious organizations for not serving gays or lesbians for example or not offering contraception. the ride capsized on a lake nearly two weeks ago during a storm. 17 people died including nine members of one fam almech the lawyers representing the victims say the duck boats have a long history and are essentially floating death traps. >> because of the canopies they add, you are dead if you do, you're dead if you don't, you're drowned if you do, you're drouped if you don't. >> the lawsuit filed today is seeking $100,000 in damages. mtsb is investigating the deadly accident. twitter is turning to academics to measure the health

of conversations on its platform. one will look at how echo chambers form and their effect. echo chambers are situations in which their believes are amplified or reinforced by conversation. the second one will look at the cause and prejudices. the twitter ceo says improving the health of the platform

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welcome back. we'll start with our latest update. the good news is all those heat

advisories and excessive heat warnings, even the red flag warning continues to be eliminated. so the fire danger is definitely dropping down. air quality warn, that's what lingers, though. you can see from modesta all the way down to nearly the grapevines to about 3.5 million people. air quality, green, yellow. but it starts to turn unhealthy for sensitive groups. you can see there's many areas right now in orange and those could get into unhealthy and even very unhealthy levels like we saw yesterday. in fact remember this gorgeous shot we show sometimes from the half dome in yosemite, you can't even see it because of the smoke. that's in yosemite right now. as far as what's going on back here at home, you can see the clouds pushing back on the

coast. it will be that way into the afternoon and evening hours. high clouds and hazy sunshine for today. misty clouds and kind of cool like it was this morning. and the middle of the week we'll see a bit of cooling. we're pretty average right now. some 90s around morgan hill and gilroy. 68 in millbray. cloudiness along the coast and breezy. mid-60s for downtown francisco a francisco. how about some upper 60s because of those breezes around richmond and oakland. move inlands close to where you need to air conditioner. 88 to about 90 degrees. 7:05 first pitch, 63 degrees dropping down to 58 under a partly sunny sky. this is the way the daybreaks

down. you can see different layers of cloud cover out there, and that little fuzziness, that's the smoke off in the distance. notice we're never going to shake the low clouds at the coast nor the high clouds, but we don't have that spare the air day. pretty comfortable whether tonight with mid-50s to low 60s during the overnight hours. here's a hook at my accuweather seven day forecast. and temperatures are going to drop just a little bit. it's so minor and only over a four day period you'll hardly notice by thursday and friday. and gain back a few degrees and saturday and sean back near average. this pattern has been locked in for a week and looks like it'll be locked in for another week. >> well, there's always somewhere clean to escape to. >> and we do have the cleanest air across the entire state. the american red cross needs

donors. officials say the state and the nation is facing an emergency shortage. the red cross is hoping to lure donors with gift cards between now and august 30th. the red cross will e-mail you a $5 amazon gift card. for more details visit red cross blood.org/together. a homeless man may not be homeless for long after a creative pitch for a

my name is jamir dixon and i'm a locafor pg&e.rk fieldman most people in the community recognize the blue trucks as pg&e. my truck is something new... it's an 811 truck. when you call 811, i come out to your house and i mark out our gas lines and our electric lines to make sure that you don't hit them when you're digging. 811 is a free service. i'm passionate about it because every time i go on the street i think about my own kids. they're the reason that i want to protect our community and our environment,

and if me driving a that truck means that somebody gets to go home safer, then i'll drive it every day of the week. together, we're building a better california. now to a great story. he's homeless but won't be on the streets much longer because of the photo we're about to show you. it shows the unemployed web developer offering up his résume while standing on a street in mountain view. the picture went viral. the sipe says homeless, hungry for success, take a résume. >> i needed one person to take my résume and say i'm going to give an opportunity to this guy. >> the sign worked. he has hundreds of offers from tech companies. bitcoin even offered to relocate him to no word yet on which job he's

going to take. >> he got rewarded. >> it was unusual especially in that area, so it paid off. who wants to be a millionaire is coming up next. have a great day.

>> if all goes, well, one of our players today may suddenly find themselves $1 million richer. and i can promise you're gonna want to be there to see every minute of it. so let's play "who wants to be a millionaire." [cheers and applause] [dramatic music] ♪ everybody, welcome to "millionaire." you ready to go today? [cheers and applause] i know this guy is--let's welcome our first contestant, possibly the biggest "transformers" fan on the planet. from woodhaven, new york, martin kunz. >> yes! thank you. thank you, thank you. >> like how big of a "transformers" fan? >> like 700 of them, like since 1984, i've been collecting-- >> 700 toys. >> yes. 700 of them, yeah. taken over my entire apartment. >> that seems like a lot. >> and i'm single who knew? >> you're single? i find that hard to believe. >> right? shocking. [laughter] >> all right, well, you won't be single