construction crew been there? >> they had started a couple days ago. they the street. >> reporter: the fire broke out just after 1:00 yesterday afternoon. the five buildings that were damaged were a mix of retail and residential buildings, including the dim sum restaurant hong kong lounge 2. pg&e says it took them more than two hours to capita line because it is a very complex situation with a web of different lines underground to deal with. here on scene this morning, i was asked if there was a foreman or someone on the scene to talk to us about the work they're doing and how long they're going to be here. they said no one is talking right now. the people who have been hired to work at the perimeter and help with traffic control haven't been told how long they're going to be here. reporting live in san francisco, amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. amy, thanks the for the th.

>> spokesman blair jones explains why it took more than two hours to shut off the gas. >> this is a complex situation beneath us. there's a complex web of utilities. multiple gas lines ranging from 2 inches to 12 inches. you also have water and fiberoptics and electric. it's not as simple as digging right in and isolating a valve or pinching a gas line. you have to go slow. that's for several lines. state law requires us, if we know there's a gas line within 24 inches beneath the surface, we have to hand dig. you can imagine hand dig sbog asphalt. it takes time. we need today go slow and put together a plan first. then slowly methodically hand dig to get to points where we could shut off valves or pinch lines to shut off service. i mentioned it's very cold right now. if we do this wrong and shut off gas to potentially hundreds or thousands of more people in san francisco. >> officials haven't determined exactly how many people have

been displaced. when the fire ignited, fire officials went door to door evacuating neighbors. the rough estimate was 100 people. those living within a one-block radius were initially forced to evacuate. late last night a mandatory evacuation order only applied to the homes and businesses directly impacted by the fire and the firefight. five buildings were damaged and many are still without electricity or gas. >> i don't think they're going to let anybody in. i tried earlier. but they said no. so i just got my dog. i'm taking my stuff and going instead of waiting. >> pg&e says crews are working around the clock to restore service. >> crews are expected to be at the site of the gas explosion at geary and parker all morning long. alexis smith has a look at how that will affect your morning commute in that area. >> obviously, you cannot drive atst geary is a busy road normally.

here's a look at it on the maps. no delays other than you can't get through the intersection. about a one-block radius that will be shut down for vehicle traffic, pedestrian as well. it is impacting muni. geary and parker is causing reroutes due to the gas ploegs. so 38 and 38 are rerouted inbound and outbound. inbound, balboa, turk, masonic and geary. outbound presidio, ar gel owe, geary. >> we used abc 7 news app to send out this push alert when the fire started burning. you can download the app to be the first to know when news breaks. you can customize alerts to your neighborhood so you know the news where you live. oakland teachers will begin making banners to prepare for a strike. now there's another issue bringing them one step closer to the picket line. >> they're proposing multimillion dollar cuts to keep

the district out of the hole. there will be a vote next week and abc 7 news reporter jobina fortson has the details of the plan. >> there was a lot going on ahead of wednesday night's oakland unified school district's meeting. at one end, librarians. around the corner, parents, teachers and students speaking out against cuts and calling out the board and superintendent. >> we feel like, despite all of the transparency speak, that the district says, like their website and everything, they are still having meetings behind closed doors. >> the superintendent is proposing a cut to the district. we got to see a breakdown of the numbers. these are the five categories that money is coming from. but what does that include? among many things, cuts to school counselor positions, teacher training, central office administration and the restorative justice program, which did not go over well with

students in the room. >> we should not have to suffer because of your inability to manage money. >> here's the challenge. we want to be able to pay our staff more competitively, but we cannot maintain the same number of employees and pay them more when there aren't new resources coming in and the enrollment trend is going down. >> the oakland education system says they're against cuts and parts of the proposal have become issues bringing them one step closer to the picket line. reporting in oakland, jobina fortson, abc 7 news. on the peninsula, a 17-year-old boy is recovering from injuries after he was shot in the leg while walking his dog. menlo park police say it happened tuesday night near the corner of east o'keefe street and men alto avenue. they have not identified a suspect. anyone with information is asked to call menlo park police. a big reward and new clues could help san francisco police solve murders committed in the 1970s. investigators released this age progression sketch of a murder

suspect nicknamed the doodler. a sketch artist made the new image on the right based on a sketch pro tuesdayed in 1975. you're about to hear an emergency call made in 1974 after someone found one of the victims at ocean beach. >> as we were -- [ inaudible ] >> a $100,000 reward is being offered for clues in in cold case. so here's another look at the sketch from the '70s. the doodler targeted men and police believe he killed at least five people p he would sketch his victims before killing them. what's going to happen today. we'll extend it into tomorrow and beyond. we're almost near the weekend. hi everybody. it's freezing cold once again. lafayette, walnut creek, danville, san ramon, dublin, pleasanton and livermore and close in pleasant hill and concord to brentwood where we're

in the mid-30s right now. scattered frost possible there. dress warmly. 36 in novato. 40s vallejo, oakland, san francisco and pacifica. congratulations, you're warmer than the rest of uss this morning. commute looks quiet weatherwise except for the frost waiting for you on the car. mine didn't have as much frost as yesterday. it wasn't as thick but it was out there. hopefully yours will be thinner also. a little less to deal with this morning as you try to rush out the door and get to work or school or wherever. mass >> still in the 40 az at 10:00. low to mid-50s this afternoon. back in the mid-40s. if you have outdoor plans this evening, make sure you have that blanket or a heavier coat. 40 at 8:00. still in the 40s at 10:00. low to mid-50s through 4:00. down to 48 at 8:00.

one more stop. we'll go down to the south bay. 37 this morning. 45 at noon and 51 to 53 this afternoon. you'll also drop down to 45 degrees. needing something a little more winter instead of short sleeves and shorts. i want to put those on today. unless you dress in layers. feels pretty nice. >> sure is. overall, we're looking okay. one issue in the east bay. ahead on the traffic maps, this is a vehicle that had a tire blowout this morning in the far left lane. they briefly stopped all traffic. they're telling us the two right lanes are open. but not seeing much of a change in the backup approaching that on northbound 880 before you get to 16th in the oakland area. keeping an eye on that. i will let you know as soon as they give us more information. definitely plan on a delay as long as you're not in a big rig, you can use 580. 38 minutes in the yellow, tracy to dublin. antioch to concord in the green

at 13. san rafael to san francisco, looking good in the green at 18 minutes. new this morning, california's gas tax increase will help fund a new package of improvements for highways across the state. cal trans announced highway 1 in san mateo county slated to get $15 million for about 21 miles of pavement maintenance. state transportation officials announced a $54.8 million of funds that will be used for highway 46 projects around california. sd 1 went into effect in november 2017 and raised gasoline taxes by 12 cents a gallon. >> the bay area woman accused of -- baby on board. while the father is left behind. what happened after this train left the station. the buzz on bees doing math? how

let's talk about what's going on across the state today. you can see any showers will be up near eureka and well off the coast. a little more sunshine in so cal in the 60s. the rest of us in the low to mid-50s. even a 49 in chico and reading. dry today, dry tomorrow morning. tomorrow evening, sunday, monday and tuesday, i just in fact, look at all the snowfall. starts off with an inch friday

and then look how it keeps accumulating saturday with the heaviest snow sunday into monday. up to three feet is possible. that's why sunday travel is going to be the worst. here's a quick look at what's going on at tahoe. you can see, yep, looks like a lot of wind and breezes also. now to the political chaos rocking virginia. this morning, three of the state's top democrats surrounded by a trio of scandals. state attorney general mark herring admitted to wearing blackface in the 1980s. he apologized saying he and friends dressed up putting on wigs and brown makeup. the administration comes after a racist photo surfaced involving governor ralph northam facing calls to resign. the lieutenant governor, justin fairfax is denying sexual assault allegations made by political professor and stanford fellow vanessa tyson. >> shocked and incredibly disappointed. this has been an awful week for

virginia. >> thigh son is scheduled to appear at a symposium at stanford next week associated with the me too movement. in the south bay, an apparent joke made by steve sharp during his state of the city address is now drawing mixed reaction. >> you've heard about the wall along our southern border. this is the wall around cupertino. we have a big problem with all the teslas coming through our city. >> supporters say the comments surrounding housing were meant t lighten the mood. others say that joke fell flat. >> we are connected. we may be in different cities, but we're all part of the south bay. our residents live in one city, work in another. money goes between city lines. because of the s saying the ongoing affordability crisis in the area. taking off with a baby

inside while dad is outside on the platform. surveillance video shows the father got on the train, set the baby in a carrier on the seat. he then went outside for a smoke. the doors closed and then look at this, the train takes off. that man inside hit the doors to get someone's attention. the father ran down the platform trying to stop the train. the operator eventually got a call about what happened and it allowed the train to return to the station and the father and baby are back together. >> whew. new details on the spacex raptor rocket engine. elon musk treated this photo after the first firing of the rocket. the raptor will fire the star ship that will carry humans to mars. it seems to be a success. the engine achieved the power level necessary to propel the star ship and super heavy rockets. >> if you are very good at math, you're about to feel worse.

a new study says even honeybees can do basic arithmetic. researchers used mazes and colors to use addition and subtraction skills. they were right about 2/3 of the time, which is better than chance. scientists say it could be useful for developing artificial intelligence. previous studies have showed primates, spiders can do basic math. >> i think bees are fascinating. those are really incredible creatures. yeah. i'm not surprised they can do math. i can't. reggie can't either. >> i really can't. i demonstrated that time and time again. >> now they're doing math for us. >> where were they when i was in college. >> mike, you're the only one great at math. sorry, jessica, you might be too. >> i'm pretty good at math. >> sorry. >> is that a compliment to me somehow. >> not to me.

>> it did separate who could get a meteorology degree and who couldn't, the math. i'll take that.han seven minute away from your accuweather forecast. a beautiful shot from mt. tamalpais. >> people up here apologizing and explaining. no frost. dry today and monday. we have rain just about every other day in my accuweather seven-day forecast. tmperatures today, about 52 to 57. just a little warmer than yesterday. tonight, you can see we're frost-free. mid to upper 30s in many areas. upper 30s to mid-40s around the bay. the coast and san francisco. here's a look at the next storm. it's sliding towards us, rapidly approaching, put in a few more clouds in our sky for today. as that low gets near, i've highlighted the peninsula, especially tomorrow. the marin chance of thunderstor. here's how it comes in at 4:00 in the morning.

you can see already some moderate showers out there. it touches all of us. orning commute.ay hd more waves of showers as we head from lunch. they'll become more scattered during the evening. notice the snow level dropping down. the first sign of snow could hit the north bay tomorrow evening and then we'll see showers for the evening commute and your evening plans. definitely a lighter amount than in the morning hours. all right. so we've got a 1 for friday. saturday, we have some lingering scattered showers. sunday, we've got that wintry mix with the snow level down to 2,000 feet. another storm coming tuesday and wednesday. it just won't stop. alexis. >> taking a look at the roads this morning, we really have had one significant issue here today. that's still ongoing. this is northbound 880 in oakland around -- 16th avenue off ramp. unded like it s aown-out , it it s like it solo vehiclecollis.

the left lane blocking rgenrethback.otten any long. if you're not in a big rig, i would stick to alternate. boy, we had a tough day yesterday to get to the san mateo bridge due to the emergency road repair. today, all lanes are open and as you can see traffic is moving along just fine. all right. get ready for a detour in francisco's soma neighborhood. the closure lasts through february 18th. it's because of the ibm conference which begins next week. more than 40,000 people are expected to attend. the biggest police department in the country has an order for waze. >> they want the stop giving away checkpoints. here's techbytes. >> in techbytes, new york city police wanting to part ways is a traffic app. >> it's ordering the waze app to stop revealing sobriety

checkpoints. the disclosure of speed trap locations on the app. >> in a statement, google says knowing where speed traps are improves safety, but the mpany and 3.3 million online subscribers. increase from a year earlier. >> the paper is now buying back the manhattan office space for $250 million. get ready for a new batch of ee moej is. >> 230 new characters, including a yawning face, a skunk, an oyster, a juice box, ice cube and pinching hand. those are your techbytes. >> what would we do without the pinching hands. so relieved. lyft is offering a new option so riders can protect the environment. >> why this baseball card bought for $2

upon further review, as i gather more data it this morning, i increased the storm impact scale to a 2, moderate for tomorrow. because of the chance of showers and thunderstorms with brief downpours, it could cause some ponding on the roadways. we'll take a look at the storm impacts throughout the week and there's more on the way. next. spacex could launch the first commercial crew capsule in a few weeks. we've seen similar versions of

dragon space capsules deliver to the national space station. they want to launch a crew capsule on march 2nd with no one on board. if all goes well, they'll take a test flight in july. lyft passengers can be more environmentally friendly. it will allow passengers to request rides in an electric or hybrid vehicle t will not be more expensive than taking a ride on a traditional vehicle. but it will launch in -- >> a major cell phone carrier says it will not raise their prices for now. t-mobile says it will not raise prices if the fcc and justice department approve the merger with sprint. the $26 billion merger was announced last year. critics seyi merging t-mobile and sprint could mean higher prices. >> sorry about that. sounds like a fire alarm is going off in the studio. t-mobile won't raise them for three years. all right. here's a look at our rain

potential. really wanted to start off by showing you this weekend. but looks like fire alarm tried to -- no coincidence. fire alarm goes off and my computer freezes? hmm. >> this is lightning, tomorrow through monday, our heaviest rain will be tomorrow. that's why i upped the storm impact scale to a 2 and lowering snow level from 4,000 feet tomorrow to 2,000 feet sunday. some snow on the mountain roads. it's possible sun and monday. that's the lowest threshold by concern. my highest one is hydroplaning. not this morning. here's alexis. >> we're nice and dry on the roads this morning. definitely enjoying that while it lasts. live at the bay bridge toll plaza. we have a little stack-up that formed in the cash lanes on the left side. no issues on the right side. same thing if you're using fastrak. drive times looking good. westbound 580, trace toy dublin. we're double this at this time

yesterday. 39 minutes in the yellow. pretty average. southbound 680 dublin to mission boulevard in the green at 16. 101 to cupertino looking great at 15 minutes. >> a $2 baseball card could be worth billions of dollars. it's a rare babe ruth card made in 1921. he just returned from beverly hills to have the car checked out by an antiques expert. the card needs to be authenticated and graded by the beckett company. he bought the card from a collectible store from sparks, nevada. the owner of that store believed the card was a remake. if it was awe thept indicated, it could change he and his family's life. >> i can't. >> god blessed me. i intend on blessing the guy that i got it from, too. i'm going back to the store when it's all over and give him a proper payment for it. okay. for all you collectors, he

believes the card is a 1921 babe ruth shot well e 121 model. there are only two cards known to be in existence and he says if he were to sell the card, the bidding would start at $2 million. can you believe that? >> sell it. sell it now. next at 5:00 a.m., we're staying on top of developing news. the aftermath of a massive gas line explosion in san francisco. hear the frantic first few minutes from dispatchers. strong words from kevin durant. the rumors he's clearly not happy about. it's 4:57. here's a live look outside this morning. we'll be right back.

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pour some water on the building! frantic moments after a massive gas line explosion. we have the latest on the situation this morning. >> it's amazing that people weren't injured in this. >> i know. good morning on this thursday, february 7th. we'll get to that news in a moment. first, we want to check our weather. meteorologist mike nicco has our forecast. >> a lot of frost in the same spots as yesterday. the frost isn't as thick as the air mass is drying out a little bit. hi everybody. want to show you live doppler 7. that's our next storm bearing down on us already. it's pushing increasing clouds. you'll want to have the sunglasses with you. you can see it's pretty clear out there right now. that's why we're in the low to mid-30s inland and around the bay through the 7:00 hour. how about 50 to 53 at noon. 52 to 55, still five to eight degrees cooler than average.

dress for mid to upper 40s. >> it's dry this morning. check out the dry commute with