to the investigation, it helped develop the bay area in sonoma county as a result of the kinkaide fire that broke out on wednesday. it's a threat that keeps growing and growing and overnight the winds keep reaching the incredible speeds that they did. overnight winds not sustained by a lot of high density population. santa rosa, parts of it as well. all the way to the coast, we're talking about to bodega bay, sebastopol. >> that's the way the wind is blowing, which actually lisa mentioned is blowing a lot of this smoke back out to sea rather than perhaps farther down to san francisco or the peninsula. but yeah, it's quite a sight to see.

this is from sky 7 yesterday, actually sky 7, just a few minutes ago we had a live picture from there. we had to ground our helicopter because the winds are simply too strong in sonoma county for it to keep flying. you can imagine what the fire crews are dealing with to try to get a containment line around the kincade fire which is burning more than 30,000 acres as we speak. >> right now let's go ahead and show you this picture, taken from one of those wildfire alert cameras. in fact the website is called alert wifire. this is st. helena. you can see, yep, in the wine country region, st. helena right up the road, and you can see the smoke risingas a result of the fires burning, the dry brush, part of the kincade fire. it eats up the dry vegetation in the hills right now at this time

of year. >> you can sort of see where the fire doesn't just burn in a straight line. you can see there was clear flames on one hill, then sort of a patch of clearance, then some more flames, as embers get thrown and the wind blows the fire in driven directions in new places. >> and the way it expands has so much to do with the geography of the area as well. you can certainly see it's posing a real challenge for firefighters. so yeah, just another glimpse at the degree of the fire in st. helena. >> let's bring in meteorologist lisa argen to kind of continue to talk about the winds which we're monitoring, hoping they'll start to diminish. we were hitting the peak. lisa, any sense of that starting to go down? >> i don't think we'll see the 80 or 90-mile-per-hour winds we were seeing in the 3 and 4,000-foot elevation on the hills of the north bay. but we're still seeing gusty winds, we still have our wind

advisory in effect. and we're still looking at that high wind warning in the north bay. unfortunately this is a long duration event. we're talking about another 24 hours with these winds gusting all around the bay area. and because of that, we are certainly worried, because we saw the expanse of the evacuation just double in size last night, from 80,000 to 180,000 up in sonoma county. here is a current look at the winds above 1,000 feet. up to 50 miles per hour, knoxville creek. this is pretty high, 3 and 4,000 feet. they're beginning to come down a bit. we're still looking at gusty winds. mt. tam, wind gusts up to 45 miles per hour. oakland hills, 36. east foothills, 36. look at the north winds. this right now, surface winds in hayward, in livermore, up to 32 miles per hour. look at the line here, the red

to magenta to pink, it keeps blowing until we can relax the pressure gradient. we're in the close vicinity of low pressure to our east, high pressure to the west. an the atmosphere always wants to get to a quill i objen equil balance ourselves out. as we look at our 9:00 winds, they're still gusty, from the east bay to the coast. we have the funneling, we have the terrain, we have the gaps in the winds. the winds get channeled into the lower elevations and they just pick up speed and move across the bay here. that's what will happen throughout the afternoon. at 11:00, things are getting just a little bit lighter. but we need an onshore flow, we need high relative humidity, we need a westerly opponent. it will lighten up a bit but we're still looking at 30 mile-per-hour gusts through the

afternoon. half moon bay, san francisco, some problems with low level wind shear. also looking at temperatures and the winds allowing for conditions to be really dangerous for the flights to take off and land. so 10:00, 11:00 tonight, 25 to 30-mile-per-hour winds. the dew point measures the moisture in the area which there's very little of. look at that, 14 in napa. we're looking at not only low dew points but the relative humidity that continues to decrease complements of the gusty northeastern wind. relative humidity 18% in vallejo, 24% in fremont, 21% san jose. this will continue to go in the wrong direction. we'll continue to dry out as the winds continue to gust here from the north. the gustiest will be in the upper elevation of the north bay. and the current air quality is moderate. you're noticing that in some areas around here, it's actually pretty good because the winds

are so strong, they are pushing the bad air out of the bay, out to sea. but of course the fire continues to expand as the winds push those embers up, perhaps even miles out ahead, starting smaller spot fires. you look at the camera behind you guys, the bay bridge camera, wow, that is really shaking. so all across the bay, i've heard from a lot of folks right in the lower valleys, 25 to 35 miles an hour, it's a bad day in the weather department, it really is. when we talk about things improving, we're not getting any rain, we're not getting any change of a wind direction. and in fact we're looking at another event that could take us into tuesday and wednesday with an offshore wind component. here's a look at the fire index. we'll stay high on this all day long, because the winds are going to be a little bit less but not enough to help us out and it will continue to be a very tight predicament here as to how much more this is going

to spread and whether or not we can keep other fires from starting in the east bay. the diablo range, up to 50 miles an hour. >> we have some good news on that fire, the clayton-oakley fire burning in the east bay. it looks like evacuation orders have been lifted for that area. i'll pull it up on my phone. residents can return home. evacuation order for oakley fires has been lifted. east cypress road reopening for residents, that was for a fire burning in contra costa county. we've got fires all over the place. the main one is the kincade fire. >> which we'll go ahead and summarize for you right now. it's burned 30,000 acres. so it grew by about 5,000 acres overnight, mostly burning in rugged, steep, brushy terrain there near geyserville. firefighters have 10% containment right now which is actually a drop from the 11%

containment they had as of last night. right now they have 71 structures destroyed. over 31,000 structures are threatened. firefighters are tackling this, they have over 3,000 fire personnel working the kincade fire and aggressively working to keep it from spreading into the heart of sonoma county in windsor and healdsburg. they've undertaken the unprecedented effort of moving 180,000 residents, 60,000 people in santa rosa and about 120-ish county residents that are getting out of harms way, getting to evacuation centers or other places, to friends and family elsewhere. all of that has been happening since last night and early this morning with efforts intensifying as the threat of the kincade fire spreads. >> one note, because so many people have been evacuated, many

of the shelters have actually been filled up. the new information is to head even farther south to the marin fairgrounds in san rafael, 10 avenue of the flags. you'll have to get on 101 south and there's going to be traffic but you just need to have patience and know that is the route to safety. >> joining us by phone right now i think iss sothe sonoma county supervisor who had an update with cal fire through a briefing. thank you for making the time for us, supervisor. can you give us a status update? >> yeah, we did have the briefing at 7:00 as they do every morning. it's really an operational briefing for the firefighters themselves before the new shift gets back on the line. it's always interesting to glean some information from that. i think last night, about 1:00 in the morning, they were very, very concerned about the activity that was taking place. i know that it could have been a lot worse as we woke up this morning than what it is.

and i also know right now, if you look over, i'm looking over my shoulder at the plume of smoke going in the southwest direction, that the wind is pushing it really hard right now. even though we want to get airplanes up, visibility is not going to allow them to get good drops on the front of the line of fire. so the ground crews are working really hard right now to make sure that they can get a stop on this thing. >> did they have any updates on acreage or how many structures have been burned or how many structures are threatened? because the latest numbers we have are almost 32,000 threatened. >> yeah, there's a lot of threatened structures. if you look at our evacuation map, it rely goes right out to the ocean, because it's all downwind with these diablo winds blowing out of the north and northeast. so there's a lot of structures

in the path of this. until they get a larger containment, we can't start pulling off those numbers. you know, we still have the winds, and today is going to be as windy pretty much as it was last night. the national weather service told us there were 40 to 76-mile-per-hour gusts, 80 minors at mt. st. helena. they'll see 30 to 40-mile-per-hour winds today in sonoma. obviously as you increase in elevation, for every 500 meet, wind speed goes up exponentially. and the winds are certainly coming out of that north/northeast direction which unfortunately alliance with the drainages of the topography. it pushes the wind down those drainages and makes it difficult for firefighting. >> david, thank you for your time. it sounds like we're still expecting a 10:00 a.m. presser with cal fire. >> we are.

they flew the fire this morning, did an infrared flight. they crunch those numbers, however they gather that, and create the maps. that's what they'll be presenting here at 10:00. >> all right. we do have to go, but one last real quick question, have you heard anything about the field stone winery and whether that was burned in the fire? >> only from what i saw, quite frankly, on social media. nothing official. i did see pictures of some wineries, soda rock. i didn't identify the field stone. people did tell me wineries were burnt, and that was plural. but again, we hope for the best. there was a lot of -- from the map, it looks like there was a lot of land burnt last night, what's in that area. it is populated with wineries, and there are some homes in

there, not real dense, but obviously the structure damage or structural numbers are going to be going up. >> all right. thank you, david, so much for spending some time with us on the phone. we'll chat with you later. >> sure, thank you. >> we have got to switch gears. we have sky 7 overhead a fire burning in vallejo right now. this looks like a fresh fire near >> there are also a lot of refineries in the area, fuel processing facilities, not too far away from the new star plant, a few weeks ago we had an incident there. you can see the grass fire burning, the flames are right next to -- i-80. >> interstate 80, yes. right now cars seem to be driving past it unimpeded. of course this is just breaking

out right now. it's entirely possible that pretty soon the chp may keep people off the roads in that immediate area because you can see the fire is burning in the hillside right next to the freeway. >> it would be interesting to know how this fire started. was this the same ember, two different embers, did one start the other fire. so just to show you just how complicated this firefight is for all of the firefighters in the bay area, we know there were 3,000 firefighters on the kincade fire alone. but you have to remember that not every fire can rush to sonoma county. they have to protect the rest of the bay area, because this is high fire red flag warning for everyone else. so we know there was the oakley-clayton fire which fortunately evacuation orders were just lifted for. >> it's worth noting, a resident obviously with a hose, trying to protect his own home as the flames get so close to his property, which appears to be in a subdivision. look at all those homes, as we pull out.

>> we don't see a lot of fief firefighters out there. >> no, they're not there yet. you can see the flames are very much encroaching. there's a little road there that might service a fire break. >> it does look like they have clearance around their homes, which everyone has been cognitive of in the bay area. you see four people out with their garden hoses which is common in these types of situations. but from this vantage point you can see how tough that is. your garden hose versus a grass fire that's moving pretty quickly. >> mm-hmm. and it appears to be two spots where the flames are originating at this point. there is one right by the subdivision, and then one a little bit farther away closer to interstate 80. we see some tanks there, which is a littl disturbing because you do not know the contents of that. >> it could be water storage facility, because that's how a lot of water districts store their water. but as you were saying, we had the new star fire a couple of weeks ago when we had all sorts

of flammable materials burning, i believe it wasse ethanol. >> this is certainly impeding right now the visibility in the area by the carquinez bridge. >> you have to wonder what they're thinking. >> another thing we're noting is that there are power lines or transmission lines and towers right by where the fire is burning. if we can pull out a little bit and see if we can get a shot of that. we hope that they have been de-energiz, we don't know. >> we hope they weren't involved. >> we hope they weren't involved, pg&e certainly doesn't need another incident in which their equipment is involved or related to sparking a fire. it's burning right around their tower there. >> we don't have official information from vallejo fire or from officials about whether folks should evacuate. but this is a situation where

you can see the flames are very close to their homes. if you're in this type of situation sometime this weekend as we deal with this unbelievable red flag warning, if you're seeing those kind of flames and smoke, it's really best to get out. i know the urge is to protect your property, it's understandable. but that's not always the safest decision. >> right now let's bring in by phone pg&e spokesman paul dougherty. paul, thank you so much. are you seeing what we're seeing in vallejo, that there are fires burning right around one of your transmission towers? >> yeah, we are aware of that situation currently. and i don't have specific information in terms of whether or not those transmission lines have been de-energized. our transmission system is in scope for pg&e's event this weekend. there are instances were wind speeds are extremely high where we have been need to de-energize some of those 230 kb and 500 kb

lines. there is a chance some of these are de-energized. again, i don't have that specific information for you at the moment. we're seeing historic wind speeds throughout our service area, as you all know, that's why we've enacted this public safety power shutoff event, currently impacting approximately 940,000 customers. we have expanded that scope slightly, and we are anticipating some additional shutoffs in the southern portion of our service area, in kern, fresno, madeira counties for later this afternoon, tonight, and potentially into tomorrow. >> do you have any idea what's going on in vallejo? we have sky 7 overhead and there's two fires, one burning close to houses and the highway. there are some very tall transmission lines that we have on live tv right now.

do you have any concept, are those towers de-energized right now? >> as i mentioned, i don't have specific information to share right now with regard to those power lines, our transmission system is in the scope for this psps event. and we have shut off power -- [ inaudible ]. >> paul, are you still there? all right. paul is not able to say right now whether those transmission lines we see in this vallejo shot, if they've been de-energized or if their equipment had anything to do with this particular fire that's broken out in vallejo just in the last half hour, near the carquinez bridge near a subdivision. those homes are very much in danger and we see some residents out with a garden hose. who am i hearing right now? >> you can also see the wind blowing those trees right now which really goes to show how

those flames -- okay, i'm hearing that we have the mayor of healdsburg on the phone, mayor daviding he hegel. good morning, are you there? >> yes. >> how are you doing? obviously it's been a trying night for you and everye in healdsburg. is the town okay, do you know, is anything on fire, are you still protected? >> as of now we are protected. last night, as you can imagine, it was an extremely challenging night. i can't say enough about our staff of first responders. i was up there around 3:00 a.m. this morning when we made the decision to relocate the emergency operations center from healdsburg to santa rosa. and the show of force was just breathtaking. i drove up toward the north end of city limits, the parkland farms area.

the number of trucks ready to just go was amazing. so a lot of wind, a lot of branches. a lot of things blowing around, as you can imagine. but so far, nothing has burned in healdsburg. there's a lot of fires going on around us, so we're definitely not out of the woods. we're watching all of that very carefully. but, you know, i can't say enough about, you know, not just our staff but our community and the fact that they listened to the recommendations to evacuate so that the first responders in healdsburg were actually able to do their jobs as opposed to rescuing people and trying to evacuate people that should have been out of there already. >> it does sound like you did everything right, from both the first responders at some point and also the response from the residents. just everybody coming together. but i've got to say, it's trying, and it's so sad to see

what's happened. we saw soda rock winery completely burned down. we also heard about field stone, do we know anything about the field stone winery and what happened there? >> you know, i don't. i'm focused primarily on the city limits and the city of healdsburg. and that's where my focus has been. our hearts go out to our neighbors. this goes out to where this whole thing started, healdsburg as a community is a very supportivecommunity. and we jumped at the chance to be able to help our neighbors. so when we hear about these things, or the businesses lost, i mean, that affects jobs in our area. it's something that we all feel. and so we can only hope for the best and just pray that these winds calm down. >> david, i imagine you've lived in healdsburg or the area for a number of years. >> yeah,. >> what is this like for you,

not just as the mayor of healdsburg but as a member of the community to pack up your home and go? >> i have a 6 and 8-year-old, a 6-year-old boy and an 8-year-old daughter. you have to balance the -- you get really good at panic, but calm. i shouldn't say panic, but hurry and calm, to do things and move quickly without creating additional panic that, you know, you can see in your kids' eyes. and so it's something that i experience personally, having conversations with my wife about the evacuation plan and so many unknowns. and, you know, just the fear of what potentially could happen, and balancing all of that with your family and evacuating them and comforting your kids, it's a challenging things. my heart goes out to our entire

community. and i'm really just so grateful that people are safe in various locations and they were able to get out in a nice, calm, and orderly fashion. it was so helpful to the first responders that showed up to do their work. >> mayor hagele, thank you so much for your time. i know it can't be easy. but know that the entire bay area is behind you. stay safe. >> thank you. i appreciate it. >> right now we want to take you back to our breaking fire in vallejo. this one just in the last half hour, take a look, we are now getting word that i-80 is closed in that immediate area by the carquinez bridge as a result of two fires burning. we're told this is the glen cove

area. it looks like the flames have gown, the charred areas have grown, and the smoke is now billowing across i-80. >> that one front looks like it's just yards from the freeway, which you can see they've closed one side. one side is open, moving slowly, mostly because those cars are lookee-loos, wondering what is going on as another fire starts in the bay area. if sky 7 can pull out, we were also concerned about that second fire burning near the neighborhood. obviously these fires starting very close to each other. and we know it's windy because we had a close-up of some of those trees in the neighborhood which you can see are really billowing. if you look closely in the backyards and past the fences, you'll see folks with hoses. i'm actually wondering if -- i don't see a fire truck. >> we can talk to our photographer, mike davich in sky7, who could give us a sense for what firefighters are doing. hi, mike. >> reporter: good morning.

we're just north of the carquinez bridge. we spotted this fire as we were headed to another fire, in oakley. firefighters weren't on scene when we got here, but residents were hosing down the area next to their homes on the hill. this is bay hurst drive in vallejo. residents were out with their garden hoses. luckily they have a nice fire break on the back side of their home. initially they weren't in too much danger but the flames were a little scary. i think the fire down on 80 is part of the same scene, as you can see. it's really close. firefighters are on both scenes now, and starting to address the flames. as you guys mentioned, 80, just past the toll plaza here, is closed and they're turning traveling around to go back

across the bridge due to smoke and obviously firefighting efforts. >> oh, my gosh, yeah, we can see that now. now it's hard to see because of all the smoke because you're above it. but yes, we can see the chp turning traffic around, not letting cars get to the area right up to where the fire is burning. talk about the direction of the smoke and how it might be impacting the carquinez bridge and homes in the area. >> reporter: the smoke seems to be moving to the south. the winds are kicking it up here too. it's not as bad as when -- we've actually -- we're going to the fire in sonoma county, but due to those severe winds and turbulence we had to turn around. that's when we spotted this fire. as you see, the smoke is heading towards the bridge itself. at this point they haven't closed westbound lanes.

>> mike, sorry to interrupt you, i apologize. can you zoom in? because the cars are actually being turned around near the bridge at the toll plaza right there. you can see that there are dozens of cars that are just being turned right back around to head back over the carquinez bridge because i-80 is closed because the flames are so close to the highway, to the road. >> so mike, they're not -- ooh, look at that. that's the fire, coming closer. >> right on the freeway, it looks like. >> there's fire truck, some signs sirens on top of that vehicle. perhaps the fire department has arrived on scene. >> it's on both sides of the freeway, fires now on both sides of the freeway. >> so everyone, just to recap, a we're right north of the carquinez bridge, three fires

have broken out at the i-80 highway, there's one in the neighborhood, one on the side of i-80 and another that seems to have skipped the freeway. they haven't closed both sides of 80 yet. >> i imagine that will change real quickly, mike. >> reporter: absolutely. as soon as they get their hands on the other side, the other lanes, i think they'll probably close it down, due to the smoke if nothing else. but the firefighting efforts will intensify here. and they'll need the space to work. >> do you see those tanks that are right next to the subdivision where one of the fires seems to be burning? do you know what they are? is that just water, we hope, and not part of some sort of plant or refinery or anything like that with possibly more flammable stuff? >> reporter: my guess is those are residential water tanks that service the neighborhoods. we're not near refineries specifically right here. there is another reservoir right

above it. i'm pretty sure that's just water. the flames are starting to fizzle out just a little bit near the neighborhood. but like i said, they had a nice break along the back side of the homes here, so they weren't in too much danger, just some scary moments for the residents as they tried to hose it down themselves before firefighters arrive. >> we see a lot of people continuing to do that. i don't see a lot of fire engines directly in the neighborhood. the fire is now on both sides of interstate 80, right car carquinez bridge. >> i'm wondering if cars on i-80 will have to stop in both directions since we've got flames on either side. >> reporter: yeah, i believe they will.

this grove of trees on the other side, the fire has definitely jumpednd is heading down towards the sheline, for those family with the area. i think this is the maritime academy below us. the maritime academy is now in jeopardy as the fire moves in that direction. >> wow. are you seeing a lot of fire engines or fire response yet? we definitely see a couple -- >> reporter: from the extension across the freeway here, i have not seen any fire response for that. think this caught them off-guard, obviously. they're making efforts to get turned around on the freeway and get to this fire. it's just getting massive on the other side. this grove of trees is just going up. incredible. this started, when we got here, the flames were very visible, but not nearly this intense. but it has just gotten worse,

the winds have pushed it and pushed it and pushed it. >> that was just a matter of minutes, mike, that that fire skipped the freeway and is on the other side. >> reporter: absolutely. >> you can imagine these drivers are wondering what is going on as they are on i-80. unbelievable. so this is just -- i guess three now, of many fires that are burning across the bay area. you remember the entire region is dealing with high winds, a red flag warning. we've been focused on the kincade fire since it's 30,000 acres and 180,000 people are evacuated but that doesn't mean the threat for the rest of the bay area is over. of course firefighters will now be busy here trying to deal with that and dealing with a potential i-80 closure is obviously difficult especially when we're dealing with traffic on highway 1 as folks try to evacuate. >> we'll keep watch this fire in vallejo, which is so scary for all those driver on 80 by carquinez, by the bridge there. we want to bring in reporter

cornell barnard who has been following the fire destruction in the healdsburg area. folks, if we can live this up, but for now, what's going on on where you are, cornell? >> reporter: we are making our way up highway 28 towards calistoga. every mile we take, we see some devastation. this is the latest. this is an outbuilding, perhaps a home, perhaps a shop here off of highway 128 and chalk hill road. this is an area where we have so many vineyards, so many wineries. we don't think this was a winery, but it is a total loss. we're about two miles from soda rock winery which of course we were showing you all morning, which tragically burned to the ground. all that's left there is a facade made of brick. we want to bring in chris harvey, the public information officer for cal fire. chris, i know you've been busy this morning, thanks for making time for us.

how is the firefight going? >> last night we saw along this whole stretch of highway 128, several places were fire jumped over the road. we lost some structures, some grapes, obviously. the wind continues out of the northeast today, obviously a significant wind event we're looking at again for today. >> reporter: those winds were forecasted, everyone was gearing up for them, they have certainly come to fruition. tell me how that's playing a part in what's going on for you guys. >> we're lucky in this case to have such an accurate forecast several days in advance. additional evacuations in healdsburg and windsor. i only found one man still at home, the evacuations seem to be working. >> reporter: the embers which may have caught that beautiful historic winery down the road, there's no way to battle those if they're in the air, if they're airborne and they catch fire, they land on buildings, right? >> sure, that's a significant hazard for us on these windy

days, we can have embers and burning brands that will land one, two, three miles downwind sometimes. they start these spot fires, then the spot fires become wind-driven. if it lands on a shake roof or dry fwrgrass, you can have a very significant fire incident very quickly. >> reporter: we've been here for a couple of hours now, when we got here, it's so smoky, really hard to tell where the fire is burning. at some point we thought the fi was burning all around us. where is the fire currently? >> the main bulk of the fire continues to be up near geyserville, northeast of highway 128. but again, because we have those winds out of the northeast, the fear today is we'll have fire spread to the southwest. that's why, again, we have those evacuations of healdsburg and windsor. >> reporter: we have our sold school map that you just provided to me. tell me where the fire is burning and where we are. >> the fire is here. this black line is what we call a containment line, where the firefighting efforts have concentrated to try and keep the

fire from spreading to the southwest. this is the 101 corridor here. we've made some contingency plans here, this whole area, all the way out to the pacific ocean, it's now been divided up for command and control purposes just so we can be extra cautious in case the fire continues to spread in a southwesterly direction. we'll see very strong winds coming out of the northeast in this direction. our fear, and our efforts, are focused on the fact that the fire could continue to spread towards the southwest. >> reporter: has the fire jumped 101? >> currently right now we have no reports of the fire jumping 101. we just have a lot of spots where the fire has jumped 128 here. >> reporter: and right here on the map, we have the communities of healdsburg and windsor. >> that's correct. >> reporter: and right now you have, what, 3,000 personnel on the ground? >> as of this morning the new numbers are 30,000 acres involved with over 3,000 personnel. >> reporter: we've seen firefighters as far as southern

california, nevada county, i know you're from sacramento yourself. we have reinforcements coming in. >> definitely. we have out of state, i've seat novato, oregon. we generally get western states, you'll be seeing people from all over the west arriving today. >> reporter: does it appear, and we had a massive evacuation from the communities yesterday, does it appear everyone heated the warning to get out? >> i'm happy to say at this time there's no confirmed casualties of firefighters or civilians. in our opinion, the evacuation orders have obviously worked, everyone has gotten out. so, you know, we're feeling very lucky this morning for that reason. >> reporter: thanks so much for your time. the fire has jumped 128 here. that's what we have seen here. what we saw down at the soda rock winery. it jumped highway 128, but now the firefight is concentrated on highway 101, making sure it does not jump highway 101.

kristen, you had asked me earlier if alexander valley school had burned or had been damaged by the fire. we just checked on it, it is perfectly intact. there was an outbuilding a quarter mile from there which we showed you in the last 45 minutes. that's what the concern was. that outbuilding. the school is fine. >> that's good news, thank you so much, cornell. speaking of the fire jumping right now, let's take you back to our breaking news in vallejo. this is that fire that's right by the carquinez bridge, jumped 80, and close to the cal state university, one of the campuses of the system, one of the maritime academies, the only one on the west coast. you can see the facility there is very close to where the flames are burning now. they're putting water on it.

>> if you zoom back in, it looks like law enforcement and firefighters were close to some of those buildings, then sort of farther down, it looked like some flames were getting close to some of those buildings right there. you can see some things are close to catching fire. it looks like a trailer maybe full of equipment or something. bu it's getting awful close to everything on the campus. >> and there's a lot of firefighting effort going on, you can see them pulling out the hose and trying to put some water on it. fire engines are arriving as we speak. this is the dry brush on the hill that's right butting up to the cal maritime academy which is being very much threatened by this fire that is growing so rapidly. >> what i see is a storage container. those could be propane -- no, those are probably life raft enclosures. >> hopefully not propane tanks

there. >> and this fire skipped i-80 so quickly. for a while we had two fighters near a neighborhood and then close to the edge of the road, and then minutes later it seems like it's taken over this side of the hill. in vallejo, this is on the north side of the carquinez bridge. >> there's car on fire. >> two cars. >> yes, two cars that are currently burning. and we don't know if this is a parking lot belonging to the cal maritime academy, most likely so, it's in that area. but this fire has spread so quickly and there are little spot fires in areas now burning and including vehicles there. this is in vallejo, by the carquinez bridge. it started near a subdivision there at the top of the hill, then very quickly it jumped the freeway and now it's coming down towards the water with smoke going south and embers going south. that is being affected right there.

>> hard not to notice those giant transmission towers. pg&e, we had them on the phone earlier, they don't know whether that had anything to do with the fire but it's hard not to notice them sticking out of the smoke. there were some transmission lines next to the neighborhood and we have a huge fire on both sides of i-80. earlier one side of the highway was closed down. i would bet they've closed both sides. >> we're getting word from a representative of the cal maritime academy that they're actively evacuating people from their facility there. there are 115 people on campus, or were, hopefully they're getting out or have gotten out. sky7, hopefully we'll get that shot back, because it's over a developing story, dramatic fire

breaking out in these high winds, tinder dry conditions. sky7 from a few minutes ago was able to shoot what you were talking about, kate, i-80. >> the vallejo firefighters association on twitter has confirmed all of i-80 is closed. we've been in touch with folks from vallejo fire who are understandably very busy actually fighting this fire right now. we are working on getting more information about what exactly is happening, what's threatened, how they're dealing with it. you can see cars are still moving on at least that portion of i-80 despite what we're hearing from the firefighters. >> this was from a few minutes ago, from sky7, so it could be changing rapidly. of course they have to get people off the freeway, out of the area, they can't just be stuck there. so we're not sure exactly what's going on at this time. but definitely they want to get people out of that area, off of i-80. in that sdivision i have to

imagine they must have evacuations going on as well because the fire was burning close to the subdivision even though they have sort of a natural break there at the top of the ridge. but it is too close for comfort. we saw people taking out their garden hoses and trying to defend their properties, defend their homes against the approaching fire. but right now, it seems to be pushing in a southerly direction towards the water, towards the maritime academy. >> the flames near the homes are dying down, we saw a number of homeowners with garden hoses before the fire department got there. if we zoom in, mike, it looks like there's yellow engine front of one of the homes, it looks like some firefighters showed up to the neighborhood. they're working to protect those homes because obviously that's of great importance. this is a live picture from sky 7 as we speak. it looks like we're seeing more

smoke than flames. it looks like it burnt the center median. >> it looks like they've gotten the cars out of the area, they've closed it, as we anticipated they might. but you can see both sides of it freeway, the vegetation, fully engulfed. there are a lot of trees there and dry brush. and with the winds that are as they are today, with gusts up to oat miles per ho in higher areas, it's easy for this to spread. let's check in with meteorologist lisa argen. >> winds are out of the north, no surprise there, 12 miles an hour gusting to 24. and the current relative humidity is at 17%. so like the entire bay area, the winds now channeling through the delta there, through into vallejo, and getting close to the surface with gusts of anywhere from 25 to 40 miles an hour are calming. napa has a wind gust of 52 miles per hour. with the northeastern gradient and winds being channeled, it's

just dry. and the weather is certainly the factor in starting this fire, hopefully not spreading anymore, but it is just not in our direction, our favor, with the low fuels -- i should say, the low moisture, the dry fuel content, and another example of how the winds are just dominating the weather today, because of the dry brush out there, the dry time of year. we've had no rain in october at all. and for the next ten days we're not expecting any rain. we're not expecting these winds to shift or to become more westerly. we're expecting the dry conditions to continue, the wind gusts today with our wind advisory throughout 11:00 tomorrow, high fire danger across the bay area. this is all throughout the day today. i heard reports all over the bay of the winds just howling, tree in the street. and this is all weather driven, no doubt. >> well, and we saw how quickly

this fire developed from two somewhat small fires near these homes that you're looking at right now, then a little bit down the hill towards i-80. then all of a sudden it had jump the the freeway, it's near maritime academy. it's closed i-80 completely. i didn't see any cars on the carquinez bridge memoments ago. we've got mike davich up in sky7. mike, what are you seeing? >> reporter: we're coming around to check on that subdivision. to our knowledge no homes have burned to this point. firefighters were on the scene attacking the fire when we went around to check out the extension on the other side of the freeway. the maritime academy, i can confirm they're quickly trying to evacuate people. their own people are efforting firefighting tactics along the base of their docks and their

billets. >> mike, i seem to see more cars going downhill. i'm assuming people are leaving that area. i don't know if you know of any mandatory evacuation orders. i see police vehicles with lights on and it seems to be getting people to drive down that road and leave that subdivision. is that what you're seeing? >> reporter: you know, when we first were shooting the residents hosing down, there were a lot of people backing out of their driveways, trying to get at least their cars and their families out of immediate danger. i do see some people leaving now. i haven't seen any police per se and i certainly haven't heard of any mandatory evacuations at this point. this thing just happened so quickly, i don't think there was any time for that.

but the homes at this point seem to be out of internitial jeopar. the fire continues to burn towards 80. as we discussed, 80 is close income both directions at the toll plaza. >> do you see any firefighters out on the road, by maritime academy, where a couple of cars were on fire? where are you sort of seeing the resources centered? >> reporter: we saw some fire trucks come into the maritime academy. i had not seen them pull their hoses, most of the firefighting efforts seemed to be coming from the residents and the folks at the maritime academy. i have not seen too much firefighting effort along 80 either. they're there, they're just under the smoke. but i've only seen a handful of firefighting apparati.

we're coming back to the maritime academy here. the fire continues to burn. >> i don't know if it's very difficult for them to get out there, but it almost has this eerie sense. on this shot, we can certainly see firefighting going on at the maritime academy. we saw what looked to be their parking lot, right, with a few cars already on fire. >> and i wonder if the folks that are fighting the fire that we just looked at, were they already at the academy or are these vallejo fire department coming down there to try and protect lives and structures. there's the car that's still on fire, it's a pickup truck right there. >> at least two vehicles. >> completely engulfed in flames. >> reporter: so vallejo fire department is actually on scene at the car fire in that parking

lot. this seems to be a corporation yard for this facility. just the one truck is on fire at this point, fiefrefighters are addressing that. most of the firefighting is coming from members o the academy there. >> do you knha a the key structures? certainly from here they look intact for the moment. but what will be the key of what they're trying to defend against there? >> reporter: i think the buildings that are intact on the lower portion there, that's the main part of the school. and then the upper portion seems to be some support buildings, corporation logistics kind of maintenance-type buildings. i think the truck that was burning was probably one of their maintenance vehicles. but we'll pull back out here and show you that 80 is deserted and shut down. and there's the bridge in the

distance. i have not looked but i'm assuming they have closed the bridge from the other side. >> we are not seeing traffic on the bridge at all. >> nor, looks like, for at least half a mile on 80 back. they're probably going to traffic break as the fire grows. it looks like it's sort of growing still towards the homes a little bit, although i guess that portion of the hillside has burned already. and you can still see some movement in the upper left corner of your screen. it looks like there's folks in the neighborhood, either trying to fight the fire themselves. we do know vallejo fire is on scene doing whatever they can. but we know fire resources are stretched thin throughout the bay area as there are fires popping up all over the place. of course a lot of agencies have sent crews to the kincade fire burning in sonoma county. is that another fire? >> that certainly does appear to be another spot fire right around where the cars are approaching the toll, is that

what they're bunched up there for? they're being stopped there and turned around? >> yeah, mike, can you tell us sort of what we're looking at here? >> reporter: yes, so we're now on the other side of the carquinez, to the west, where the cars are backed up because of the closure. and it looks like a spot fire has started. i think this is hercules, if i'm not mistaken, along 80. it's picked up steam, firefighters are on the scene of this one at this point. >> thank you so much, mike. i think we're going to go to abc 7 news reporter lauren martinez. lauren, if you're there on the phone, we hear you were on the carquinez bridge when this fire broke out. do we have lauren on the phone? >> reporter: hello? >> hi, lauren. >> reporter: hi. >> we hear you were on the carquinez bridge when this fire

broke out. >> reporter: yes, i was approaching the bridge. i could see a small plumef smoke at the time. but right when you approach the toll area, that's where cars stopped. and i noticed that a semi on the right was crossing all the lanes to get over. and i could see him turning around. so then at that point i realized, they're having everyone turn around after the toll. and that's what ended up happening. there was ash just coming down, and so then all the cars had to move over to the left and just make a u-turn. meanwhile, the other side of the freeway is driving by. at that point that's where flames were right next to the other side of the freeway. you could feel it, it was -- it was pretty intense. but everyone was, you know, pretty calm, everyone was just

kind of blending in together. i've never been that close, like i have never been that close. and that was really scary to deal with. >> where you can feel the heat, right? >> reporter: yes. >> what did authorities have you do, where did they have you go and where are you now? >> reporter: so i drove and i pulled over -- let me see where i'm at right now. i pulled over. i'm in rodeo right now. >> do you know who turned you around chemical was the chp on scene? one agency was there directing traffic because we're trying to get a sense of who is on the ground in trying to deal with this fire. >> reporter: sure. you know, i couldn't tell. i just saw police lights. i mean, the smoke was kind of covering them so i couldn't even get a good look. i was in one of the middle toll lanes. i was kind of in the middle of everything. i wasn't on an edge to really

see what was going on. but i could see lights from one at least patrol car, just not letting drivers go through. and you had to turn back. >> were you stuck in traffic near the flames or were you able to quickly turn around and get out of harms way? because we're seeing some cars on the freeway. >> reporter: yeah, i was able to turn around. you know, i think what made it hard too is that other cars are still driving by. you have to, you know, merge. >> go with the flow. >> reporter: right, merge quickly. so that was hard. i think the scariest part was just sitting there and trying to kind of, you know,erge together and then make that u-turn. that was just very scary. >> we're glad you got through that safely. you're at rodeo now just down the road. from where you are now, can you still see the smoke? that seems to be increasing as

the flames grow and move and spread. we're seeing several spot fires. what are you seeing in rodeo? >> reporter: i'm on a hill, actually, so i can get a good view. for me, approaching the carquinez bridge, i saw just a small plume, nothing too big. to see it now, just how quickly all of this has just transpired, it's just crazy. but i can see it after the energy facility, just a big black plume just continuing to grow. there are people slowly coming out of their houses, kind of checking and seeing. you know, people walking by, and the smoke. the wind is just so windy, it's coming in this direction. >> and lauren, we're watching sort of the flames eat up the

trees along i-80. we can see the winds moving the trees. cars are sort of -- okay, these are from a few minutes ago, but the fire is still burning. and you can see, a few minutes ago, there was a fire truck in that neighborhood and cars are, you know, on the freeway. they've shut the freeway. and the fire department is obviously trying to deal with this as best they can, along with all the other fires that are burning throughout the bay area today. >> reporter: mm-hmm. yeah, it's -- i just can't believe how quickly, you know, it happened. >> lauren, were you coming into work? >> reporter: no, i was actually heading home to sacramento. and my dad, you know, he was in the city. and he was 30 minutes ahead of me and he was able to go through, no problem. i called him and i'm like, dad, there's a fire. he's like, i passed the

carquinez bridge 30 minutes ago, nothing was there. so that must have just happened. >> are you making plans to take an alternate route at this point? >> reporter: you know, i don't know. it rattled my nerves a little bit. i don't know. i'll kind of sit here and figure out what i should do. >> your news instincts are probably like, keep on driving and come to work. >> reporter: right. >> but i'm sorry that the family plans got kind of spoiled. this is just a crazy situation, as you said. >> reporter: it is. >> we're glad you weren't caught mi of all the flames and e smoke and that you're safely away from that area right now in rodeo. >> reporter: thank you so much. >> and just to recap for those of you just joining us, this is a fire, it looks like multiple fires burning on both sides of i-80 north of the carquinez bridge in vallejo, including

burning on the campus of cal state maritime academy, where we saw a number of trucks on fire in a parking lot. people had hoses out, they're trying to keep the fire from approaching any closer to campus. i fe i-80 is closed in the area. on the other side, folks had garden hoses out trying to stave off the flames. >> and we spotted another vegetation fire downwind of vallejo, closer to crockett, really. this latest one appears to be across the highway from the tank farm fire two weeks ago, if you remember, at new star. so, you know, there are a lot of refineries in that area, not where this originally broke out by the carquinez bridge, but certainly now that it's moving downwind and south, we're starting to see some of the threats to the local refineries. >> and this is actually some social media video of the fire near the carquinez bridge,

someone, it looks like, driving in their car and taking it out their window. you can see how scary that was, what lauren was talking about, how it can really rattle your nerves when you're feed away, or yards away anyway, from flames like that burning right next to i-80. you can see all those cars were turned around. the freeway is closed. i-80 is closed. and you can see those are the flames that we first saw that were burning so close earlier to these homes. that portion of the fire seems to be a little bit died down. i will have to say this neighborhood seemed to have really great clearance, brush clearance around their backyards, and in the property on the hillside leading up to their backyards. >> all right. two quick notes. one, for you viewers who enjoy "this week with george stephanopoulos," that will be airing right now on 7.2. or you can catch it on comcast 715. we're sorry you weren't able to watch it here earlier due to thisak