>> announcer: building a better bay area for a safe and secure future, this is abc7 news. hi there, i'm kristen sze. welcome to our daily program called getting answers. right now, we're going to get your answers by taking you to a news conference from cal fire on the scu lightning complex burning in the east bay, south bay and central valley. let's listen in. >> aircraft is a question that comes up often. for aircraft, over 95 state resources that are flying up and down california. over 2.4 million gallons of retardant have been delivered throughout the state and 2.5 million gallons of water have been delivered.

right now, we have over 60 fires assigned to this incident alone. from arizona, idaho, new mexico, oregon, and we have 26 out of state resources that are en route from mt., utah and texas, for a total requested. another topic is damage inspections. process to get all the information needed and assess that over the counties. we have over 100,000 structures threatened up and down the state of california. more than 1,000 structures throughout the state have been destroyed. and this is an ongoing process. for our incident here, scu lightning complex, we'll start off with the operation briefing from the operation chief, tim

ernst. >> before we talk about the incident, i want to talk about the map. i want to make sure we're all understanding the same thing. when we look at the map of the fire, you see a lot on the outside. the black perimeter. what you're looking for is go off to the incident through the oncoming days and weeks of the incident. you want to see more of this black line along the map. this is an extremely challenging incident. when we arrived on scene, we ended up with approximately 20 individual fires. we split the 20 incidents down into three separate zones that you see identified on the map behind me. the top area we call the dear zone, and then we have the canyon zone. we've been very successful in eliminating any further threat heeer zone. el contained

and circled. a number of them have grown together. don't have a lot of small fires, they've grown together. that is what makes up these two with the canyon. both of those fires have also grown together as you can see. as we look on the map, i told you our goal to see black lines around the outside. let's start by focusing on the areas we have been able to contain the area and stop any forward spread. as you can see here, half of the fires fires, in this area. allenging arsecauseind h pushed fire, it's been everything on the south side of the fire. you can see both of those two

zones of fires met in the middle and now actively burning in the very center here. the lower edge of the fire which continues to work its way southward. the southerly movement of the fire with the containment lines and fire retardant aircraft to strengthen some of the lines to see if we can slow it or stop any further. >> the entire western front along the zone. strictly because the population border on that side retardant dropping aircraft to see if we can slow or stop the fire to push away from the populated areas and then it come back and pitch it off down in the center.

again, you can see and working diligently in the northern area, aided by the fact the lightning strikes did not come in the way we expected them to yesterday only having started one additional fire last night in the fire zone. that's a serious concern to everybody in the room. >> all the involved counties meet a number of times a day, all the representatives that would represent the agencies around the perimeter as well as the law enforcement agencies that might have aonbility i eva concerns need to look at the risk of the fire. and some level, every part of this perimeter is involved in either evacuation warning or order and we're working diligently to try to put folks back into those neighborhoods

and understand what the priority that is, but following with the number one objective of providing safety for the people that live there, as well as first responders, priority to move people back into the neighborhoods. thank you very much. >> good afternoon. i'm jake and i'm the unit chief here in the santa clara unit. i appreciate everybody joining us today. first, i want to start off with recognizing the outstanding efforts, a lot of different patches up here this afternoon. law enforcement, fire department, this scenario requires the cooperation with seven counties now involved. requires a very significant

amount of cooperation, without that coordinated effort, the list is limitless at this point. talk about the private and public partners. who have natural resources, livestock. lots of concerns. those concerns are our concerns and i wanted to insure those folks folks, essentially we are living in a mega fire era. we have folks working for cal fire over the last five years and that's all they understand

is mega fires. second or third largest fire in the history of california. with that, this is going to be a marathon that we're on. they are going to have to set manageable paces. the number one priority is life safety and i'll segue into evacuations. it's a hot topic, a lot oftopica communities have been displaced and circling back to these mega fires that we're experiencing is

our room for error, the margin for error is zero with the receptive fuel beds that we're experiencing with these lightning strikes is unprecedented. and we have been messaging out the last couple of years, that we're going to have to evacuate peop people, give people an early warning what are we. doing to deal with the mega incidents. governor newsom had an executive ord order, the firefighters up and being trained, put into

the system. as a matter of fact. the lightning complex. >> through this marathon, we're going to have good days and bad days and i'm here to tell you, we're going to put this fire to bed and a coordinated effort with all of the folks you see right here. our law enforcement partners are playing a vital role in the coordinated efforts of getting our folks out and eventually getting our folks back in. i look at this map as a puz. every single one of these patches here, our public and private partners. fire safe council, law enforcement, are going to be a key piece to this puzzle.

california under jeff, a significant amount of horsepower, we put this fire to bed. the agency administrator there's going to be long-term fire repair, and private partners needs are going to be met. >> please come to the cooperator meetings so we can engage with you early. all of the counties associated with this incident have been phenomenal to work with. office of emergency management

in every county has been a great partner for us because they are the folks, we have we have we he ensuring their needs are met and we are not information out there. public information officers have done a phenomenal job, blasting out the information. please go to ready for wildfire. register your cell phone to receive information associated with the cal fire incident, no matter where you are in california. . it's a very unique tool and we encourage everybody to go to that site because there's a lot of things that the public can o

do, the offense. those are the low hanging fruits you can do on your dime, on your time. we can help you with thatthattht a lot of things you can do in preparation. thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm lieutenant george gory of the san jose chp office. the contra costa area, mostly affected by this fire. in each one of these areas, we

are providing officers for traffic control points to assist in closing off roads deemed unsafe and where there's a large amount of fire, or if there's going to be evacuations. we're also working with other local law enforcement agencies such as the local police departments around here. we have a great working relationship with california. assist any evacuations, assist the law enforcement duties. i'd like to thank them for their assistance, thank you.

>> alameda county, the last two days, we've gone around the clock, going door to door to all the houses making sure everybody is getting the information that they need. one of the most successful things we've had, the community through social media and through our ac alert system staying notified and sharing information, beside for rallying together and getting people to safety and we're very proud of the program that we've done to get, they have shelter, food and safe space during the difficult time. working hard, working diligently. very thankful that the conditions have been better than they were projected to be.

make it easier. >> i'm lori smith. i want to thank cal fire for all the coordination and the fire fighting agencies important that we work together with fire and law enforcement and this is an example of what we train to do and what we're doing in this case. in santa clara county, we certainly still with the mount hamilton range and unincorporat

unincorporated, the warning areas, also in the areas where it's mandatory, we continue to work with cal fire and hope that we can continue to just provide the support that we need want to commend the whole team that works on this. thank you very much and continue to pay attention to your area and when there are mandatory evacuations, please evacuate. >> our northern boundary with santa clara to the north, to the east and santa cruz to the west. so we don't have a big role today other than to tell our community that we're present, we're engaged, i think the people of our community can rest

assure we're working with the absolute best of the best, team 6 has been phenomenal for us to work with. the rough part of it, at any point, we can be called into action and this fire can come into our community and just really ask everybody, difficult as it is. direct our attention towards our facebook page, direct your attention towards the official information coming out. we've had a lot with the southern warning zones. not part of the county, but that doesn't mean it's not going to change in the next hour or two.

>> we want to really thank our public safety leaders that came up and spoke today. now we're going to take an opportunity to hear from our lieutenant commander. >> good afternoon, everybody. i appreciate all of our cooperators being here. thank you very much. as stated yesterday, yesterday's press conference, many of mine shared are redundant but the same message is still very valid. i'll run through the key points and be very brief. we're vowing one of the most challenging and complex fires in california history. simultaneously with other fires in the northern and south of in california history.

these mega fires are very challenging to deal with. it's taxing all of the local, state and federal law enforcement and fire service communities and we have out of state resources that talked about before, what i would imagine, the fireside and soon in the law enforcement side. recently learned resources only from far as texas are coming this way to assist all of us in the state of california. i want to continue to share the message, this fire by far is a long ways away from being done or completed as we work towards containment. with that being said, all the local law enforcement and firefighters that surround all the local and, excuse me, local agencies, fully engaged

protecting life and property. and with that being said, next to us and many others in the room, the cooperation on this incident amongst the fire department, local fire department and state fire department and law enforcement is paramount as you can see we stand united and together to protect all of you as california's public and firefighters and law enforcement communi community. the emergency notification processes. the additional evacuations, please heed the warning. that is the number one thing to do is heed the warning. i know many areas you can see we

have containment lines on the map. those communities are all asking the same question now. when can we repopulate and go back to our homes? folks, simply, we're not there yet. put the evacuations iplace, as soon as it's safe to do so there's a significant process that has to be done, propane situations before we can allow anyone to repopulate. it is our job to keep all of you safe. so again, i want to make sure everyone, on this incident is phenomenal. everyone here and in the room, the last item that i would like to share with you

warning. all of you listening in, when we encompass evacuations in seven counties. many of you out there, there's a lot of information being shared and it is, it can be very confusing. if your needs out there as the consumer of the incident, reach out to many web sites provided in the social media and news, explain your challenges. if the messaging is not getting to you, please reach out to the fire and law service committee so we can fix it folks, thank you. >> thank you, chief. before we go into questions and answers, i want to let everybody know that once we're finished with the questions and answers, we're going to be doing the press conference in spanish. so if you can please exit so we can conduct the process any

questions out there. >> you've been watching a cal fire briefing, focusing on the scu lightning complex fires. those are the ones burning sort of in the east bay, south bay, and central valley. as you know, it's burned 343,000 acres and 10% contained right now. they're talking about trying to stop the southern advance there, really worried about it spreading to the county. take a short break on the air.

just a few minutes left but

check in with christian spencer tracking the weather. breathed a huge sigh of relief. >> let me give you a look at current air quality conditions out of the area indicating poor air quality, santa cruz and san jose up around the bay shoreline. red dots in livermore, air quality is very poor and up in the north bay at san rafael, over to the east a little bit at fairfield and santa rosa. spare the air alert for tomorrow and wednesday. so we don't expect any significant improvement in our air quality until much later in the week. fire conditions right now up in the lnu fire complex, lightning complex i should say, in the north bay near the wall bridge

fire. 84 degrees, not hot. relative humidity increased thanks to that surge of subtropical moisture that came through yesterday. the wind is relatively light but >> you don't expect more red flag warnings this week? >> certainly not in the next 24 hours. red flag warning in parts of mendocino. the conditions are improving. humidity hasn't increased. temperatures down a bit. wind flow, weather conditions are not a serious factor right now. >> that is good to hear. i wonder, spencer, if you see whether we have all the ingredients in place to have sort of a longer than usual fire season. >> the ingredients are there for that, kristen because the fuels,

the vegetation, has been so dry. even though humidity has increased, it will go away once the tropical moisture gets out of the area and return to a generally warm to sort of hot pattern, especially in our inland, next week, maybe a cooldown on wednesday looks like a pretty bad fire season. >> spencer, thank you so much. but better air coming our way by thursday and friday, certainly the weekend. thank you so much for the information. we'll see you again on abc7 news at 4:00 and thank you for viewers joining us on this interactive "getting answers" show. we'll be here every weekday at 3:00 on air and on live stream answerig your questions. while we have a few seconds, i just want to update you on the three main complex fires in the bay area. lnu, 350,000 acres, 22% contained. czu in the santa cruz mountains,

and 13% contained and scu lightning tonight, several developing stories and we come on. two tropical storms in the gulf. states of emergency at this hour. mandatory evacuations under way. tropical storm marco delivering the first blow tonight. tropical storm laura, 48 hours behind, expected to become a hurricane, gaining strength over the warm waters of the gulf, set to slam into the u.s. right near new orleans. rob marciano live in the storm zone. also tonight, the national guard called in this evening as protests erupt over the police shooting of a black father in wisconsin. video showing an officer grabbing jacob blake by the shirt, shooting him several times in the back. his three young sons in the backseat of the car. blake in the hospital tonight. the shooting igniting answerer in the streets. protesters setting cars on fire.