next at 5:00, on edge again in napa county. a fire season that never seems to end as a second red flag warning brings worry over new power shutoffs. now one resident says he's had it. people in sonoma are also frustrated. they live in the only bay area county stuck in the strictest reopening tier and they are tired of it. dramatic rescue on i-80. a woman trapped inside the burning vehicle and the police officer who raced to save her. and the pope charts a new course for same-sex couples. he's now calling for civil unions, saying everyone has a right to a family. >> announcer: building a better bay area. for a safe and secure future. this is abc 7 news. winds are blowing, the grass is dry, and the fire department is on alert. all of this as residents prepare to have to have their power possibly turned off, testing their nerves once again. good evening. i'm ama daetz. >> and i'm dan ashley. thank you for joining us. late today pg&e downgraded the

impact of the latest planned outage. it now says about 4,200 customers in four bay area counties are expected to have their power cut due to the high fire danger over the next couple of days, beginning at 8:00 tonight. solano county has been removed from the list altogether. but you know, between the past shutoffs and this looming outage that's coming homeowners in napa county are really reaching the breaking point. abc 7 news reporter cornell barnard has that story. >> i'm not even a whining type, but it's gotten to the point where there's nothing else to do but complain. >> reporter: we found bill fletcher filling up a gas can. it's fuel for a generator. to power his east napa county home. fletcher just got this alert. his power would likely be shut off. it's not the first time he's been impacted by a psps, or as bill calls it -- >> psbs. that's what i think of. >> reporter: this napa valley mini mart has lost power twice this season. managers don't want it to happen again because no power, no

freezers. >> we're tired. no power, no business. we'll be out of work. yeah, it's concerning. >> reporter: pg&e says weather conditions are forcing the utility to shut power off again to the region. >> when we see such dry conditions, the possibility of a power line sparking or getting debris in it could lead to an emergency like a wildfire. >> reporter: with red flag fire conditions returning, cal fire says its crews are weary but ready after what's been a brutal fire season so far. >> there's no solution right now until it starts raining. but what we do need is we need the public, everybody that likes to recreate, to be super vigilant. >> reporter: in st. helena the barnard vineyard on alert. employees helped fight back flames from the glass fire with hoses and a pump from the pool. >> we still have our fire hose and water pump in our pool lined out just in case ready to go. >> reporter: bill fletcher is also ready to go far from the

bay area. he plans to move in a few months. >> it's very oppressive to have to live like that in constant fear and constantly in other people's control. >> reporter: in napa county cornell barnard, abc 7 news. >> tough on a lot of people. once again let's bring in abc 7 news meteorologist sandhya patel for a look at the timeline on these winds, sandhya. >> yeah, dan. we're taking a look at those winds right now first and then we'll talk about when the stronger winds are expected to come in. it is gusty on mount hood right now, gusting to 17 miles an hour, 17 for hawkeye but this is just breezy. winds are going to ramp up later tonight. until'll a.m. friday. gusts could be anywhere between 35 to 50 miles an hour. you combine that with dry fuels and low humidity and that spells high fire danger. for the santa cruz mountains, the peninsula coast, that begins at 1:00 a.m. tomorrow. so there is a risk of wildfires. if they do develop they will rapidly spread. take a look at our fire danger

index. you will notice in the north and east bay it is high. but by the time we head into tomorrow afternoon we start to see some oranges there indicating very high fire danger. i'll be back with an hour by hour look at those winds and let you know exactly when the fire danger will be coming down. dan and ama? >> all right, sandhya, thank you so much. a big step forward today for businesses in alameda county. many can reopen on friday. county officials said today restaurants can serve customers inside at 25% capacity or fewer than 100 people. the same capacity rule also applies to movie theaters and indoor worship services. indoor stores and malls can increase capacity to 50%. and gyms and fitness centers can operate at 25% capacity. the relaxed restrictions come as the county moves up into the orange tier. sonoma county is the only bay area county still in the purple tier. residents say the ongoing restrictions are taking a toll on an already devastated area and depressed by wildfires. abc 7 news reporter wayne friedman explains.

>> reporter: sonoma county. color it purple. and that's not political. in this era of covid purple might as well be the scarlet letter. >> we're like living in a cartoon. >> reporter: with so many other counties moving to less risky tiers, sonoma county remains an exception. it is still purple. an infection rate of more than 5% and heading in the wrong direction. among people in this county it's taking a toll. >> how much sleep did you get last night? >> 30 minutes. >> reporter: kayla moore of santa rosa raising three kids on her own, keeping them at home every day for distance learning and working the graveyard shift every night. >> kids deserve to be in school. they need to be in school because it's messing with their mental health. it's not okay. my daughter's not okay. and i'm not okay. >> reporter: since sonoma's numbers spiked the county has increased free testing, especially in high risk neighborhoods with $30 gift cards as incentives. if somebody comes up positive the county will pay them to stay at home. >> if you get covid, we want you

to be able to not go to work and not have to drop out into homelessness. >> reporter: supervisor james gore blames one disaster after another here. fires, which led to people being forced together in evacuations. then add smoke damage that ruined the grape crop leaving agricultural workers with no income. >> our numbers were going in the right way, and then we had the confluence of chaos. >> reporter: such are the vagaries of the pan dem whik influenced by external factors. >> there's only one track to reopening and we've got to lower our case rates right now. >> reporter: it appears that in purple-tiered sonoma county right now the price for getting healthy comes with more pain. >> i'm like a zombie almost every day. >> reporter: in santarose rosa wayne friedman abc 7 news. a treacherous rescue in san francisco had swimmers braving fierce waves to reach a man stranded on a rock. rescue crews arrived at the presidio near marshal's beach around 1:30 this morning. it took them nearly three hours to locate the man and figure out how to reach him because the

area was so rugged and rough. a rescue boat, helicopters and crews with ropes responded. two swimmers were able to reach him. he was treated for hypothermia and released from the hospital. firefighters are not sure how he made his way to that rock. but again, he's safe. dramatic body cam video shows a police officer pulling a woman out of a burning car. anna giles spoke with the hero officer who risked his life to save hers at a crash site northeast of vacaville along i-80. >> who's in there? >> reporter: vicious flames and panicked bystanders. officer pang lee rushes in and discovers a woman trapped. >> come out this way. come out! >> i am. i'm coming. >> hurry up! >> reporter: at this moment officer lee knows the seconds matter. the fire is spreading fast through the car and the dry grass. the woman is not moving. >> i could feel the heat of the fire on the right side of my face. >> reporter: officer lee drags her back the wrists to safety. unsure if the car might blow up.

>> is anybody else in the car? >> no. >> no? >> it was really at that moment that i realized her life was dependent upon my actions the next 30 to 60 seconds. >> reporter: officer lee was closest to the scene when the call came in about a burning car off of i-80 in solano county. he had no idea he'd be a trapped woman's last hope. >> i realized that the good samaritans weren't going to go in because of how dangerous and volatile the situation was. and i understand that. >> let's get away from the car, guys. i don't want it to blow up. >> reporter: backup didn't come for another three minutes. three minutes that could have changed a person's life forever. >> and i told myself that i was not going to fail this woman but i was going to get her out of that car no matter what. >> reporter: and he did. decades of training and discipline on the job came through. officers don't know exactly what led up to the fiery crash, but they said the female driving was arrested for dui. >> i'm very lucky that i'm okay,

i'm alive, and so is she. >> very lucky indeed. a very close call. that was anna giles reporting. thank goodness it turned out okay. today pope francis called for the creation of civil union laws for same-sex couples. the remarks are a break from official church teaching. abc 7 news reporter chris nguyen has reaction from the south bay. >> reporter: tonight the catholic community is reacting to pope francis, who became the first pontiff to endorse same-sex civil unions in an interview he gave for francesco, a documentary that premiered at the rome film festival. professor julie rubio of the santa clara university jesuit school of theology says while the pope's comments are significant they're not all that surprising. >> throughout the seven years that he has been pope he has used language that is more inclusive, more welcoming of gay and lesbian persons. >> reporter: in the documentary the pope says in spanish, "homosexual people have a right to be in a family. they are children of god and

have a right to a family. what we have to create is a civil union law. that way they are legally covered." father james martin, editor at large at "america" magazine, says it's a monumental statement given that the pope serves as the leader of 1.2 billion catholics worldwide. >> what he says influences not only how catholics see things but how the world sees things. and it's one of his many sort of ways of reaching out to the lgbtq community. >> reporter: catholic community members who we spoke to were glad to hear about the potential shift in stance at the highest levels of the church. >> it's great to be able to hear someone acknowledge and affirm that you are president and that you are seen and that your identities do matter. >> reporter: and while civil unions are different from marriages, some are hopeful this is simply just the start of more changes to come. >> being able to have a marriage with the same rights, the same e

your siblings went through. and i believe in time i will be able to have that wedding. >> reporter: in san jose chris nguyen, abc 7 news. and still ahead here, breaking news about the november election. the fbi has just wrapped up a news conference. the agency says russia is trying to influence the outcome again. that's next. plus, making a political statement during a run through san francisco. one athlete raises the stakes over her voice and her vote. and later, we'll look at a unique time in american history. how this portal became a beacon for

traffic and air pollution will be even worse after the pandemic. that's why we support measure rr to keep caltrain running. which is at risk of shutdown because of the crisis. to keep millions of cars off our roads, to reduce air pollution and fight climate change. and measure rr helps essential workers like me get to work and keep our communities healthy. relieve traffic. reduce pollution. rescue caltrain. [all] yes on measure rr.

breaking election news. federal investigators have concluded iran and russia are working to influence the presidential election. representatives of several government departments including the fbi and homeland security made the announcement just in

the past hour. they say both iran and russia have obtained voter registration information. investigators say iran has sent spoof e-mails to some voters designed to intimidate, incite unrest and "damage president trump." they add iran has also been circulating a video suggesting fraudulent ballots can be cast from overseas. investigators say russia has not performed similar actions but there is evidence the nation has obtained some voter information. >> these actions are desperate attempts by desperate adversaries. even if the adversaries pursue further attempts to intimidate or attempt to undermine voter confidence, know that our election systems are resilient and you can be confident your votes are secure. >> the agencies didn't elaborate on how the voter information was obtained. a san francisco runner is taking her commitment to getting out the vote pretty seriously. in fact, as abc 7 news reporter mellie woodrow explains, her message caught the attention of

local marathon organizers. >> reporter: most runners will tell you half the fun is getting lost on a long run, not thinking about anything. but when emily hu recently ran a virtual marathon around san francisco she was carefully calculating every turn. >> making sure over and over again that it did hit the 26.2 miles that i needed it to hit. >> reporter: hu took up racing a few years ago p her first marathon, right here in san francisco in 2018. >> i think it kind of got me addicted to running races in general. >> reporter: most recently she planned to run the chicago marathon. >> racing is not something that you can do with social distancing in place. >> reporter: given the option of completing the race virtually, hu had an idea. >> i wanted to do something cool with the route that i ran. >> reporter: she estimates she spent three hours mapping her course to spell out vote 2020. >> i thought that vote is a very good message that applies to

everyone, no matter what your political preference is. >> reporter: hu finished in four hours 10 minutes and 39 seconds. >> i think the most exciting thing was actually hitting save on my garmin watch and seeing that image pop up on -- tha t very cool to see that that had i done the turns correctly and it actually turned out okay. >> reporter: hu shared her story with neighbors on next door. >> and a lot of people responded and said yes, you ran by my house right at this corner or right at this block. some people said man, i wish you were doing in the day of, i would have come out and given you water or given you food. >> reporter: a write-up in the chicago sun times got san francisco marathon director melissa faulkner as tension. >> the fact she decided to spell out and then run vote 2020 this year was so impactful and inspiring. >> reporter: faulkner asked if she could use her exact route as a suggested route for sf marathon's sister series virtual 365. runners have until election day to complete the run to vote to save the united states postal

service. 10% of every registration will be used to purchase usps stamps. hundreds of people have already signed up, hopefully inspiring many more to run to get their ballots in. >> driving home the point is for people to go out and vote. >> reporter: melanie woodrow, abc 7 news. >> incredible effort. all right. all right. when we come the unfair money bail system. he, accused of rape. while he, accused of stealing $5. the stanford rapist could afford bail; got out the same day. the senior citizen could not; forced to wait in jail nearly a year. voting yes on prop 25 ends this failed system, replacing it with one based on public safety. because the size of your wallet shouldn't determine whether or not you're in jail. vote yes on prop 25 to end money bail.

when was the last time your property tax bill went down? what? never. are you kidding me? for years, the residential burden has gone up. while the corporate burden has gone down. prop 15 reverses that. it closes corporate loopholes and invests in schools, small business, and firefighters. and when the big corporations pay more, your tax bill goes down. that's right. a savings of a hundred twenty-one dollars a year for the average home. give homeowners a break. vote yes on 15. but that's tough to do on a fixed income. i'd be hit with a tax penalty for moving to another county, so i'm voting 'yes' on prop 19.

it limits property taxes and lets seniors transfer their home's current tax base to another home that's closer to family or medical care. being closer to family is important to me. how about you? voting 'yes' on prop 19. we are watching the weather very closely because of increased fire danger. meteorologist sandhya patel is keeping close track of it for us. sandhya? >> yeah, dan and ama. and the concern are the winds and the dry conditions that are in place. want to show you a live picture from our santa cruz camera. winds are pretty light. beautiful day. lots of blue sky out there as you take a look from our golden gate bridge camera. the flag barely swaying there. san francisco 71 degrees. 76 in oakland. san jose, mountain view in the low to mid 80s along with gilroy. a live rook look from our

emeryville camera and it is absolutely gorgeous as we look back toward san francisco. mid 80s from napa to santa rosa. got up into the mid 90s for the hot spots like fairfield. 88 degrees right now in livermore. a live look from our east bay hills camera and you can see just how good the air quality is right now. winds increasing late tonight. elevated fire danger through friday. and we're looking at a cooler pattern going into the weekend. i do want to show you live doppler 7. there's one little sliver of fog and that's it. fire danger unfortunately will be increasing. so as we take an hour-by-hour look going into tomorrow morning you will notice the north and the east bay and parts of the santa cruz mountains going under the fire danger detectiindex goo the high to very high category. that is going to continue off and on into friday morning before we start to see the fire danger decreasing. winds hour by hour as part of the factor here. 5:00 a.m. tomorrow, 24-mile-an-hour winds in fairfield. 20 discovery bay. you will notice over 20-mile-an-hour winds at the lower elevations.

8:00 a.m. and then the winds subside tomorrow afternoon only to pick up again as we head into tomorrow night a little bit. so the humidity will be dropping. down to 10% in fairfield. 12% in antioch. and you combine that with critically dry fuels and that's where the fire danger comes in. it's the downsloping wind around this time of year that raises our fire danger. so keep that in mind. the dry conditions will continue into friday afternoon. temperatures first thing in the morning anywhere from mid 40s to the low 60s. it will be windy. especially in the north and the east bay as we head into the afternoon hours. it's a bright breezy pattern. but you will notice that those temperatures around the bay and inland coming down some more. along the coast you actually may get a little bump up. in places like half moon bay because of the offshore winds. 68 in half moon bay. 74 san francisco. 82 san jose. san rafael, napa. 84 santa rosa. oakland 78 and mid 80s for fairfield and concord. the accuweather seven-day forecast, high fire danger the next couple of days. winds will be gusty between tonight and tomorrow.

they start to die down. temperatures really drop. over the weekend upper 50s to low to mid 70s and then another round of winds sunday into monday raising that fire danger again with some cold mornings coming up monday through wednesday. ama and dan? >> sandhya, thanks very much. still ahead, the island destination that may have provided opportunity to more people than anywhere else.

coming up on abc 7 news at 6:00, solving months of problems in just five days. when it comes to dealing with the e.d.d., 7 on your side has a success story to share with you tonight. and you're going to hear why a seventh-grade student faced the threat of being arrested all for missing just 90 minutes of zoom class time. what's the deal? prisoners cannot vote in california. it is a straightforward ban. but it can be extended for three years or many years after release. the election could change that. we'll look into that issue. all coming up in half an hour on abc 7 news at 6:00. join us then. but finally tonight, a look at ellis island. certainly the symbol of hope for millions of immigrants. >> anchor david ono from our sister station kabc spent some time there before the pandemic and found the one man uniquely

qualified to tell its story. >> reporter: if you could suspend the anger for a moment and steer away from the controversies gripping our nation and focus on the simplest and purest form of who we are as a country, your journey would likely bring you here, a great hall on an -- >> we apologize. the -- we lost the package. any chance we can get it back? >> here it comes. >> reporter: if you could suspend the anger for a moment and steer away from the controversies gripping our nation, and focus on the simplest and purest form of who we are as a country, your journey will likely bring you here. a great hall on an island off of manhattan. ellis island. whether your family came through here or a place like it, this is likely in some form or way your story. and to understand the significance of what that means, walk this place with this man. >> my name is douglas tream. i work right here at ellis

island now, telling the story of ellis island every day. and it's a great story to tell. >> reporter: to see it in person is uplifting. this is where the most desperate dreams came true. over and over again. >> my ancestors came through ellis island. that means i was born with a word in my vocabulary that my grandfather did not have when he was born in belfast. what's the word? opportunity. that makes all the difference in a person's life. in a person's fate, if you will. that's what ellis island did. 100 million people at least and counting were born with that word in their vocabulary because someone, a poor person, walked through this room and into america. >> reporter: passion. if there's anyone who truly believes in the beauty of what this place represents, it's andrew tream. >> i think the most impressive operation this government's ever performed second only to the moon landing is ellis island. here something went right. at least 3,000 times every day.

>> reporter: photographs line the walls, taken by a worker named augustus sherman. it wasn't his job. he just took it upon himself to document the many different people who passionately believed in the dream. from the far reaches of the globe they came, their faces so different, but their desire to work hard and be an american was shared by all. it's easy to overlook the past when wrestling with the complexities of our modern world. misinformation, confusion, ignorance, hate cloud the truth. immigrants are the foundation of american brilliance. from albert einstein to lee iacocca to steve jobs toelon musk to chef boyar dey. we are the most colorful and successful community in the history of the world. and that is no coincidence. >> a nation of immigrants is not a cliche. that's the definition of this country. >> what an incredible look. thanks for joining us.

i'm ama daetz. >> and i'm dan ashley. for s i'm voting 'yes' on prop 19. nineteen limits taxes on seniors. it limits property tax on people like me. nineteen limits taxes on wildfire victims. it says so right here. if 19 passes, seniors can move closer to family or medical care. i looked at moving but i can't afford the taxes. will you help california's most vulnerable? vote 'yes' on prop 19.

tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air in the west. tonight, the news from the fbi on the election. and former president barack obama on the trail tonight. election day 13 days away. president trump and joe biden on the eve of their final presidential debate. the president complaining about the new rule, muting the mics. and with joe biden prepping for the debate, it's former president obama on the trail tonight for his former vp in the key battleground of pennsylvania. less than 24 hours after president trump was in the state. and what he said about being in erie. before the president faces off with biden on that stage tomorrow night, tonight, the president and the white house appearing to take on veteran journalist lesley stahl. what's this about? the troubling numbers mounting and it's across most of this country. the coronavirus surging. hospitalizations on the rise now in 41 states.