right now, wildfires are endangering thousands of homes and other structures in southern california, forcing tens of thousands to flee. this time lapse video shows the intensity of the threat. good afternoon, i'm kristen z. right now, there

are three massive wildfires burning across four counties. this is one of the largest, the so-called bridge fire burning in los angeles and san bernardino counties. it scorched nearly 80mi■!s since it sparked on sun, torching dozens of homes and forcing thousands to evacuate. abc news reporter melissa don has a look at the impact. >> reporter a state of emergency for several southern california counties after three major wildfires burned more than 100,000 acres across four counties in the mountains of los angeles and san bernardino counties. the bridge fire has scorched more than 50,000 acres, the largest active wildfire in california. >> it was pretty scary a lot. it's a lot more surreal than you can realize, when you're outside looking at the flames, you don't realize how scary and how chaotic it is. >> more than 30 homes were destroyed by the bridge fire, including this one. you can see what was their kitchen and oven. some cabinets there incinerated. in riverside county, the fast moving airport fire forcing more

than 19,000 people to quickly evacuate. >> we packed up the kids and got out of there and not a couple hours later, we heard our house is just leveled in the mountains. >> an ominous picture. the line fire turning the sky orange. as firefighters make progress on the firefight after a break from an intense heat wave. >> flames and the ash was falling and it was just hard to breathe. >> authorities arresting a 34 year old man suspected of starting the line fire. >> i can assure the public that we're going to go hard on this case, that we're going to be resolute on this case and again, it's a developing situation that we hope does not get any worse. >> the national guard is working to assist first responders, as more than 100,000 people have been displaced from their homes. this as fire crews work to contain those flames. melissa o'donnell abc news, san bernardino county, california. >> southern california's fires have been so intense they're making their own weather

systems. meteorologists say the wildfires have created fire clouds that matured into thunderstorms. these nasa images show huge plumes of smoke billowing from the wildfires, filling the air with particulate pollution. all the smoke has just wreaked havoc on the air quality in parts of la and riverside counties, triggering warnings for people to stay indoors. so let's talk to abc seven news weather anchor spencer christian talk about the science behind these fire clouds and the conditions that crews are facing today. spencer. yes, kristen. >> these are very interesting looking clouds. these pyrocumulus clouds or fire clouds as they're commonly called, are formed by these large wildfires as they generate huge amounts of smoke and of course, heat into the upper atmosphere. they rise rapidly from the base of the fire in these tall columns of smoke. that, of course, sort of cap out at the top with this cauliflower looking image. the heat is so intense, rising high into the

atmosphere from these, these fires, these fires that they form, these pockets of instability in the atmosphere where isolated thunderstorms can form, they look like thunderstorm clouds. they are of a cumulus shape. that's why they're called pyrocumulus clouds. so the air quality, of course, is poor in the area of these fires. and it also generates a poor air quality even into the higher levels of the atmosphere. so we're watching conditions down in southern california carefully. let me show you a couple of images here. first of all, we'll go to the statewide temperatures. you can see is still very warm in southern california. not extremely hot right now because the until you go over into the desert areas, but still very warm. and it's breezy and windy there as it has been here in the bay area. now let me back up. i want to show you a larger a wider image on the satellite radar composite image. you can see that we have generally across the entire state and onshore flow, a rather strong one, which accounts for the windy and gusty conditions

we've had the last couple of days. now for us here in the bay area, those winds coming out of the northeast are blowing uh- keeping smoke from coming in our direction. the smoke is well to our south and will remain that way as long as we have this wind pattern, but it doesn't help southern california very much because even though the smoke is continually being blown away, these fires are so massive and so numerous that more smoke is continuing to be generated into the atmosphere. anyhow, that's a look at the pyrocumulus clouds. i'll have a look at our weather here in the bay area a little bit later. >> kristen spencer, thank you. you can keep track of wildfires across the state with our interactive wildfire tracker. you can find it on abc seven news.com/fire map. developing right now in orinda, a death investigation is shutting down a number of roads. we don't have a lot of details yet, but video shows orinda police, lafayette police and contra costa county sheriff's deputies on the scene at las vegas road and las vegas court. we're working to get more information and we'll have an update on abc seven news at four. we all like this. you'll

be paying more for p-g-and-e's service. this afternoon, regulators approved a rate hike of 2.7%. the average bill will increase by $6 a month, rates last went up about $5 a month last march, and in july 2023, regulators allowed p-g-and-e's to raise rates temporarily by an average of $10.30. p-g-and-e's says the increases are necessary to recoup electricity expenses paid during winter storms that caused power outages, renovated and reimagined. it's a day of celebration today for the completion of the massive revamping project at san francisco's iconic transamerica pyramid. abc seven news reporter gloria rodriguez takes us there for a look. >> with music, food and more. a celebration for the reopening of transamerica pyramid center in san francisco. this, after $1 billion investment by luxury real estate development firm

shvo. >> believe it or not, i actually was here when this building was first built. >> former mayor willie brown and mayor london breed among those on hand for the event. transamerica pyramid and two adjacent buildings on sansome reimagined transamerica redwood park expanded architecture firm foster and partners worked on the design. senior partner ben dobbin tells me about some of the new features of the center, which includes the pyramid and the redwood park. >> the major move was really bringing life to the ground floor of this entire city block, from sansome to montgomery and clay to washington. all of we've added 10,000ft■!s of new retail space around the base of all the different corners. we've got a new kiosk and seating area accessible in this newly enlarged redwood park. and then there's also accessible seating all the way around the plaza. >> the transamerica pyramid, an 853 foot skyscraper, was completed in 1972 and has a very

distinct shape. the building has been an icon for the city for more than 50 years. the center will be open to the public on sunday. you'll be able to visit from dawn until dusk, and you'll be able to visit the park or the lobby. in san francisco, gloria rodriguez, abc seven news. >> they are the second largest group of voting age americans. so what impact will latino voters have on this presidential election? we'll get some answers just ahead. >> i'm abc's perry russom in washington. attorney general merrick garland defending the department of justice after facing accusations from former president trump. that story coming u

it comes as attorney general merrick garland is defending his department after trump accused the doj of being weaponized against him. abc news reporter perry russom has new developments in the race for the white house. reporter today, attorney general merrick garland, defending the department of justice, the public servants of the department of justice do not bend to politics. >> garland says the doj will not allow the u.s. to become a country where law enforcement is treated as an apparatus of politics. it comes after former president trump accused the department of being weaponized against him during the debate on abc. >> it's called weaponization never happened in this country. they weaponized the justice department. >> garland speaking directly to doj employees. >> you deserve better. you deserve gratitude. >> both trump and vice president kamala harris claiming victory after tuesday's debate. >> you know, when you win, you

don't really necessarily have to do it a second time. >> today, trump and harris back on the campaign trail with rallies in battleground states. trump in arizona, harris in north carolina. the harris campaign says the vice president is now entering a more aggressive phase on the campaign trail. >> on tuesday night. i talked about issues that i know matter to families across america, like bringing down the cost of living, investing in america's small businesses. >> trump continues to face backlash for pushing baseless claims during the debate, including one about immigrants in springfield, ohio. eating people's pets. the city manager there says that did not happen. republican governor mike dewine on cbs today. >> this is something that came up on the internet, and the internet can be quite crazy sometimes. and look, the mayor, mayor rue of springfield says, no, there's no truth in that. they have no evidence of that at all. >> after taylor swift endorsed harris online and posted a link

to vote.gov, the website saw an influx of visitors more than 400,000 views in less than 24 hours. it typically has about 30,000 views a day. perry russom abc news, washington. >> one key demographic group. both campaigns are targeting america's growing latino voters at 17.5 million latinos across the nation. they're expected to cast ballots in november, and new polling by san francisco based civic organization shows there is one issue that's critically important to this population in selecting a president. joining us now to talk live about a comprehensive poll. a new poll. cristian arana, vice president of civic power and policy for the latino community foundation. kristen, it's so great to see you. >> nice to see you again. >> kristen. hey. so why did you undertake this poll? what did you want to learn and why? >> well, we wanted to take the heartbeat of what our community is thinking about as they head into the final weeks of this election. one of the most profound issues that we found in this poll was that it's the

economy, it's economic issues. it's the cost of living, it's housing affordability. it's whether or not people are going to have a job come the morning. and so our voters, our community is telling us that they want their candidates and our political systems to pay attention to the key issues, top of mind for them. >> so that's not really that different from any other racial group, right? the economy and how we can do better. right. >> and that's often been a sort of a mystery for a lot of campaigns and political candidates when they try to court latino voters. i think too often we get pigeonholed into issues of immigration. and while immigration obviously is a very close and personal issue for a lot of our families, it just goes to show that latino voters are just like any other voter. and when it comes to issues like housing, cost of living and jobs, right. these are the things that are top of mind for all of our families. >> all right. well, this obviously you don't speak for all latinas, but i know you were

listening carefully to both trump and harris. with that in mind, with with the economy being a key issue, how do you think the candidates address them or not address them to your satisfaction? >> well, yeah, i mean, this is this is often something that i joke about is that how can you ask somebody to vote for someone that they've never met, you know, it's incumbent upon candidates, regardless of political party, to actually go into community and hear and understand the issues that are top of mind for us. i think too often in american politics, engagement just means ads. it means social media, graphics. and, you know, while that may be great and it's a cost effective way to reach out to voters, that will never be a substitute for talking to families face to face about the things that are top of mind for them. >> so just like we've heard recently, a lot of black leaders and activists say, hey, don't just expect this traditionally democratic voting bloc to automatically come under your tent, right? what does this poll suggest about latinos and what

you want to see the candidates do more of in the last two months? >> well, yeah, one of the most interesting findings from this poll that we commissioned earlier this week is that over half of latinos in the state of california reported that no one's even in contact with them. wow. so to either register to vote, to turn out, to vote, or even support a particular candidate or political party and again, to my point earlier, how can you ask anybody, latino, white, black or otherwise, to vote for something or someone they've never met, invite people into this process. and so, you know, in the final days because quite frankly, the election is live in about a couple of weeks when we get sent in our ballots in the mail, this is a critical time period for people to look at this poll and see what are the issues and concerns that our chief of mind for our communities. >> curious, i've seen some articles and some polls that suggest, former president trump is doing better, if you will, with latino men. like that is a climbing number for him. is that still the case, or has there been a change since vice

president harris came into the picture and certainly more recently this week? >> well, yeah. well, since the candidate changed on the democratic side, there's been a little bit more enthusiasm on the democratic side for vice president kamala harris. what's rather interesting is that when you pull our voters, latino voters on actual policy issues, you'll find across the board and especially with latino men, latinas, as well, is that there is broad based support for things like expanding the child tax credit for helping folks get a down payment to purchase a home, these are rather progressive policies that are, that are shared, that are supported by by gender, by age group, by income status, and so, you know, while donald trump may be gaining some traction with folks across the country, when you dig deep into places like california, it's not necessarily the case. >> all right. i mean, we're just about out of time, but i want to circle back to something you said about how 50% of latinos

here in california said they haven't been contacted by either campaign, but is that just a function of the fact that we're in california and candidates tend to treat it as a done deal? blue state do you hear differently from perhaps latinos in the swing states? and i guess if so, do you think it's all going to come down to the latino vote, possibly in this key election? >> well, you know, what's rather interesting, too, is that we're not just voting for president this election in california. we have a critical us senate race. we have key propositions on issues like gay marriage, criminal justice, housing, whether you're running for president or whether or not you're running one of these campaigns, need to contact voters, period, and especially latino voters, given that we are a sizable chunk of the electorate here in california, and this is about winning, this is just purely about democracy. kristen. right. we want our democracy to be strong and thriving. and that can't happen until the day that we see both more higher, higher voter registration and participation rates among the latino community. >> all right, kristen, i hear what you're saying. we're

waiting for your call. call us. all right. thank you so very much. thanks for coming on to share the results of the new study by the latino community foundation. >> thank you. >> now, let's take a live look outside again. sunny and warm. but a cooling trend will give us

so let's get the latest again from spencer. yeah. >> kristen, we don't have those strong gusts that we had yesterday that made me want to drink tea. yeah. yes. that's right. we have a similar setup though in the atmosphere to what we saw yesterday. there's a low pressure system to our northeast, as you'll see here on the satellite radar image and high pressure to our southwest generating a strong onshore flow. but again, not quite so strong as yesterday. but it's breezy with the most wind speeds right now at the surface between 15 and 20mph. it's however, a few degrees warmer than yesterday in most locations than at this time yesterday, i should

say five degrees warmer in novato and livermore, three degrees warmer in oakland. so let's move along and take a look at current temperature readings. 67 here in san francisco right now we have mid to upper 70s at oakland, hayward and redwood city. san jose 83 degrees 64 at half moon bay, blue sky and breezy conditions over the golden gate. second day in a row, 84 degrees right now in santa rosa, petaluma 7980 at napa. and we have low to mid 80s at livermore, concord and fairfield. the warmest region right now in the bay area, as it often is, is over in the east bay. the headlines are these tomorrow sunny, breezy and mild to warm. even warmer than today. the weekend will bring cooler weather. much cooler, in fact, with temperatures below average for this time of the year. and then early next week, there's a chance of light rain or drizzle, which i'll get to in just a moment. but for tonight, we'll see some increasing clouds and a little bit of fog developing along the coastline, of course, called the conditions. partly cloudy overnight with low temperatures generally in the mid to upper 50s and then tomorrow look for high temperatures under breezy and mostly sunny conditions 64

degrees at half moon bay 71 here in san francisco. across the bay in oakland 77 and many locations around the bay shoreline will have highs tomorrow in the upper 70s to near 80 degrees up in the north bay. we'll see highs of 83 at napa 86 san rafael, santa rosa 89. inland areas, of course. over in the east bay, mainly right around or just above 90 degrees 90 will be the high at antioch, 91 at concord and livermore. fairfield will top out at about 92. that might be our warmest reading in the immediate bay area tomorrow and down to the south bay, we'll see highs of 86 at san jose, 88 at morgan hill. now here's the accuweather seven day forecast. and as you can see light, wind and mild to warm tomorrow. highs excuse me inland areas in the low 90s. but then on saturday it starts to turn cooler with highs dropping about ten degrees or so. especially in the from the warmest spots. and then on sunday it gets even cooler with breezy and sort of fall like conditions. and then going into monday, not much change in the temperature range, but it will be a bit cloudier and a chance

of some morning drizzle. that may be our first taste of rainfall in quite some time. it may not be measurable, but there will be wet spots. kristen. >> all right. spencer, thank you so much. interesting how is oakland trying to combat crime and improve emergency response times? we asked mayor chantal the tough questions next. and the legacy of a stateswoman is going up for auction. some personal items belonging to former california u.s. senator dianne feinstein what's the definition of character to you? umm... would you be a superhero or a supervillain? if you could say one thing to big tobacco, what would it be? it's so important in this time of change that we reclaim our sacred ways. i had to open my eyes. you can't continue to do this. deep breath.

i'd want to ask them “why?” (♪)

our big issues facing residents and city leaders of oakland. so earlier today on abc7 midday live, mayor chantel joined us to discuss possible solutions. >> we want to begin with crime,

and this weekend was a pretty tough one for the city of oakland, but also us here at abc7 news. our crew was robbed at gunpoint. they were covering a story in north oakland. we're told that they reached out to the police department. they were told no officers were there and available at the time. we also know that that evening, three people were shot and killed in two separate shootings in oakland. and then there was also a really violent sideshow that took over even more resources in the city. that was in the hakan burger area. can you just give us an update on what's happening with crime in oakland and what your administration is doing to address it? >> well, first and foremost, you know, being a victim of crime myself, it's never, you know, something that you want to be a part of. and so i just want to send to your station, you know, that we did reach out and i hope that everybody is okay, you know, going through being a victim, you can't shake that off. and i totally understand that. we also saw that there was a few homicides. these homicides stem from targeted events. it's

still an under investigation. but what i can tell you is that we have very strong leads on that part that we can't really discuss. right now, overall, you know, and i don't want to diminish people's lived experiences. you know, i've been a victim myself. my son has been a victim. but what we know is that our cease fire program that we are operating off of, it is working. you know, our latest crime data shows that crime is down. overall, 33%. >> our crew after the robbery waited more than ten minutes after and couldn't get through and had to end up calling dispatch. i know that was one of your chief priorities. so what's going on on those fronts? >> so the standard state standard time is a call needs to be picked up within 15 seconds. when i came into office, we were at 35%, 35% of calls being picked up within 15 seconds. that's not okay. and so investing money into this now under my administration, we're seeing that we've improved to 51%, answered calls within 15 seconds, which is not great. we

want to get to the point of 90% calls. and so what i can tell you is about 20 of these dispatchers that we've brought online under my administration, they're still under a training program. they should be done with that training program where they're paired up with a senior dispatcher. so you're doing you're getting two people answering one call that should be done with by the end by mid next year. and so you'll start seeing that calls should be able to be picked up within that 15 seconds window at a higher rate than 51%. where we're at right now. >> and so you're saying that oakland residents have to wait to mid next year for 9-1-1 calls to be picked up in a reasonable time? is that what i'm understanding? >> well, what i'm saying is that we came in at 35%, right? calls were being picked up within 15 seconds at 35%, and we have to chip at that ice block. i wish i had a magic wand to make to, you know, change everything overnight. but that's just, you know, we didn't get here overnight and that was oakland mayor chantel talking with us

today. >> luxury jewelry, art and political mementos owned by the late california u.s. senator dianne feinstein are going on the auction block. the legacy of a stateswoman. auction opens october eighth on the auction block. art, political memorabilia, jewelry and furniture owned by feinstein. feinstein was the longest serving female senator in our nation's history. she passed away last year at the age of 90. among her items up for auction will be 70 pieces of jewelry, including a four carat diamond ring, which is expected to go for as much as $65,000. thanks for joining us. i'll be tonight, several breaking stories as we come on the air. hurricane francine hitting the u.s., landfall near new orleans. that system now on the move, and the destruction tonight. also breaking, the earthquake hitting california. the images from los angeles and the aftershocks now. donald trump's decision in tonight, will he debate kamala