i have a message. we have to be -- you have to be a bigger mayor. because we have -- >> he is keeping his job. the board of supervisors vote to reinstate him as sheriff after months of official misconduct hearings. what we're hearing now from the sheriff and how mayor ed lee is reacting. both the giants and a's holding on in the playoffs. they stay alive for at least one more battle. first, we're following breaking news. a four alarm fire in union city that is forcing evacuations of a nearby apartment complex. at least one firefighter has been injured and it is still a very active scene. good morning, thanks for

joining us. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> i'm jon kelley. a lot to get to. first, it was a rainy night here. more could be on the way. >> look at our radar. now, most of the activity has moved to the south but we're still fair game for showers and thunderstorms as we head through this afternoon. we have spotty activity through the south bay. we will be dealing with it for 24 to 48 hours. the weather keeps on changing, as you can imagine. the first significant rainfall of the season. slick conditions. >> san jose, 101, traffic smooth on the freeways.

the surface streets have signs of the night rain. brokaw is closed. i know that, because it's my off ramp. it took about five minutes extra. some slowing through that construction zone. northbound 101, signs of overnight construction crews. so watch for those light but no major slowing, guys. we'll send it back to you for that news. we continue following breaking news this morning. firefighters racing to union city. >> it actually forced the evacuation of a nearby apartment complex. now, live at the scene with what's going on right now. >> reporter: as the people who were evacuated, they are now allowed in. the fire is out. it certainly took a lot of water to put it out. resulting in this lake that you

can see has now formed. the fire started in a corner business and spread from there. destroying or damaging a total of ten businesses in the strip mall. part of the reason the fire had it so easy, all those units share a common attic so it's easy to spread. and it could have spread to other businesses if it weren't for two factors. one, the firefighters were able to access the roof. and two, there are fire walls on those businesses. someone passing by called in this fire around 1:00 this morning. when the first department arrived, it still didn't look like much. >> when we show up and you see a little bit of fire at the front door, you think, okay, no big deal. then you get inside, you make a better assessment. you've got fire running the entire attic space. you can't get people here fast enough. >> reporter: there was a partial roof collapse but the

firefighters were able to get out. they ended up having to call for a four alarm backup because the fire was so fast moving. it looks like union city, hayward and freemont fire departments are also out here. one firefighter was hurt. he cut his hand. he was taken to the hospital, but he's already been released. he's clearly going to be okay. betwe again, you had a four alarm fire here at el dorado and fire street. the people in the complex behind, they're okay, they've been allowed back into their homes. also happening right now, a massive fire burning in richmond. it is happening at a manufacturing plant. this one could burn for hours. christy smith just arrived. what can you tell us what's happening out there? >> good morning. we're pretty close but you can see this orange glow actually when we were driving in.

right now what we're seeing is firefighters are spraying water on it. big plume of smoke headed north. firefighters are looking into the possibility this may have been started by lightning strikes. i spoke with the chief by phone. he said at around 2:15 this morning, there were a number of reports of lightning in the area. this is on brook side drive near the richmond parkway. it's an industrial area. two acres of pallets on the ground here that are burning. the firefighter i spoke with said it's kind of like when you set up the perfect fire in your fireplace, stacks of wood and air in between really fueling this. it looks kind of spotty, meaning there are fires burning in several areas on the property. firefighters also tell us there are a number of cars burning here too. some landscape equipment. no reports of any injuries. this is a two alarm fire.

they tell me what they're going to do now is bring in some bulldozers and try and knock down some of the burped pellets so they can get a handle on this. no word on exactly when they'll have this whole thing out. that's the latest from here. reporting live in richmond, christy smith, "today in the bay." san francisco sheriff will keep his job after a meeting that lasted several hours. the board voted to reinstate him as sheriff. only seven voted in favor of it. supervisors christina olagi, david campose and jane kim voted no. saying while what he did was wrong, the charges were too narrow to support removing him from office. he has been suspended from his job since last march.

they spoke after hearing the decision. >> it's been more than grueling to say the least. and our debt is mounted like you wouldn't believe. >> i always feel optimistic and i feel that the best things happen for good reasons. >> ileana lopez cried as she listened to members of the board announce they would vote no. following the vote, the mayor released a statement saying, in part, the board's decision returns a convicted domestic batterer to lead the sheriff's office. i will do everything in my power to ensure that abusers continue to be held accountable. there are still a lot of unanswered questions. many are wondering whether he can bridge the gap with the mayor. we'll have more on that coming up in a live report at 5:00. now to our continuing coverage of the major league baseball playoffs. the a's and the giants staying

alive in those do or die situations yesterday. fans couldn't be happier. >> i've been to every game since reggie jackson in my 20s. this was probably one of the most exciting games because of the guys we have on the roster. they're rookies. >> the a's refusing to go down without a fight. take a look at this catch. oh, coco crisp at the wall. perfect timing. squeezes it. robs a home run. that was in the second inning. the a's keep the tigers scoreless. they go on to win this one 2-0 forcing the all-important game four. another elimination game. a lot of fans showed up expecting to get into last night's game, only to find out they had the wrong tickets. dozens of fans bought game three playoff tickets thinking they would be good for last night's game. they really needed tickets for

game one here at home. a lot of people unfortunately turned away. >> they told me it is my mistake. that i made the mistake by purchasing for game three. that all these people in this stadium purchased the right tickets so obviously i am the one who made the mistake. >> it's obviously the way baseball sets it up. it's the same thing in the world series. they've been doing this for years this way. it's unfortunate there's a misunderstanding. >> maybe they need to communicate that. now the fans are hoping the a's make it to game three on their tickets so they can use those tickets. meantime the giants kind of in the same boat. giant fans hoping their team can make it back home. >> the g men will finish their series after pulling out a much needed win in cincinnati. the giants push the game to a tenth inning beating the reds 2-1. >> there was huge performances.

because we did it together and we want to play some more together. >> giants play again today to tie up the series at the two apiece. it looks like history could actually be on their side. the reds haven't won a playoff game at home since 1995. our coverage continues all morning long. coming up, we're going to take you live to the coliseum and cincinnati to check in. and you can get updates whenever you want at nbcbayarea.com. >> keeping hope alive. all right. 4:40 right now. the south bay got a little wet last night. take a look at some of this video here. a decent downpour there. it did move in and out pretty quickly. more of that on the way? >> oh, yes, we've got quite a

bit more on the way. temperatures are going to be cool. look at what we're dealing with along the coast. you see where you're getting the reds? those are thunderstorms. we've had quite a few lightning strikes reported. as you head to work this morning, count on a slower than normal drive. it doesn't smell like rain out there, it smells like oil, which can be very dangerous. and we have enough puddles out there, yeah, you could actually hydroplane. a good idea to take it slow this morning. let's check on that drive. our highway man is here to help you out. >> despite a little bit of rain overnight, it wasn't enough to keep those crews off of the roadway. all those tail lights backed up just as folks are coming other that high rise. there's a very slowly moving traffic break going north. north of the coliseum.

we'll show you where. again, that's north of high street heading towards 23rd and the opposite direction south from 980 down towards the same area has the same construction crews. the northbound side is the one that is clearing. it will slow you about 5 to 7 minutes through the area. we're looking at 680 south. two lanes are blocked but no slowing as you are coming down. and there's that closure from 880 over to mission. standard overnight. use auto mall parkway instead. back to you. still ahead, the overnight recall affecting millions of toyotas all over the world. find out which cars are affected and we'll tell you exactly why. plus, the fight for the swing states.

history in the making this morning. it has some ties to the bay area. check this out.

the very first commercial delivery to the international space station happening right now. we're showing you mission control. space x launched its rocket that went off on sunday. and of course iman musk who runs tusla put the money behind this. you recall, it made a test flight to the station in may. nasa now counting on the private sector to restock the space station. for the record, nasa paid space x $1.6 billion for this latest trip. now moving on to the decision 2012. both presidential candidates are fighting hard over a key battleground state. today, gop candidate mitt romney continues his week-long visit in eye. no republican has ever won the white house without carrying the buckeye state. president obama had earlier wrapped up his 17th rally there.

the most of any other state. with new polls showing a much tighter race, both candidates have been trading shots over a proposed tax plan. >> that leaves only one option. that's asking middle class families to foot the bill. >> the president's charge of a $5 trillion tax cut is obviously inaccurate and wrong. >> meantime, vice president joe biden and republican candidate paul ryan getting ready for their debate. that's set for tomorrow. >> right now, time for a check on the markets. for that, let's turn it over to courtney reagan. she is live at cnbc world headquarters. good morning. >> hi, good morning. futures are a little lower right now. the imf cut its global economic forecast and investors braced for earnings. better than expected results last night but alcoa did cut demand forecasts noting a slowdown in china. today, a federal report on regional economic conditions.

the dow fell 110 points. the nasdaq dropped 47 to 365. toyota is recalling more than 7 million vehicles because of a glitch in the power windows that could cause the system to overheat and cause a fire. affects nearly 2.5 million vehicles in the u.s. covering about a dozen models produced between 2005 and 2010 including the toyota camry, toyota, rave 4 and matrix. no crashes or injuries have been reported but toyota received word of 200 incidents in the u.s. back to you. >> okay, courtney, thank you very much. hey, came into the parking lot today, smelled the rain everywhere. kind of nice. >> that is nice. i love the sound of rain. we have been lacking that for the past five months. it's going to be a really nice day today. we're not talking about heavy downpours. you might get stuck under a thunderstorm cell as we have been seeing activity, especially

along the south end of the peninsula. half-moon bay, you're about 15 minutes away from some heavy downpours. we are seeing frequent lightning strikes. a lot of the activity has been in the south bay. the storm system is just off shore. it just isn't getting the push that it needs to come all the way inland. i think we'll see more of this isolated activity. here is the really good big picture. you can see, area of low pressure starting to skirt down the california coastline. it's getti inting nudged by thi substantial area of low pressure. maybe a half-inch of rain as we head through next week so it's going to get active around here. we've got a warm-up in between. cutoff low finally moves inland today. they're expecting a lot more rain down south than what we received and are anticipating for today. temperatures are going to stay nice and comfortable. 74 in san jose. a comfortable 66 degrees with hit or miss showers and isolated thunderstorms throughout the day. as we head throughout the next

few days, we stay nice and cool. we lose that rain chance by tomorrow. i think we'll see some really light showers friday morning before 10:00 a.m. and saturday and sunday, the warm-up begins. we'll be back in the mid-80s. then that next system arrives bringing us some really good rain and sierra snow wednesday into thursday. so yeah, a little bit of something for everyone, guys. >> we're bracing for it, thank you very much. shaun white is heading to court today. arrested last month and charged with vandalism and public intoxication. white accused of pulling a fire alarm at a hotel where he was staying which forced an evacuation. he's being charged with breaking a hotel phone. while running from that scene, white fell and injured his head. he was treated at a local hospital. space shuttle "endeavour" has made it to l.a. but there's one final mission. getting it from lax to the science museum. that's proven to be tricky.

"endeavour" will make its way through the city on four self-propelled mobile transports. at the speed of a slow walk. construction workers are laying a carpet along streets to help protect underground pipeline, some, a century old. >> the seal distributes the weight across the street. protecting the infrastructure underneath the ground. >> "endeavour's" journey begins at midnight friday. officials hope to have the shuttle at the museum late saturday night. >> that's just perfect, what l.a. needs, more traffic delays. >> a big one. 4:51 now. still ahead, ahead oakland, we'll let you know why it's prompting a warning from the city. it's okay at the toll plaza. we'll give you the update.

a live look over san francisco. a cool calm night out there. clouds floating around. some more precip heading to our area. so brace yourself. it is 4:54. oakland city leaders warning business leaders this morning about occupy oakland. it became known for its violent clashes. today marking its one year anniversary.

the city releasing a letter to business owners saying occupiers were planning to gather. not clear if they have any other plans. the city states in the letter it is simply to inform and educate, not to alarm anybody. >> very creative. it's 4:55. want to check the morning commute. how we looking, mike? >> oakland, 880 is light. we did have the traffic break over on this side with the tail lights. that's northbound, past high street. the map shows no slowing through the area. the earlier construction zone has cleared. there's still activity there. both directions. between 23rd and 980. so just watch for those lights. right there where it says 880. travel north after that earlier jam there. a smoother drive up towards richmond. at the top of your screen near richmond parkway, that's what christy smith has been reporting, that pellet fire,

there will undoubtedly be some smoke. right now, it's not visible from 580. so at least from those freeways it is not a distraction. we will track that. and the live look outside shows you the peninsula moves slowly northbound. there's also construction in the area but nothing like we saw yesterday like when you're down to one lane. right here, it moves smoothly through palo alto. 4:56. it's the official start of the holiday shopping season according to neiman marcus. >> this is the annual christmas book. we begin with a little adrenaline rush. that's a jet lever. water propelled. eye not sure if it works on land. jet pack will set you back $99,000. for the ladies, how about this, splurging on a 70 grand snow out portrait. not sure if that's romantic.

that's a spider touted as the most technologically advanced super car ever. take note. might like that one. >> can't drive that right now. >> we're going to walk it. still ahead, we continue to track that developing story in union city. fire in a strip mall forces people to evacuate overnight. those people now back in their homes. the cleanup is just beginning.

good morning. take you live to the east bay where a four alarm fire has destroyed part of a strip mall here in union city. that sto