break news, flames rerupted in a well known san francisco restaurant this morning and what we are hearing from the crews on the scene. and we are also following the break news that could affect your commute. b.a.r.t. is experiencing major delays. mike will have all of the delays. out in force as police crews are expected to be out in the streets. and a man from cupertino and what his wife is telling us. and high fire danger as the temperatures are going to rise. hot wind and weather expected to increase. that danger all over the bay area. we will have a look at that change in the forecast. it is friday may 31st, and this

is "to dday in the bay." >> announcer: from nbc bay area this is "today in the bay." good morning. it is friday and 4:31, and i'm marla. >> and i'm laura. we are looking at b.a.r.t. experiencing major delays. what are the details? >> yes, b.a.r.t. is getting start and the trains are rolling, but the problem in the bay area, but the bay bridge is one of the major alternates today. overnight the track maintenance that goes on, but two of the maintenance vehicles collided in some of their work which caused them to have to single track. you can only use one set of tracks for the b.a.r.t. which means one direction at a time and traffic will be slow for the b.a.r.t. trains between the east bay and san francisco. we will show you -- and there is a display there, but we will lay it out for you. delays system-wide for the b.a.r.t. trains. only the trains from the richmond area over to maybe the

pittsburgh bay point and staying on the east bay are the only ones who will not experience delays burk system-wide anything that travels through the west oakland station to the long the peninsula and the south bay and of course, the transit over the bridge is okay, but construction in oakland and you can see it here, and i will talk about it with a report coming up. rob? >> well, thank you, mike. one of things weather wise are hot temperatures that could impact the drive heading into southern california where we have a major fire there north of los angeles and headed into southern california. 40s and 50s right now, but looking at the afternoon temperatures, you are looking at the temperatures in the 80s in the triarea, and look at the numbers tomorrow. fire danger throttling up to start the weekend and saturday highs in the bay area upper 90s. we will look at the full forecast in a few minutes. >> thank you, rob. 4:32 and this is more breaking news.

this is a story in san francisco where the fire investigators are look into the cause of an early morning restaurant fire. chez spencer restaurant had the fire break out this morning. this restaurant if you are not familiar opened in 2002 and famous for the wood burning oven. no word on the extent of the damage. you will see more police presence on the streets as starting yesterday. the special operations unit will deploy 12 additional officers for a total of 29 metro officers everyday. and monday, 24 officers will be called back to duty. and they will be deployed to known gang responses. this is the response to four homicides in the last five days.

the most recent was breaking news yesterday morning when someone shot and killed a man in his early 20s near the santi elementary school, and so far, no arrests in that case. in east palo alto meanwhile, curfew in effect for another hour and a half as the police are trying to deal with the violence. it goes under effect from 11:00 p.m. last night. first time offenders are $250 and it is doubled if you are caught a second time. we will find out how many people are caught, and so far the police have yet to respond. this morning the search crews will head out first light to look for a man who disappeared from his cupertino home. james norberg, and his wife tells us he suffers from dementia and a.l.s. and he is completely mute. police used dogs to search the

vista park there. one of the volunteers there told the photographer that crews will be out this morning. if you see him, call 911 or the santa clara sheriff's office. four employees placed on leave for an internal investigation will soon be allowed to go back to work. they were placed on leave. jason pedrosa has been charged with two felonies and three misdemeanors and he has pleaded not guilty. the employees are expected to return to work monday. the interview said that the empl employees only learned about him when they were contacted by the police and acted immediately by appropriately firing him. police want too know who abused a full grown german

shepherd and left her for dead. yesterday, someone left this dog at the doorstep of the oakland shelter. she had a bungee cord around the body and a chain around the neck. the dog had open wounds and barely breathing. dave crownan calls this one of the worst abuse case he has seen. >> we don't know who dropped her off. we know that she was in someone's backyard and we want somebody to step up and have the courage to say, that dog belonged to my neighbor. >> what you are seeing is video surveillance of the animal shelter showing a person dropping off the dog. he says that the alameda sheriff's office could prosecute the person responsible, and the state needs to consider harsher punishment for animal abusers. >> poor thing. it is 4:36 and a ground-breaking ceremony will be held on the

medical center, east shore clinic, is designed for short term medical care. it will be funded by voted proposition money. the new health center is expected to open in 2015. happening now, crews are helded by rain putting out a wildfire. it is called the powerhouse fire and it is right near santa clarita. firefighters say zero containment, but it is calm and the weather conditions improved. also overnight, people living near the flames were allowed to return to their homes and evacuation orders have been lifted. the fire that started yesterday afternoon was being driven by 25-mile-an-hour winds. bay area fire departments

are increasing staff. in the south bay 15 engines and three bulldozers will be staffed around the clock. an additional fire chief will be on hand, and extra staffing will be in place until the temperatures cool down. >> they are going up. now we go to rob who is in for christina today. >> yes, it is the calcina that will see the winds picking up. right now 40s and 50s outside and we are seeing the signs of weakening sea breezes. the wind will back off shore for the next couple of days and the hum humidity levels look fine, but as the winds pick up, we will see the humidity levels fortunately drop down to 20% around the hilltops in the east bay. high pressure strengthening for the next 48 hours and giving us a case for the dry inland and

some of the warmer places. tomorrow should be the peak of the heat. we are talking from the tri-valley out to san jose expect a hot forecast. the temperatures around the bay, lunchtime, mid-80s inland around the east bay and issalano count. and fast forwarding saturday, you will see the temperatures climbing into the 90s inland by the afternoon and even 90 by 2:00 in the afternoon in san jose saturday. you see the temperatures hot everywhere except for the coast for the start of the weekend. upper 90s in the forecast for saturday and sunday, and then the heat wave will break monday or tuesday as the sea breeze continues into the beginning of next week. mike? >> thank you, rob. we will take you out to oakland where the traffic is starting to

flow here in the southbound direction. we showed you this, the southbound area with the headlights locked down passing the coliseum. there is overnight road work going on and delays on the map from downtown to the coliseum, and that is a big concern right now for 880, things will move more clearly when they clear the crews in 15 to 20 minutes. right now 580 is clear. if you are headed to the bay bridge or across that section and trying to get to the b.a.r.t., overnight main work that goes on to the east bay is going to present major di lays for the entire system. any trains that travel from the bay from oakland to san francisco will have delays until they can clear the maintenance vehicles from one of the tracks. dunbarton express is okay, and through the city, if you need an alternate for those systems. and again, major b.a.r.t. delays expected this morning until we have a resolution in the tunnel, itself. if you want to drive across, another option might be the san mateo bridge or dunbarton and a

crash at keyhoben, but that is being cleared. high alert this morning at the white house as more trouble erupts in syria. president obama is dealing with that situation today. and more word on a woman killed in syrian's civil war and what we are hearing from her family this morning. and this is not from a hollywood movie, and what led to this plane crash into an apartment complex. and new video into the newsroom, a u.s. woman is freed overnight from a mexican jail. the piece of evidence proving that she was wrongly arrested for drug charges. did you know that tofu was invented over 2,000 years ago. join us in the tofu festival.

apparently when you sit down you should stick your butt out. sir, you don't have to leer.

r. >> announcer: you are watching "today in the bay." good friday morning to you. looking at the toll plaza this morn and it is quiet now, but we expect it to back up this morning. major problems in the transbay tube. there was an equipment problem, and so they are having to single track the lines through there, which means bottom line for you going in or out of the city, they are only going to be running one track. mike is monitoring everything that is going on this morning, because you will have to expect major delays and a good morning, because they are saying that b.a.r.t. officials to work from

home if you are able to. 4:42 and we will keep you posted with that. the bay area is leading the way for the first commercial to produce more energy than it produces. fully functioning this morning is a training facility that is operated by solar panels and wind sources. >> this is going to be the first training center for people training in careers. >> all california buildings will be required to have zero net energy by 2030. astronauts are keeping an eye on a massive asteroid which is known as 998 qe 2 will pass the earth at 9:00 and at a safe

distance. the asteroid is 1.7 miles long which is about the size of emeryville. astronauts say it is one of the hundreds of asteroids they are tracking. >> the idea is to find them early enough to know ahead of time with a lot of warning if one is headed for the earth. >> even though the asteroid is flying by this afternoon the astronauts will not start tracking it until tonight, because they have to wait until it is dark to do so. >> that is going to be interesting to see. >> we want to check the forecast. and thank you for getting up early, rob. >> yes. get the coffee going. the heat is going to wake most people up, and tomorrow especially with the 90s forecasted for parts of the bay area. it is chilly and this time of year, it is interesting, because you need a sweater or light jacket for the morning, and then temperatures warming by lunchtime. 52 in san jose, and notice the

wind speeds starting to back off in terms of the strong sea breeze, and as the ocean conditioning turns off not only will the humidity in the hilltops drop later this morning, and no problem with moist air over the bay area right now, but it will dry out the hilltops. as the high pressure buildings offnorthern california, you can see how it is clearing out the northeastern pacific here and keeping the jet stream way off to the north. the pattern change is north winds picking up in the hilltops of the north bay and out towards the east bay. red flag warnings for curtina straig straight. and out toward livermore and fairfield up tonapa looking hot. if you want to escape the heat, san francisco in the 70s, but upper 60s in pacifica and close to 70 in half moon bay. saturday, it looks like saturday

upper 80s around santa cruz on the coast. and that is the temperatures near the beaches to kick off the weekend. there you see 82 in santa cruz, and for livermore, low 80s and fairfield looking out for the dry winds picking up in the afternoon. mid-80s in north bay and nice and comfortable around san francisco with 72. and the inner east bay and the peninsula will see warming. you will see the temperatures climbing up a couple more degrees or saturday and sunday and then the bay cools off as everybody gets into the cooling act monday and tuesday as the sea breeze will cool us off in the beginning of the week, but heat is in the forecast for the upcoming weekend. 4:48 and update on the breaking news. b.a.r.t. service is experiencing

major delays this morning. christie smith just got on the scene this morning and what are you hearing now? it is going to be a messy commute. >> yes, good morning to you. we are in the west oakland b.a.r.t. station which is the last b.a.r.t. station on the east bay before you head into san francisco. i got off of the phone just now from a b.a.r.t. spokesperson and they are telling me that essentially if you need to cross into san francisco or from the city into the east bay, be prepared for long delays. they said 20 minutes and probably even longer than that and you may want to work from home and take the ferry or ac transit, because at 3:00 in the morning, two maintenance vehicles working on the track collided. you can see here what is going on at the west oakland station, and not that many people in fact, because they just opened the gates 20 minutes ago, but this is the last stop from the east bay heading into the city. now, those maintenance vehicles collided inside of the tube about 380 feet from the oakland side at 3:00 this morning and the damage is to the third rail.

i am told no workers were injured, but while the repairs are under way all trains are single tracking which means what it sounds like. they are going to be sharing a track that normally in normal conditions there are two tracks operating inside. so right now, they are going to have to be sharing a single track in both directions all morning until these repairs are done. i asked how long that might take, and they said really at this point, they have no e.t.a. on that. and the damaged tracks run from san francisco to the east bay. so the eastbound direction, again at this point, they don't know when this will be fixed, so prepare for very long, long delays this morning. reporting live at the west oakland station, christie smith. thank you, christy. and new this morn, syrian television is e reporting an american woman a recent convert to islam has died while fighting with the opposition forces in

sera. state-run tv broadcast this video of a damaged car with broken windows. the video shows a passport and driver's license of a woman from flint, michigan. no details about what happened. the woman's aunt who lives in the u.s. told reuters that the fbi had informed her of the death of her niece, but she did not have other details about what happened. she said that her niece converted to islam five years ago. meanwhile, the president will meet with the nato general secretary in washington to talk about this situation in syria. the white house admits they need syria's strongest ally russia to cooperate if there is to be peace in the region. >> we see them as a important partner as moving to a conference and meaningful political transition. >> today's meeting comes less than 24 hours after syrian's president bashar al assad has announced that they have received a shipment of missiles from russia. the state department says they

cannot confirm whether russia has sent the missiles to syria. a woman is released from a mexican jury. after a week behind bars she is cleared of drug smuggling charges. she walked out and hugged her husband in nogales, mexico. she was headed home on a bus when the mexican military arrested her saying they found 12 pounds of marijuana under her seat. court security reviewed video which showed maldonado and her husband boarding the bus with bottled water and a purse. just in, crews are trying to see how to get a plane out of a virginia apartment building. the cessna jet ran out of fuel and crashed into the apartment in the town of herndon a few miles from the dulles airport. it is amazing pictures and the

pilot walked away with minor injuries. two people inside of the apartment is hurt, but everyone is expected to survive. the building was evacuated but they are saying right now, no major structural damage, and that is hard to believe. 4:53, the olympic super star swimming in the south bay this weekend. and graduation surprise, a special visit for one class of 2013. and we are looking over here, and there is going to be a special backup expected at the bay bridge because of problems under the water, and we are talking about the major b.a.r.t. delays and the effect on the commute coming up.

>> announcer: you are watching "today in the bay." >> welcome back, everyone. the class of 2013 got a special visit at last night's graduation. the alum collin cakaepernick showed up to honor the graduates and the former teachers retiring. he thanked his former coach brandon harris and another teacher. and neither had any idea that he wassen coming. kaepernick worked out the surprise with the school principal, and the students were going bananas there. >> understandably. i would do the same thing. so we are following breaking news and not a good morning for b.a.r.t., mike? >> no, the opposite of that. we are looking at the transbay

tube of b.a.r.t. going under the water. we talked about a maintenance problem of two vehicles crashed overnight and they have single track which means half of the service available between oakland and san francisco and both directions are experiencing major delays and basically that is going to affect system-wide and the only trains not affected are the ones on the east bay, but even that will experience the ripple effects. so we will have problems and folks need to avoid that and hit the roads. we will watch the bay bridge and more on the ripple effect when we come back. yes continue we continue to breaking news and the major delays for the morning commute letting one train through. we will have a live report from christie smith who is at the b.a.r.t. stati to break it down for you how bad it could be out there. and a meting of the minds as local leaders come together to try to prevent a shooting like sandy hook elementary, and what

one teacher is calling for.

breaking news and major delays on b.a.r.t. affecting the morning commute. christie smith just spoke to b.a.r.t., and she will have the latest details. plus with the delays for that system, system-wide, we will show you the ripple effect on the commute whether you ride the rails or not. and new video in. oklahoma hit by another tornado overnight. the red cross is headed to the area as we speak, but what we are hearing from the region coming up. and we are watching for more severe weather in the nation's midsection today and increasing temperatures and fire danger around the bay area as we head to the weekend. details on the forecast straight ahead. >> and right now, live to san francisco, and you can see this royal blue skies out there at this hour on this friday may 31st. this is "today in the bay." >> announcer: from nbc bay area, this is "today in the bay." good morning to you, and it is 5:00