. it's tuesday, august 18th, coming up, right now, the military is mobilizing to battle wildfires that transport landscapes into virtual war zones and a financial cost of over $100 million a week. new details in the hunt for the bangkok bombers as the death toll rises in what's being called the worst inches didn't in thailand's history. donald trump continues to set the 2016 agenda with all others following his lead. while hillary clinton faces more classified emails. plus, a sword-wielding caper caught on camera. a rough day on the mound for a bronx bomber and a sad good-bye to a real-life superhero. "early today" starts right now. nearly 100 wildfires are

burning across the western united states, and now another threat is sparking concern -- not only are the fires burning through acres of land, they're also burning through firefighting budgets, the u.s. forest says it's spending $100 million a week to fight the flames. nbc's miguel almaguer begins the coverage. >> it may be the most explosive inferno in the nation. what began as five small lightning fires merged into this monster. it looks like a war zone here, because it is. in the air and on the ground, the national guard has arrived. but for now, they're losing the battle. >> it was heartbreaking. i'm getting phone calls from people saying can you see if my house is on fire? >> the complex fire torching tens of thousands of acres, destroying lives. in washington state alone,

nearly 3,000 forced to flee the flames but not everyone escaped alive. this man lost his father, who died of a heart attack as he scrambled to flee. >> he loved me, a good man. >> across the west, nearly 100 uncontrolled wildfires are exploding out of control. they're not just dropping retardant from the air, the smoke jumpers are here, too, parachuting into hot spots to battle the blaze. in shelland, this tourist-dependant community is in shambles. >> i lived here 33 years. so it's -- hard to see this. >> lives in ruins as the fire rages on. miguel almaguer, nbc news, washington state. this is joe fryer in simi valley, california, wildfires are tearing through grassland and creeping close to neighborhoods. >> can you see the flames 20

feet away from that one fence. >> the ground is so dry, fires are moving very fast and the warm santa ana winds are still to come. >> if we have a santa ana-driven fire, we're going to be looking at some real scary conditions. >> right now, 13,000 firefighters are battling 19 major wildfires in california. so far this year, fires have burned more than 117,000 acres across the state. the five-year average is just 53,000 acres. since july 1st, california has spent $133 million on firefighting, the state has called in the national guard and brought in crews from several other states. >> that was nbc's joe fryer reporting. the search is on this morning for a possible suspect after a deadly bomb blast in bangkok. authorities are looking for this man, according to police he was carrying a backpack in one location near the site of monday's blast and then he was later seen without that backpack.

the explosion caught on several cameras. from one point of view you can see the flash of the bomb and then people running in terror. the target was a shrine, crowded with foreign tourists next to a five-star hotel. the bomb exploded at the height of rush hour. >> there was fire and there was smoke and people are lying and people are screaming. absolute chaos. >> at least 22 people were killed, more than 120 injured. thailand's prime minister says this is the worst incident that has ever happened in that country. a second explosive was later thrown from a bridge in the ty thai capital. this morning, there's a new focus on 305 of hillary clinton's emails after going through 20% of her private server so far, a team from the u.s. intelligence community has referred those 305 emails to their agencies for a closer look. it hasn't been determined yet if any of them actually contained classified information. and the state department says it's seen no indication of

negligence or wrongdoing. hillary clinton said there were no classified markings of any of her emails. her stance on this was made clear on friday. she says it's all about politics. >> i've just provided my server to the justice department. but here's what i won't do. i won't get down in the mud with them. i won't play politics with the national security. >> as hillary clinton deals with that, donald trump's new position paper is forcing fellow gop candidates to once again address specifics in the immigration debate. nbc's edward lawrence is in washington. it's a busy day for both parties for different reasons. >> it's a very busy day for politics. campaign politics specifically. now the spotlight is intensified on candidates from both parties who are running for president. as you said for very different reasons. >> and this plan on immigration is just literally gibberish. >> donald trump turns the

political spotlight to specifics on immigration reform after giving details on nbc's "meet the press." his opponents are critical of trump's position, but agree mainly on one thing -- the border needs more security. how and at what cost is up for debate. >> no one thinks that we should be building a fence as the solution to security. >> so honestly, i think we should put all of our energies, all of our political will over finally getting the border secured. >> an independent analysis of trump's plan shows it will cost between $117 to $200 billion to implement. other gop candidates think trump hit the right chord with voters. >> i think what they're hungry to find out is who ultimately can get the angle of frustration and do something. >> meanwhile, the democrat front-runner, hillary clinton tries to stay on message, while dealing with issues about the email server she used as

secretary of state. >> and right now, as of five agencies that are looking into those emails, those 305 emails do their work, hillary clinton is having to deal with the fallout, the controversy has given senator bernie sanders a window. he's narrowed the gap in the polls. rob? >> thanks so much edward. meanwhile a hacking of the internal revenue service may be much worse than originally reported. the irs revealed that hackers may have stolen tax information from an additional 220,000 people. back in may the agency reported thieves had potentially accessed around 100,000 taxpayers' accounts, now that number is much higher, potentially 338,000. over the next few days, the irs will begin mailing letters to the new batch of potentially affected taxpayers. a police officer in seattle got quite a surprise when he made a traffic stop the other day. an officer pulled over this car after seeing the driver speeding down the road and running red

lights when he approached the car, the driver shouted that his wife was in labor. the officer called for an ambulance, but it did not come fast enough. >> there you go! there you go! . >> a baby girl was born right there with the help of other officers who arrived on the scene. medics arrived shortly after that and the mother and the baby were taken to the hospital. both are said to be doing well. that's one way to get out of a speeding ticket. now to a bizarre attempted robbery in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. where two masked robbers dressed like ninjas entered a store armed with a foot-long machete, little did they know, the store clerk had a bigger sword at the ready. like crocodile dundee. the police are still searching for the suspects. bill karins. >> it's always good to have the bigger sword in the sword fight. >> you got to be careful who you rob, they may have a bigger

knife. bill you've got some severe weather in the forecast this morning? >> more severe weather today. we've got the fires in the west you showed us at the top of the show. and yesterday in colorado, apparently a tornado that hit about 90 miles to the due east of denver. on interstate 70, a little farm town in colorado. the weather service will tour the damage and let us know if it was straight-line winds or a weak tornado but it looks like it did its damage, a lot of clean-up. the fires, we showed you at the top of the show, the devastation of the fires, there's numerous fires burning and now we have so many burning, we have a stagnant air mass that's leading to problems with air quality. here's a look at a lot of the active fires. the latest image from yesterday, where the gray is, is all the bad air quality from a lot of fires down near eureka, too. so air quality alerts in gray. widespread smoke from the fires. hazardous air quality through thursday, hopefully some rain on friday it looks like to try to

clean the air out. record highs still possible, portland as we go throughout tomorrow. could be into the 90s. still 100s in medford, red bluff should be 100 through thursday, reno, upper 90s, heat continues with the bad air in sacramento. at least it's cooler in areas like monterey and san francisco. san francisco is back where they should be. over the past weekend they had two days in a row in the 90s. >> the heat just does not end on the west coast. coming up, two female army recruits do what no other woman has ever done. plus if you're planning to travel this labor day weekend, we've got some very important information for you coming up.

people are both soft and strong, which is why our products are too. and we believe in value, so we give you 60% more sheets than charmin ultra strong. angel soft. be soft. be strong. so why treat your half mouth any differently?

complete the job with listerine®. kill up to 99 percent of germs. and prevent plaque, early gum disease and bad breath. sfx: ahhh listerine®. power to your mouth™! pwhat've we got? 5. bp 64/40 sterilize sites. multiple foreign objects in the body. tweezers. (buzz!) (buzz!) if you're the guy from the operation game, you get operated on. it's what you do. (buzz!) if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do.

now to the latest on the indonesian plane crash. a search plain spotted the wreckage yesterday. the bodies of all 54 on board have been found. they include two children and three babies. there were no survivors. also on board was nearly a half a million dollars in government money, which was supposed to be given to poor families in a remote region to offset the rising cost of fuel. back in the u.s., the first-ever female soldiers will graduate from the elite army ranger school this week. the two graduating soldiers survived the army's toughest course, learning to survive on little food and sleep. the two-month course included carrying over 100 pounds of gear through mountains, swamps and other difficult terrain. a sigh of relief for one california family when their 10-year-old son was found. his mother reported him missing yesterday. last night using a helicopter and bloodhounds, he was

discovered two miles from his home. the reason for his disappearance remains unknown. let's get down to business with cnbc's landon downey. good morning. >> hey, rob. good morning to you, the friendly skies will be crowded this labor day weekend. industry group says u.s. airlines will carry 14.2 million, up 3 frrs from last year. summer travel is expected to reach an all-time record thanks to the stronger economy. a drop in fuel costs is also boosting airlines' profits. sprint is the latest wireless carrier to drop two-year contracts, the company is shifting entirely to a model where customers lease their phones, many will no longer get your device at a kiss count. sprint sun veiling a new plan which lets you upgrade to the newest phone as soon as it's available. kfc is switching colonels, the fast food chain has dropped the actor who played it in tv ads, being replaced by a fellow

actor. just ahead, a baseball fan, his daughter and the most ungraceful attempt at a home run ball you'll see this season. some amazing moves on the football field and not the kind you're thinking of. sports, coming up next. come on out, flo! [house band playing] you have anything to say to flo? nah, i'll just let the results do the talking. [crowd booing] well, he can do that. we show our progressive direct rate and the rates of our competitors even if progressive isn't the lowest. it looks like progressive is not the lowest! ohhhh! when we return, we'll find out whether doug is the father. wait, what?

look more like a tissue box... you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin®. because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. muddle no more™ . aftit gets pretty stuffy.r a while, when dad opens up the window, what's the first thing he does? (kid sniffs) (dad sniffs air) the tobin stance. but when we open up the windows, you can see the dust floatin' around. there's dog hair pollen more work ♪ ding dong wow! what's this? swiffer sweeper swiffer dusters removes up to 70% of dust & allergens. stays on there like glue. you can't do that with the other broom. wow, i love it! (family sniffs air) the tobin stance. that's totally what it is.

this morning on "today," the

best-selling book that promises to put your kids to sleep in minutes. does it really work? find out later on "today." now on to sports, twins/yankees, the yankees honored son of a woman who was killed in the charleston church massacre in june. chris singleton threw out the first pitch along with his two siblings. the honor was part of yankees' hope week. on to game action, bottom of the first inning, brian mccann takes a pitch deep to right field to give the yankees an early 3-0 lead. next inning, eduardo nunez takes a line drive that knocks brian mitchell in the face. he left the game with a nose fracture. bottom of the 10. ground ball, scoring a runner from third and the yankees win a thriller 8-7. 5-year-old haley dawson threw out the first pitch at last night's a/orioles game. one with a rare condition that

affects the growth of her right hand. unlv students used a 3-d printer to construct a prosthetic hand for her. she threw out the pitch to her favorite player. manny machado. and baseball fans will do anything for a home run ball. albert pujols knocked this one deep for his 37th home run. and this man is holding his daughter, he can't quite reach the ball, he almost fell over the railing. one of the stadium's ushers retrieves the ball. instead of giving it to the fan, he'll pick it up and say you know what, i'm not giving that to you. i'm going to give it to somebody else. he throws it into the stands, brutal. a p.a. was later sent to give strickland the ball. the arizona rattlers dance squad are making some headlines they took the field during the time-out of an afl game and one of the players joins the

routine. he takes the stage and breaks it down right there. it turns out he's not really a player. he's a choreographer, got to love that the fans must have loved this moment. whoever this big man is, he's got the moves. just ahead, tracy morgan's post-traffic crash comeback in his old stomping ground. plus the legendary stevie wonder surprises fans in three cities.

fact. every time you take advil you're taking the medicine doctors recommend most for joint pain. more than the medicine in aleve or tylenol. the medicine in advil is the number one doctor recommendation for joint pain. relief doesn't get any better than this. advil

does your makeup remover every kiss-proof,ff? cry-proof, stay-proof look? neutrogena® makeup remover does. it erases 99% of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. need any more proof than that? neutrogena.

in entertainment news, stevie wonder was a busy man yesterday. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ you can feel it all over ♪ you can feel it all over >> he surprised fans with free shows in washington, philadelphia and new york. that's right, he performed it in all three cities in one day. at the shows he announced his final leg in the "songs in the key of life" tour. his daily show run may be over, but jon stewart isn't taking time off. the long-time wrestling fan will host wwe summer slam. >> when you should retire, do whatever you want. >> that's exactly what he's doing on august 23rd. meanwhile, "snl" is gearing up for the 41st season in that show's history. announcing a few guest hosts, including tracy morgan's return

to studio 8 h. so happy to see this happening on october 17th. morgan, along with miley cyrus, and amy schumer are set to open the season october 3rd. morgan tweeted, so stoked to be going home. we're so stoked to have him coming home as well. zac efron hasn't had enough of all the shark sightings this summer. he tualked to gym ary fallon about going shark diving in hawaii. >> i see a 14-foot tiger shark literally turning maybe as far away as the roots are swimming directly towds me. when it swam by me it was swimming towards the boat where i needed to get back on to. so i grabbed on to its fin and rode it all the way back to the boat. >> this is "early today." daddy gator couldn't push the throttle on his little boat any harder if he tried. he's beached here, gazing out on an unforgiving landscape.

for while the people who come in here use quilted northern, a toilet paper that works so well they completely forget their experience... daddy gator sees all and forgets nothing. "i've got to motor out of here," he thinks. "this is no place to raise a child." quilted northern. designed to be forgotten. don't be envious. be envied! revlon cwhat i want. envy™in jut base coat and color in one. then, diamond top coat for gorgeous, life-resistant wear. in 30 easy-to-remove shades to love. revlon. love is on.

leading the news, in the "washington post," route 29 batman is killed after his batmobile breaks down in maryland. his real name was leonard robinson, he spent his free time entertaining sick children at area hospitals, dressed as the caped crusader. on sunday his batmobile lamborghini had car trouble. he was stuck on the side of the road and was struck and killed by another car. robinson left an indelible mark on hundreds of kids. also in the "washington post," scientists find the brain's missing pipes. excited researchers are saying that throw out the textbooks, this new discovery could be the missing link with profound implications in treating

conditions from autism to multiple sclerosis and alzheimer's disease. if you're a fan of pumpkin spice latte, starbucks announces that it will include actual pumpkin as one of its ingredients in previous years the formula consisted of artificial colors and flavors, meanwhile police in ontario, canada are looking for the public's help in identifying this woman who is allegedly stealing flowers from a grave. the woman in the video takes all the flowers and puts them in a box before running away. the family of the deceased set up a hidden camera after noticing their flowers were disappearing. heidi klum is firing back at donald trump after the presidential candidate said she wasn't a perfect 10 any more. a man in a trump mask appears to come up to her tearing off her "10" shirt and revealing a 9.99. golfers, a new challenge for

you, it's called speed golfing. in the uk, 30 golfers raced against the clock, much like the old-fashioned version of the game. with the goal of finishing as fast as possible. players will do whatever it takes to finish faster. including sprinting between holes. it's a hot trend in golf. >> i had a buddy who carrying five clubs, it's like running five miles. >> you can play a round in an hour and 15 minutes, not bad. let's look ahead. the pill some are calling are female viagra, could be approved as early as today. the fda is expected to rule on the drug. if approved, it would become the first medication available to help improve the female libido. happy birthday to "brooklyn 99" star andy samberg. and "fight club" star edward norton is 46 and robert redford turns 79. thanks for watching "early today." sajosov a mthfrolis--ireghts uan

stretched thin. firefighters battling the coast. and a homicide suspect leads to another offer involved shooting. "today in the bay" starts right now. a very good morning to you. >> triple digit tens on the brain. >> good morning. a little bit of relief. 3 to 7 degrees in some spots. we take a look. a low clouds are