right now at 4:30, a twitter storm by the president taking aim at special counsel robert mueller. now republicans have a warning for the president. plus, another shooting on an east bay freeway, a child seriously injured. first, details on that massive fire in san francisco. an emotional day for several business owners. the news starts now. firefighters spent the damon toritor toring day monitoring the north beach building. this is new video that shows firefighters on scene once the flames were under control. today business owners got a look at the damage.

>> reporter: this has been a really emotional day for business owners and workers who saw that fire break out last night. i spoke with one woman who works here. she says on the street level where the businesses are she saw some water damage. today the street is closed. that's union street at columbus. there is concern that the upper wall is unstable and today the building was red tagged. >> i look up and the window, it was like smoke. i said, oh my god. i called 911. >> reporter: she shot this video. she was working at ferry plaza seafood when the fire started near the restaurant. >> it was skcary. it was so fast. i couldn't believe it. >> reporter: customers left quickly. she says bars and restaurants

were busy for st. patrick's day. today business owners came out to see the impact. >> three to four feet of water in the basement. i tried to get in our main computer. i don't think it's still alive. >> reporter: a half dozen businesses were closed today as firefighters investigated the four alarm fire that gutted the vacant residential units above. next door had water damage. this man runs coit liquors. it's been a family business for ten years. >> we just need support for the neighborhood. this is a great neighborhood. these people live here. >> reporter: he wants to reopen again. >> it smelled like smoke. >> reporter: salvatore owns michelangelo cafe. it was packed when customers evacuated. food is still on the table

today. he's worried about the future. >> three jobs, 12 year s s to o this business. >> reporter: we're told at least eight people were displaced in the fire. no word yet on a cause. as for what's next for the building, we're told that an engineer's report is expected and then the upper exterior walls in the back are expected to be braced. the fire has been one of the top stories on our website, nbc bayarea.com over the past 24 hours. chu check out video from the scene right there. we've learned a shooting on an east bay freeway left a child injured. it may be the result of road rage. it happened on interstate 80 in.

the chp says one victim is a woman in her 50s. the other victim is a young girl age 5 or 6. >> approximately 9:00 p.m. a shooting occurred on 80 at willow avenue. an adult and a young child for injured, both transported to a local hospital to receive medical care. >> he says the woman who was shot suffered moderate injuries and the little girl in the car had life threatening injuries. this is one of several recent highway shootings in the area. chp says there have been more than 100 freeway shootings in the east bay during the past two years. new details tonight about the intense search for a richmond man missing since wednesday after a day of skiing in the sierra.

search efforts have been hatchered dhatcher ed -- hampered due to heavy snow and avalanche conditions. his family believes he does have the skills to survive in the snow. they believe he may have built a snow cave. his family is still holding onto hope that he'll be found savory. the weather also improved near lake tahoe. cars moving easily there on the roads. a break in the weather here in the bay area too, but sounds like not for long. >> rain and we think a lot of heavy sierra snow on the way. the cameras still look like mid january right now as you see from the resort at squaw creek. we've got overcast skies in san

jose. san francisco, mostly cloudy at 55 degrees. not finding much beneath all the cloud cover we have right now. we have mostly cloudy skies, a few sprinkles offshore. our next storm offshore. this go-round is going to be warmer storms powered up by an atmospheric river for southern california. very heavy rains. five-day rain totals around the bay area would be in the 1-3 inch range. for the sierra, we could be looking at 3-4 feet of snow above 6,000 feet. remember, you can track the forecast with our free nbc bay area app. get updates on the weather for your neighborhood. happening tomorrow, a celebration of life for the three women killed in the veterans the home shooting.

they were killed when a veteran and former participant entered the building on march 9th and took the three hostage. the gunman killed the women and later turned the gun on himself. the memorial tomorrow will be a chance to honor the victims and their work to help soldiers with ptsd. the memorial begins at 6:00. a memorial fund has been set up for a marin county sheriff's deputy who died in a car accident. chp golden gate sent out a notice about donations for ryan zir zirkle's family. police say he was responding to a 911 hangup call when he lost control of his vehicle. the deputy leaves behind his

parents, siblings and fiancee. the couple had just bought a home together in petaluma. a developing story with world wide impact. six more years for russian president vladimir putin. preliminary results of russia's presidential election shows putin easily winning. he thanked supporters at a rally after the news came in. early preliminary results show that he won about 73% of the vote with an estimated 60% voter turnout. some election officials are warning of ballot stuffing and other voting irregularities. coming up at 5:00, we'll have a report from moscow with more. meanmeanwhile, a twitter st by the president today as he questioned whether special counsel robert mueller can hold an impartial investigation. the president also raising doubts that fired fbi deputy director andrew mccabe kept personal notes about their oval office meetings.

now republicans are warning the president not to fire mueller too. jennifer johnson has our story from washington. >> reporter: president trump firing off tweet after tweet about the russia investigation, railing against special counsel robert mueller asking why does the mueller team have 13 hardened democrats, some big crooked hillary supporters and zero republicans? republicans are now warning the president not to fire the special counsel. >> if he tried to do that, that would be the beginning of the end of his presidency, because we're a rule of law nation. >> the president keeps saying there's no story here. if they didn't do anything wrong, why are they going to such extreme lengths to undermine this investigation? >> reporter: the president is also raising doubts that fired deputy director of the fbi andrew mccabe kept private memos about the meeting, which have reportedly been turned over to mueller. mccabe was sacked on friday two days before his retirement.

>> the fbi is who recommended that he be fired. it wasn't crazy house republicans and it wasn't the trump administration. >> reporter: democrats see its differently. >> it was in december that president trump announced we have 90 days to get mccabe before he retires. he put out basically a hit on him. >> reporter: mccabe says his firing was part of the president's effort to discredit the fbi and mueller's investigation. senator lindsey graham has called for a senate judiciary committee hearing on mccabe's firing to make sure it was not politically motivated. still ahead on nbc bay area news, new details in the florida high school shooting. the troubling new information we're learning about the gunman's past and the warning signs about his mental state. plus an early morning food craving takes a wrong turn in the eastbound. we'll be right back. thousands os security experts. which means...

more of the eye balls you want watching the network... & less of the ones you don't. more experts preventing security issues... & less security threats impacting our customers. more of a highly secure network with more security products available for further protection... & less per month. switch to at&t internet for business. more & less - that's the power of &.

welcome back. as crews still work to remove

debris from that collapsed pedestrian bridge in florida, we've learned attorneys are preparing to take legal action. tan orlando based attorney says he plans to file a civil lawsuit tomorrow for one of the injured victims. it's the first litigation stemming from that incident. six people were killed when the newly constructed bridge collapsed on thursday. eight people injured in that collapse remain in the hospital today. two days before the collapse, an engineer warned of cracking in the bridge. but that voicemail he left wasn't heard by state workers until after the collapse. we're learning new details about the mental stability of the alleged gunman in the florida shooting. school guidance counselors report they recommended that the accused shooter nikolas cruz be committed for a mental evaluation back in 2016. documents say cruz wrote the word kill in a notebook and told a classmate he wanted to buy a gun and use it. police say cruz legally

purchased the gun he used to kill 17 people last month. a north bay congressman tackled the issue of gun violence today. jarred huffman led the discussion about how to make towns safer today in san rafael. organizers say about 1,000 people registered for that event. >> this is about celebrating and encouraging and supporting this amazing younger generation that is stepping up and giving voice to their concerns and their aspirations. >> florida shooting survivor emma gonzalez was supposed to join the conversation via skype but wasn't able to because of a last-minute conflict. right now we're watching cloudy skies around san jose. a storm system to the west sets the stage for a very wet and windy week of weather ahead. in bea

it happened this morning... just before 11 a-m.... at the green new video now, a taco bell

in danville became a drive-in today just before 11:00 at the green valley shopping center. this car plowed right through the front wall of the building and stopped at the counter. fire crews say the dining room is destroyed. thankfully, no reported injuries. that's a close one. looked like a limo or something. >> it did. >> they're like we're not going to go through the drive-through. >> weather-wise i don't think it was weather related. >> that's good. >> we didn't have rain. we had fog this morning. again, the drier half of the weekend happening right now. overcast skies, a short break before a very active week of weather returns to the bay area. let's talk about march. we've had march madness weather-wise, above average rain total, so far more on par with like a february-type month. the bay area after the month of march anywhere from 114 to 212% of average.

the largest context is that december and february, of course, were very dry. so for the season we're about 50-60% of average. even those numbers are a lot better than thinks looked back in february when we were about 30-40% of average for the season. these numbers continue to go upward as more rain chances keep coming into the bay area. 55 degrees in san francisco, mostly cloudy skies. similar conditions in san jose currently. 58 degrees. tri valley, dublin host of the st. patrick's day day festival this weekend, a drier sunday for you with temperatures in the mid 50s. similar from the coast to inland valleys. tomorrow morning may see a little bit of patchy fog setting up. cool start, 30s and 40s. afternoon temperatures tomorrow climbing a bit warmer than today. should see upper 60s around san jose after that cloudy skies to start the morning, increasing clouds through the afternoon.

peninsula temperatures, mid 60s with moistly cloud mostly cloud. for the north bay, highs in the low 60s. as we move forward right now, storm ranger not picking up much. again, we've got a lot of cloud cover here. the real rain producing clouds setting up, we think, for tuesday. monday patchy fog to start, increasing clouds monday evening. by tuesday morning, mid-morning the rain makes a come back right around 10:00 in the morning begin to see the rain cross the coast, into tuesday evening rain at times and more period of rain coming through. much like this last week, it wasn't nonstop rain but these little waves that keep coming on in. highest totals in the santa cruz mountains and the hills of the north bay. tuesday into wed nesday is prety interesting. an atmospheric river setup could

be setting up once again. that moisture stretches away from southern california. any time these systems tap into some tropical moisture coming up just to the east of hawaii, this could really boost those rain rates. fortunately, we think in the burn areas of southern california, the biggest punch out of this incoming storm while the bay area might get about 1-3 inches of rain between tuesday and saturday. highest totals will be in the central california coast down to the hills there north of santa barbara where the thomas fire burn area was. some models indicate maybe 6-10 inches of rain there. that is the affect of the atmospheric river. runoff and mudslide issues will be something we'll be watching closely by midweek. for the sierra by the end of the week, by next weekend once again we could see 30-40 inches of snow. unbelievable. sierra snow pack now about 50%

of average. we've got a warm storm coming in for tuesday and wednesday. then the gulf of alaska trough starts to sweep through. thursday and friday snow levels are going to start to drop on down. could be as low as mt. hamilton elevation by friday. much like this weekend, next saturday will have some chilly showers, probably some hail. next sunday we begin to clear out our skies. after that long range models start to clear things out and dry things out. but the seven day forecast in the meantime is busy. the two wettest days of the week will likely be tuesday and again on thursday with some breaks in there on wednesday, a very active pattern as we go through the week. the sierra getting a late season boost. but i think the big issue, though, statewide could be all that rain heading into southern

california, mudslides a prime concern there in some of the burn areas to our south. >> are we calling all the rain a miracle? >> to get close to the march miracle of 1990-1991 we would need to see about double. this is a march mitigation or recovery. >> we'll take it. still ahead on nbc bay area news, tragedy under the big top after a cirque du soleil performer dies during a show in florida. the details when we come back. rl show last night.

even if no one in your home smokes, secondhand smoke can be closer than you think. secondhand smoke from a neighbor's apartment can enter your home through air vents, through light fixtures and even through cracks in the walls and the floors. secondhand smoke is toxic. especially to children. protect your family. visit tobaccofreeca.com.

in tampa, florida horror at a cirque du soleil show last night. a performer died after falling in tampa, florida. this was duri police say the 38-year-old man was on the double rings when one of his hands slipped. he fell about 20 feet. police are now investigating. cirque du soleil is coming to the sap center in san jose later this month but performing a different show. vladimir putin is calling out claims that russia carried tout nerve agent attack on a former russian spy and his daughter in britain. putin called the claims nonsense today just after he won a reelection by a wide margin. it was his first public reaction to the poisoning of sergei skripal and his daughter yulia. british authorities claim were poisoned by a soviet designed

nerve agent. still ahead on nbc bay area news, a deadly scene in the eesh after a man is found dead inside a car in hayward. plus, facebook now under fire over what happened to the profiles of 50 million users. the action some lawmakers are now calling for. right now at fi.

more violence on an east bay freeway. this time...a child is seriously injured. right now, more violence on an east bay freeway. this time a child is seriously injured. the news at 5:00 starts now. good evening. thank you for joining us. police tell us this latest violent episode on an east bay freeway could be the result of road rage. a young girl is fighting for her life tonight. >> reporter: well, that shooting happened here last night off

eastbound i-80 around 9:00. it's near willow avenue as well. officers told me this afternoon they now are seriously considering the possibility that this was the result of road rage. the shooting forced them to shut down eastbound i-80, all of the lanes last night for more than 2 1/2 hours. the victims are a woman in her 50s and a young girl aged 5 or 6. >> at approximately 9:00 p.m. a shooting occurred on the eastbound 80 at willow avenue. there were two people injured, one an adult and the other a young child. both were transported and taken to a local hospital to receive medical care. >> reporter: he says the woman who was shot suffered moderate injuries and the little girl in the car has life threatening injuries. this was not a bb gun shooting. this is one of several recent highway shootings here in the east bay, part of an ongoing

problem. chp reports more than 100 freeway shootings in the east bay in the past two years. right now they're asking anyone who may have seen this shooting last night around 9:00 near willow avenue to come forward because they really could use more information. repo >> we've been posting updates on this story on our twitter feed as new information comes into the newsroom. you can follow us on twitter @nbcbayarea. an emotional day for several business owners affected by that massive north beach fire. that building red tagged today, the investigation just beginning. christie smith continues our coverage from the scene. >> reporter: well, right now crews are here trying to clean up and remove some water. this has been a