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breaking news, we've been on the air since 2:30 this morning covering a fire that was burning in the hills of moraga. not too far from st. mary's college. great concern there. good morning to you and thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm scott mcgrew. fire burning in the sanders ranch community near merrill drive and sanders ranch road. just about a mile away from st. mary's college. >> it backs up to the back of the college. the college itself not threatened. a lot of homes in the area were and people had to evacuate. sharon katsuda is at the safeway parking lot that was being used as a staging area and you've been talking to a lot of people out there, sharon. >> reporter: we had so many evacuees here. they came because it was sort of overflow with the church parking lot. now with me now is ted from the

sanders ranch neighborhood. tell me this morning how were you alerted about the fire? >> we got a phone call and my wife looked at the phone and the caller i.d. said invalid caller and so she thought it was a prank caller but for whatever reason picked it up. telephones an automated messa d was an automated message telling us to evacuate these particular streets, which was where we were. >> reporter: you woke up right away and took this very seriously. what did you do next? you saw outside. what did you see? >> let's make sure this wasn't some kind of a crank. i looked out to the direction they said the fire was in and there was no mistake. you could see orange, a big orange glow, smoke coming across and start to smell it. i thought, boy, we have to get out of here. >> reporter: some neighbors told me about you, you were really

the hero tonight because once you got that alert, what did you do with your neighbors? >> nothing particularly heroic. i started going around to each neighbor and knocking on their door. i knocked on six or seven doors and somehow we were the only family that had gotten the call. >> reporter: nothing came over on your cell phone? >> nothing on the cell phones. we do get the nixle alerts. the call came through even though it was a cordless phone and we had this pg&e power shutoff. shocked that the phone work at all. >> reporter: you were prepared for the shutoff but you had no idea -- were you prepared to evacuate, too? did you get that warning? >> no. the bottom line we figured out we're definitely not ready in a moment to get the heck out of the house. >> reporter: what were you able to grab? >> grabbed a couple of pieces of clothing, some phone chargers

and some cash and basically had to roll on out of there. we were under prepared. >> reporter: in how many minutes were you out of there? >> i think getting out of the house only took five to ten minutes. nobody was awake, obviously. >> reporter: you have two kids, correct? >> i have two kids and a dog. >> reporter: how did you handle that? that must have been so ki ottch and scary. >> relax and try to get myself ready to go knock on the doors. i went to my son's door and knocked and he was dead asleep. he popped up and was freaking out a little bit because you get woken up at 2:15 in the morning. be ready to go in a couple minutes. >> reporter: thank you, ted, for telling us your story. again, the latest here is the

moraga police just came through and sd the sanders ranch residents go ahead and head over to the church now to wt for the latest. >> i want to take you to the fire lines. 60 acres bunld. you were talking about the dry vegetation there right on the line, bob. >> reporter: i can't imagine the numbers won't jump. we're on the western edge of the fire and you can see in the foreground what has already burned and then you have a couple dozers here. i assume they're cal fire or could be contractor. they're going to dig some lines and they're doing it on another ridge probably about a half mile beyond your view here.

they're going to go up against the dry vegetation and really solidify that line so they can increase their level of containment on the fire. we're now looking south. you see the flashing lights. that's sanders ranch. that's where the homes are and that's where the fire department, some of the vehicles, their engines are there. they are feeding the lines for the firefighters up to the left and who have been out here for the past couple of hours. this is where the hard work is done. they have their axes and picks and trying to go through the soil and they're trying to put it out either by smothering it with dirt or using grinds. you can see some members, that's a tree that still is flaring up. this is in the middle of a very large area.

this is scorched earth we are standing on. we believe it's still at 60 acres burned. it came from that direction, over that ridge where the homes were and down in the bowl. 150 firefighters able to keep this fire from getting to the homes and they stopped it in its tracks. this fire started around 1:00. there were 100 homes evacuated here in the sanders ranch area. i did confirm this with the fire department and the power was out at the time so it's not clear what started the fire. one of the firefighters was telling me the wind was mild, 10 to 15 miles an hour. it's been a little breezy but has not been anything that's been extraordinary. officially the fire is 60% contained. 60 acres burned.

clearly the forward fire has stopped and the level of containment will increase as you see actions like this. they are clearing a line to establish a firm line of containment in moraga. bob redell, "today in the bay." >> a good illustration of the landscape and what they were up against. >> if you are without power you can still use your cell phone to watch our coverage minute to minute. all you need is the nbc bay area app which is free to download. scroll to the bottom, watch live. that is free as well. you have to put in your provider details but you can watch this very newscast and all of the coverage of the power outages and the fire. 4:38 right now. up next on "today in the bay," the mood still gloomy on wall street. the u.s./china trade talks

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they announced it was shuttering 60 stores by the end of 2019. much more than the 40 locations it had previously estimated. scott and laura, back over to you. coming up next on "today in the bay," developments in washington and the president's impeachment probe. and we are still under a red flag warning, gusty winds in parts of the bay area this morning. a look at walnut creek with a chilly start from the 50s as a lot of people are still without power. we will have a warmer day. we'll talk more about that coming up next. the van gogh.

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welcome back. as we take a live look outside, at least the bay bridge is illuminated this morning. a nice live look outside. micro climate weather alert and the power outages that are affecting a lot of the bay area. in fact, pg&e's power outage affecting the observing zoo. it's closed. there's no word on just how long. we did see a lot of police officers at the zoo yesterday. they were monitoring the area because there's a lot of concern about fire threat. the zoo, of course, sits in the oakland foothills. it's dry out there right now. in the hills along -- >> and this is the most critical time of year. it's been so long since we've had any rain or significant rain. we're at the very end of the

season before we start to see those systems coming in. we also get pushes of gusty winds, so that's what we are seeing right now. this is a live look outside in fremont and a lot of people getting up and heading to work and getting started with the day. we will have temperatures that are cool as we head out the door. some of our mountain tops have been measuring high gusts going through the north bay, mt. st. helena, seeing sustained winds at 43 miles an hour and gusts up to 70 miles an hour. mt. tamm about 35 there. we were talking about the fire around moraga. about 37-mile-per-hour gusts. then you head over to mt. diablo and those gusts are kicking up close to 75 miles an hour. we've seen gusts from 20 to 50 miles an hour as we go throughout the day.

then start to subside as we go throughout the day. it looks like there should be some improvement in some areas but here we are at 11:30 and still seeing gusts about 36 miles an hour and then in half moon bay 34 miles an hour going into tonight, though, the winds shifting coming up from the south and calming down as well at about five to ten. we're at 64 and 69 in brentwood. a chilly start if you don't have any power now. when the air is really crisp and dry, well, any fire that develops spreads rapidly. thankfully we don't have anything a report of coming into our newsroom now but still very low in terms of our relative humidity and we'll drop back into the single digits as we go throughout the day. and then recovery tomorrow morning.

a look at our temperatures this afternoon reaching up to 80. for the east bay we're going to have slightly warmer temperatures. 72 in half moon bay. san francisco 71. santa rosa reaching 83 degrees. a lot of changes going into the rest of the week into the weekend. this storm system that's producing those high wind gusts will move on. we'll see another one but it stays further to the north so the winds won't be as strong and as high pressure builds we get the warmer air in between these storm systems. they will give us cooler temperatures. also a few changes in the forecast. from the mid-80s today, tomorrow, as well as saturday to the upper 70s by the end of the weekend. at times breezy winds san francisco mid-70s.

just one set of flashing lights, one coming up behind me. the nimitz moves much more slowly past the coliseum, almost no delay on our sensors. that fire south of st. mary's college is affecting the sanders ranch area, south of the college. a smaller fire reported. your right two lanes are blocked at the exit. two lanes are blocked so just watch south to the richmond/san rafael bridge. the caldecott tunnel remains open. we are looking at the evacuation of sanders ranch and continue to follow. those generators in place, very bright in the tunnel, very dark

outside. prepare to slow it down. the eyes have to adjust. there's the rest of your bay. >> a quick look at some of the other news making headlines this morning. lawmakers are moving forward with the impeachment probe. >> the president's chief rival, former vice president joe biden, now echoing calls for impeachment. the white house refuses to cooperate. tracie potts has the very latest from washington. >> reporter: joe biden now says unconditionally president trump should be impeached. >> he is shooting holes as we speak in the united states constitution. we cannot let him get away with it this time. >> reporter: the president responds. >> well, he's falling like a rock. >> reporter: the president adds he may reverse course and cooperate if democrats schedule a vote to authorize the inquiry.

>> they have eviscerated the rules. they don't give us any fair play. it's the most unfair situation people have seen. >> the house does not need to hold a vote to start an impeachment inquiry. >> reporter: lawmakers facing pressure back home after the white house said they will not comply with the subpoena. >> people i've been talking to say why don't you just go arrest him. >> reporter: vice president pence said he was not involved with asking ukrainian president zelensky to investigate biden. >> i never discussed the issue of the issue of the bidens with president zelensky. >> reporter: meantime, president trump is insisting the whistle-blower who triggered the investigation be questioned about reported ties. ukraine's president says there was no pressure and no blackmail

in that phone call with president trump. tracie potts, nbc news washington. 4:52. coming up on "today in the bay," nbc bay area responds. >> reporter: prices are headed higher. i'm chris chmura, nbc bay area responds. but first, happening now, breaking news that we've been covering since 2:30 this morning. a fire burning in moraga. now 60% contained. it's about a mile away from st. mary's college. the fire burning in the sanders ranch community of merrill drive and sanders ranch road. at least 100 homes evacuated this morning. many people gathered at st. monica's church. the fire started a little after 1:00 a.m. we spoke to at least one evacuee. they have a lot of power alerts but none about evacuations. more news ahead. 4:53.

welcome back. yesterday the county of santa clara declared a state of emergency, and that triggers a vital protection for consumers, protection from price gouging. >> consumer investigator chris chmura has been in touch with the attorney general's office. >> reporter: good morning. price gouging isn't illegal until there's an official emergency declaration. here is what it says. the statute applies immediately after the president, governor, or city or county executive officer declares a state of emergency. that is the case in santa clara right now. we'll have to see if other cities or counties follow suit. here is what that means. an immediate 10% cap on price hikes, those who violate the law, face fines up to $10,000.

there are the essentials like lodging and gasoline as well as food and water plus emergency supplies. what's that mean? things like batteries, flashlights, candles and such. it seems price gouging is only outlawed in santa clara county. if that changes, we'll let you know. report it to the attorney general's office 800-952-5225. your best weapon perhaps is your smartphone. take photos, snap photos to give investigators evidence. if you have a tip for us, call 1-888-996-tips. coming up on "today in the bay," the latest on our two breaking stories, the bay area wide fires and evacuations near st. mary's college in moraga.

recontinue to monitor weather conditions around the bay area. we'll talk more about that up next. of course we're watching your dmut and the effects of the shutdown and the merrill fire and metering traffic in a couple of ways. you're watching "today in the bay." tv just keeps getting better.

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this morning bringing you this, a fire that's burning in the hills of moraga not too far from st. mary's college. good morning to you and thanks so much for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> i'm scott mcgrew. marcus washington has the day off. the fire was burning near merrill drive and sanders ranch road about a mile south of st. mary's college. now our bob redell is on the frontline of that fire. >> that's right. it looks like firefighters made a lot of progress so far. this broke out about 1:00 this morning. >> reporter: correct. i just spoke with a captain with the moraga fire department on the front lines since this fire started and he said to us the fire is out. we're on the western edge of the fire line. that is sanders ranch. we see the flashing lights where the fire trucks are located. that's where the