if you are not paying attention and you're being stubborn and you've gotten an evacuation order to get out, get out now. right now at 6:00, tens of thousands of people across the bay area out of their homes for a third night in a row. >> relentless flames continue to scorch thousands of acres,

overnight gaining ground in nearly every county and word of new deaths tied to those fires and we're standing by for a live news conference from santa cruz county, "today in the bay" continues right now. and a good friday morning to you, thanks so much for starting right here with us, i'm marcus washington. >> and i'm laura garcia. a lot to cover this morning and that includes the weather, which really is a key factor in trying to fight these fires as well, kari, another warm one ahead. >> yeah. it will be a warm afternoon but at least we do have a cooler start to our morning which will also help in keeping those fires from spreading so rapidly. we could still see the smoke layer over san jose, let's talk about that air quality. because it's been really bad. at times shifting where you start out clear and then suddenly the wind changes and the air quality goes downhill. we're seeing a lot of the worst of that from the north bay from san rafael to napa. but our highest measures of particulate matter, in

tri-valley and parts of the east bay, we'll be monitoring this throughout the day and talk about how warm we get as well as our weekend forecast coming up in a few minutes. mike, you have a couple traffic alerts you've been following. >> that's right, kari, still in the red zone and i'm not just talking about the lower left-hand corner of the map, we see you see that's the czu complex fire zone. that is continuing with additional closures overnight and the evacuations, stay clear of those zones. we are looking toward the zone in san francisco where northbound 101 jams up from just past 280, slowing toward vermont. i see that this is starting to clear a little bit but there is a crash as well as a hydraulic fluid leak that had to be cleaned up. it's been there an hour and a half. 280 will get you into san francisco as an alternate. slowing at the bay bridge as well. metering lights may be on soon. back to you. >> thank you very much, mike. so want to get you caught up

on all the breaking news we're following for you. first taking you to the north bay, where the lnu complex fire is still burning out of control. last night, sadly, we learned three people died in a home in napa county where the hennessey fire has burned nearly 200,000 acres. another person has been found dead in a solano county, in all at least five deaths are being blamed on the fires in the north bay. the flames overnight move closer to healdsburg, a live report for you shortly from that area. and also governor newsom's visit to the fire zone later today. in the meantime, in the south bay more began hill and surrounding areas there, now on alert. cal fire is warning people to prepare to leave at any moment if the scu complex fire gets too close. so far it's scorched over 157,000 acres. it is only 5% contained. two first responders we're learning were hurt while trying

to battle the fire. more than 20,000 structures across the northeast and south bay are threatened from fires. new overnight uc santa cruz now evacuated and closed as the fire is burning in santa cruz and san mateo countys continuing to rage. nearly 15,000 people have fled their homes. it's a bitter battle for firefighters there and we're expecting to hear from them any moment now. our cameras are standing by at the command center, in scotts valley. take you back to the north bay where late last night we learned of those new deaths tied to the hennessey fire. i mentioned them just a moment ago. "today in the bay" cierra johnson live in healdsburg this morning, one area that's been hit especially hard and our hearts go out to these families, not only having to evacuate but now the loss of life as well, additional ones, sierra, so sad. >> reporter: extremely sad, the evacuation warning issued on

wednesday because of high winds still stands for folks in this healdsburg community and there were those deaths, the three people found in the home in napa county and another in solano county, this fire proving to be dangerous and deadly on the way in from the city you could still see the ash in the air while you were driving on the freeway. these fires far from being put out. we have video in to our newsroom that was just shot a few hours ago really showing the devastation and the strength of the fires burning down homes just really anything in its path. now at last check 20 acres here in sonoma county have been burned, part of the lnu complex fire that's been burning. last night crews worked to defend nearby homes from the fire but at some point the winds that prompted the evacuation made it too hard for the firefighters to do that. take a listen, because some of the folks in the fire's path as they work to save a friend's

home. >> remove all the pots. even the ceramic ones from away from the house because sparks can get underneath, and harbor there. and to pull everything away from the home and then rake all the leaves away. >> reporter: yeah, and back out here live, folks just standing by, we're going to throw it back to you in the studio for the presser. >> we want to get to a live press conference right now in scotts valley. let's listen in. all right, well, of course they're giving us that update. we have our cameras there, and kris sanchez is there as well. she's going to give us an update of what they're talking about. there's still a lot being done to battle all of these fires happening in the bay area.

>> good morning. i want to touch on kind of what we did last night in terms of our progress, and then a couple other things for people that are displaced right now with regards to a little bit of a time frame, you might be wondering that, as well as for animals. starting with last night we continue through the evacuation in scotts valley. again i mentioned yesterday this is population of the area -- everything west of highway -- last night and then -- >> all right, as you can see, of course, all that's going on right now, difficulty really getting a good signal with that press conference. as i said kris sanchez is there and she'll give us an update later oncoming up here on "today in the bay." laura? >> the good thing, marcus is we

have kris sanchez there so she can gather all the information and any updates they provide. this is something everyone in the bay area is noticing and talking about, you walk outside, there's so much smoke, this is our sixth straight day of poor air quality and more unhealthy air could be in store for five more days. or even extended beyond that. we have a look around the bay. you can see these pictures were actually taken yesterday afternoon, visibility remains very tough in some spots although it was nice when you did get a little bit of clearing it felt like you had a little bit of a chance to get a breath of fresh air, but take heed with all the warnings that this air quality is set to be the worst in the world right now so really you shouldn't be outside. kari's got a look at our forecast. you know, it would be nice to have some wind gusts to blow that out but we don't want the wind gusts with all these fires that firefighters are trying to battle out there, kari. >> right. it's like a double edged sword. we want to clear our air quality but we don't want to fan those

flames. as we take a live look outside in san francisco, this is somewhat good and bad. we're seeing some fog over the coastal areas. but that's also trapping the smoke. but we do need the higher humidity that keeps those fires from spreading so rapidly. and as we take a look at our high temperatures for today, it's going to be very much like yesterday with a light wind, fog near the coast where we will have some cooler temperatures but still very warm in the valleys, we'll have more on this and a look ahead to the weekend coming up, mike, what's the update for the commute? >> kari, we still have the traffic alert in san francisco, it's a short section of 101 that does have slowing as you see it's just north of 280, and clears by the time you pass vermont street, where the crash still blocks your right two lanes, a big pile of dirt after a pickup truck hit the hill. there's hydraulic fluid to clear up. heading toward king will help you if you're getting into the city itself. slowing at the bay bridge, but no metering. the rest of contra costa county

looks great, both crashes at winton, 92 and whipple have cleared. marcus, the rest of the bay shows slowing. we have closures through the fire zones and we're telling folks of course if you don't have to go to the area to evacuate just don't go to the area at all. back to you. >> stay clear if you can, thanks. coming up for you want to take a short break from fire coverage and get you caught up on business news with scott mcgrew. scott? >> that's right, it looks like lyft and uber will continue to operate. i'll tell you why. take you out to the futures, we had a record setting week on wall street. it looks like we're going to end friday perhaps with some down arrows.

we want to go to that live update from cal fire happening right now. let's listen in. >> this is a very dynamic situation we're dealing in san mateo and santa cruz counties. this is a historic event. we have fire burning in areas that may have never burned at all. so as this fire continues to grow as we try to get resources in to contain the fire we just need to make sure that those that are evacuated heed those evacuation notices, leave the area if you haven't. as was stated we're taking our vital resources that we have,

which are very limited and we're having to commit those to rescue those that have decided to stay and try to assist those communities. we have firefighters out there trying to do perimeter control. that are being taken away from that effort to effect those rescues to make sure everybody's safe. i can't stress it enough. >> i like that picture in picture. >> we're doing everything we can. we have committed every available resource that is available to us from our local fire agencies and our cal fire agency as well. we have basically put everything we have on the front line in order to try to contain this fire. as resources come in we'll be assigning those as the team sees fit to those areas that have the greatest impact and need. so please leave the area. lead the evacuations notice. if you're anywhere in the area or in front of the fire that has not received an evacuation

notice take this as a up front note, prepare yourself, be ready. so in event we do have to evacuate you, you're ready to go, thank you. >> with that, i'll answer any questions about the incident. >> how do you decide which structures to defend and which ones to leave behind? >> yeah. >> preference given to the business, or restaurants? >> yeah, so the question is, how do we decide which structures that we're going to actually defend? i don't know if chief brunt wants to go into the tactics a little bit. >> it's never easy to determine, you know, what you can save and what you can't save. all we can say is that we can't save everything so you do what you've got. we use a process, a triage process, like in the medical field, you have to sort -- same thing we do with the structures. doesn't matter if it's a

business, doesn't matter if it's a house, whatever. we go by life, property and the environment. if there's a life directly involved with that structure, that's going to be a number unpriority for us and that's what we're going to go after. beyond that, we do -- we go into a sorting process. if we have the time to do so, many times we don't. sometimes it's the target of opportunity and we just go for it best we can. if we have a time to sort out and to process that, then we look at things that give us the best chance with the limited resources. time and again about the limited resources. we have to pick and choose our targets of opportunity the best we can that way. so things like defensible space. you've heard us many times over the years talk about defensible space, doing your part to help us help you. well, those that have done their work and there are people that have done their work and i will tell you throughout my career and here in this incident it's no different, those people have done their defensible space have given us the best opportunity to save that structure and many times it's given us an

opportunity to save the structure without us having to put fire personnel there. it saves itself. again, if you haven't done so and you're in an affected area, in other parts of the community, make sure defensible space is done. that's what gives us a chance. when this happens, never say it's never going to happen to me. it will happen. it's happening here right. having that done, gives us the opportunity, used it to our advantage in this case and time and time again in our past to save structures. that's another process we've used. for those folks that have done it fantastic job because we've been able to save your houses with that defensible space in play. >> right now we're listening to cal fire giving an update on the conditions of the fire. they said the one thing if you hear the advice to leave your area, do it and it really helps save your life as well as firefighters' lives trying to get people out of that way and save as much as they can and defend that fire right now. right now we want to get a -- >> yeah, it's amazing. >> go ahead, laura. >> no, i was going to say it's amazing the point that they're making about the defensible space. if you are around and move

things away from your house. in the quick moments they look around and try to save what homes that they can. but they're really up against so much. important message they're delivering there. >> fire not letting up at all and certainly all those fires across the bay area really causing the poor air quality we're seeing across the bay area. walk outside and you notice it. kari hall has been monitoring this for us since all this began, kari, is it getting any better though? >> no, not at all. we do expect this unhealthy air quality to continue for days on end. i want to show you this view from mount deaub low looking over toward the tri-valley. you can see the smoke that's settling over the tri-valley as well as much of the rest of the bay area this morning and we're also smelling that as well. was' look at our air quality once again for parts of the north bay, inland east bay and the tri-valley, that's where we are seeing the worst of those numbers. this is a measure of particulate matter, some of the things that you can breathe in from that wildfire smoke that makes it

unhealthy for you. even if you have -- don't have breathing problems, if you're a healthy person, this could really start to affect you. limit our time outside and be mindful of the air quality for the next couple of days as our temperatures will start to warm up as we take you hour by hour we're going to see our afternoon temperatures for the inland east bay in the low to mid-90s while the coastal areas will see this fog and much to cool those temperatures off for the coastal areas, it also helps bring in some higher humidity. we'll be watching those humidity levels by the end of the weekend, as we could get a surge of tropical moisture moving in again and unfortunately that may also spark some more lightning and storms like we had this past weekend, the threat of that comes in late sunday into monday as our temperatures will reach into the mid-90s for the inland valleys, we're staying in the 60s and 70s near the coastline. make, how's it looking right now for the commute? >> kari, the commute is changing for the better.

but look at the map overall. we see the lower left-hand corner with all the closures because of the czu complex fire. santa cruz mountains, avoid those areas. we saw the press conference and they're talking about staying clear and letting the first responders just take care of the fire, folks, you can avoid the areas if they ask you. we're looking toward an area in san francisco which will be improving shortly, is right now, northbound 101 at vermont, the crash and the spill have cleared. the traffic alert has cleared and the roadway should return to speed or very close to it over the next five minutes getting up toward the bay bridge eastbound. westbound the bay bridge at the toll plaza, we have the metering lights, more after this break.

good morning, have a very happy friday to you, you probably heard by thousand that uber and lyft can get you where you're going tonight if that's what you choose to do. they will not be suspending their service. they had threatened to do so after a court said they had to reclassify their drivers as employees no later than today. well, an appeals court has delayed the deadline. uber and lyft are hoping they can run out the clock on this one, delaying until a november ballot proposition that would get rid of the law. the district attorney in san francisco, meanwhile, says don't forget about doordash, it too should fall under ab-5 he says and he's suing the company to force that change. now doordash is not commenting

on that, but they are saying this morning they are adding grocery delivery service to the app so not just restaurants but groceries as well, which is certainly helpful in this pandemic. that's a quick look at your business news on this friday morning. ♪ i don't care ♪ tear me apart >> this was the closing of the democratic national convention last night, fireworks in a parking lot, folks celebrating in their cars, joe biden formally accepting his party's nomination for president. all eyes were on joe biden, many saying that his speech was the best of his political career. let's check in with nbc news's kristen welker in wilmington, delaware. >> reporter: coming up on

"today" joe biden accepted the nomination for presidency, the most consequential speech, taking aim at president trump without mentioning him by name. biden vowed to bring the country into the light. got specific in terms of what he plans to do in the fight against covid, one of the central issues of his campaign, biden calling for expanded rapid testing and also saying he plans to enforce a mask mandate. now clearly the current commander in chief watching it all very closely from the white house, he tweeted in the middle of all this saying, quote, in 47 years joe biden did none of the things of which he now speaks, he will never change just words. for his part president trump will have a chance to refute biden and make his case for another four more years when the republican national convention gets under way on monday. guys, back to you. >> all right, thank you very much, kristen, we're going to have much more on all things

political. let's talk about 13-year-old braeden carington who addressed the dnc live from new hampshire last night. take a listen. >> he told me that we were members of the same club. we stutter. it was really amazing to hear that someone like me became vice president. >> of course, brayden, you can do anything and this was cool biden actually spent some time with him, shared his story how he overcame stuttering. giving kids hope. >> really encouraging. >> exactly, that's nice. we're going to back to live team coverage of the wildfires, what everybody's talking about really in the bay area with the smoky skies and tough

containment of these. >> 6:26 for you right no and you're watching "today in the bay." it's not going away. covid-19. more than ever, california needs rapid coronavirus testing. robust contact tracing. support for community health clinics. masks and ppe for those saving lives... for teachers and school personnel educating students. these heroes are doing their jobs. now government must do theirs. keep working through a special session to combat this crisis right now and provide the revenues to solve the problems we know are coming.

everything we've worked for for 70 years is in a house that could be gone in a matter of hours. right now at 6:30 holding onto hope and what ever belongings people were able to grab rushing out of their homes. >> it is a reality for many of the bay area citizen those deadly wildfires rage on,

threatening homes causing terror across dozens of communities. firefighters in san mateo county as they just wrapped up a news conference. we've got a live report coming up in just moments. "today in the bay" continues right now. bringing you all the latest news from overnight and of course all the breaking news from this morning as well. thanks so much for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> i'm marcus washington. this is a lot to take in. we are here for you. mike has a look at the commute for you, a lot of those road closures that you might run into. first we'll start with meteorologist kari hall looking at the forecast for today. how's it looking out there for us? >> we've seen some improvements in our weather conditions around those fires. start out in the north bay, cooler air as well as higher humidity and that helps to keep the spread of those fires from happening so rapidly as we are also trying to get some cool air for those crews who are out there around those fires as we head over toward the diablo range we've also seen

temperatures coming down here near mount hamilton, now 51 degrees with humidity levels at 91% and then for the santa cruz area for those fires in our temperatures this morning in the upper 60s, it's still warm and we're seeing a little bit more of a breeze. so we'll have to watch those conditions there. we'll talk about our air quality, our temperatures for this afternoon, and a look ahead to the weekend that's coming up in a few minutes. mike, what's happening for the commutesome. >> kari, for the local closures and the fire-related closures go to nbcbayarea.com/traffic. it shows the local footage as it continues to change. we'll get you to the maps we have. live look at the bay bridge toll plaza. the middle lanes are the slow ones but you don't have the metering lights. lighter traffic overall there. marcus, we have the traffic alert in san francisco that has cleared from north 101 with full recovery heading up toward the skyway, back to you. >> good news for us this morning. want to get to those headlines for you, three major fire zones across the bay area

and at least five deaths, sadly, have now been confirmed. tens of thousands of people out of their homes this morning, and of course this is a statewide emergency. as we've done every day this week here on "today in the bay" we have our team spread out across the bay area bringing you the very latest from those wildfires. start with kris sanchez where the news conference just wrapped up. talk to us about what they talked about giving us those updates. >> reporter: we're feeling a little bit of that cooler weather that kari's talking about and that helped certainly overnight to stem the growth of the fire just a little bit but the fire chief says that don't let your guard down because as soon as the marine layer is gone the fire conditions kick right back up. we are still at 0% containment for this czu lightning complex fire, 50,000 acres and still growing and now we know that 64,000 plus people are under evacuation orders. one of those evacuation orders covers uc santa cruz, under

mandatory evacuation, everybody was ordered off campus and told not to expect to return for at least two weeks, that's true of anybody who is ordered out. the evacuation center for students and staff is the coconut grove at the boardwalk in santa cruz. already we know that at least 50 families have lost their homes. but that is the official number. the unofficial number is expected to be in the hundreds. we found fires burning at homes in bonny doon, and in boulder creek yesterday. again, we expect that that number will continue to go up almost 21,000 homes are under threat as we speak. some of them are the homes of our nbc bay area colleagues. now yesterday our crews came upon people who were choosing to stay against cal fire advice, although others did back up and leave. >> we live in an extended family. we've got little kids in the house and everything. we all loaded trucks and we're out at my brother-in-law's house

in santa cruz right now. everybody's on the floor with mattresses and we got what we could. >> reporter: that's what cal fire wants to see. they said that yesterday they had to conduct three rescues of people who chose to stay behind despite those evacuation orders and then firefighters had to leave the fire line to get those people out. three rescues of people who could have left when they had the opportunity. so cal fire saying it is against the law for you to be forcibly removed from your home however if you choose to stay you do so at your own peril. at this point we know that there are 50 -- 64,000 evacuees now, that number went up quite a bit overnight. if you are in the santa cruz area, you're headed here this weekend, you have reservations, cancel them, stay home. the county of santa cruz is asking people to make sure that all available hotel space is available to the evacuees because there are so many and the fire is not abating. in scotts valley, kris sanchez,

nbc bay area news. >> good time to cancel the plans you may have had in the area so they can get the things they need to get done. thanks, kris. we have new daylight video for you. this is showing the devastation in bonny doon. a man who says he drove in the area of his childhood neighborhood, take a look at this video. you can see there much of it's gone. he tells us this is on braymore drive, so many of those homes in that area reduced to just ash and rubble. and breaking news that we've been following from the north bay this morning, where late last night we learned new deaths tied to the hennessey fire. hundreds of structures have been destroyed as well by the complex of fires that are burning there. "today in the bay's" cierra johnson live in healdsburg for us, one area that's been hit especially hard. >> reporter: yes, good morning. as we've been telling you for days this fire is not only dangerous but deadly, as we've mentioned cal fire has confirmed there have been several deaths

tied to this fire. the three people found in a home in napa county along with another person found in solano county and on wednesday that pg&e worker helping to aid in the fire was also killed. these fires both dangerous and deadly. here in healdsburg, seeing the effect of this fire, evacuation warnings went out on wednesday because of the high wind. and those warnings still stay because of those winds, coming into town you can see the ash and the smoke in the air as you have throughout this week. in napa and solano countys. we do have video into our newsroom shot just a few hours ago of the strength of that fire. this fire eating up everything in its path. homes and various structures, several acres here in sonoma county have been consumed by that fire which is of course part of the larger lnu lightning complex fire that's burning in several other counties. we had a chance to speak with an individual that was working to defend nearby homes from that fire. take a listen to what they had

to say. >> to remove all the pots, even the ceramic ones away from the house because sparks can get underneath and harbor there. and to pull everything away from the home and then rake all the leaves away. >> reporter: those all important tips. back out here live i know i have been glued to the healdsburg city website as many folks here in town have. i did learn they believe this fire is still at zero containment, something we've been hearing all week from the various fires in various counties. so hopefully we will hear -- the efforts to knock down this fire. of course those officials urging everyone to have a plan in place to protect yourself as well as your belongings. we're live in healdsburg, cierra johnson for "today in the bay.." >> we're hoping today is the day they get better footing on that fire fight. new evacuation orders in effect in the south bay, where the scu complex fire is burning right now. we have a map for you showing the evacuation area. that's the area you see right

here in red, it's a large area but then you look to the north and southeast, these yellow zones are those zones where they're telling people to prepare if that fire gets too close to you. down here in the south that is where gilroy, morgan hill are located. let's get to "today in the bay's" bob redell live for us in morgan hill. what are they saying this morning? >> reporter: well, a lot of people here in morgan hill, other parts of the county on alert, they're looking to the east where you can see the smoke and the hills. they're going to want to know if that fire, the scu complex fire is making its way over, be looking for the flames. fortunate through that's nothing we see right now and hopefully we never see that. that's what people are going to be looking at today as this fire possibly starts -- continues its westward move towards the city of morgan hill. it's really going to depend a lot on the winds today. there are a number of evacuation warnings in effect here in morgan hill. you can log onto our website at

nbcbayarea.com to find out if your address is in that warning zone. you probably see that flashing sign we just showed on television. that's letting people know that only residents are allowed in certain areas. here's one family who is packed and ready to go. >> the photo albums. jewelry. just anything important. you know, heritage from the grandparents. it's already loaded and we've got the dogs ready. >> we're leaving because we live on top of a hill and i don't want to watch it burn. there's nothing here that's so important i've got to stay here. we've got the cool stuff loaded and, you know, we'll get out of the way. >> reporter: there's also concern about how to get the horses and other livestock out, not necessarily out but to have enough time in case that evacuation warning turns into an order, which has not happened yet here in morgan hill proper. that scu lightning complex fire encompasses five counties. right now it's had over

157,000iccers burned, 5% containment. reporting live, bob redell, "today in the bay." >> we are tracking the air quality from all of those fires as we take a live look outside in san jose. we can see the smoke in the distance but overhead it's cleared up just a bit. it's still unhealthy to breathe in the air, to have prolonged exposure and we're expecting several days of air quality at these levels. most likely we won't see these fires put out anytime soon. limit your time outside, especially in the inland east bay as well as the tri-valley. mike, you've been tracking the commute. how's it looking right now? >> it's actually looking pretty good. the bay bridge toll plaza has no metering lights, slowing for the middle lanes and up the incline. everything else through contra costa county looks great. good news for i-80, a lot of email and messages requesting

information about how to get around vacaville. you can go through vacaville. i-80 is open, has been, actually, all day yesterday as well. but folks didn't get all those updates. it's confusing. the rest of the bay does show a smooth drive but do know you go to nbcbayarea.com our traffic page has all the local closures to have our maps powered by waze. will we be the generation that finally wipes out the standing racism from our national character? >> up next, joe biden's big night. plus, the new war of words erupting between governor gavin newsom and president trump. plus -- >> in washington the postmaster general is testifying to congress right now, take you over to new york city as well, the big board slightly down this morning. we've had a record setting week. reininventing. i it's what small l businesseses do.

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as california's wildfire fight intensifies so does the war of words surrounding the fires between governor newsom and president trump. "today in the bay's" tracie potts is live in wilmington, delaware with the spat between the president and newsom and joe biden's big night as well. morning, tracie. >> reporter: laura, good morning, good morning, everyone, they're tearing down here but this fall campaign is just heating up and throughout the week, including last night in joe biden's speech, we saw a clear focus on donald trump on his character, on his record

with joe biden saying that this is an election about character and about decency. we've heard from president trump throughout the week at his rallies, responding. and also last night there's this -- as you said, war of words going on between the president and governor gavin newsom and that played out on the dnc virtual stage last night when newsom spoke for about three minutes from near one of the wildfires about why he says president trump is threatening to withhold money to fight those fires. here's what the president said and here's newsom. >> i've been telling them this now for three years. but they don't want to listen. maybe we're just going to have to make them pay for it because they don't listen to us. we say you've got to get rid of the leaves, you've got to get rid of the debris, you've got to get rid of the fallen trees. >> the president of the united states threatened the state of california, 43 million americans that happen to live here in the

sate of california to defund our efforts on wildfire suppression because he said we hadn't raked enough leaves. can't make that up. >> reporter: meantime last night after the governor spoke of course the big highlight of the night was now nominee joe biden, he gave a speech that really didn't hit specifics of policy that much and that's one of the criticisms people, including democrats, still want to hear that from him. but he did talk about big picture, vision. and he talked about president trump. >> he's failed to protect america. and my fellow americans, that is unforgivable. as president i'll make you a promise. i'll protect america. i will defend us from every attack. seen and unseen. always, without exception, every time. >> reporter: so one down, one to go. the democrats' convention is

over, the republicans start on monday and we'll be back in the nation's capital to cover that for you. we are live this morning from wilmington, delaware, i'm tracie potts, "today in the bay." >> thanks, tracie, always so busy in the political world. mean ttime the head of the postal service facing questions whether he's trying to slow down the mail. >> the democrats are suspicious about dejoy's plan. >> yeah, the poptics are really terrible, the timing is terrible too. dejoy is speaking now before the senate. he says this was part of a long-term plan, what you're hearing about the mail sorting machines and getting rid of some of the mailboxes, all part of something that happened long before the election was, and he's denying the post office has any attempt to sabotage mail-in voting. again, live pictures out of washington. he will face questions in the senate today, no doubt face much tougher questions in the house on monday. now dejoy has said he suspended

those plans to take those sorting machines out until after the election and this was just the standard rearranging of equipment. but he is a trump appoint y'. and president trump has been saying out loud he thinks problems at the post office would hamper mail-in voting and he doesn't like mail-in voting. here's the president calling into fox business last week. >> they want $25 billion, billion for the post office. they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. in the meantime, they aren't getting there. by the way those are just two items. but if they don't get those two items that means you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it. >> now, as tracie mentioned the republicans will begin their convention next week. while joe biden was accepting his party's nomination on

thursday, president trump was in biden's hometown of scranton, pennsylvania. pennsylvania will be a key state in this race. trump questioned biden's keystone state roots. >> he left. he abandoned pennsylvania. he abandoned scranton. he was here for a short period of time, and he didn't even know it. and today it's amazing, it goes around in a circle. he still doesn't know it. >> now to be fair mr. biden had a pretty good reason to leave pennsylvania, his parents moved to delaware, and he was 11. so he moved with them. we're watching what the postmaster general is talking about, we'll talk about it on the midday news as well and on twitter. you can find me there. i'm @scottmcgrew. >> sounds good, thanks so much, scott. okay, i feel like i can cross something off my bucket list this morning, because a tropical depression has the name laura, although i'm kind of bummed about the depression part. i'm usually a lot more cheerful.

>> yeah. well, okay, so let's make it a little bit more cheerful, your, you know, vacationing in the lesser antilles. it's now a tropical storm that has developed. now, the next storm we're watching is marco, but i'm going to call it marcus, you're hanging out in the same place you were in vacation last year. and both of these storms are expected to rush into the gulf as we go into the weekend. and early next week. and all these meteorologists are crunching numbers like when's the last time this has happened and most likely it hasn't been since the 1930s since we've had two hurricanes so close together, moving in to and making landfall on the same day. it's so weird. marcus and laura, i'm going to need for you two to socially distance next week. >> we already are. >> yeah, no, right, this is so crazy. we're not the only ones experiencing weird weather. we're going to have still some hot temperatures as we go into

today. and all those fires burning creating that poor air quality but we're watching something else. okay, so that large area of high pressure that's bringing in this hot weather may also once again draw in a surge from a weakening hurricane into the bay area, increase our humidity and also increase our chance of having another lightning storm on late sunday into monday, and we're still going to have this heat. so we're watching this humidity for early next week and the possibility that we could see some more lightning and we know all of the problems that's caused for us. as we look at the coastal areas in san francisco, we're going to be in the low 70s. as that fog returns near the coastline over the next few days. mike, you had a lot of traffic alerts, has it started to calm down now? >> yes, much, much different than an hour ago, kari, all traffic alerts have cleared from the grid in the bay area. but we still have issues, big traffic issues as we look at the map. now, the freeways you see the green speed sensors but there's notable change down in the lower

left-hand corner. folks familiar have been watching this, but more closures for the area, the czu fire, i'll extend it farther south, kris sanchez has been talking about this, boulder creek, anywhere west of 17 watching through the area. and follow our traffic maps on nbc bay area because we have the updates from waze. easy drive towards the bay bridge though, no problem, no backup and no meter lights. back to you. >> that's what we like to hear, mike, thanks. happening now for you, airbnb banning house parties worldwide. san francisco-based company says it will limit the number of people in its rental properties to just 16. and may even take legal action against those violators. the company first started cracking down after last year's deadly halloween party shooting in orinda. it's accelerating the ban due to the pandemic. 6:52, coming up next on "today in the bay," a look at our top stories, what everyone is talking about, all these wildfires across the bay area.

now they've turned deadly. we're going to have the very latest on three major wildfires, really so far destroying everything in their path. you're watching "today in the bay."

welcome back to you, 6:55. here's a quick look at our top stories. >> in the south bay morgan hill and surrounding areas are now on alert.

cal fire warning people to prepare to leave at any moment if the scu complex fire gets too close. so far it has scorched over 157,000 acres. it is only 5% contained. two first responders were hurt while battling the fire. more than 20,000 structures across the northeast and south bay are threatened from this fire. >> reporter: yes, and we also want to mention those deaths that have played out because of this fire, cal fire confirming that four people have died. three of those individuals in napa county. another individual found in solano county plus that individual, a pg&e worker found dead on wednesday. so both dangerous and deadly are these fires. we're here in healdsburg where the evacuation warning still stands because of those high winds, making it very difficult for firefighters to control this blaze right now. it's at 0% containment. those winds hitting some of those homes, spreading those ashes.

making things very difficult for folks here. >> and new overnight for you, uc santa cruz now evacuated and closed. this is as that fire is burning in santa cruz in san mateo countys, nearly 50,000 people have now fled their homes. it is a bitter battle for firefighters there. they're expecting to hear from them as they continue to update us on what we can expect from those fires. kris sanchez is out there. she's going to bring us those updates, she'll have more at midday. in marin county, firefighters are holding the line along the north and south side of the woodward fire, the smoke is really spreading into the populated parts of marin county, 2,000 acres have burned with no containment. >> that's the tough thing with these fires, such little containment, not only fewer firefighters out there but they're just so large in size. we can tell by the smoke in the

air, kari. >> yeah, and that, unfortunately, looks to continue as they extended that spare the air alert into next week so we're looking at some drifts of smoke, hot temperatures, and possibly some higher humidity by early next week. we'll be watching out for the chance that could also spark some lightning which, of course, is what caused all of the fires that we have right now. so a major concern going into the weekend and early next week so be sure to keep checking in for updates and download that nbc bay area app so that you can get alerts straight to your smart device. and so as we get the information for that nbc bay area app once again we've also been sending out evacuation warnings and orders so you can know exactly what's going on as it happens. and, mike, you're showing us what's happening right now on the roads. >> right, but reminder, also go to nbcbayarea.com/traffic and get the updates for waze, giving you the local roadways and the evacuation and the closures as they continue to change. over here the golden gate bridge, we're watching that

because chp issued an advisory for fog here. as you can see, you can't see across the span. i'm showing you the golden gate bridge. the bay bridge has no problem and nothing to show. there's no backup at the toll plaza. the live look at the san mateo bridge shows you a beautiful drive, the sun coming from the backs of these cars, it's the orange glow, a beautiful picture but kari will tell us, correct me if i'm wrong, we're seeing the reds and oranges, the beautiful colors because of all that smoke in the air caused by those fires. that's the big concern, folks. >> yeah, there's been kind of an ominous glow around the bay area and of course our thoughts go out to all the evacuees right now, of course the people who have sadly lost their lives. if you think you possibly could be in some of these evacuation zones head to nbcbayarea.com, on facebook and twitter as well. i put out a link. and we're updating all those evacuation zones, and those that potentially could be evacuated. lot going on, marcus. >> absolutely. if you hear from police and cal

fire, if they say leave, definitely leave. that really helps with firefighters fight as well as saving your life. we're going to continue to bring you the updates throughout the day here on nbc bay area. thanks for joining us here. have a good morning. this this is our moment. this is our mission. >> good morning. joe biden accepts the democratic presidential nomination. >> we can and will overcome this season of darkness. >> and makes his case for a change in the white house. >>haracter is on the ballot. compassion is on the ballot. decency, science, democracy. they're all on the ballot. >> calling this election a battle for the soul of the nation. so did his message wrapping up the democratic convention resonate with voters? we're live with the very latest. breaking overnight. deadly infernoes.