for answers. the investigation under way into the massive fire that destroyed a home depot in the south bay. we asked a retired fire chief what comes next. >> a rise in covid cases forces major u.s. cities to bring back one expert weighing in this morning. this is "today in the bay.">> a to you. thank you so much for joining you can watch us live on roku,

amazon fire, apple tv, and online. we begin this morning with breaking news in san jose. firefighters certainly have their hands full. one of the fires they're dealing with, a large one, that could be seen from highway 87 close to the taylor street off ramp. this is video from just about 20 minutes ago, showing what firefighters are dealing with from a distance. there's smoke billowing into the air. we're still trying to pinpoint the exact location and what is on fire. take a look from our live camera. this is pointed in the same direction in san jose. you can see the orange glow in the distance there off to the left a little bit. we are sending a crew to locate that scene this morning. we'll update this story throughout the morning as we get more information on our website as well, nbcbayarea.com. want to get a look at the commute for you this morning, but before we get to that, we want to go to meteorologist kari we're expecting high winds.

>> we always look at wind any time there's a fire and as we start out this morning we can see that glow, and as of right now the wind coming out of the north-northwest at about 7 miles per hour. so not a particularly strong wind at this point, but we are going to see a clear sky. we saw the smoke rising straight up into the air, which is an indication that the wind at this point isn't all that strong, but it may carry some of that smoke into areas to the southeast of where that fire is actually happening in san jose. as we go through this wind gust forecast, it will get windy again as we go into this afternoon. we had a lot of damage around the bay area because of those high wind gusts, and it will stay gusty as we go into the next several hours, and even breezy as we go into tonight. we're in a transition from one weather pattern to another. we'll have another cold front come in tomorrow. does it have any impact on the morning commute?

>> so far we haven't seen any big impacts, at least not where the fire is burning in the south bay. i checked near 87 and it looks like things are good on the highway. still looking to pinpoint the location of the fire. no chp traffic update just yet. 92, there is a crash being reported that could be blocking one of the lanes through here. i'm not seeing any red or yellow behind it, but it is still early. we shall see how that impacts getting onto the san mateo bridge. northbound 101 from highway 85, about 19 minutes. and northbound 85 from highway 101 in san jose, you're looking at about 20 minutes. a quick check of bridge drive times, westbound 580 toward richmond bridge, about eight minutes. again, no impacts from the crash just yet. 12 minutes right now and the metering lights are still off. yesterday the lights turned on a

little later, so we'll see how that works out today. i'll send it back to you. >> thank you. this morning there's new concern as covid cases climb once again. >> many are wondering could we return to mandatory mask mandates at indoor locations. it's happening in philadelphia and there's a lockdown happening in shanghai. "today in the bay's" terry mcsweeney spoke with a local expert about why we should remain on high alert, but not too alert. >> reporter: the city of philadelphia responding to a 50% uptick in covid cases, announcing the return of an indoor mask mandate next week. while san francisco has the highest case rate in the state, what's happening back east may not happen here. >> in philadelphia it is very similar in terms of absolute numbers to where we are in san francisco, however their rate of increase is about 85%, our rate of increase in the last two weeks is 25%. >> reporter: omicron's highly

contagious subvariant ba.2 is fueling the spike in cases and hospitalizationness some pockets of the country. nationwide infections are up less than 6%. >> i am not overly concerned right now. we saw this in europe a few weeks ago. the good news is, we're coming off of very low infection numbers. >> reporter: the cdc will soon decide if masks are still needed on planes. and startling covid developments overseas, the u.s. state department ordered all nonemergency government staff and their family members in shanghai to leave as covid surges and told u.s. citizens to reconsider travel to china, partially because of arbitrary enforcement of local health laws. ucsf specialist says it's different over there, their injections are not as effective. >> we have a lot of natural immunity to ba.1 and they didn't have a lot of natural immunity.

they stayed locked down for about two years. putting that altogether, we are in a much better position. >> reporter: the uptick comes just as families are preparing to travel for easter and passover. dr. anthony fauci says it's up to the individual to determine how much risk they're willing to take to attend holiday dinners. terry mcsweeney, "today in the bay." gilroy issuing ten citations to a city council woman in connection with a deadly shooting. it is for rebeca armendariz stemming from a halloween party at her home last year. the shooting killed an 18-year-old and seriously injured a second teenager. investigators looked into the case and whether the city could take any action beyond the criminal investigation. yesterday the city released a 120 page report. it says armendariz violated multiple city ordinances, including one meant to curb underage drinking and another requiring special permits for this type of party. some community members have called for armendariz to be removed from the council, but

the mayor says outside of the citations, there's little else they can do. >> removal? >> no, that was the whole point of the statement that i was trying to make is to inform the public this has nothing to do with the course and scope of a councilmember. >> in a text exchange, she says she plans to repeal. also in the south bay, investigators are working around the clock to figure out what caused that massive fire in san jose, the one that burned down the home depot store to the ground. fire crews are still at the scene of what's left of the building this morning. "today in the bay's" cheryl hurd spoke with a retired police chief and investigator about what may have happened. >> reporter: there was a flare-up in the garden section of the home depot, firefighters using water to put it out. police guarding the perimeter of the burned-out store making sure all evidence is preserved. >> the investigators are taught not to assume anything.

>> reporter: returned menlo park fire chief has 15 years of being an investigator under his belt. he says the facts will drive this investigation. >> they're going to spend some time i'm assuming taking first-person statements from the customers, the employees that were in the store at the time, who was the closest, who reported this. >> reporter: and they'll be studying videos. the massive fire started on saturday. thick, black smoke billowing into the air. chopper shots showing the aftermath of everything burned to the ground. atf agents were at the home depot site. investigators say it appears the fire started in the store's lumber section, but they're still looking for a specific cause. >> it could be accidental, it could be malicious, it could be undetermined. >> reporter: many people who live nearby are still shaken up. one homeowner shared this cell phone video showing how he and his neighbors scrambled to protect their properties.

>> people on top of roofs. this place here twice on top caught on fire a little bit. >> reporter: as people slowly make it back into their homes, san jose fire department not saying much about the investigation. a spokesperson telling me there's not much to say at this point because of the limited access crews have to the building. it's still not safe to go inside. every move investigators make has to be intentional. >> if it was something that was intentionally done, too, then the criminality piece, the chain of custody or evidence, you don't want to disrupt that. if that's a factor here, and i'm not saying that it is, i don't know that, but that's also something you try and keep in the back of your mind. >> reporter: cheryl hurd, "today in the bay." >> we will continue to follow this story and its developments. be sure to head to nbcbayarea.com and click on the link in the trending bar. that's where you'll get the latest updates on this story. calling all college students

who use doordash. >> and netflix rolling out a highly requested feature. what you are now allowed to do to filter out your favorite movies and shows. much more ahead this morning on "today in the bay." ♪♪ ♪♪

happy tuesday. 4:42, let's get a look at how the morning shapes up for napa. we're starting out with mid-40s. it's going to be sunny today and our temperatures this afternoon reaching into the upper 50s.

it's still going to be windy. we are taking a break from rain chances, but it does return, especially for the north bay tomorrow, i'll have more on that in the forecast in a few minutes. >> southbound 101 from van ness avenue to sfo, 11 minutes. no major delays, but we have a crash to tell you about on westbound 92. first, let's check in with business and tech. good morning. good morning to you. i am bertha coombs from cnbc. we're looking at the futures right now, just to the upside a little bit from the even mark, but investors are bracing for a key report on inflation this morning. that's going to set the tone. consumer prices forecast to have risen more than 1% from february to march. that would be the biggest monthly increase in more than 16

years. the war in ukraine, of course, boosting gas prices to new highs and we're also seeing food and rent prices surging. year-over-year, prices are expected to have jumped 8.4%. that would be the largest annual gain since 1981, back when the go-gos were topping the charts. the federal reserve could hike interest rates by half a percent when it meets next month. stocks sold off yesterday with the dow dropping more than 4 pun points, the s&p 500 off more than 1.5%, and the nasdaq sinking more than 2% as tech stocks continue to take a beating. doordash, watching -- launching a student program. dash pass for students costs $4.99 a month, half the price of a traditional dash pass. it offers unlimited free delivery on minimum orders,

discounts and member-only promotions. undergrads and grad students at accredited u.s. col eligible. and netflix is adding the option to super like your favorite shows and movies. it's rolling out a two thumbs up button, which the company says has been highly requested for a while now. netflix actually ditched its five star rating system in 2017 in favor of the thumbs up or down. and i'm going to do this, i know it's kind of geeky, but it reminds me of old school movie reviews. i don't know if you're old enough to remember the gene cisco and roger ebert started that on pbs. >> i like how they do that. >> you get perspective. and hopefully it can find a good algorithm of what you like to

lead you to other great shows. >> bertha, you get four thumbs up from us. >> algorithms on online things. oh, thank you. >> any time. thanks, bertha. a quarter to 5:00 right now. fighting our climate in crisis. fighting for it. next on "today in the bay," we talk to a uc berkeley scientist about the dangers we're facing this wildfire season and also the action we can now take to prevent major destruction. we'll be right back. it's beautiful. i get to smell the nature. this is my home. why should i leave? why should i be fearful? he keeps slipping through the cracks. >> he's not the problem. he is the symptom of it. >> beautiful people left behind. >> it should be better than this. >> and it will be. op it like it'

. pop it like it's hot.♪ ♪ pop it like it's hot.♪ ♪♪ pop it like it's— pop my $6.49 classic and spicy 50/50 popcorn chicken combo. only at jack in the box.

my classic and spicy popcorn chicken with 100% all-white-meat chicken. and good good sauce. ♪ pop it like it's hot ♪ ♪ pop it like it's hot ♪ ♪ pop it like it's hot ♪ pop my $6.49 classic and spicy 50/50 popcorn chicken combo. order on the jack app today.

good morning. it is 4:48 right now. we're taking a look at traffic throughout the bay area. live right now at the bay bridge, things are moving along. but the chp is a wind advisory for the venetian bridge. another area that i did notice a crash was through the south bay, but that has cleared. we're still monitoring near highway 87, the fire we spotted on one of our live cameras. we're checking to see what that is. as of now, no chp reports about it. westbound 92 heading onto the san mateo bridge, there was also an earlier crash. you might see slowing through that stretch. tri-valley drive times,

westbound 580 from grant line road to 680, about 22 minutes. no major crashes to tell you about. let's go ahead and get a check of the weather with kari. >> we're starting out with a clear sky, chilly temperatures around the bay area. we do continue to monitor that fire, the flames we're seeing in san jose and the impacts of the wind. it was nice to get that rain as we wake up and head out this morning. it is drying out from the 1.25 inches at mountam. in mount rain. when we see how it was a drop in the bucket compared to what we need to catch up to normal, in santa rosa we need over 7.5 inches, oakland needs over an inch of rain, san francisco needs 3.5 inches of rain, san jose needs 5 inches of rain to catch up to our normal amounts.

well, let's talk about what's ahead, because we are going to see some more storm systems coming in. we even see another round of some light rain and some snow in the upper elevations approaching the far northern spots in california, but that is going to kind of weaken as it gets here. as we look at temperatures today, only reaching into the mid-50s in the east bay, upper 50s for hayward and 59 in dublin, san francisco up to 57 degrees. looking at tomorrow, it's pretty much the same. low 60s in a few spots and it does get a little warmer on thursday, but that's coming along with showers and breezy wind as we see the next storm system coming in. most of us get rain on thursday but it could be as early as wednesday afternoon for parts of the north bay. we could see another round of widespread rain on saturday. it's going to be a soggy day for part of our weekend. next week we'll have some more rain chances, but it looks like the storm track heads farther to the north. we're still in an active weather

pattern. temperatures in the low 60s. it will warm up on friday. on saturday, once again, kind of raining off and on. highs in the mid-60s. but beautiful for easter sunday. highs in the low 70s. it's going to warm up a little bit more with san francisco still dealing with these gusty winds today and a little bit of some sunshine tomorrow. but we, once again, will be watching out for rain on thursday, at this point much needed. and let's talk about it was nice to get that rain, but it's also just a drop in the bucket. and as we go into the next several months, we're looking ahead to see how this drought picture will fuel our wildfire season as we are going to have, unfortunately, what some scientists think is going to be an active wildfire season. i talked to uc berkeley scientist scott stevens, who says we need to sound the alarm. >> a lot of areas in the western u.s., particularly california, it was another dry year. it's not just one dry year. this will be the third in a row.

last year and the previous year were the driest years, except 1976-77, which is unprecedented dry. so if we add another really dry year onto that kind of portfolio, we really are going to head into a period of challenge. >> what are you seeing in terms of how dry the vegetation is or, you know, what are some of those things that are really sticking out to you to signal this could be a bad fire season? >> you're right on the money there, because what happened, i think, last year, we had the dixie fire. that was the largest single fire, 960,000 acres, in california history. the fire suppression services looked like they caught it. they had done a bunch of work as the fiefr approached. they did a burnout operation and i was watching, at least on the satellite and i was seeing that it looked like they caught it for at least two days. it looked like it stopped at

that suppression operation. but then what happened was a lot of the embers were still flying out because you still have active burning, and when the embers come out and they fall onto areas that are unburned, they have a potential to start a new fire. we call that a spot fire. what happened last year was that the fuels were so dry that the spot fire probability was so high that many, many of these little spot fires happened and they eventually lost because they couldn't catch them all. that's one of the big problems we have with this drought, how receptive will the unburned fuels be to sparks coming out and making suppression that much more difficult. that's exactly what happened last year on the dixie fire. if we head into another year of drought, unfortunately, we anticipate probably the ability to have severe spotting potential. >> and i know you study more of the conditions in our forest and wildlands, but what about

conserving water and what role does that play in trying to combat the wildfires? >> water is certainly, i think it's actually the number one natural resource in this state. i think a lot of folks realize that, because look at lake orville and shasta right now, another drought year, of course. so this idea of water is going to be just amplified as climate change continues. we're going to see the predictability of water resources in this state get reduced because we're going to see big boom years like the year when lake orville almost got breached after a severe drought. that's exactly what climate change says, we expect a little more volatility in our average weather conditions. >> we had such an interesting talk. you can watch this full interview and more stories like this. go to nbcbayarea.com and click on the climate in crisis tab. >> thanks so much. 4:55 right now. getting quick and easy legal assistance in real time. ahead on "today in the bay," an

all new app aimed at reducing tension at traffic stops. we'll show you how it works. >> the great highway in san francisco remains closed to vehicles. windy conditions are not helping crews removing sand buildup. crews will be back on location again today working to tackle the issue. there's no word yet on when it will reopen. we'll be right back.

living with metastatic breast cancer means being relentless. because every day matters. and having more of them is possible with verzenio. the only one of its kind proven to help you live significantly longer when taken with fulvestrant, regardless of menopause status. verzenio + fulvestrant is for hr+, her2- metastatic breast cancer that has progressed after hormone therapy. diarrhea is common, may be severe, or cause dehydration or infection. at the first sign, call your doctor start an anti-diarrheal and drink fluids. before taking verzenio, tell your doctor about any fever, chills, or other signs of infection. verzenio may cause low white blood cell counts, which may cause serious infection that can lead to death. life-threatening lung inflammation can occur. tell your doctor about any new or worsening trouble breathing, cough, or chest pain. serious liver problems can happen. symptoms include fatigue, appetite loss, stomach pain and bleeding or bruising. blood clots that can lead to death have occurred. tell your doctor if you have pain or swelling in your arms or legs, shortness of breath,

chest pain, and rapid breathing or heart rate, or if you're nursing, pregnant or plan to be. every day matters. and i want more of them. ask your doctor about everyday verzenio. well, this morning there's a new tool to help keep peace during traffic stops. it's an app that gets lawyers involved in real turn. it's called turn signal. you pay a subscription for the service, then if you get pulled over by police, you can connect with a local lawyer and they will basically be in the car

with you.

right now at 5:00, bracing for new russian attacks. there are reports of new devastation overnight in ukraine and new allegations involving the use of chemical weapons. we're live in washington with the new developments and a response from former president barack obama who sits down with the