want to show you the view from palo alto of some of that smoke. and when it comes to the smoke, typically when we see grass fires, we s a bit of moisture in the air right now. so as far as humidity goes, you might even feel a bit humid if you've been outeen out and at today. notice the winds right now in redwood city from the west at about 16mph, temperature wise, right about 68 degrees. so we do have sort of a mix of upper 60s and low 70s. it's not going to the warmest day of the week. you heard laura mentioned this is likely going to be the coolest day of the week so far. so at least the temperatures are playing a good role in that. but the wind speeds are where are going to be of most concern. and here's a look at the wind forecast. breaking it down by the next couple of hours. so notice right around 1:00. so we're about an hour away. we're still going to be seeing that breeze at about 14 15mph. but there could be times when we get a bit more of the wind gusts factoring in. and if you notice, it's going to stay pretty consistent, not just through about 1:00, but also leading into your early dinner hour. so

three, 4:00, we're talking 14 plus miles per hour. and then that lingers pretty much until 6:00. it isn't until about 7:00 that we see some of those winds begin to ease up. and that's definitely going to help. but let's show you what the wind speeds are also looking like in other parts of the bay area, because, as you know, it's very easy to blow the smoke in that direction. and that could impact air quality beyond the redwood city area. so if you notice timestamp right here, follow me along. it's about 3:00 and you could see gusty winds in san francisco. but the winds are blowing from the west. so a lot of that smoke will get blown east. if you look at sunnyvale, san jose, parts of livermore were pretty gusty at about 20 plus miles per hour through there. i took this till about 7:00. so we're talking dinnertime even into the later portion of tonight, we're still going to be dealing with 15 to 20 plus mile per hour winds. so it's going to be tough as far as the wind speeds go. and we do start to taper off with the wind speeds right around 10:00. so we've still got a couple more hours of the breezy winds that are expected to continue. now notice in through san mateo, oakland, we do start to ease off

as well around the peninsula. that will definitely help. and as far as the humidity goes well we do have high pressure, but that's not expected to roll in until tomorrow, tuesday. what that's going to do is that creates that dome that traps a lot of the pollutants. so until this smoke mixes out, we could be dealing with some poor air quality, not just through the remainder of tonight, but once this fire gets put out, even into tomorrow, i'll be back with another update. send it back to you guys. okay. thank you. diana, i'm just joining you janelle wang here with marcus washington, where we're following this eight alarm fire now burning in redwood city. it started just about 90 minutes ago. and this is a look from this area. this is the 2700 block of middlefield road in the north fair oaks neighborhood of redwood city. fully engulfed in flames. now it's been burning solid for 90 minutes or scott mcgrew is standing by there. as you can see, he's been there just shortly after the scene. this is another angle from our cameras also on the ground covering this fire. there's so many businesses in that area. it's next door residential area,

and now evacuations are underway . all right. and as you said, scott mcgrew has been following this story. he was out there, one of the first people out there at the scene as that fire started. he joins us now. so, scott, i know you've been out there for some time now, so talk to us about what you've seen change over time because we saw it was a smaller flame and now it's huge. less smoke though in that area. less smoke i think the, the wind has moved away from us. but as you can see over my shoulder, it has moved, as you and laura were pointing out from one end of this structure that's under construction to the other, that's what's progressed. also, the ash continues to fall. i've asked our photographer a while. i have my back turned to the fire that he watched the sky, because we have seen fairly significant chunks come down around us, and that's been the concern of all these homeowners around here who are worried about those coming down on their roof. when i first arrived, homeowners were using garden hoses to spray down their own roofs. there we see a man moving out with a dog. they pushed

everyone back. we've been pushed back a little bit as well, but we're pretty close and we can feel the heat of this fire. but again, the big concern is the ash and things coming down. i saw one homeowner run out, grab a firefighter and run back and the firefighter fouled him. we don't know what's going on over there, but we can assume marcus and laura that that he's very worried about what's happening in his house. absolutely we're drawing with janelle now, scott. i mean, it's certainly has been a time. so can you talk to me about i know you said the person who was helping we saw him in the video earlier, using the water hose from his home. now, has that area been evacuated as well? have been evacuated as well? yes. we've since been pushed back. we're near that field that we started at and the field has burned a little bit, but yes, the neighbors have been pushed back. that man with the with the hose who was just so quick to respond, he beat a lot of the firefighters here, he has been pushed back as well. and

now we're just. i am genuinely surprised, marcus, that this thing hasn't collapsed yet, which it often does. we see that with home depot. you remember that? and i can see the soot starting to blow everywhere here, but it has spread. and this thing will be out at some point because it's just going to burn the whole thing down. scott, the fire is burning right behind you. can you have your photographer zoom in a little bit? we're getting word, and we saw video from earlier when the fire broke out. it started on the fifth floor and you could see everything above that is up in flames, i know you're standing right in front of the fire and you've been there for. look at that. it's just fully engulfed. it's been burning like this for about 90 minutes. and just compare it from when you started getting on the air about an hour ago. it does seem like you said marcus, a little bit less smoky. there was lots of debris and ash embers flying around, is that still the case? scott? around you. around you? yeah, we're still seeing the embers come down. they come down

in fairly substantial chunks, some on fire, some not. but they're very lightweight, as i think it was, cory or vienna was pointing out, that, you know, it's construction material. it's insulated ocean, it's, fiberglass, that kind of thing that can be blown up into the air with the thermal current of this just massive fire, and then it spirals down and you can you can see it come around you. nothing too heavy, but it is hitting roofs of various homes. which is why you see redwood city, spraying down all those roofs so close to the fire. because there are a number of homes that abut right up to this construction site. and what one thing i've noticed, scott, just looking at that video is we're getting closer there, you can see just how intense those flames are, because we were seeing the flames from a distance before, but now it just seemed the intensity of those flames. and we're hearing what sounds like shattering of something. what? what is that we're hearing? so you're hearing the firefighters cutting through

residential fences with saws and other saws, as they try to gain access to some of these homes, better to lose a fence than to lose a home. and you're absolutely right. the intensity has picked up again, partially because ted is a much better zoom lens than my iphone, but partially because it's got a fresh new section of this, of this structure to burn. and it's doing that. scott i can tell from this frame, the structure that's a burn. and then it seems like only a few floors to the right of it has that already burned. it's hard to see what the power lines in front, but is this fire moving down this construction project? yep. from your vantage point, it is moving from right to left. so there used to be much more building on your right hand side. when i arrived there was, there was just a small fire on the right side, and it has since moved across, but not down. the second and first floors are still holding, and perhaps that's why, it is not collapsed. but yes,

there was absolutely building there earlier, this fire, this building, broke ground around june of 2023. so it's been under construction for about a year, we saw the framing up, the insulation up a big portion of this building, completed 179 units, it seems like the residents, firefighters are telling us residents evacuate now in certain areas. scott, are you seeing people fleeing from the area with belongings or anything like that? or is, is the neighborhood you're at? so, absolutely. they were using. yeah, they were using a shopping cart as a cage for a little dog that they have saved up, the sheriff's department, saving the dog, saving the people, this, shopping cart just randomly happened to be there. east palo, palo alto police as well, saving this woman's dogs. and they put her in these shopping carts. is a good cage, so they're moving everybody back. we can hear that again. we'll we'll certainly follow their instructions as they do that, as the, flames

continue to burn, we may have to move our little station here in a second as well. but here you see two dogs in a. you want to say anything, scott? sheriff's department and east palo alto police. i know, i think she wants to leave, understandable. you know, it's interesting you say that, and we're seeing that video right there because we did speak with someone. christine tran and she was talking about how firefighters came to her door knocking on the door. she happened to be asleep at the time, but her mother was also there at home and they told them to evacuate. she said she quickly grabbed what she could. at that moment, she and her mother packed everything in their car. the cousin lives next door. they alerted them and they all went to a grandmother's house a few blocks away. so we're just hearing and seeing now wearing and seeing now what people are dealing with as they're being told to leave that area and evacuate. we know that caltrans suspended its service in redwood city now because of all of this going on right now, garfield community school dismissed early. that's a k through eight school in the area. so we know parents will be

heading there to pick up their kids. so this is a situation that is growing. but it is also interesting, scott, as we see as we're looking at the building that burns, it was i thought about it. it looks so much larger before. and that is because part of that building has now burned. and you, i mean, pretty much destroyed there, the first top levels to the right side of that building. and what we're looking at is what we saw was the left side of the building when we spoke to you at the beginning, about an hour ago, that part of the building was not on fire. but now we're seeing it engulfed in those flames. that's exactly right. yeah it was a 4 or 5 story building on the right hand side, and that is completely gone. and yes, it has just moved from, as you're looking at it on the screen from the right to the left. and now it's working, chewing up the left hand side like i said, there will be a point in which this fire will be out simply because it has burned this entire building down. and it, you know, very early. did the firefighters decide that they were going to fight a defensive fire where they were not going to try to save this

building that was under construction? they were going to try to save and there you hear more fences being cut in the background as they gain access to the various residential homes around us, they were not going to try to save this building. they were going to try to save the homes around us. yeah, you could see they've taken the defensive approach and just more proactive approach to fight the homes. there's a lot of residential homes in this area. you can see so many embers and how much heat this fire is generating. you're actually in an area where regular people can't be. but firefighters have allowed you to be at this location. but all those homes we're seeing on the street, these people have been evacuated . these people have been evacuated. yes. everything ahead of me has been evacuated and they've been gone for quite some time. at this point, i'm going to go ahead and step back in front of the camera and have ted, just take a shot of me as we continue to cover this, both my mother and my son, who's a firefighter, will be very angry at me for picking this up. but this is the sort of thing that's falling out of the sky, and you

can see that, you know, at one point, this was definitely on fire. and then it's landing into these field. it's landing on people's roofs and this sort of thing. and i mean, there are thousands upon ten thousands of things like this all around us. and coming down this is the problem. and it's certainly what we saw in quimby the other day, it's we saw in the santana row fire in the home depot fire. when you have a fire this big where the thermals can lift these sorts of things out into the air and then they're still hot. they're still on fire, then they're landing on people's roofs. it can be an absolute disaster, what street are you on right now? i'll step out of the way here. okay. scott, what street are you on right now? the corner. janelle, i'm on the corner of calvin avenue and dumbarton avenue. yes. this is the area where firefighters say you need to leave now. the evacuation area has been extended from all the way to dumbarton. everything between this dumbarton, middlefield and

the train tracks, all those homes there, there's definitely about 100 homes in that area have been evacuated. and these orders coming down as agencies from all over the peninsula are helping to fight this fire, but also protect the many homes that are in this area. if you don't know this area very well, there is a large costco warehouse. it's right behind a target, a swim school and a county health center. there's a couple of county health centers in this area as well, so it's very populated. it's a busy area of redwood city, north, fair oaks, it seems like a lot of crews, emergency crews are already on scene. do you still see other agencies, scott coming to the area to assist, not coming to the area to assist? yes, we're it's definitely mutual aid. we've seen menlo park, we've seen east palo alto, the county as well, and they're stacked up. and now i see pg&e and the gas companies stacked up behind them waiting for this fire to go out. so they can get in there and make everything else safe as

well. and that's the thing. i know, scott, we were talking earlier. so i see there are firefighters. they are battling the blaze there to the building. but what about near the home where you are and where you are? because we did see some of those firefighters staying in the area of where those homes are to make sure that none of those homes catch fire. yeah. recently we saw a whole, all abreast, police officers and sheriff's deputies and firefighters, etc, walking, you know, almost shoulder to shoulder down the street, looking at each house, making sure that none of them were on fire. and they've been inspecting these houses ever since. again, these houses have now been evacuated. so human life is probably not going to be an issue. but certainly people's property can be. though let me repeat, i have not seen a house on fire, which is actually kind of remarkable given the amount of debris that is just coming down like rain. okay, scott mcgrew, as you stay on the scene, we want to mention that

caltrain has suspended service in redwood city, but they've just put a bus bridge in place from redwood city to menlo park. they're going to honor all the caltrain tickets because caltrain service has been suspended. this is just about a block from the railroad tracks. the caltrain railroad tracks, along, redwood city here and middlefield road. it's actually burning between like, middle field and, south east of el camino real. but, since we've been talking to scott live the last 15 minutes, you can see another portion of the top. all that fuel has already been burned up. the fire is now moving to the lower floors on this last section of this project that's been under construction for about a year now. this fire starting at 1015 this morning and firefighters saying on the fifth floor and initial video that we got from citizen app showed it was burning from one window. yeah, one room in the fifth floor and

then just engulfed from there. and that's the thing when you see this fire, you know, we saw that earlier video, it looked like that flame. and you would think, okay, it's a small fire. but then how large and quickly that fire spread across this building as we've been telling you, this is the project is about 179, apartment building that was being built. so you can understand the massive size of this building and the area that it takes over and what it, you know, sits on and nearby that where a lot of homes and firefighters there are still battling and what you can see there through those windows there large flames continuing to burn in that area as firefighters still douse gallons and gallons of water. okay. right now joining us by phone is the san mateo county board of supervisor. it looks like board president for district four, warren slocum, supervisor slocum, thank you so much for joining us by phone. this fire has been burning for two hours now. what can you tell us about this project that was under construction? well, i can tell you in terms of its history that we started the approval process

on this, affordable housing development ten years ago. it's been ten years in the making, and, construction was started last year, but it's been going on for about a year. obviously they've made a lot of progress. and, it's just a tragedy to think that all the work, time and energy that has gone into this is, so to speak, gone up in flames and just really appreciate the firefighters and first responders and the sheriff's office who've been down there, trying to keep people safe. and, so it was 179 units up to three bedrooms for families. and had a, child care facility and community meeting rooms. so quite a community resource. and it's just a tragedy, as i said, to watch this go up in flames like this. it is heartbreaking to know that this was what was the completion

date, supervisor slocum, for these 179 units. well, the completion date was probably, at the mid part of next year. so a ways to go, but, progress once they started a year ago has been pretty fast. and, it's just a pretty large, development that, as i say, 179, units, so tragedy for the community and a tragedy for the developer and for the county and for the people of san mateo. it certainly is heartbreaking to see this because affordable housing is so necessary, in the bay area many people can't afford to live in the areas they work at, this project, was it all 100% affordable housing, and who were the applicants and who was the housing going to be for? yeah, it's 100% affordable housing. one, one, two and three bedroom units. what is unique about this

is the three bedroom unit aspect , because there aren't a lot of affordable housing developments that have three bedrooms for families. so this is one of the things that separates this development from a lot of other affordable housing developments. and, you know, it's just for those that were looking forward to putting in an application to move in, it's a heartbreak. yeah. that was that was my next question. those who are potential residents had they already started submitting applications, have they been chosen at this point? no. nobody's been chosen yet. but obviously there would be a waiting list and people would sign up and so forth and so on. just like many affordable housing projects in the bay area, there is a long waiting list to get into it. this housing is so neatly needed, so badly, supervisor slocum, have you heard any word about, what? what may have started this fire or what the situation is surrounding the fire right now,

yeah, i've been briefed on it, but, i'm reluctant to say how it started. in case, that information that i received is incorrect. so maybe we should wait for the official, report. can you at least tell us if crews were working there at the time of the fire? yes there were. there were crews working there at the time of the fire. so you've been, been briefed with a preliminary report from firefighters on scene telling you about the situation, yes. when did that when did you get notified about this fire or this? and when did you get briefed, well, i've been briefed all morning, and, you know, it started a couple hours ago. so. right when it started, i was notified and, you know, at that time, it was just a little fire and very quickly turned into a total destruction of 175, 179 units of affordable housing. yeah there's so many units. 179. can you tell us, supervisor

slocum, more about this area, this project. i know there's a lot of large businesses in there that's just near a costco, a target, a swim center, a chavez supermarket. please tell us more about this area. and this in this lot that this was being built on. it was actually a vacant lot. yeah. that's right, well, it's located just off middlefield road, and it's right behind a health clinic that we have there. it's just a little road that separates the two, one from the other. a lot of housing around the area, a lot of apartments and duplexes and very densely populated, with people, the businesses that are around there are, like, low, industrial light industrial warehouse kind of, development. and then there are houses on two sides of this,

affordable housing unit and then businesses further away as costco is down, down the road quite a ways, actually. and so primarily we're concerned about saving people's homes and making sure those things come through okay. and we're also, ensure that the clinic isn't affected because it serves thousands of people. yes. large health clinic right there, a supervisor i know you talked about it this is like ten years in the making. now, that process of making that happen at this point, trying to get it rebuilt, because i know that would be the ultimate goal here. how long would that take or would that be a seamless process? no, it's not going to be a seamless process. i'm sure there are going to be insurance questions and all sorts of administrative processes that have to take place. so i'm not anticipating that this will be, you know, worked on anytime in the near future. but i could be

wrong are truly heartbreaking to watch all this video unfold live on tv. supervisor for warren slocum, president of the board of supervisors of san mateo county. we really appreciate your time today. and we are, just as disappointed as you and for this community of redwood city, as this project was a year into two years doing, near completion, we appreciate your time, supervisor slocum. all right. right now, we want to get to mike inouye. because, mike, you've been monitoring the roads around there. we saw supervisor slocum. slocum actually talk about that area. how are things? looking for commute. you know, it's local traffic. so that's the biggest problem i want to hold with this picture the way it is. you guys control him. thank you for pulling this up. i do want to point out this is not about me, but my house did burn down when i was in high school, and so i'm looking at these houses in the foreground. scott's talking about all the equipment in the area. so all the ash you've been watching on that live picture and you can see ash coming down with a trail

of smoke behind it. i mean, it looks sort of like those sci fi movies when asteroids are coming down. i mean, it's a pretty dramatic looking, but that doesn't mean. but it's also a huge issue because these houses in the area not a materials expert, but i'm looking at the roof and it doesn't look like they have those tile roofs or the composite, which is fire resistant. my house had a wood shake roof and that might have played a part in how quickly that took across the house. so because of that, i really understand why these local firefighters are here. between the building and us, just these few blocks. and i have to i have to believe that they must be monitoring that perimeter around. it's not just this side of the building. that's why we're urging folks to stay clear of that for several blocks around, because there's all of this that has to be taken care of preventative measures, as well as they have to address the actual active fire. so thanks for that for the control. and we're going to talk about the local traffic. now as we've been talking about this structure fire, the location we're given is pacific avenue at calvin avenue. that is the intersection . but there's a lot of activity as marcus, you and janelle have been talking about all of the businesses in the area, not the

least of which is a costco building where there's a lot of traffic coming in and out for various purposes. they have gasoline as well as the actual shopping going on. and a couple of malls. that school we've been talking about is garfield elementary or garfield community school, which is just a few blocks to the south. now, as we talk about this, if we can pull that map to the full, full screen so we can talk a little bit more about the extra traffic, we'll talk about the samtrans. janelle, you mentioned that samtrans is now giving mutual aid. now look over here. i've been told that middlefield right here between fifth and woodside, is closed off because of all of that equipment staging in the area. again, the fire is just a few blocks there between el camino and middlefield. those are huge roadways. so if you know redwood city, you know north fair oaks, red, they're connected right here by middlefield and el camino. and that fire is right between those two in this corridor. now, dumbarton goes right along the middle. and that has been evacuated as well. that will be local traffic control. samtrans will not be running those busses through the area, but this is

the perimeter where caltrain is stopped as well between menlo park and redwood city, there's no caltrain service because of its proximity to the tracks. and so that's why they're having that bus bridge in place, which will be rerouted as well. we'll send it right back to you. all right. thanks mike. all right. now, if you're joining us, we're still covering that eight alarm fire of a building that was under construction. it was set to be a affordable housing unit. and you're looking at it now. this is what's left of that building that has been burning now for more than two hours. you can see the flames still taking over there. the right side of that building gone after that fire has been burning for so long. the heat and fire crews, they're trying to get it under control, as you can see. right there, this is near homes in that area. and also firefighters working to keep those homes safe from that fire. right now we want to go to scott mcgrew. who is there in that community where those homes are. and scott, i can see the work is still being done. but i mean, that fire continued to burn. i mean, it continues to burn, marcus, but

it looks so much better than it was. it looks like it's just about run out of fuel and all of the firefighters have been spraying water from various, towns and county, and they've got a handle on it. it is not under control, but it is not going to spread any further. it looks like and i heard the supervisor say 172 units in this low income building. now again, was not, no one in there. it was under construction, but a, a tragic loss of affordable housing here in redwood city. but i can report from the neighborhood around, although we are surrounded by, you know, little spots of smoke here and there, all of the houses are okay. and everyone on my side of the fire is okay. so so some good news as we watch this fire begin to slow down a little. you

and that was an area where it seemed like access was very difficult earlier. so i would say that the fact that they're actually moving units in closer is probably a good sign in terms of what's happening at the actual fire scene. so i would say that the number of units, from what i can see is still quite a bit, and, but i think that right now they're strategically kind of moving to get around the building more, because at one point it looked like they could only come in from certain direction. i'd say now it looks as though access up to the building is probably quite a bit better than it was before. okay robert honda, thank you so much. stand by as you're covering this fire again of eight alarm fire burning at 2700 middlefield road. there's just so many pictures and videos coming in from all over the area. people who have been evacuated are seeing this fire. this is the initial video that we first got showing the fire broke out on the fifth floor construction crews were on scene when they called it in an initial reports, maybe in the

insulation where this fire started. but an investigation is obviously underway. hey, our chris chmura has been getting and gathering all the videos that have been coming in from residents and witnesses. and chris, there's just some amazing pictures that are being sent to us. yeah. the thing about it that strikes me is that people knew immediately something was up. there was just a little bit of smoke in the air, and they were posting on social media questions about it, letting people know about it. this is from mariscos camino on camino real, just to the west of the fire scene. a little bit later, they're posting videos where they can see the raging fire, and that is from the same person. there are people all over the place, even from a distance, taking photos and videos. just wondering what the heck is going on, this person here was saying they were picking their kid up from school and wondering whoa, what is going on? seeing the huge smoke billowing into the air, people have vantage points all over the place. and the good news is what i'm seeing is that as the fire progressed and to this point,

we're seeing fewer and fewer photographs and videos from the scene, which janelle and audrey. that tells me that at least some people are heeding the warning from firefighters to stay away and let them do the work. we'll keep an eye on social media and let you know what else we see and what we can find, and we'll bring it to you as soon as we get it. all right, chris, thanks so much. i want to go ahead and turn now to our marianne favro. she is out there and she is, i believe, joined with a firefighter with some information. marianne what city? i'm with mark lorenzen. he is the fire chief for the menlo park fire district. and so can you tell us exactly what happened today? sure, about 1015, we got a reported call of a commercial structure fire, reports were smoke coming from the fifth floor. possibly it started in the insulation. so, we're actually in a small unincorporated community called north fair oaks, which is part

of the county and protected by the menlo park fire district. when crews got on scene, they initially saw heavy, thick smoke coming from the fifth floor, upgraded it pretty quickly to three alarms, construction crews were already evacuating safely out of the building and right now we're at a point where we're at eight alarms, you know, the building that the fire started in a large, apartment complex? i think, for affordable housing. housing for the county, was under construction. is likely a total loss. our primary goals right now are making sure we protect the adjacent structures and the community to the south. and also make sure we don't injure any of our our firefighters. so were there construction workers in the building when the fire broke out? and tell me a little bit about the evacuations needed out here. sure. yes, construction workers were in the building, we're actually hoping that will be helpful to us in our fire cause investigation. hopefully, we had some eyewitnesses to it. so, from the construction worker

perspective, they self evacuated, which is great. and then we partnered with san mateo county sheriff's. they're the primary of evacuations for the communities they've evacuated that community to the south. i think one of the cool the schools has let out early because of it, so our law enforcement partners were pretty critical in making sure the only thing we had to worry about in the community over here was just protecting structures and not humans. and so can you give us a sense of the number of people that were forced to evacuate in the neighborhood and the construction workers? well, i just just from eyeballing the number of construction workers, it looked like it was at least a hundred. and then, you know, in the community, it's probably a couple hundred residents. you said this is an eight alarm fire. what does that entail? how many crews did you have out here? that is a lot. it's, the eight alarms gives us 26 fire engines, seven ladder trucks. this is all from our mutual aid

partner agencies here in san mateo county, personnel wise, that's probably about 100, 110 firefighters. and then the ten engines from santa clara county is another 30 to 40 firefighters. so eight alarms is obviously huge. have you ever seen a fire of this size in this area? i have not. and how long have you been with the. i've only been up here two and a half years. i know, they were talking about the santana row fire down in san jose that was, you know, i think the last fire in people's memories. that was kind of on the same scope and size as this. so, chief, tell us, what were some of the unique challenges that you faced out here, initially it was the wind. the wind was pushing the fire from one end to the other, and it was then creating some pretty significant embers that were blowing into the neighborhood to the south, access was a challenge, you know, trying to get our ladder trucks in there so we could put up the