lurie as chinatown prepares to celebrate his inauguration. we're going to take you there live. welco back everyone. the news at six starts right now. thanks for joining us on this wednesday i'm janelle wang. and i'm kira klapper. we are continuing to follow that very active and devastating situation in los angeles. tens of thousands of acres have burned. entire neighborhoods have been leveled by three major fires burning around the city. and we are traing the start of a new fire in the hollywood hills on north solar drive. that's west of the hollywood bowl. the brush fire is about a mile from homes right now. firefighters are on the scene. we do not know the size of the fire at this moment. the largest fires, however, are the palisades fire and the eaton fire. so palisades is here eaton all the way to the east. good news. officials say the woodley fire is now under control. you

can see that here in the sepulveda basin. but the other three fires are still at 0% containment. the eaton fire is already being blamed for at least five deaths. it is burning in the community of altadena, just north of pasadena. more than 10,000 acrcres have burned there, and officials have estimated up to 500 buildings may be destroyed. the palisades fire is by far the largest, burning more than 24mi■!s, and t is still raging tonight. the fire first spared sparked pardon me yesterday morning. more than 1100 buildings are believed to be destroyed, and many homeowners are returning to find nothing left. we lost everything we owned but. doesn't even look like a house anymore. it just looks like a. something.

officials are warning that the dangers are not over and urging people to be ready to go. if told. more than 100,000 people have already been ordered to evacuate. video from altadena shows just how dire those evacuations have been. you can see on this video nurses and workers having to transport dozens of seniors to safety after multiple nursing homes and assisted living facilities had to be evacuated. and this evening, many people are just getting their first look at just how much damage the fire has done in the pacific palisades. there are almost no neighborhoods left unscathed, and the flames spread to the palisades village shopping center. here's what a reporter from our l.a. sister station found. now, we're kind of at the other end of the village and take a look at what we're looking at here. this chase bank was here maybe about two hours ago, maybe an hour and a half ago. but you can see, you know,

things just continue to burn here. we don't have monitors out here, but i just can't imagine what the aerial shot from julia deng, you know, looks like, because we're seeing this on the ground. and the other thing that's different is just no matter how far we have traveled, maybe like two miles up and down, all, all around palisades, the devastation is everywhere. there are not too many neighborhoods that have been left untouched. devastating to see. the crisis is demanding an unprecedented, unprecedented rollout of firefighters. governor newsom says nearly 5000 boots are on the ground at the palisades, eaton and hurst fires. some of those firefighters coming in from nevada, oregon and washington. the state is also getting resources from the u.s. military. president biden was in southern california today approving a major disaster declaration for the area, clearing the way for federal funds and resources to be used in recovery efforts. and fema has approved a grant to

reimburse the state for its firefighting costs. l.a. officials just gave an update less than an hour ago. we are prone to wildfires, but nothing like what i witnessed today. the eaton canyon fire is ripping through a community like i have never seen. it is like a third world country, chief meteorologist jeff ranieri joins us now. we've been talking about those powerful and devastating santa ana winds. when, when are the winds going to just ease up down there? friday night. that's going to be the timeline here that everybody down there is just hoping gets here sooner than later. because that's when we'll see some marked differences, especially up into the mountains. we're going to show you more on that hourly wind forecast. but i want to take you down to the conditions here. we have the eaton canyon fire in altadena. we also have the palisades fire. those are the two largest ones acreage wise. and we'll take you down to the palisades fire right now.

gusts are variable coming in different directions here. 15 to 35. that's a lot better than this time last night, when they had gusts of anywhere between 50 to 90mph in this area. but on high alert continues to be santa monica also out here towards malibu, as we'll see wind gusts like this continue for the next 24 hours at least. and the eaton canyon fire here winds right now 15 to 35. this is also better than this time last night when those gusts were up to 80 90mph as well. looks like the way the fire is burning. and at this point, stay along that ridge line here to the top. but as we well know and we've seen in the video, you get some embers from this moving down to some of the populated areas and things are catching on fire. so those are the two largest fires we're tracking on the wind. i can show you here tonight. most of the lower elevations are ten to about 30mph. but notice some of this bright color here in the mountains. that's where those gusts still could be 40 to 60 this evening. we'd stay with a

similar picture here. not as gusty in the valleys. mountains still 40 to 60 into tomorrow night. and then let me sw you friday evening. here we go. watch this. there you go. wind starts to really calm down. and that's when firefighters will be able to e of those air drops. so right now, red flag fire warning extended until 6 p.m. on friday for some of those gusty winds. no big rain chances the next two weeks. unfortunately. we're back with more looks of that weather. i've got another update in about five minutes. okay thank you jeff. dozens of local firefighters are already on the front lines in southern california. many more headed out today. southern california has put out the call from help for help from everyone along the west coast and nevada. nbc bay area's ian cull spoke with local crews heading to the firefight. strike teams from all over the bay area, from marin to gilroy, were called up to head south and help fight the major blazes burning in and around los angeles. all right. anything special with your rig? we were there as a combined crew from

san jose, sunnyvale and santa clara county loaded up before leaving. this is an example of us, the state, helping each other out in a time of need. javier asensio is the strike team leader. he says they'll be there for up to two weeks. we have camping gear. we have everything that we need to be self-sufficient for 72 hours and also to camp out in the dirt if we need to, depending on where the fire front is and the total number of south bay firefighters dispatched is now at 46. a lot of our personnel have family down there in different areas, and since there are several active incidents, it's a good chance that someone, somebody family, immediate family has been evacuated. they're not the only local crews going. agencs from all over the bay area posted videos of their firefighters on their way. several engines from san francisco fire took off earlier today. alameda and contra costa county have firefighters there, too. despite that, fire officials want to assure the

public local fire stations remain fully staffed. so what you're seeing back home is no change in your emergency response levels right now. we bring in extra personnel. we have extra apparatus that we could use just for situations like this. as for our fire danger here, firefighters point out we've received a lot more rain than l.a. we're pretty much sitting on average for january. it's moist outside. we don't have a lot of wind, and relative humidity is right where it should be. very different than what southern california is experiencing right now. and with wind continuing to drive flames towards southern california neighborhoods, the bay area help can't get there fast enough. ian cull, nbc, bay area news. we are going to bring you more on this fire throughout the night. for the latest updates, go to nbcbayarea.com or download our free nbc bay area app. our on air coverage continues in just a few minutes, and we're going to move on to some other news. right now, it's inauguration day by the bay. today, danielle

louis formally sworn in as san francisco's 46th mayor, i, daniel lowry, do solemnly swear. the former nonprofit founder and political newcomer was inaugurated outside city hall before a large crowd. every seat was taken and hundreds more had to stand through the ceremony, including former mayor willie brown. among the speakers today. warriors head coach steve kerr, former california surgeon general doctor nadine burke harris, and mayor lowry's wife becca proud. mayor lowry told the crowd some difficult decisions to be made, with the city facing a massive budget deficit, but he believes he's got the people and the vision to bring real change for city residents. and the celebration of san francisco's new mayor isn't over yet. this evening, chinatown is the place to be as laurie attends a community banquet and headlines a special night market, all in celebration of his inauguration. nbc bay area's christie smith joins us live in chinatown, where it is

loud and the excitement is building. hey, christie. yeah, and the festivities are already underway. there's going to be live performances, a chance to showcase artists, many of the small businesses and vendors here in chinatown say they are absolutely ready for it. and speaking with people in the neighborhood today, it's very clear that mayor daniel lurie is giving a lot of hope for change to those in this community. tonight, a section of grant avenue is being transformed to host a special night market in celebration of san francisco's new leadership. daniel lurie made the rounds today before being sworn in as e city's 46th mayor. we're going to have some celebration in chinatown tonight at the walk shop. chatain chan says she thinks the new mayor's decision to put chinatown in the spotlight could have a lasting impact. we've had some tough times, and with the

mayor laurie, here with the encouraging all the visitors and all the residents to come and walk through chinatown and give us a boost. this is pretty incredible that we've gotten to this point. it's a historic moment for the aapi community. mark young is co-chair of the unity celebration banquet, another celebration tonight for the incoming mayor. he says you can feel the buzz in chinatown. it's going to be 18 vendors. there's going to be a local headliner dj. his name is zoo, and there's also going to be cultural festivities as as well as this banquet that we've got going on that's going to have over 900 aapi guests from the community. the night market cebration is co-hosted by the inaugural committee and the nonprofit group b chinatown. tonight, we're going to be putting on a big performance. jane wong is with lion dance mean. they teach lion and dragon dance to high schoolers and tell us they're bringing about 75 high school students out to perform tonight. we're bringing out all red lions tonight. and

red is the symbol of good fortune. so we're hoping to bring some good fortune to daniel lurie during his term as mayor, and hopefully he'll bring some good fortune back to our community as well. and there are quite a few people out here on grant avenue, and it does look like more are coming. the night market continues tonight until 10:00. reporting live in san francisco. christie smith, nbc, bay area news. christie, thanks. up next, silicon valley tech. joining the firefight are scott budman shows us how firefighters are now using ai to deal with disasters like those southern california fires. and i'm chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. i'll take a look at the rainfall season here across the state and what's happening with our rain

hollywood hills, where there is a brand new fire that just

started burning. this is now called the sunset fire. it is burning west of the hollywood bowl. at least ten acres have burned so far. firefighters just issued a mandatory evacuation order for those living near laurel canyon boulevard. crews have also close nearby roads. we have not heard of any structures burning, but flames are quickly approaching. homes and we are continuing our coverage of those other major fires burning in the los angeles area. the santa ana winds seem to be fueling the flames for another day and another night. the pacific fire. the palisades fire in the pacific palisades between santa monica and malibu, has grown to more than 15,000 acres, 24mi■!s. it is 0% contained. firefighters estimate more than 1000 structures, mainly homes, have been destroyed, while the eaton fire, which is outside of pasadena and sparked last night, has already become deadly. l.a. county

reports at least five people have died, with dozens more injured. this fire is at 10,000 acres, also 0% containment. more than 100 buildings have been destroyed. l.a. county says they do not have enough manpower for this kind of emergency, as they waited for firefighter from other areas to arrive. a group of neighbors even had to step in to stop the flames from spreading between homes. i've watched shows where you see all these burned houses, and then one standing out that didn't get burned, and you wonder how well i think our neighbors helped us. the our higher power helped us out with that. and the l.a. county fire department helped us out with that. wow. president biden has approved federal emergency funds for recovery efforts, as well as a fema grant for the firefighting costs, from smart drones to smart cameras. artificial intelligence is among the many tools now being used to detect and fight fires. we'll get more on that from our business and tech reporter scott

budman. well, janelle, like pretty much everything related to ai, the ability here to help firefighters is promising, but is just starting to be used in the real world. for example, here in northernalifornia, a plume of smoke can now be spotted and tracked with ai. in fact, the tech can both spot fires before people can then send that data directly to cal fire for analysis. i'll get an email that will tell me that an anomaly has been detected. i'll click on that email. it'll give me an approximate location. machine learning, developed by companies like annette, based in los angeles. so as soon as we've identified with the sensor, there's something going on. there's heat. they can take an image and send that image confirmation right away to the fire department. and that fire department can then choose whether to send aircraft or a drone to help in the fire fight. how great it would be if we

could deploy a drone or even a robot, you know, sniffer that can whatever can get there quickly and say, yep, this is a fire. one that might have been developed here by nasa ames flying an autonomous craft to the scene instead of putting human lives in danger, especially with the satellites that measure the whole planet and can observe the whole planet over long periods of time. some of the folks here at ames are using the suborbital assets to study more closely and with better spatial resolution. the fires right now, all of these things are in use, but in many parts of the state and even the country, they're just now getting integrated. companies, fire crews, nasa all tell us they'd like to get more tech help in when it comes to fighting fires. janelle. thank you scott. we're going to talk about the air quality right now back at the wildfires in southern california. this is a view of a plume of smoke over la. it was sent in by one of our

producers flying into la this afternoon. it is thick, black smoke. eyes are burning. people have masks on. we've dealt with that here in the bay area in years past with the orange skies are dealing with it right now. yeah. and, you know, family or friends down there. it's just a good reminder to make sure they have those masks handy because it just it kind of catches up on you. those particles are smaller than a human hair, so you just don't even realize it sometimes. and you're breathing all of that in. and it's the it's not it's not like a regular covid mask. it's the n95 mask that you're supposed to be using. the big ones, the hefty ones to filter it all out. our weather forecast here, back here across the bay area, we have had some calmer winds, but i want to start it off with something a little bit different. we're going to take a look at the rain season here in california, and i can show you the stark contrast we're seeing on the map. so what i've done here is plotted the rain season right here through california. and you're going to be able to see the massive difference here up here to northern california. you got ts blue to green

color. that's 100 to 150% of normal rain season. and a lot of that can be contributed to that very strong atmospheric river we had in november, where many locations picked up a month's worth of rain in just four days. well, that atmospheric river missed southern california, even parts of central california, leaving them much, much drier. so down here in los angeles, down towards san diego specifically, they're only 0 to 10% of normal rain season, so they've only picked up five hundredths of an inch to 2/10 of an inch of rain since october the 1st. and that's what's making those fire conditions so extremely bad down there in southern california. of course, on top of those gusty winds. and that's also why back here in the bay area, we didn't have red flag fire warnings last night, even though we had gusty winds, because we had all of that recent rainfall. now, as we mentioned, down here in southern california, they are expecting the marked improvement in the

wind once we get here into friday night's forecast, all of the mountains should be below 30mph. and that will help out with firefighters being able to hopefully make more of those air drops as we bring it back here locally. after some gusty winds this morning, we have calmed down here. only wind is up here towards mount saint helena, coming out of the north at 30mph. so let's go ahead and take it into our forecast for tomorrow. we've got high pressure going to bring back some more dry air. also that sunshine for us i think overall we're setting it up for a pretty nice day. temperatures although we'll start it off chilly. plenty of 40s out here across the bay area, so make e sure to have that heavier jacket so you're good to go as you step out the door. it will bring us to 40 in the east bay, north bay right there at 43 daytime highs in my forecast down here across the south bay. 67 in cupertino 68 in gilroy out here through vallejo 66. and i got you at 68 in danville for the peninsula, 65 in redwood city up to san francisco, 63 in downtown and the north bay, 68 in sonoma. rainfall chances looks like it's

dry the next seven days, but we may actually start to see a system, although not a strong one, potentially get here. got to wait for it right about there. around january the 18th. i will see if that hangs on for us. it's not the kind of setup we'd like to see. all right. on that 7-day forecast, we got some low 60s next seven days for san francisco and low 60s inland with 40s overnight. we're going to continue to track those winds down in southern california. and of course our local weather. i'll be back at 7:00 with more updates on that. okay. thank you jeff. yeah. coming up. is it game over. hundreds of south bay kids worried they could lose their little league field to redevelopment. we'll tell you about the plan. creating a new rift between parents and the local schoo

field in one south bay neighborhood could be on the chopping block come tomorrow. the santa clara unified school district is set to review a 30 year master plan for all of its schools, and that plan could include replacing one of the little league fields at hayman elementary. that field is one of three where westside little league currently rents in place, parents say, with a league of more than 300 players of various ages, losing one field could mean the end of the game for everyone. what that does is it takes away from the four year olds, the six year olds, the

eight year olds.s. i mean, thats where those kids play. and you got your your ten, 11 and 12 at play here. but i mean, they got to have a start. our organization would collapse if that happened. why? we have nowhere else to play in town. we only have one other baseball field that's owned by the city. the rest are owned by the school district. the santa clara unified school district declined an on camera interview, but said improvements at hayman would create more parking and a safer pickup area. those improvements would also allow room for physical education activities and new or expanded learning facilities. they also note that the district's master plan is just a roadmap, and each school project will be considered individually with lots of community input. still to come. president biden gets a reason to smile during his last days in office. his special moment in los angeles next. and here's a look inside the control room at rockefeller center. lester holt

is preparing for nightly news with expanded coverage of the los angeles wildfires. firefighters outmanned and in some cases, out of water. it's pete g. writes, "my tween wants a new phone. how do i not break the bank?" we got you, pete. xfinity mobile was designed to save you money and gives you access to wifi speeds up to a gig. so you get high speeds for low prices. better than getting low speeds for high prices. right, bruce? -jealous? yeah, look at that. -honestly. someone get a helmet on this guy. xfinity internet customers, ask how to get an unlimited line free for a year, plus a free 5g phone.

president biden has a new great grandson. but before we leave, that was going to be our last story. but we need to take you back. live to the hollywood hills, where another fire just

started burning. this is now called the sunset fire. it is west of the hollywood bowl. ten acres have burned so far. firefighters just issued a mandatory evacuation order for those living near laurel canyon boulevard. crews have closed nearby roads. we've not heard of any structures burning yet. tonight, the historic and catastrophic wildfires in southern california turning deadly after 80,000 people are forced to evacuate their homes. the apocalyptic images. a state of emergency in los angeles as thousands of acres burn, impacting one of the most picturesque places in the nation. multiple wildfires raging out of control tonight, fueled by hurricane-force winds. the fire in the pacific palisades now the most destructive in the city's history. at least five people are dead, an estimated 1,000 structures destroyed. more than a million without power. the grounds of the