good morning i'm eric thomas in for kristen sze. and i'm cheryl jennings. a fire leave two families out in the coal today. >> the fire lit up the skies last night around 8:30. >> amy hollyfield joins us with more. >> reporter: this fire has had quite an impact on this neighborhood. take a look behind me there are residents checking out what happened. we have seen a steady stream of this all morning. one person told us she went outside to spray water on her trees last night to try and prevent the fire from . everyone is concerned about

how close together -- together these homes are, how much vegetation is around here and how dry it is out here. residents in this berkeley hills neighborhood stood in disbelief this morning. shocked at the damage last night's fire left. also, a little shaken by the thought of what could have happened. >> 15, 20 minutes, the fire seemed to be at its peak. i think all the neighbors were concerned. >> reporter: concerning -- concerned about how close the houses are to one another and how dry it is. >> i don't see people trimming, look at this. i'm surprised the whole neighborhood didn't go up. >> you just never know if the hills, how dry it has been, driest december on record. i think the firefighters did a great job. >> reporter: firefighters had obstacles. not only did they have two

three story homes on fire, homes surrounded by vegetation, they then had a live powerline come crashing down on one of their fire trucks. >> first engine company pumping the water for firefighters. we had to back away from that engine and provide another water supply to a different fire engine so we could continue the firefighter. >> reporter: they had to pull fires out of the homes until they could get the water turned back on. the fire started 8:30 last night they got it out by 10:30. they had a huge advantage in the fact that it wasn't windy. with these dry conditions they say they need residents to do some tree trimming. >> right now without winds, we are okay. as long as we don't have a lot of vegetation growth. we are okay for now when the wind does come up, then i become very concerned. >> reporter: some fires suffered minor injuries, heat

exhaustion, sprained ankles, everyone is expected to be okay, all residents got out just fine. investigators are here trying to figure out what started this fire they don't know if the dry conditions played a role but they say this is a good time for everyone to remember this is an unusually dry period we are going through the good time to trim back trees and bushes just in case. to get an update on our weather situation to see if any rain is coming let's check in with frances dinglasan in our weather center. rainfall totals have been measely so it has been dry. just a few inches. in santa rosa to date 4.5 inches. only an inch and a half in san jose. where we are in terms of percent of normal, around 33% in santa rosa, 39% san francisco, 42% oakland. a lot of people asking we got a lot of rain last year how we were we at this time?

wellb 100%. last year in santa rosa 141%. you can see how dry it has been this past month only two wet days. looks like december is going to come in as the third driest on record for san francisco. we have rain on the way, i'll tell you about it, if you are planning to watch new year's eve fireworks. we have developing news within the last hour the state supreme court ruleed governor brown and state lawmakers do have the authority to eliminate community redevelopment agencies. they cannot force them to redirect their taxes to local services. that decision will likely send both sides back to negotiations. redevelopment agencies use dedicated property taxes to improve specific areas such as downtown san jose or for the new 49er stadium. it is not clear what today's

decision does to those and hundreds of other projects. if gunfire is part of your new year's eve celebration plan you can plan to see yourself on handcuffs on the peninsula. two police agencies are preparing extra controls and critical technology to go along with the zero tolerance policy. >> reporter: in redwood city they call it operation silent night. it is about more than keeping the streets quiet on new year's eve, it is about keeping them safe. examples from new year's eves past. microphones throughout redwood city can capture the sound of gunfire and pinpoint location, a tool that comes in handy on a holiday in which some like to fire guns into the air. >> any time someone fires a again in the air those bullets have to come down and they come in the same communites where these people are firing the weapons.

>> reporter: it is dangerous and a felony. thanks to the system it is easier to find the shooters. >> it gives real-time information about the location where gunfire is coming from and we are able to dispatch officers to investigate, follow-up and if possible make arrests. >> reporter: celebratory gun was a bigger problem in the early 90s. because of operation silent night which includes extra volunteer patrols, things are getting better. in 2010 redwood city had 22 reported incidents. even one is too many. >> it is day dangerous practice and there is no reason for it. >> reporter: besides redwood city and east palo alto, richmond, san francisco and oakland also use the shot spotter system. city cities have set up a hotline if you hear gunfire you can call. we put those numbers on our website go to abc7news.com and click on see it on tv. katie marzullo. in san jose a standoff

between a machete wielding man and police ended peacefully after nearly five hours officers convinced the man to surrender. he walked out of his apartment. investigators say he refused to put down a bottle and lunged at officers. the k-9 unit stopped him. he is treated at a local hospital. >> he started waving his machete around 3:00 this morning trying to take on four police officers at a time. >> this is ongoing. two years ago he was running around half naked, shouting at the moon. >> we've been trying to get this guy out. and it has come to a head. >> those upset neighbors say they want the suspect evicted. hours from now, a mother accused of throwing her toddler out of a window on christmas day will be in a

courtroom to face charges. prosecutors have only charged her with child abuse and child endangerment, not attempted mur. they say the decision is based on information about her mental state. her 22-month-old son survived the fall with bumps and bruises. she is being treated for broken bones after judgmenting out of the same window when officers got to her home. police say she had been hospitalized with depression days earlier. popular children's toy being recalled because of a choking risk. it seems like cameras are everywhere. now federal investigators say your cell phone cameras may be the best investigative tool to come along in years. how a silicon valley how a silicon valley start-up became a a question already! my mom says cable can't bundle cell phones. you mean wireless voice service? nobody does that.

mom says at&t does, so... uh...uh... [ female announcer ] get u-verse tv and high-speed internet for just $49 a month for six months with more bundle choices than cable, you can even choose to add wireless voice. switch and get the hd-ready dvr included. i bring tv...to you... mr. roy, with u-verse tv, you can record up to four shows at once on a single dvr and play them back on any tv. ms. jones has u-verse! [ female announcer ] get u-verse tv and high-speed internet for just $49 a month for six months. switch and get the hd-ready dvr included. and u-verse has more hd channels than cable, too. i want at&t. -me, too! -yeah! who wants to talk to a fireman? i do! okay. [ female announcer ] choose the bundle that fits your life. ♪

the federal scientists who study crashes say sell phone video is making their job easier now there are pictures and those are study i had in a special lab designed to solve the mystery behind the disaster. >> reporter: when disaster strikes in the air and on the ground people grab their cameras and what they are capturing is proving invaluable to investigators. >> sometimes it can be the key piece of evidence that we knead. >> reporter: on a rare tour of the national transportation safety board video lab we saw

shakey, raw footage from cell phones dashboard and surveillance cams spun into investigative gold to help prevent future accidents. home video caught the engines come offing this 707 military tanker. >> we can see an engine separate from the wing. >> reporter: without the video investigators might have thought an explosion caused the crash. knowing the engines came off before the fire helped investigators pinpoint metal fatigue. now the ntsb is poised to make recommendations on new inspections. it is not just in the air where video can help prevent future tragedies. investigators used an image from a camera aquarium to show a philadelphia tourist boat was hiding in a tugboat's blind spot. he's bearing down without knowing it. >> correct. >> reporter: and your video allowed you to figure that out? >> it did >> reporter: sound too can be critical. an incident in san diego, a speeding coast guard vessel which moments later smashed

into a pleasure boat and killed a little boy. the sound of the boat's engines proved. >> speed to be approximately 43 miles per hour. >> reporter: is that fast? >> it is too fast for conditions. >> reporter: this scary ground canyon flight was shot by a tourist one year before a fatal accident. with the same pilot, it helped prove that pilot was reckless. turned out to be deadly. today there are cameras everywhere. ntsb investigators are relying on them more than ever to help solve their toughest cases. lisa stark, abc news, washington. >> the obama administration has just finalized a deal to sell billions in warplanes and other military equipment to saudi arabia. administration officials say the kingdom will pay 30 billion dollars for 84 new f-fit teen fighters and upgrades for 70 more. the jets will be manufactured by boeing and will support more than 50,000 jobs. analysts say saudi arabia gets

a military boost and the u.s. keeps a key ally to counter iran's mideast influence. if you're an apple or steve jobs fanatic you want to write this down. stanford university, silicon valley archives home to the largest collection of appear -- apple-related material in the world. the collection takes up more than 600 feet of shelf space. the archives include interviews, photos, computer blueprints even early handwritten financial records. >> i remember driving down highway 85 on the freeway and steve mentions, i got a name, apple computer. we kept trying to think other alternatives, but we couldn't think of anything better. >> archive officials say interest in the material has boomed since jobs died in october at the age of 56. he passed away weeks after he stepped down as ceo and handed the reins to time cook.

-- to tim cook. a lot of fog in some spots we are seeing sunshine i'll show you where. for now you can enjoy this shot from mount tam looking down towards some fog, low clouds around the bay and dense fog in parts of the north bay valleys high clouds moving in bringing us rain i'll let you know if you should be able to see the fireworks this weekend. a new fee to get fired up about. the nation's largest wireless carrier is adding another charge for customers. what you can do to avoid it. looking for a little more genius. the job offer from [ unintelligible ]

do i feed to tell you that it has been foggy today? this is the embarcadero in san francisco right now officials at san francisco airport arriving flights delayed by an hour and 40 minutes. here's the east bay this is what it looked like last hour from our emeryville camera you can hardly see anything there. another look of fog through the thick layer in marin county. >> that's what that is, fog! i had a hard time seeing

through it, so i didn't know. >> here we could barely see the bay bridge. >> here's another live shot of more fog. you can see it is starting to break up in some areas where we are getting some sunshine as well. so, look out for the thick fog, but it is starting to improve. with all this cloud cover it means temperatures overnight were not very coal, right now we are mainly in the 50s, 54 san francisco, 57 redwood city in san jose 58°. when i say things are statting to improve this is what i mean has come up in a lot of locations. half moon bay now at six miles it was down to 1/4 this morning. novato up to five miles although a lot of thick valley fog, santa rosa down to half a mile visibility but it is clearing pout in livermore, south bay and towards monterey. the thick fog is still there. again, it was especially noticeable in the north bay

valleys around san francisco bay, sprinkles today a chance of rain into friday in fact probably some drizzle for tomorrow morning. dry and mile for new year's weekend if you going to see the fireworks, you should be okay. we'll look at the satellite image we have this storm system, this front heading towards northern california. it going to start sliding south, bringing the moisture with it. here's the forecast animation of how it plays out, the areas in light rain show lighter rain by this afternoon, we could see light rain falling in sonoma county maybe as far south as marin not quite to the golden gate bridge. overnight we'll see widespread drizzle into friday morning very light rain. we are thinking maybe more measurable amounts of rainfall friday afternoon the areas in the darker green again mainly confined to the north bay counties and we're talking about hundredths of an inch maybe up to a 10th in some of

those areas. today mild again warm system not too cold it has a lot of moisture with it. san francisco getting up to 59°. san jose 6 had, of 5 in livermore. it is going -- 64, 64 in livermore. 66 in hollister, 62 monterey. we've got the drizzle 8 and the sprinkle toe -- the drizzle and the sprinkle tonight, looking dry for new year's eve and even warmer for the beginning of january. the workshop company is recalling hundreds of thousands of stuffed animals because there's a choking danger it affects 300,000 -- [ unintelligible ] the eyes can loosen and fall out that poses a choking danger to little kids. so far no injuries reported the bears were sold in the

u.s. and canada from april through december. millions of verizon customers could be paying a new fee the company will charge $2 for paying your bill online or over the phone the goal is to get people to sign up for is automatic payment system the policy will take effect january 15th. verizon will tell you if you are about to be charged in case you want to pay a different way. >> if you are tech savvy, handy with a soughtering iron and ready to travel, stephen hawking may have a for you, looking for an assistant develop, maintain that wheelchair mounted computer that he uses to rate it turns on the lights and tv at his home and office. hawking is paralyzed by lou gehrig's disease and lost his voice to a tracheotomy in 1985. the job pays about $38,000 a year american. >> that's a big job.

>> it is. are you still looking for plans to ring in the new

today the weather worries over this year's unusually dry winter. a look at the problems it is causing for california. parents don't get caught off guard by the new seat law. those stories and more later today at 4:00 and 5:00. there's a lot to do this weekend. >> reporter don sanchez has what's hot.

♪ ♪ >> reporter: the symphony for an elegant masquerade ball a cascade of balloons. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: today's most original comedians bring the laughs at the not your normal new year's eve. big balloon drop 10 p.m.. which is midnight in illinois. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporter: they leave the waterfront location with a final show new year's eve. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: the castro band [ unintelligible ] [ inaudible ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporter: bring in the new year with a special edition of

-- [ unintelligible ] all of that if you can find your way through the fog. thanks for joining us here at abc7 news. who wants to be a who wants to be a millionaire is next. closed captioning by closed captioning services,inc honey, i can't find my internet cord. oh, i'll borrow hailey's. you're downloading movies. fast! from here? where is her cord?! we switched to at&t high speed internet and got wireless access. no more cords. wireless, okay, honestly, can i just get a cord, please? dad, the cord's invisible. [ female announcer ] call at&t today to get high speed internet for just $14.95 a month for 12 months with a 1-year price guarantee. it's the fastest internet for the price. oooh. videos online? here? how much is that? nothing. at&t high speed internet at home includes access here. our invisible cord is really long, dad. oooh.

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