he loved his family, his friends, everybody so much. he died trying to get them out the house. >> a christmas celebration takes a tragic turn. how an east bay man is being remembered after giving his life to save his loved ones. oh no, dude, this might go. and sure enough, it did. >> run, run, run, run, run. >> plus, new video shows the frightening moments the santa cruz wharf started to collapse. when we could expect more big waves to hit the bay area coastline. and a rare overlap with christmas and hanukkah being celebrated today. sights and sounds of the holidays from

around the world. from kpix this is the late news with sara donchey on cbs news bay area. >> good evening, i'm devin fehely in for sara tonight. we begin with some sad news. today should have been a day of family and faith, a day that was fun and festive and carefree, but instead it became something completely different for an east bay family. they are grieving tonight, wrapped in a gray blanket of shock and sadness. they lost someone in a house fire. it happened on oak noll boulevard, that's just west of 580 near the oakland zoo. kara st. cyr shares how the victim's quick thinking helped save several members of his family and how they're calling him a hero tonight. >> reporter: he did everything he could. >> he was truly the best person you could ever be. he loved everybody so much. he died trying to get them out the

house. >> reporter: according to loved ones, steven weatherford noticed a fire on the wall that quickly grew into a blaze. >> he started yelling to the family, there's a fire, there's a fire. and so i guess it caught really fast. and so he was -- i guess he was just trying to save everybody, make sure everybody was out the house. >> reporter: he sprang into action, getting his 70-year-old father and three other family members out of the house before running back in. the fire department found him unconscious on the floor. >> he was a good person. he was a good family man. so it's important that he saved his family. he saved four people in that house. >> reporter: she says weatherford was a loving man with a beautiful soul whose sense of humor could resonate with anyone. he was an author who wrote books and loved the christmas tradition of getting together with family. it was supposed to be a milestone for their relationship. >> i wish he was here right now. he was going to propose. >> you knew? >> he was going to propose to

her. >> they told me this morning. >> reporter: she met weatherford in a storybook fashion not long ago. >> we met on bumble and i accidentally deleted him because i was so excited to meet him i didn't want to talk to any other guy. and then he found me on facebook. he was like, i'm sorry, i don't want to be a creep, but is this the person i was talking to, and the rest was history. >> reporter: she hopes the family can retrieve the ring. >> we're going to find it. it's probably in the safe. and i want you to wear that ring. regardless, okay? because that's what he wanted for you, my love. >> reporter: the family insists weatherford will be remembered as the kind and brave man that he was. though she won't hear his proposal, she knows his love for her is strong. >> i had given up on love until i met him. all right, so let's talk a little bit about the weather there. dry today but that's changing. >> yeah. in fact within the next hour. three rainmakers coming our way. first one

knocking on our door. a look at the far north coast, we see the rain already about to come on shore here through sonoma. that's what we're looking at now. this is live radar. not a lot to that yet. take it from where it is now and let it play forward to 1:00 a.m., keep your eye on the time stamp there, you you see the cold front. a cold front going through the north bay once again. you know the drill on this. it'll just keep marching southward from there. take it from 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. when it gets down to the golden gate. and from this point it starts to weaken. but it's going to keep going for most of the overnight hours and into tomorrow morning. watch what happens. from 2:00 in the morning we're going to let this play all the way to 11:00 in the morning on thursday. isolated, scattered, on again, off again hit and miss showers keep going. the cold again in the overnight hours. through much of tomorrow morning, it's not a total washout, but it's on again, off again showers throughout a

good part of the first half of thursday. by noon it'll be done. only talking about a couple hundredths of an inch of rain. 0.25 of an inch out of this in the north bay. want to see what's different about the next two systems? real quickly ly i'll just leave you with a comparison. watch what happens when we get to next one, which shows up late tomorrow night into friday. that looks better. it is better. more rain for this one. it's coming through primarily once again in the overnight hours for friday morning like under cover of darkness. we're going to play that all the way through. i'll show you how much we'll get from this one, and then we need to talk about sunday's storm. we'll have all those coming up in the full forecast in just a few minutes. devin, back to you. >> thank you, darren. sounds like jacket and umbrella weather. now, you might have heard it is christmas or at least it still is here on the west

coast. people celebrated around the world with many looking ahead to a brighter and happier 2025. britain's king charles iii gave a special thank you. in his holiday message he praised the healthcare worker who is cared for him as well as his daughter-in-law princess kate. both of them battled cancer this year. >> from a personal point of view, i offer special heartfelt thanks to the doctors and nurses who this year have supported me and other members of my family through the uncertainties and anxieties of illness and have helped provide a strength, care, and comfort we have needed. >> and from the uk to the vatican to a michigan soup kitchen and beyond, people prayed for peace and kindness on christmas today. cristian benavides has a look at the special moments from around the world. >> reporter: pope francis delivered his traditional christmas message at the vatican. he urged all people of

all nations to find courage during this holy year, to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions across the world. the national menorah was lit near the white house to welcome the first night of hanukkah. alejandro mayorkas addressed the crowd. >> this hanukkah let us rededicate ourselves to the light that defines us and the better world we seek to build. >> reporter: in kyiv, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy marked the jewish festival of lights nearly three years into the war with russia. the kelmanson family of dallas celebrated christmas and hanukkah, enjoying the fact that they coincided on wednesday. >> it just kind of represents our family. it's a special time, and i love to do that. >> it's about togetherness. it's really about family and celebrating with each other, and just enjoying spending time with the people who are important. >> reporter: in detroit, the christmas spirit of giving is

in the air today and every day at this local soup kitchen. >> our lord and savior jesus christ came to give, came to serve. >> we do this year round. we have volunteers here every single week. >> reporter: while in brighton, england, some brave merry makers dressed for the occasion and celebrated with a chilly christmas dip. >> and here in the bay area, hundreds gathered at san francisco's union square to honor both e-christmas and hanukkah. tonight marked the 49th year for the bill graham menorah lighting ceremony. kelsi thorud caught up with people sharing that special moment. >> reporter: for the first time in close to 20 years, the first night of hanukkah and christmas are on the same day. and the place to be to celebrate both was here in union square. the massive 22-foot tall bill

graham menorah towered over the crowd just feet from union square's christmas tree. hundreds of people gathered to take photos with the tree and witness the menorah lighting ceremony. >> it is community. and so to celebrate in community and that it fell on christmas day too, so we're celebrating with the universe. >> happy hanukkah. >> really emotional, because i can tell that not everyone is jewish and the community is coming together. >> reporter: he came with his young daughter. he told us he's been coming for the last seven years and after all the jewish community has been through over this last year he was delighted to see so many people of different walks of life gathered together. >> so it's just showing that there is an option to be all together and bring light to our lives. >> reporter: it's a time of year that brings together families and strangers alike

for a moment of peace, gratitude, and reflection, one that people hear hope no matter the holiday you celebrate or enjoy it all. >> merry christmas, happy hanukkah to you, and happy new year. >> have a new year filled with peace and good health. >> just how rare is a double hah holiday of hanukkah and christmas? today is only the 14th time in the last 100 years they've fallen on the same day. some say the overlap is a good opportunity to learn more about other beliefs. >> i just think it's really important to give each one its due, not to sort of blend them together as in the term chrismaka, because i think that harms the -- to understand more, to appreciate more about

those who make up different faiths. >> all right, so if you liked today, you're not going to have to wait u too long for another overlap. it is set to happen again in 2035. and while many pet owners probably celebrated with a special gift for their cat or their dog, the san francisco zoo also got in on the fun. they shared this video on x of giraffes checking out stockings and snacking on a few christmas treats. part of the santa cruz wharf is still closed after monday's partial collapse. >> oh, hell no. no. run. run, run, run, run. >> the new perspective we're getting today from a dad who was just steps away from where it all unfolded. and investigators in central asia are trying to answer several lingering questions after a plane crash. what we have learned tonight. plus, santa may be done with his job for this year, but training is already underway for 2025. what it really takes to put on that big red suit.

investigators are trying to find answers to what caused a deadly plane crash in central asia. russia's aviation authority believes that a bird strike led to an emergency situation. now, the plane diverted off its planned course because of bad weather. it was heading to russia but came down in kazakhstan. about half of the 76 people on board survived

that. number isn't final as officials continue their investigation. azerbaijan, where the flight originated, has declared tomorrow a day of mourning. russian president vladimir putin says that his country has sent equipment and medical workers to help with the aft mat. the santa cruz wharf wasn't the only thing hit by monster waves along the coast this week. check out this video from the santa cruz marina. boats were tossed around on monday and into each other. at least seven of them capsized. we're getting some new perspective on that partial wharf collapse. >> oh, hell no. no. run. run, run, run, run. >> the man filming those moments is a santa cruz native. his name is michael brantley. he was fishing with his 14-year-old son just yards from where part of the pier suddenly collapsed into the water. now, brantley says that he noticed the wharf swaying with each passing wave and started recording on his phone. moments later the big one hit.

>> i was like, oh no, dude, this might go. and sure enough, it did. sounded like trees cracking and falling in a storm. a thunderous like -- and when we looked back there was just nothing. >> and by now you probably know the rest of story. three people fell into the water. they were rescued and not seriously hurt. the city is still trying to assess the extent of the damage to the wharf. about 150 feet, that's half of a football field, fell into the water. the area is now closed indefinitely. all right, so that was -- i mean, that was really dramatic stuff, because we didn't get every rain earlier this week, but the waves did a tremendous amount of damage to some parts of the coast. >> those waves were spawned by the center of the storm which did give us rain about a day before that. >> that was well offshore, right, just churning in the ocean. and closer towards alaska. >> wow. >> it was a bomb cyclone when it was up there, so there's another surf advisory, totally

separate, total separate swell coming our way. this one goes from friday to sunday. that's what we've got on the map here. everything in fuchsia shows you where we've got a surf advisory. stays in effect until sunday. when you take a look up here at this wide view, you see the wave energy. the swell that has once again developed in the pacific, watch that. deeper shades of red to purple. show you higher waves coming our way. let's come in for a closer look at that and do just a little comparison on this. because what we had on monday when we've we broke off a part of the wharf in santa cruz and when we had 60 waves that were coming across mavericks, which is down here at my feet, by the way. mavericks sits there. 60-foot waves there was the isolated extreme. we are not doing that with this one. look at the wave energy on this, come in for a closer look on it. zoom in towards california. as we do that, see the color codes on here. brighter colors of red from this one going to our north. what we are going to get

here, the yellows and the oranges. that's 20-foot waves. maybe as high as 30-foot waves. you hear that and go, oh, thank goodness it's not as bad. and that's true, we don't expect to lose pieces of piers from this. come back to the map for a second. these sneaker waves would still be strong enough to grab a person and pull them out. the warning was bad. the 60-foot waves were difficult by a long margin. so even though this is better it's still a high enough degree of concern you can't let your guard down if you're anywhere near the beach over the course of the next couple days. that goes all the way into sunday. okay, now that we've gotten that very public service announcement out of the way, let's get back to regularly scheduled programming, which is tracking the rain. so in the first phase that i showed you what's going to happen tomorrow morning we're going get maybe 0.25 an inch of rain. it'll go to about 10:00 tomorrow morning. there are two more storms

coming after that. so let's look at those. here comes the very kind of start of the next one. this is tomorrow afternoon. a few showers in the north bay. not much. now all of a sudden that looks more impressive. that is tomorrow night. starting at the 7:00 hour. that is just the beginning. overnight hours now. 11:00 tomorrow night at this time we're going to have some widespread rain. some of it'll be heavy coming across marin. maybe an isolated thunderstorm mixed in with that scenario. there's a good indication there'll be pretty strong isolated cells within this. so it rains in the overnight hours all the way through the predawn hours of friday and then sunrise friday. it lightens up. most of friday you don't get rained on. going to stay gray. it'll be misty. it's not the heavy rain that will have happened before sunrise. that's the friday morning system. here's how much rain we're going to get from that one. we'll probably pick up about 0.7 of an inch of rain. here comes the next one. next one then comes in and it's going to be focused more on

sunday. that's the kind of way to think of these. friday morning and then again sunday. but sunday is going to be a little bit more of a midday event. here we are looking at 7:00 a.m. when it starts. and by the time we've gotten to 10:00 a.m., across the heart of the bay. then it'll lighten up into the afternoon. that's your sunday rainmaker. first half of the day maybe going into like late afternoon we'll pick up 0.75 of an inch of rain out of that one. when we look at it in the seven-day forecast, two days stand out. rain on thursday is mainly predawn. friday the rain comes through again in the morning, mainly predawn. saturday mostly a break and then sunday that next system comes in. first half of the day. probably rain to the afternoon and then we're done. look back here, it's not a cloud in those areas. we're going to get a much needed break. that's good. we don't want to rain on vern's santa hat. >> thank you, darren. new york city officially

celebrated its first white christmas in ten years in central park. still around one inch, that is the minimum that is needed to call it a white christmas. light snow moved through on tuesday leading to a holly jolly atmosphere. and on the other side of the country, it is the opposite story. people in parts of anchorage, alaska, are dealing with a green christmas. one ski instructor says the lack of snow actually forced them to use manmade powder, so their fingers are crossed for the real stuff to come soon. and driving around and checking out christmas lights is a popular way to pass the time each holiday season, but not everybody is excited about it. sacramento's fab 40s neighborhood is a big draw every year. thousands of light, and those bring a lot of visitors as well causing a traffic gridlock. one woman says her neighbor was so frustrated that they actually sold their home and moved out of the neighborhood. >> too much traffic. too many people. it hasn't been fun for them. we're a little disappointed they bring in

their trash and they throw things everywhere. >> and in case you think they're just being a real scrooge, most of the residents say that they're happy that people are in a festive mood and coming to see all of their hard work, vern? happy holidays, everybody. straight ahead in sports, an nfl head coach as you've never seen him before. and another stocking stuffer. warriors and the lakers in a thriller at chase center where the big stars stepped up in big moments.

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all right, vern, the warriors game today one of the most exciting games and also disappointing. at the buzzer. >> like in the mortal combat game, the warriors need to learn how to finish him. and they haven't been able to do it. what do you do? you make a move somehow, some way, or otherwise this season is going to get away from them. five nba games under the tree today, and we got treated to the dubs

hosting and running with the lakers. steph curry, lebron james, olympic teammates, pacific division foes. what is a show. dubs needed a curry flurry and got one at crunch time. warriors within five. late, then james answered with three of his 31 points. ten assists and two steals. james is going to be 45 years old in five days. 15 seconds left. off the inbounds to cut the lead to one. and then curry needing a three to tie it launched it, bang. he scored 38. but it wasn't enough. four seconds left. the play designed for lebron, but it went to austin reese for the lead and curry's court shot not close enough. we're done here. lakers won it 115-113. warriors dropped 11 of his last 14, five of his last six, pretty evident a trade needs to happen but at what

cost. >> what's the good stuff that's still going on in the league on a night-to-night basis? >> i love it. and i know like we've talked about it leading up to and we'll probably talk about it until it's actually real. like you don't know how many opportunities you'll get to do it on this type of stage. so that's why it sucked so much to lose just because these are kind of those moments that matter a little bit more. all right, nfl. today netflix took a seat at the grownup table. the streaming giant aired two nfl games, one a 31-2 ravens one-sided dud on the houston texans. the other? the super bowl champs worked over the steelers at pittsburgh. is it me or has it been a lot of grinch sightings at these stadiums? chiefs doing damage. patrick mahomes and travis kelce combined here far fourth quarter tuddy. largest

margin of victory all season. 19 points. kansas city locked up the top seed in the afc. won the game 29-10 and got treated to red velvet football cakes. and nobody played santa claus better than head coach andy reid. >> that's what i'm talking about. hey, merry christmas, man. proud of you dudes. proud of you for the present. >> hey, the chiefs, they just keep getting better. at 15-1, the road to the afc championship and ticket to the super bowl in new orleans is going through kansas city. and the 49ers one step closer to a fourth place schedule for 2025, devin. never thought i would say that at the beginning of

the year. >> they're kicking butt t chief, and they seem to be having so much fun doing it. >> who's going to dethrone them? we will see. >> we had two shots, and we did not get it done. but we'll not think about that right now. thank you so much, vern. well, if you're looking for a new job, why not try your job at being the jolliest guy around? how you can head back to school to become santa.

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saint nicks to the test. >> reporter: if the saying seeing is believing means anything at christmas, then rick rosenthal is a true believer. what makes a good santa? >> the very first thing is your heart. you have to like yourself. >> you have to be understood and logical to be believable. >> reporter: twice a year rosenthal, or santa rick as he likes to be called, is dean of students at the northern lights santa academy in atlanta. between 100 and 150 student santas and mrs. clauss come from as far away as england and germany. these aren't your typical mall santas. >> i'm working on becoming a professional christmas entertainer, but not just a, an extraordinary entertainer. >> reporter: in the near decade since rosenthal founded it, northern lights has grown to the largest santa school in the southeast.

>> we have a professionally trained and educated christmas performer, they look different. they have real santa suit, not costumes. so education is really important in every efield. >> reporter: the training includes hair care with tips on how to keep santa's beard snowy white, a course on magic tricks, and a workshop on inclusivity for children with disabilities. why go to such great lengths to put this much energy into it? >> even though it falls on the 24th or 25th, it lasts for weeks or months and people change. >> reporter: that's rosenthal's goal, helping to bring the true meaning of the holiday season out of new students and those who already know the way of the claus. >> all right, so vern, i feel like you got a leg up because you got at least the start. >> and i have played jolly saint nick in the alter ego of santa x in previous years. >> ah. >> full beard.

>> full beard. full beard, got to change the whole persona. your voice has to change. you just got to be jolly and just really just into the christmas. >> i can see you nailing it. >> you were doing this for kids or a play? >> i was doing it for our audience. >> oh. okay. all right. all right. i buy it. i'm buying it. >> we're going to give the honor to you. darren? >> am i supposed to say h0 h0 h0, merry christmas right now? >> i don't know what you're supposed to say, supposed to say something. thank you for watching >> tonight, growing calls for action over the mysterious objects being reported in the skies over new jersey and new york. an fbi official says they've received thousands of reports over the past few weeks. >> federal authorities insist there's nothing to fear, but at the same time can't explain why people are seeing in the sky. >> the public wants answers. >> every december, we here at google reflect on the year's most frequently search