tonight on kqed newsroom. upper hand on the kincade re as thousands of evacuees return to their homes in sonoma al county. the impeachment inquiry into president trump enters a new phase with a key vote on capitol hill as democrats go on d e offensive. plus smoke from the kincade fire has triggered air quality alerts for the bay area. we'll hear from an expert on how best to protect yourself. good evening and welcome to kqed newsroom i'm sara farmer. we begin with the fire in king county. the kincade fire was roughly

70% contained, burning more ths 77,000 acand destroyed more than 300 structures in sonoma county. residents began returning to their home on wednesday. many tofled evacuation centers in petaluma staying there for several days. some have lost their homes, pets, or lost income from jobs or businesses that had to close. joining me now terry who was forced to leave her home in windsor and martha bodell who had to temporarily close he business in santa clara and windsor because of the kincade fire. thank you both so much for joining me today especially considering what's going on in your lives. >> thank you. >> thank you for having us. >> and martha you own a business in sonoma county. you have offices in santa rosa and windsor. what was the impact of the ncade fire on your business? >> both businesses were shut down. effectively the power went out first and then we were evacuated from our windsor slab

shop, whweh is where do all installs. abrication and anas also shut down for three days, four day, same reason for the evacuation and no power and i would think really, it really would hitchhike on the tubbs fire. this is two years atinto so we are installing homes that for two years now in the end of the money and at the end of their homes that they have been renting to move in and so the emotional impact of delaying peoplejobs now may be longer. the financial impact is huge. we have 80 people who work for us to not be able to pay for a week's worth of work and i mean that is impacting rent and impacting every kind of fine you could imagine in our payroll system becau have not been able to of any kind

bookkeeping. so it is really a trickle down theory. one thing that is misleading is people talking on social media. not a big deal, you don't have power for a couple of days and it is not about that people don't have money to restock their refrigerators and freezers again, the second time this has happened for us. but in terms of. >> and what is the impact like on your workers? and becausworkers were evacuated from their homes as well. >> and we had almost everybody who worked for us were evacuated. 80evacuated and 20% without power. so where do they go? and everyone has kids, other jobs, and now they have no money. >> and the impact, you kn, just basic food that is doing is sometimes the things we take

for granted and they don't have extra money to do that. >> yeah. you had evacuated on saturd as well. and how did you find oy evacuate? h. >> i mean what happened? >> it is all so surreal emand like a regular saturday. went back to my place, getting ready to go to a service that i usually go to. and all of a sudden i'm standing out there in my driveway anifthe shdeputy comes flying up the driveway. you know they are new since 2017 that the counhas installed, so you know it is an emergency. and the deputy came up to me and said you need to get out isnow and this like at 10:00 in the morning and so i knew to take it riously. because 17 we were on somean sort of alert. but when they come up your

driveway and they say to get out that you do that. >> yes, please. righ absolutely. what's the hardest thing about being evacuated? >> the hardest r ing me was just not knowing what was going to happen. i mean i had time to think unlike they did in 2017 where they would have flames in theira ba they just ran out their house. i had time to think of grandma's pictures, definitely the dog and the cat. aand just thinkiut what are you going to go through? are we going to have a home to come back to? and how bad is that thing? >> well, you know, with this taping, there are still parts without power. >>thes. >> t water. >> yes. >> per your experience, terry. when did the lights go back on for you and how is not having power affecting your business? >> well basically i mean it

shut our fabrication shop down because weve six running through the internet with power and actually we are pretty dead in the water because they caught fire last night before last. op. we have no inrnet in our and so everything, all of our machines that have e en offline beca the power outage in the interface with italy and minnesota. and so we can't interface to get our machines reprogrammed to run them, to cut it and so we are doing as much as we can, dragging them by hand and totrying get, you know, hobbling along, barely, but it isstill pacting us. and so the amount of work that i don't know we are getting them out to be honest. >> and what would you say the psychological effects from e tubs fire of 2017?

and how did that affect you and how does that relateto what's going on right now? >> i feel like sonomacounty is a different place since 2017. people are already psychologically, you know, th haven't even dealt with 2017. a lot people are in post- traumatic stress disorder and then to put that on top of it and r myself. well, didn't have a home burned down, but many friends and family members that have had and now they are being evacuated. everybody is traumatized in some way. that community. everybody in when you throw, you know, another evacuation s,power outae are all wondering if that is the new norm. could do it one time maybe, but that's enough. it is too hard to psychologically go through this. >> i actually lived in napa in 2017 a so i wasn't under that mandatory evacuation, but i haom

to leave my when you wake up in the morning and that sky is gold, you know, it makes me think about communication, right? how do you both feel about how pg&e officials and other first responders have communicated in the evacuation process? >> well, i feel that there were a lot of lessons learned from 2017. and that the county, they really were prepared. all kinds of an alert system in and everybody has gotten on a text alertthat we all get that we all learn after the fire and we all wanted to be connected because we weren't before. and that was a really good communication tool that we were given alerts, every day, of course, we would like d more everybody wants one every hour, but we got them withpohe ant information that was coming down, so i felt confident with that. as far as pg&e, i fe

really tried to inform people and they were pretty transparent. i was really impressed with them when they actually said it was their fault. the transm sion line. that was transparency. i think thlearned some lessons too. >> yeah, i think they are trying to step up their game. but martha, for you, i mean, you know, how do you fomove ard from '17 and '18 we had another fire. i mean they just keep coming. how do we all move forward with you and with your business and your workers? >> it is ju like kerry was saying, it is just so emotional for people that i think really just understanding everyone has a story and understanding to be super patient with people. we have, you know, lot of people lose their temper, they lose, they are upset, crying. the elderly community especially is affected. i think with pg&e goiout, senior communities that are

sitting there in the dark and the cold and maybe don't have cell phones. i mean it has been a lot for our community financially, emotionally on every level. >> yes, it sure is. >> thank you so much. i truly appreciate yoboth and i wish you the best in moving forward. but i'm u'glad yo safe. >> thank you so much. >> great to be with you. >> thanks for having us. thank you. on thsday house democrats passed a resolution laying out the rules and procedures to guide the impeachment process it also lays out due process rights for the white house and marks a turning point in the probe with public hearings into president trump's request that ukraine investigate his political rivals. earlier this week decorated army officer and you crane expert, alexander vindman testified on capitol hill. vindman is the first white housofficial to testify who listened in on the phone call president trump made to ukraine's leader asking him to

investigate joe biden. joining us now are kate and government correspondent maria lagos and ron elving, joining us via skype from washington, d.c. hello. >> hello. >> good to be withheyou. >> o to you both. thank you. ron, let's start with you. is final week in october has been an intense week in politics anthe se for impeachment. what are two of the biggest obstacles decrats face with the impeachment process moving forward? >> well two big obstacles, it's complicated and takes them a concentration and a little attention and people may need gsto read thand things might need to be explained. people don't ne ssarily always halot of patients for that. they have other things to think the second biggest challenge isi getting over wha be a ferocious resistance from the republicans in the republic hearings and the people whsuare ose to be in that room and people who are not suppose to be in that room will be tryi

in one way or another to distract from the proceedings and they will be trying to fill the air waves and the social media, the twitter verse with their denunciation of the entire process and that will be very distracting. >> and marisa your thoughts in >> yeah, i think ron thhas it i is one of the reasons why i think democrats waited until is point. they feelike the ukraine issue is easy to understand. that this is clear cut, that it is something that any average american whether they e institution constitution of can get why it is troublesome for them to ask a foreign f lead help getting around the political opponent. but i think there's a lot of anger on the left that this didn't come sooner. on the right that it is one of the reasons they are doing it now, of course, to bring it out into theanopen to really bring back some of those folks who have had, you know, who have been behind closed doors tomake that case clear. i think to ron's point whether they will pay isattention he

other question we will continue to ask. >> right, absoluly. >> and ron, president trump and other republicans, they had really harsh words for army colonel alexander vindman. he's a decorated purple heart recipient. a military hero. and gop representative liz cheney spoke up for him and against his defamation of character calling it shameful. what do thyou k is the significance of her defense of vindman and the risks that conservatives will run by questioning the patriotism of well the significance is you have to coast them before you get them to spk ilof the other republican or even to chastise the other republican. she's a highly partisan loya person. she'of course, the daughter of former vice president dick cheney. a member of congress and a mber of the leadership in their own right. that is significant and a warning, i think, to her fellow republican and fellow conservatives not to go there. don't question the patriotism

of these peoplerp question their intation. question their information. say maybe they are a secret democrat. but don't question their patriotism when they are wearing their decorations on their uniforms sitting before you and they have served so honoray for their country. >> right. do you feel she drew that line in the sand for the otr republicans to say hey, maybe we shouldn't cross this line here moving forward in >> a there are many ways to try to undermine the veracity or the credibility of her particular witness. this is just not the avenue that will be most fruitful for them. >> right, do inyou impeachment will happen before the end of the year or in 2020? >> i think the house isng tr very hard to get public hearings going in the moh of november to have that house judiciary committee act in the month of december and possibly even have a house vote before christmas. but it will get increasingly diicult as the holidays will approach, so it is probably

more likely that will happen in january and certainly the senate trial within following january, february. >> and what do you think, marisa, about the risks of taking an impeachment into january in 2020? and how could that weigh >> i mean it's an interesting question, right? on the one hand they want people focused on the primaries and the caucuses and the candidates. thother hand you could argue that the worse it is for president trump. there's not a huge expectation that he would get convicted in the senate. so if you're in that moment, you knowas will continue to approach in november of 2020 headlines, you know, i think it could go either way. i also think from the democrats perspective, they do need and theyshouldn't sort of hold themselves to that artificial timeline. i mean the lastthing that they want is for independence particularly, moderate democrats, even some republicans to feel this is being rushed through for political partisan reasons. so i think that they do need to

let themselves sort of take the facts where they lead them. >> and why do you think speaker pelosi was hesitant to bring a vote to the floor up to this point any way is many and what do you think her strategy t?was in t >> i think partly she was, she didn't have to, so she didn't want to give the republicans that win. i think now in a certain point she's essentially saying hey, like let's call your bluff. if you guys are so concerned about the process, let's figure out the process and you could do it. it is the moment where they made that sense and if they do t wahave these hearings out in the open. and if they do want to draft those articles of impeachment, they were going to have to take some sort of a vote eventually. i guess you could arguwhether they could take it right now and sort of a dual purpose here, one calling the republicans a bluff because it's not like they changed their tune here and that it has been taken. this is sort ofa turn in that

process that was going to happen in some point and as we were just talking about in some ways that may be better. >> all right, ron, what do you think fellow house minority kn leader, yo, yesterday he was saying they were trying to impeach the presid t because they are scared they defeat him in the ballot box. how do you think the messaging will play into the voters in the election coming up in 2020? >> well the republicans don't really want to defend what the president did. they don't really want to is not impeachablto say that but the president will prefer to call it a perfect phone call and says you may go on radio or television and to read it all, the transcript, and maybe that you will do that. but generally speaking people say it is a better place than to say this is politics as

usual. u don't really want to get into the guts of the whole thing and let's just move on to that election in november an to lethat dynamic play out and let that be the judgment on donald trump. >> so are we seeing a change in public opinion towards this one way or another? >> the country is perfectly split on this question and almost 49 to 47, 51 to 49. we are back and forthright ou that 50-yard line and probably won't be a huge break at any point. but then there really wasn't with richard xon either before he resigned and not until he was actually able to resign in support for his impeachment to go over %. with bill clinton, it never went above 30%. anicso puopinion is a factor here. no question and the democrats ha risks in terms of what this does to their political process in vember of 2020, but you can't wait for the you have to follow the facts

úresponsibthity are. >> do of you feel like this could backfireand hurt democrats in the election comingp? >> i meani would say after 2020 or 2016 rather, who ows, right? i mean trump has done a very good job of whipping up the base and continuing to plant these and sow these seeds ofu doubt. what ve now, republicans, even to their . are not happy support impeachment if this were, of course, the democrat. and they are still looking at those polls and they know how strong of a surrogate he is and how many senators and congress people have lost when they came out against them reon the blican side. so you know it's one of those things where like we are in nta new mohere under trump that will make it really hard to predict. >> ron, do you think it will backfire? >> democrats have a lot at risk here. nfused field of candidates

running against donald trump ally want to rest on the don't impeachment hearings, but also a number of vulnerable, let us say, democrats, something li 30 districts that voted for donald trump in 2016, so you are real asking those people to not only vote against that man they voted for in 2016, but to vote for a democrat. and so there is a real ri here as they need to turn up democrats are going to prevail. >> and ron from mpr and kqed, thank you bothvery much. >> thank you. >> thank you. on thursday the bay area air quality management issued a fourth consecutive spare the air day alert this week due to smoke from the kincade fire. wildfire smoke will contain the particular air waves, illnesses and asthma. n

and while they could help filter particles, it's important to know the right one and how to use it. joining me now is dr. john baum, a professor of medicine at uc san francisco. thank you for being s here. >> i pleasure. >> sir, there is a lot of smoke right now coming from the wilefires. will you walk us through what is in wildfiroke that could be harmful to our lungs and to our air waves? >> yes. and so wildfire smoked i wo like to say it is somewhat similar already to witobacco smokout the nicotine. d so there are fine particles that we would call soot. and some of whicare highly irritating to the air waves. and then there are irritant gases as well. >> and so wildfire smoke could trigger ese respiratory problems. is there a new research then that we're inhaling and dealing

with a lot of fires right now. are we going to see increasing numbers and people with asthma and other problems? >> yes. we have very strong literature about the health effects of wildfire smoke and so we will likely see hospitalizthions for people asthma and other lung disease. what we have been learning more recently stabout the few years, there is also a risk for people with preexisting art disease. and so there is idence from california. it was a joint study and california departnt of public health and investigators that would show increased visits for problems like heart attacks and strokes. and that was not even as bad as the current problem. >> and that is one of the

things that i find fascinatin that there are differences, right? and you have forest fires and en at home all the different materials and plastics that are super toxic. i mean they have higher rates of cancer. t for every day people who are inhaling these forest fires that seem to come every year. what this difference really between being out where we are right now and verses one of >> your homes? nd if it is a forest fire and no structures burn, then it isood smoke and they have taken out neighborhoods in santa rosa or the town of paradise d so then when the homes and cars would burn, then there are even nastier toxic materials than regular wood smoke. and the firefighters have to al with this all the time,

but in and out public is arpeop down and santa rosa from thcoffey park neighborhood probably inhaled some nasty synthetic material smoke. >> d what can people do to protect themselves if they are outdoors? >> and they could wear that 95 mask. i have one here. they could be put on, so they would sit tightlmo over the h and nose and there is actually a metal piece forming aroundyour nose. and the protection depends on fitting well. so you know have a beard and so there will be a little leakage around my face. >> what about kids though? you ve little ones and i always feel for them and because things don't fit them all the time. wh we do about our kids and what can we do? >> great questi. so for these to be effective,

they have to fit well. so unfortunately they are made for adults. even the small version doesn't really fit kids properly. so it is not officially approved, the use of 95 for kids, so theyshould stay inside. >> yes, for boso like me with a beard, it fits pretty well. and i do t get thsame protection as you would wearing one of these, but i wod get some protection, so it is not weird to see that. >> and where do you get those? >>you can get them at most hardware stores because people will use them for construction work and you can also get them off of amazon, another internet and they often distributed arsite. for free by local jurisdictions. >>ir, it seems like wildfires are here to stay. what concerns do you have as a physician about the long-term effects these fires on our

vironment now and for future generations to come? >> it will be a problem. and with gas to the long- term health effects, we just don't have the data. but we're trying to learn about studying the firefighters y because they have the most exposure. >> do you think we will see more cases of asthma in the future>> and with the exacerbat of asthma related to these wildfihes and whthe fire smoke can cause asthma is susceptible people. and that also needs to be studied. >> dr. baums, thank you so much. >> my pleasure. >> really appreciate you coming in today. that'll do it for us. as always you can find more of our coverage on kqed.org/newsroom. thank you for joining us.

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