>> it too games? breaking news? >> which to go? what do we do next? can we go back to your home? >> the breaking news we're following. a 2 continues to be the fires in southern california and their questions

swirling for people there. as they have been forced from their homes by the flames when will they be able to return home? and if there is a home even to return to thank you for joining us here during kron. 4 news to i'm justine waldman. fire crews did gain some ground on the major wildfires in los angeles county. but has that happened? there was a whole new fire that started the archer fire started this morning in the granada hills neighborhood. evacuation orders were downgraded to warnings forward. progress was stopped at 31 acres and there are 5 other active wildfires burning in los angeles county. the 2 largest, the palace aides and the fire. the palisades fire has now burned more than 20,000 acres. it is at 8% containment more than 5,000 buildings have been lost in this fire alone. many of them homes and businesses. the eaton fire has burned nearly 14,000 acres. it is also 3% contained. authorities believe that at least 5,000 buildings have either been damaged or destroyed in this fire.

pasadena officials announced today that people have been displaced will be allowed a onetime trip. to go back to the house as long as they have verification a curfew order will go into effect tonight for the mandatory evacuation areas of palisades and the fire. and this is to protect the people whose homes are there and try to prevent some looting. anyone caught in the affected areas without authorization will be arrested and the fight to try to control these massive fires is still very much happening right now in southern california. the challenges continue. there is the threat of more winds that are on the horizon. kron four's terisa stasko joins us now from the newsroom with an update on the breaking situation there. well, i this is certainly still a very developing situation with changes happening so quickly. >> here's what we know about the latest fire fighting efforts. progress is being made. but slowly, the winds have died down compared to the hurricane like strike force on

monday where the winds were approaching 100 miles an hour. but there is fear that those santa ana winds will return on sunday. fire officials say that the fires level of destruction is jarring and bleak for the thousands impacted dozens of blocks are wiped out. new flare ups continue to pop up information. 8 is coming. but the need is intense. here's more on the problems facing residents. >> common questions i'm hearing from the residents impacted, especially by the eaton fire is. >> what do i do now? and when can i go home? our neighbors want to know where to go for immediate help. how to get information about their home when they can return and what term resources are available. i want people to know this evening at 04:00pm. there will be a virtual meeting for all residents impacted by the evening fire to get their questions answered. bail hearing that people i know yesterday we announced that fema has set up a website and i'm seeing that people are filling out the form and being

denied. i'm following up on that to find out what is going on because it is completely. mind boggling to me that people who lost everything are filling up form has told and then are getting an immediate denial. so if you have done that, please, please, please. i'm gonna try to get nance within 24 hours. find out what's going on. >> as you can madgen a lot of chaos and confusion about everything we've got. you covered. we're putting a lot of information on kron 4 dot com to make sure that you have information at hand to try and sort through it all. and again, there is going to be that informational meeting tonight. as for reports of loss of water, pressure to fire hydrants in limited water resources and wildfire zones. now governor newsom has ordered an investigation into the los angeles department of water and power decrying a dig into that. we're going to have a lot more coming up. of course, always on kron 4 dot com and coming up later on

kron for news reporting in the newsroom. theresa stasi, back to just 8 theresa, thank you. >> and bay area firefighters are in los angeles, including the santa rosa fire marshal, paul lowenthal. he and a large group of firefighters are on the ground providing aid to the crews there and he says extremely dry conditions in southern california are making it very challenging. plus, that's really big area. he also mentioned that for many firefighters who lost their homel in fires in northern california, fighting these fires feels very personal. >> obviously a lot of firefighters is as events like this continue to happen that become a personally affected by these incidents. it's not unfortunately a common out to hear stories about firefighters that had their own homes damaged or destroyed. but at the same you know, it makes it a little bit more personal for a lot of us. >> the fire marshal himself lost his home during the wine country fires and he is just one of many from the bay area

down in pasadena, trying to lend a hand. we'll take live now. >> at the area los angeles, the scene right now. we have a crew there driving around so we can see some of the damage. >> this is a neighborhood their destroyed by the fires that that's probably a house there that is now gone. meteorologist kyla grogan here doubt details on what's happening with the weather. yeah. so obviously they're still under that red flag warning now. right now it goes through 6 o'clock today. it would not be surprising if we start to see maybe this reissue later in the weekend is a little more wind. >> is expected. unfortunately, you can see kind of where these fires are right now. the bigger ones, the palisades fire. of course, we have the even fire that's over just behind pasadena in the hills there. and then we have that new fire. the archer fire right here. so south of santa clara on the west side of the 5 as opposed to the hurst fire, which is on the east side. so many to keep track of. right. but right now the wind is not doing too badly. they are catching a little bit of a break. it was a little breezy this morning, a little bit erratic. you can see as we

go throughout our afternoon and evening, it doesn't completely go away, but it certainly doesn't get worse, at least for the next few hours. now, as we get into saturday in the early morning hours, you start to see things picking up a little bit. and then this is saturday afternoon. obviously, that is another push of wind as we got another low pressure system that's going to be dropping south they did just drop this high wind warning. i'm happy to see that was set to expire. it did expire. so that's some good news. high pressure still here. low pressure has moved on, which helps to release some of that gradient, which is why we're getting a little bit of a break. but there's another low pressure system to the north that will ultimately start to slide to the inside as well kind of replace the other one. so that's why we have another chance of some wind. we'll talk about that because it's going to affect our weather as well. have that coming up in just a bit. >> and a fire fighting aircraft crashed with any legal drone over the palisades fire. the los angeles county fire chief says the super scooper was damaged in the crash yesterday. now as a whole there. and it's weighing in this fixed wing tanker is

grounded. super scoopers could hold up to 1600 gallons of water and there are very valuable resource on the front lines. it is a federal crime to interfere with firefighting efforts. punishable by up to a year in prison. so the fbi is now planning to come to the area with what the fire chief calling ariel armor to make sure that no other drones will interfere with the firefighting operations. here's video of a very busy evacuation center people from the palisades fire. one of the volunteers who's there. says that her family lost their home in the fire. >> it's honestly what's keeping me sane right now. we lost our family home that i grew up in in malibu and seeing the pictures of it. completely has completely, you know, obviously like shuck. mean, everyone the corner. and i think that helping is the best way to get through it. so we started yesterday just making pizzas for firefighters

and bringing him to the front line and we haven't stop. i can't believe how many people have supported helped donate pizzas to the firefighters who are so grateful they need it so badly. there. they're like covered in soot. they're like super hungry. so just i was in tears, just bringing food and love. >> the red cross says it has also set up 3 shelters in los angeles county. and experts say the disaster in southern california could drive up insurance premiums in communities in high-risk areas all across the bay area. kron four's will tran is an er in debt with those details. >> if anybody in the bay area can feel sympathy towards the victims in los angeles, it's a renter residents because last year state dropped about 2000 of their customers in this city claiming that they live in wildfire area and is simply was not worth it for them to continue coverage. and that covered that sparked all kinds of outrage from the community.

and that's exactly what's happening right now in los angeles. not to mention entire california, but pacific palisades just to give you a hard example. well, about 1600 residents in that particular area. and they're still dealing with fires right now. 1600 of them had their insurance dropped by state farm just a couple of months ago. and they had to scramble for other insurance coverage. hopefully they did find a carrier. but this is a problem that is very indicative of california and could be a problem moving forward because from 2020, the 2022 insurance carriers dropped about 2.8 million customers. and in los angeles county, about 531,000 of them said, you know what, we're not going continue covering your house. so what's going to happen is they probably will continue doing that. also, those who have insurance, very grateful for that. there is a good chance that your premiums could go up

to cover the loss and just to make sure that the insurance companies, according to experts, they believe that your coverage could go down. so we will be feeling this for years to come. despite all the wildfires continuing to rage in los angeles. back to you. >> president biden and vice president harris hosted a briefing today and how federal resources are helping the los angeles area fight and also recover from the massive fires at the same time president elect trump is criticizing the federal and state response. our washington correspondent basil john joins us now as this devastation is starting to take a political turn. >> well, just seen wildfires are playing los angeles and back here in the nation's capital, the president is doing everything possible to help. >> fires raging throughout los angeles have destroyed thousands of buildings, displaced thousands of people and killed at least 10 scope

scale and erratic movements of these fires truly impression. president joe biden says firefighters have made progress combating the fires in the last 24 hours, got a long way gusts from the santa ana winds power, the flames and 8 of the spread. president biden says his administration initiated every federal agency to help with this. we're going to make sure california has every possible resource fight these fires and help survive. >> california governor gavin newsom welcomes the assistance. there's tremendous anxiety out there around getting immediate assistance. the reality of this starting to come. there is criticism from president-elect donald trump around fire hydrants running dry because of water distribution in the state. the hydrants were empty. they didn't have any water. can you break? >> but president biden pushed back on that narrative as state and local officials say it's because of the sudden high demand for water to fight the flames. this is complicated stuff.

>> now governor newsom is now calling for independent investigation into the loss of water pressure to those fire hydrants. >> to make sure this doesn't happen again. reporting live in washington. i'm basil, john basil, with federal resources helping out. is there anything that congress can do to help as well? >> yeah, yes. during his briefing, president joe biden did say that congress also need to take action and allocate appropriations to help in the future. basil, john, live for us there in dc. thank you so much. we're staying on top of these deadly fires in los angeles and for the latest information, you can always go to our website. kron 4 dot com. still ahead here at to be avoided, going jail, but is now a fellow. what happens now after president elect trump's? >> hush money case and the sentencing that happened today. plus, san francisco, new mayor making a major announcement. the city has a new fire chief. what his goals for the department? and we continue our fire coverage in los angeles. we have more

pictures from the scenes there. stay with us.

>> president elect trump has officially been sentenced in his hush money trial in new york just days before his inauguration. go live now to talk to our reporter there in manhattan. this is john mueller. for more on what the judge decided to do and what this means for the incoming president. john, thanks for being here. >> yes, justin, of course, history in the making and it was made today in manhattan, criminal court right behind me. the judge officially sentencing. mister trump has

bella. now that's important because it really makes the case official. that sentence coming down this morning, mr. trump zooming into the courtroom from florida. he didn't have to be here in new york for this one and the judge sentence mister trump to what he calls an unconditional discharge. that's a fancy way of saying no jail time. no probation and no fines. it does put the case in the books and that was the priority for the judge mr. trump desperately tried to stop it. he appealed all the way to the supreme court. but last night they said no, he was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with the hush money payments. the star stormy daniels. and that was before the 2016 election mr. trump addressed the court by zoom again. he said that this was a disgrace and he called it a witch hunt. now, interestingly now, a new legal avenue is open to the trump team because he has, in fact been sentence. they can try to get this case thrown out, trying to get verdict overturned. but of course, that would take time a lot of

time. it's not going to happen any time soon. and 10 days mr. trump is going to take that oath of office and he again will be the first sentenced felon in u.s. history. just an. >> and is there any way to get this conviction cleared for him? are there any appeals left or of all those avenue has been exhausted? >> well, yes, he wanted to get the sentencing delayed or canceled. that didn't happen, but he can appeal the case. now that the sentence as gone through and i will say this, some people might wonder, well, you know, he's president. can he give himself a pardon? this is a conviction in a state court, new york. in this case the president can pardon federal crimes, but he can't pardon state crimes. so that's off the table. but again, this could wind its way through the court system and eventually maybe wind up back before the supreme court to decide if the verdict would stand. but right now, that's not going to happen any time soon. just a. >> john miller live for us there in manhattan. thank you so much. in san francisco

woman was heard mayor lori is inauguration party in china town. she was escorted out by police officers and holding some kind of paper towel over her head. they're putting pressure on it. our crews there say that she got hit by a firecracker during wednesday's celebration. we did reach out to san francisco police for some details. they say they did not have any information. we also reached out to the mayor's office for comment. we have not her back. the firecracker show was put on by the campaign as part of the celebration. also, the san francisco fire department is going to have a new fire. chief mayor larry, making this big announcement today. kron 4 charles clifford joins us now live from the city with details on who the mayor is elected. >> well, good afternoon. yeah. san francisco is brand new mayor just promoted one of the city's own to lead the fire department. >> friday morning, san francisco american worry and helps the battalion chief christman, a veteran of the

fire department, would become these new chief lurie says he believes christman, a san francisco native has the necessary skills. battalion chief chris been brings. 34 years of distinguished service, unwavering commitment as a first responder and advocate. >> for underserved populations, michael, for this department is to ensure it remains in touch with the community. it serves. department members must concern themselves, not just with the beauty of the fire engine or ambulance, but the beauty and health of the neighborhood. i will ask our members to engage with the public to form bonds that will move our city forward. his appointment comes as the city grapples with an expected budget deficit of 876 million dollars over the next 2 years. >> i'm acutely aware of the potential budget shortfalls we face. work collaboratively with other departments in the mayor's office to tackle these issues head-on. kristen will spend the next few weeks transitioning into his new role before officially taking over as chief. >> on january, 21st.

>> all right, back live now. chris been will be san francisco's 27th fire chief. but for now in san francisco, charles clifford kron, 4 news. charles, thank you so much. >> we'll talk about our forecast now with a live look outside here across the golden gate bridge. it's friday. we maybe get a chance to enjoy the nice weather over the weekend. so we want to check in now with pilots. see what's going on outside. yeah, beautiful day. another beautiful day today. yesterday was a record-setting day for many for temperatures. will take a look at that blue skies out there right now, though, quite how are just gorgeous. >> santa rosa yesterday got up to 78 degrees. redwood city beat a daily record by hitting 75 concord. >> san jose got up. 73. we tied a record at sfo yesterday. oakland beat a record as well by hitting 70 degrees that we hit 70 in livermore. so obviously well above the upper 50's that we should be at this time of year. here is a live look right now. temperatures you can see we're definitely warm in san jose. 72 degrees there. the south bay, though, the warmest spot elsewhere, little bit cooler than yesterday. but still well above average. 63

in san francisco, some nice mid to upper 60's up there in the north bay, too. here's a look at stormtracker. it is beautiful. blue skies. once again. we're getting a gorgeous day out there. as we zoom out, you can kind of see the setup here. high pressure still in control of a low pressure that caused the wind in southern california has moved away. unfortunately, it is going to be replaced by another low pressure system. so right now, while the wind is nice and calm here, we are going to see that change as we get later into tonight. so high pressure here, low pressure there. but look what happens as we get towards the weekend. that next low pressure system dropping in an inside slider doing that same thing, setting up a little bit of that offshore wind and unfortunately meaning that southern california and northern california, really the whole state's going to be dealing with a little bit more of this wind. so we do have a wind advisory that kicks in at midnight tonight. north bay mountains. you can also see along us a lot of yellow counties and then also if we look down towards the east bay and south bay and heading the santa cruz mountains is basically hills mountain's. those are the areas we're going to see the wind kick up to about 20 to 30 miles per

hour with the potential of gusts to go higher than that. weather service. also pointing out that we have minor flooding of low-lying areas. a coastal flood advisory in effect for us. 05:00am through noon on saturday as we have our high tide that will be about 8.30, tomorrow morning. that's when you want to -ook out for a little bit of that water that could be pulling in places. so saturday, a sunny, but windy day. we are going to cool it down a little bit as we head into next week. >> thanks, kyla major retailers, macy's and kohl's are shutting down stores at several bay area locations because they're quote, underperforming. that's according to the companies. macy's is quoting, closing 60 stores across the nation. cole shutting down 30 stores and kohl's is closing 5 bay area locations, including in fremont mountain view in sandra fell. all of those are going to close by april. macy's is closing 2 locations in the bay area one free month. the other in corte madera. the company says the closures will happen over a three-year period. still ahead

here and unexpected wake-up call this morning, an earthquake rattling parts of the bay area.

>> we're taking a live look now at the palisades fire today. we can see. it is still actively burning more than 20,000 acres have burned in this fire. there is about 8% containment. so that number has gone up a little bit from the 0. we've seen the past couple of days in this fire. we know that 2 people have been confirmed killed and more than 5,000 buildings have been destroyed and they're still flames and smoke destroying this neighborhood. we're going to continue to cover this for

you here on air and online while updates on our website. kron 4 dot com. now to the several minor earthquakes that rattled san francisco today. kron four's joey horta reports. now it happened and what the new mayor had to say about his administration's response. >> the san francisco fire department confirming no reports of damages across the city, although they say it was mostly felt on the ocean beach side of town. and that's where we're at. as you take a look out at the water. the quake's epicenter struck just about 3 miles off the coast, according to the u.s. geological survey kron, 4 viewers calling our newsroom about this today saying they felt it is it some along the are saying about today's trevor? >> was feeding my son and all of a sudden just felt this huge jolt. it felt kind like some hit the brakes in a car and sprinted into the doorway expecting more and then nothing came. is there any kind of someone awake and just that despite the a quick jolt

them like quick how about >> you know, before my alarm came off, i just like, you know, like a vibrating bed situation, you just poke me right up. >> mayor daniel lurie saying this morning, i promise to make the safety of san franciscans. my first priority as mayor and i am keeping that promise today with this morning's earthquake, i ordered city government into action immediately this morning and our first responders have been out across the city, ensuring the safety of our residents. other folks we spoke with out here at the beach saying water earthquake. what are you talking about? because they didn't feel it or the aftershock either. at ocean beach in san francisco. joey horta kron. 4 news. >> 2 o'clock this afternoon. how after the made here in the bay area's helping people state wildfire aware it's helping a lot of people in southern california and it started after the fires here in the north bay. also take talks future in the hands of the supreme court will hear what state and the fires are

sparking some new worries in the east bay with local firefighters have to say about budget cuts and stopp (vo) fargo is your virtual assistant from wells fargo. (woman) oh, come on! come on! (vo) fargo lets you do this: (woman) fargo, turn off my debit card! (woman) i found it! i found my card! (vo) and also, this: (woman) fargo, turn on my debit card. (vo) do you fargo? you can, with wells fargo. what else can fargo do? quickly tell you what you spend on things like food. (dad) fargo, what did i spend on groceries this month? (son) hey dad, can the guys stay for dinner? (dad) no... (vo) learn more at wellsfargo.com/getfargo.

>> we're taking a look at the palisades fire right now. this fire has burned more than 20,000 acres. it's only 8% contained. they're still a lot of mandatory evacuations in place here. new details are constantly coming in to our newsroom about the situation here and cuyler. it's going to be tracking not only the winds and what that's going mean for the firefight, but also the air quality for us in just a few minutes. and here in the bay area, san francisco has a business that is offering free

close to victims that have local ties who lost everything in the even fire kron 4 sleep to all reports the owner is helping out while still recovering for recent burglary. >> in the bags, are you guys for michelle slater drives down to southern california to reconnect with her older sister, gina ron's. there's nothing says that. friday, she stops by kristin klein surplus storage container on treasure island. we're just going through the container trying to find anything that might fit anything that you might be excited or feel good line owns the vintage clothing store vacation sf in the city's north beach neighborhood and is offering free clothes to fire victims like ross whose house in altadena burned to the ground on tuesday. >> this picture shows her facing the devastation that it would be cool to offer to friends of friends and people that follow the store, someone to be able to come in and pick out things that they would actually normally wear. slater's says her sister operated her business out of her home and we'll have to

start over to. >> slater's colleagues at the solano county public defender's office covering her case is well, she tends to her family. everything's on all of her stuff. obviously. >> and her partner who passed away a few years ago has belongs his last along kings were in there. >> it's just all christian klein is responding to inquiries made through social media. she says she cannot help everyone and her selection of vintage clothing may not fit everyone's taste, but having managed through her own house fire in the past and pushing through 5 burglaries at her store in 6 years, the most recent last month, klein says it is important to help others in need. there's gofundme is in their support for people that. all of that helps you. >> rebuild. but there is a very heavy weight of realizing that everything that you on and all of your memories and everything is calm and anything that resembles what you used to have.

>> can help an emotionally broken person. feel whole on treasure island. philippe djegal all kron. 4 >> and our parent company nexstar has partnered with the american red cross to launch a donation page for wildfire victims in southern california. you can scan this qr code on your screen to make a donation right now. we're going to take a live look here now at what's happening in southern california. we have some video here to show us. this is venice beach and there's still some smoking conditions in the area they're caused by the wildfires. meteorologist collin grogan is here now with details. yeah, that's right. so we talk about containment on these fires. they have had some success and the lady of fire, probably the one that's been the most successful there. 75% containment. >> we've got a little bit of containment to ons fires like the hurst fire and also the kenneth fire there in that 35% containment with the larger ones palisades. we are only at 8% containment and only 3% containment on the fire, which would be the second largest one. so obviously a long way

to go here and just so many fires at once. as we take a look at satellite here, you can see again today. if you look at a little closely, we start to see some of the smoke kind of streaming yesterday and when you can see it on satellite and indication of, you know, the scope of its obviously a lot of smoke out there in this area under an air quality alert. that is not surprising, but that's where they're at. so wanted to take a look at kind of where the air quality is right now. and it's actually a little bit better than it was earlier today. right now, you can see some of the orange and yellow dots but not bad. now the question might become well is are we going to be seeing some of that smoke and, you know, it's entirely possible that we do. but right now we are sitting with just a tiny bit of haze out there and and a little bit of yellow. that means moderate air quality, not that we're doing just fine. but as we take a look at the future cast of this smoke, you can see how it does kind of start to move from north to south as that next low pressure system drops in so that northerly flow will actually start to push it away from the bay area. so that bodes well for us. not so well for those who are to the south of this fire. so obviously

winds still a concern. you can see some of the gusts as we just go through the afternoon and evening. it isn't until we get really into the weekend. that will start to see things start to kick up again. and they have potential for more wind next week. obviously, that is not great news, but that is what's going on with the weather. back to you. >> all right. well, today is day 4 of the cs conference in las vegas and today's rich on tech rich demuro shows us how some creators are preparing us for natural disasters. just like the one in l a. >> rich demuro here. rich on tech in las vegas at cs 2025. or the wildfires have impacted show as well and unique way. many attendees from los angeles either didn't come in all or they had to go home early to check on the situation back at home. and everyone at the show. so many attendees came up to me to express their best wishes for everyone in los angeles impacted. now with that in mind, we decided to scour the show floor for any technology that might help in an emergency situation.

>> at cs 2025, in las vegas. in addition to the gadgets and ai another key topic, the devastating wildfires in los angeles. i'm also one of the people who live in california was also very concerned about wildfires. disaster tech has always been on display. now it's being noticed. we're always looking out be more proactive and detecting threats and also environmental first one of the most recognizable safety brands out there that used to be about 20 years ago that he had 17 minutes to escape a house fire that time has now been reduced to minutes or less. and that is if you have a working smoke alarm open floorplans synthetic materials and lithium ion batteries make today's homes burn faster and hotter the living room from lithium-ion battery fire can go up in. 45 seconds >> and cloud makes an ai-powered video camera when it sees fire or smoke. it

sounds an alarm to activate water suppression systems. >> while inova nano jack clean smoke particles and more from the air without filters or chemicals able to do is to spray into the air. trillions of nano size, water droplets. >> and what those dew is a go and and goals. all the particulates matter in the atmosphere dropping down to the ground and in state they're donating systems in the la area. >> their booth did seem to have cleaner, fresher air. then the vicinity. drones used to get a bad name, but they're increasingly helpful in disaster planning and relief. >> you have planes and helicopters are a little bit higher when you have a drone, you're getting centimeter level data you can understand individual trees into plant. individual structures and they're also now, the idea is to have them help fight fires

using very, very large roles, almost the size small planes, ally, information that, you know, put out fires. so not ask the recovery, but also helping to prevent the worst disaster can do, especially when it comes to fires. >> i think what's most interesting to me throughout all of this is that when disaster strikes, you got all the technology in the world, it may or may not help, but it's really the human cycle. back to basics. and they just want to help each other in any way that they can more information on any of the solutions i showed you go to my website, rich on tech dot tv in las vegas. i'm rich demuro. that's richaun tack. >> firefighters from san francisco are on the front lines in los angeles county. the san francisco fire department sharing video of its crews working alongside southern california. firefighters. nearly 2 dozen firefighters from san francisco are sent there earlier this week. and addition, there's also crews from alameda and santa clara

counties there. crews from san mateo county arrived last night. and officials say that barry firefighters could stay in that area for several weeks. and the agency is sending crews to las angeles is also the oakland fire department. a dozen firefighters have been sent so far. department also sent a water tender oakland's fire chief shared some information with some new members of the city council about this and also warned about closing fire stations in oakland kron four's. dan kerman reports. >> few in oakland can forget oakland's keller fire. it had all the makings of another firestorm but was quickly contained with little damage. you know, if we hadn't at a little luck and tremendous amount of support from our region. >> it would have been catastrophic. but oakland fire chief tim in covington told new members of the city council thursday. >> that even with help from other agencies, a similar event now could end in devastation like los angeles.

now that the city has closed 2 fire stations when we don't have our full compliment of fire service. >> 3 months ago, we could be looking the same way la looks. the 2 fire stations were shuttered to help close 129 million dollar budget deficit. >> covington says it's a gamble. the city cannot afford. we have our full complement. we're rolling the dice. we don't have a full compliment. we're really playing russian roulette. the closure of stations. 25 28 for the next 6 months is expected to save the city 5 million dollars. but the closures mean it will take fire crews longer to respond to emergencies per person is having a heart attack. >> or seizure or a structure fire. we could be 10, 12, 15 minutes away our come from 4 districts a way to get to that call councilmember rebecca kaplan did offer some hope. >> and the next several weeks and city will be receiving an unexpected 2.6 million dollars due to greater than expected

revenue from events at the oakland arena and coliseum. last year. and so we will bep working on item to bring that should oakland share of that money back. >> to to protect restore our fire services and our first nations in oakland. but even if that unexpected event, money is able to be used to reopen one of those 2 fire stations. >> 4 additional ones are slated to close sometime in february. dan kerman kron, 4 news. >> still ahead here to future of tiktok. >> if the supreme court when app could be banned i

>> watch >> duty is this app that gets people lot of real time information about wildfire since grown a lot in popularity this week because there was some misinformation and conspiracies that are threat spread on social media, about the fires and allay. but this app really helps people understand what's going on in their neighborhoods. and joining us now from watch app is the vp of operations. nic russell, next. thanks for being here. >> yeah, thanks for having me. really appreciate it. >> let's start with just exactly how the app works. for people who don't know. it gives people repl-time information about where fire is burning in their neighborhood. >> yeah, that's right. we give real-time information when seconds count. so we're telling a story line of events from the start of ignition and tell the threat passes. are the law we have some are doing this much like sports reporting. so we're giving everybody rich granular information about what's occurring around them. and do how do you gather all that information into the app?

>> so our team is operating behind the scenes and like we've organized ourselves regionally and the incident channels. and so we have a plethora signals. a potential wildfire starts coming into the air. and then the first thing that they do is start validating those thing. those through radio traffic and what we're waiting for us. firefighters to come on scene and tell us the fires 5 acres with rapid rate of spread structures were immediately threatened. evacuations are being requested and then we start conveying watch and this year based in santa rosa and this sort of came from. >> people really wanting real-time information about the fires that happened in the north bay. >> that's right. there's a right born out of the wild land. you know, we live out here. we've dealt with wildfires before we do with trying to go find information. we've seen the conspiracy theories of space, lasers and directed energy weapons and that's not what people need in times of disaster. you need clear, concise, actionable information. so our co-founder and ceo john court mills had the vision and saw it through

and develop the south and so started with the original 3 counties, sonoma lake and napa. fast forward to the day from august. 21 and now we're in. 22 states and 1476 counties and has the app grown this week from people trying to use it so they can get information is considering what's going on. >> l a >> yeah. it's grown. absolutely tremendously. 3 days ago we had just under 3 million users. now we have just under 5 million users and we've seen just absolutely crazy traffic spikes, especially after the emergency alert that was sent out to the entire county yesterday. immediately after that, we saw a huge spike in traffic. people coming to us to find out more information on what was actually taking place. >> and i understand that you along with many of the local emergency responders when on monday we knew that this is going to be really windy and dangerous fire conditions in la county. they got there

crews ready and started to deploy us about your staff, you know, ready to do all hands on deck because you just had this, this intuition that things get really bad this week. how did you guys manager pretty small company still? >> yeah, i know we're really fortunate because of our large coverage area. we have people all over the place, including people in new zealand there volunteering for us and our volunteers bases over 200 people. now. and so i had in this event, we did preplanning. we had schiff sent out. and then as soon as the first fire started, we enacted our rapid response plan which starts 24, 7 coverage in 12 hour shifts. and so we were able to cover this and and was 0 downtime. you know, we saw a perfect storm of events coming together and unfortunately, all it took was one admission to start a devastating process. and now we're seeing that play out with several wildfires in there. and just last question here, quickly, what's the goal overall of having this app for people to use? >> yeah, no, that's a great questions of biggest goal.

here is fire is not a name, right? it's not called fire duty. it's called watch duty because it's not going to add here. there's more disasters that need more attention. they need more real-time information. and so we're not done flooding is the big one here in sonoma county. we have river communities that deal with river flooding. so that's something you'll be seeing coming from us very soon. and then you'll see more work that we do around other disasters. well, this here is nic russell, the vp of operations from watch app. i'm assuming people can download it on their devices right now. >> that's right. returns. and as an otter been served and served in california, thank you, nick. >> that there is a chunk of flying ice off of a car crashes there into a windshield. this accident happened in kansas. sheriff's deputies saying it's important to clean snow and ice off of cars before driving. they say the truck driver did have some minor cuts from the glass, but it could have been much worse.

so. fires to ice. we're taking a live look here now because there is a major snowstorm in parts of the country today. where's this live picture from? do we know that's chicago area so that about the snowstorm is not just in the usual places. it's in the places you don't expect it like atlanta and, you know, places like. >> nashville got snow today. you can see very icy in atlanta. that purple. that's that rain snow line. and that could be some of the most dangerous weather when you've got those icy conditions. >> i can be black ice. it can be very, very, very difficult to get around it. you can see where all this is rolling through. >> incredible system that's been taking advantage of this very cold air. the kind of rolled down from canada. well, to the north, i always say this is when the canadian air decides to take its winter vacation and head down south and you can see that in dallas where it's 37 degrees or atlanta, where it's 30 degrees right now. they are below freezing. you just don't see that that often. so obviously you see all of these winter

storm advisories, warnings that are up for a good portion of the east coast right now, particularly as it heads towards the mid atlantic. and that will be the case as they go through the weekend before that system kind of works itself out. meanwhile, back in the day, as we say, it is gorgeous here, actually beautiful day today we've been taking advantage of the fact that our wind has been calm today. another day of really nice weather. we will start to see that wind change a little as we get to the weekend. but today it's about warm temperatures. again, san jose at 72 head up to the north bay, nevada's at 70 degrees. san francisco swing difference about 63. you can see oakland about again. well, above average, when you consider we should be in the upper 50's. so eventually to get a little more wind as we head into the weekend, north bay mountains, also our east bay hills, santa clara hills and down in the santa cruz mountains under a wind advisory starting at midnight tonight, going through 10:00am on sunday. so that means your saturday is 30 mile per hour wind y. 20 to expected. we could see gusts higher than that. so be prepared for that. it could mean some minor power outages.

but i think for all practical purposes, it really means if you've got anything around your house that needs to be secured. now is the time to do it in your yard or on your patio. things should start to calm down. we get into sunday and then you can see we kind of get back to average temperatures. but lots of lots of sunshine as we roll into next week. >> if the supreme court hears oral arguments from tiktok, the social media app is fighting to block a federal law mandating that it's lrb banned in the united states starting january 19th. our washington correspondent raquel martin has the latest. >> we're talking about a social media platform that is regularly used by 170 million americans. >> to dog and its creators hope the supreme court will say the app from a fast approaching federal ban that is half the country friday. tiktok lawyers argued leaders in washington unfairly singled out tiktok data collection practices and in turn violated users first amendment rights, whether it's the bbc or npr.

>> people can choose to express themselves on whatever platform they wish. the justices did not appear sympathetic to tiktok is freedom of speech argument. at one point justice alito asked why tiktok users couldn't simply move on to a different platform. just wondering whether this is like. some of these attachment to and old article of clothing i really love this old shirt, but i could go out and buy. >> something exactly like that. the justices repeatedly pointed to the federal law in question. >> it states tiktok chinese parent company bytedance poses a national security threat. we supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is in fact, subject. >> to doing intelligence work for the chinese government did talk asked the court to delay the ban until president elect donald trump takes office on january. 20th trump campaign to save the app. the biden administration urged the justices to uphold the law forcing tiktok to sell to an

american company or go dark january 19th in washington, raquel martin >> at a new sense of hope in the k-pop world that bts members returned to the world stage, even as one of them is coming to the bay area.

>> so are me. are you ready? that's the question. jay hope is coming back to the bay area this year. the bts member will complete his first ever solo tour visiting 15 cities. he will perform at the oakland arena for tonight's march 31st. and april, 1st, the

world tour is called hope on stage in the last time bts performed as a unit in the bay area 2018. all right. take a look at this very familiar furry friend, san francisco fire department, their search and rescue dog basco was in the running to be america's favorite pet moscow is currently in first place. but there are 6 days left until the voting ends. so you got to get out there. make your vote count. if basco winds can be featured on the cover of modern dog magazine and will receive a $10,000 prize. so go vote for basketball. >> america's favorite past. we still have a lot of news to get on kron 4 this afternoon. one of the stories we're watching includes the fire crews that are gaining some ground on the major wildfires in southern california. we're working quickly to control a new fire. and also help for the wildfire victims is coming from the bay area. san francisco business owner going through a difficult time herself is sending support to

those in need. we have team coverage for you during kron. 4 news at 3. i'm just enough for you right after this for you right after this break.

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>> while >> our devas ation in los angeles and the level of destruction, it's just jaw dropping. thank you for joining us here on kron. 4 news at 3. i'm justine waldman. we will continue our coverage hour about the deadly

wildfires te