. it was pretty epic. >> how long did i take you to get in? >> i'm going home. i'm calling in. commute, chaos all morning long and it's not over as b.a.r.t. scrambles to get commute back on. i'm tori campbell. b.a.r.t. has been shut down because of

overnight night fire. buss were provided but lines were long, some stretching for blocks. it took people hours to get to work. as word got that b.a.r.t. was shut down, commuters got into their cars, only find out that the highways were packed. the fire destroyed a senior center that was under construction. it also brought down power lines that fell on to the b.a.r.t. track. that prompted officials to shut down power. >> and we have live team coverage throughout the bay area. sal is working to get you around the mess. >> we start with claudine >> reporter: they are still waiting, tori. the lines have gotten shorter but they are by no means short.

let's go to >> it steve handelsman all the way down broadway to 21st street. believe it or not, it was twice this long earlier this morning. there is no doubt it's been a very long morning. >> the line continued to grow. >> the line is pretty epic. >> how long lit take you to get in. >> i'm i'm calling n i'm going home. >> you are done? >> done. >> reporter: transit was in crisis mode and when the first buses arrive at 20th and broadway, there was one really big problem. they were already pull. where did you get on the bus? >> right down the street here. you walked how many belongs down there? >> about four. >> how long of a line was there? >> not a line now. everybody got on this bus. i went down, saw a line.

yeah, bye. >> reporter: how many people do you think got on? five? >> just four. i was the fifth >> reporter: jury the fifth if. >> uh-huh >> reporter: all that waiting and only four people got on. >> yeah >> reporter: how long were you in line? >> an hour and a half. the line got worse, stretching four city blocks. most gave up. some considered it. >> i have about four or five times considered leaving and going home. >> this is a mess. >> reporter: some waited and grabbed taxis in an absolute panic. san francisco. >> reporter: but as news chopper shows you, most just waited out the unbelievable lines. >> very frustrating. they should have at least extra shuttles. >> reporter: but at least the buses came. >> i'm so happy. i've been waiting for two hours. >> reporter: the buses are

here. more consistently, ap told me that they had buses pulled off other routes to come here to try to make this more smoothly run and they made about 20 to 25 round trips into the city so far. take a look live back here at this line that stretches down to 21st street. how long does it take to get from the back to the front? folks in line are telling us it takes about 30 minutes. claudine wong, ktvu channel 2 news. >> thank you, claudine. it's been a big job all day so far helping to try to get around and keep them informed with the situation. sal castenada has been on that job since we have been on the air. any good option now, sal? >> reporter: i think waiting it out for some is a good option. let's go right to news chopper 2. these are live pictures. the bay bridge is still backed up, like a morning commute. there seems to be some light at the end of this tunnel, if you will, because the traffic is getting a little bit better on 80, on 24 and 580 getting here. but at the toll plaza, it is

still backed up. can you see very heavy traffic still. it looks like it's going to stay this way for a while. some of the alternate routes are not that bat. i want to show you some maps. do we have any of those available? because i want to show you -- there you g look at the san mateo bridge below. it's much better than it was. 88 is still slow but oakland is much better. i want to talk about this accident that happened about 9:00 in the morning about 10:00 to 9:00. this crash blocked lanes on the bridge for about 30 minutes. and that really contributed to how bad the traffic was backed up all morning long. two lanes were taken up westbound right before treasure island. so that also made things much slower. they cleared this accident at about 9:20 this morning and really it has not recovered. you add all the cars coming in because b.a.r.t. is not working and you really have a mess here that still has not cleared up. we'll stay on it and we'll have a traffic update frequently

throughout this show and all afternoon long. >> thank you, sal. >> for many people, when about they realized they could not get sphroon under the way, they trite to get to the city on the bay. coming up, a look at the very crowded ferries. making matters worse for commuters, two big events going on in san francisco. first up, the u.s. open. fans have been told to get b.a.r.t. to get to the tournament all week, which was impossible. and in about a half hour, the giants will take on the astros again with a very enthusiastic crowd expected to be on hand after last night's perfect game against the astros by matt cain. and depending upon when b.a.r.t. can reopen, it could be a mess. the fire that started this all ripped through a building for seniors that was under construction near the oakland b.a.r.t. station on third street.

tara moriarty has been on the fire scene all morning. it wars an inferno, tara. what's the situation now? >> reporter: some firefighters have been here for ten hours and they are only now beginning to wrap up their work here on scene. the heat from this fire was so intense. can you see it actually scorched this taillight here and it melted the paint off the cars. if you take a look at the street lamps, those were melted as well. the biggest damage that affected the most people was right up there on those b.a.r.t. tracks. flames shot 150 feet into the air. >> pick up wss in station 15. >> reporter: this is exclusive video from station resporeds at the scene. >> i would characterize it as huge in my experience >> reporter: firefighters responded to a fire that ripped through a five-story senior

center under construction. >> we had engine companies on the scene that were 300 feet away from the fire and they were too close. they had to back away because of the heat >> reporter: construction crews that were working on the project were shocked. >> naturally, it's a shame that it went down. we have been working hard on this building now for about two and a half months. to see it in this condition just is pretty devastating. >> reporter: flames leapt over the b.a.r.t. railing, damaging the tracks, forcing b.a.r.t. to shut down service between oakland and san francisco. >> there are very high voltage lines that we have to make sure that are safe to reenergized and there are poles that are in danger of falling into the tracks. >> reporter: there are two trains rubbing, but they will be operated manually. >> if you are used to trains every eight minutes, it's going to be 15 minutes. with the u.s. open and giants game, i assume we're going to

have a pretty packed commute. >> reporter: firefighters waited for six hours before they were able to tackle hot spots this morning. that's because it took pg&e a while to tapt gas leak to the main line. luckily, no one was hurt. a security guard did notice some suspicious activity here. so arson investigators are asking anyone who saw people in this area near the west oakland b.a.r.t. station to call the number on your screen. and back here live, you can see that b.a.r.t. officials have once again gone back out on to the tracks. so far, we have seen no signs of any trains running. live from oakland, i'm tara more dwrarty, moriarty, ktvu channel 2 news. >> thank you, tara earlier, pg&e told us nine customers had lost electricity as a result of the fire. in the past half hour, they told us that it's now down to four customers and they hope to

have power restored to them any time now. and long lines for the ferry to get from the east bay to the city. we'll let you know how long the wait was. and mark at tamayo will be here. >> the tragedy that occurred here did not need to occur. it was predictable, was avoidable. >> and the announcement just made by the san francisco district attorney. it involved a bicyclist in a very unusual case.

we are following a developing story in castro valley where a garbage truck has crashed into a house. amazing video here coming in from news chopper 2 less than 30 minutes ago. it happened in christie way and joseph drive in castro valley about 10:15 this morning. can you see the wheel marks made by the truck before it careened into the house. it did quite a bit of damage to the house and thetrees in the area. and also looks like the roof was quite damaged there as well. chp says this waste management truck weighs about 45,000 pounds. at this point, we have no reason why this crash occurred and no reports of any injuries. if we get any more information, though, we will bring it to

you. now back to the massive fire that is still impacting b.a.r.t. and b.a.r.t. services across the bay. news of what happened was a big surprise to one developer. >> somebody pounded on the door to my hotel down the street about an hour ago and said, your building's on firearm i raced down here and it was burned to the ground. >> reporter: darren lynch is in charge of the construction progress that has burned. he says he is sad to see the four-month-long building burned to the ground. the building would have been a home for low- income seniors. low-level service is expected to happen this afternoon. b.a.r.t. is working on damaging the third rail damaged by the fire. they hope to get it done. service will be single tracked.

that will mean that trains will be slower than normal that means that the trains is will be operated ma'amly rather than by computers. a limited number of trains will still be passing by the trans bay. even for this evening commute, it will be slower than normal there are some spectacular pictures and videos from this among's fire. take a look at this video sent to us have one viewer. can you see flames shooting up in the air up to 100 feet in some cases was the report. and another one sent to us bay worker who was on the scene moments ago. we want more of your pictures. send them to us at photos@ktvu.com or or twitter account at ktvu or post them on our facebook page. for many, when they learned about the b.a.r.t. problems, they darted over to the ferries to try to get to san francisco that way. like the buses, lines were extremely long.

ktvu's carra liu is live at jack london square. >> reporter: that's right. a lot of traffic here at jack london throughout the morning. this is about the first time all morning that we have not seen a long linebacked up here at the ferry. that's because the ferry service added additional ferries. in the past hour, most of the folks we have seen headed out are giants fans going to the game. folks headed to the u.s. open or others visiting the city. an estimated four to five times the normal number of passengers took the lines today. it did move rapidly for folks once they got moving. they waited maybe a half hour, maybe less. san francisco ferry said that they scrambled to get more in. a lot of folks in line told us this has been an hours long commute for them to get to

work. one man took b.a.r.t. for a stretch and then used the bus and took the shuttle to get down here to london square. he estimated it took him four hours to get to work. >> what can you do? there is nothing else you can do. if i could, i probably would have just stayed at home but i can't. so that's why i was hoping they could get b.a.r.t. fix by tonight so i can get home. >> reporter: the website for the ferry did crash earlier today because so many people were trying to use it. they say they are working to get it back and up by the afternoon so folks can check schedules. the san francisco bay ferry is promising additional boats and additional crew to help handling the evening commute home. again, they do plan to have enough boats to get everybody home. they are asking for a little extra patience. it might take a little longer than normal.

>> thank you, carra. let's go back to sal castenada. >> you can go to the brim which is just a 40 minute delay which is not all that bad considering that we had a traffic delay that was an hour to two hours. now it's kind of back down to what you might wait on a normal busy day. look at the fast track lanes there in the middle. if you have one of those transponders, you are getting through a little bit betterment we are seeing some signs of life here at the toll plaza. it is stitt backed up here going through the maze but people are getting backed up to their destination. 880 is getting better but this is 580. this is a look at the colyseum. we had slow traffic all the way from san leandro to the bay bridge. if you are drying through oakland, should be okay i want to show you the track here through oakland on 80. still very slow, 24 is a little slow approaching the maze and 880 has cleared up. i just want to mention, just so you know there is a pretty

serious crash here on westbound 780 to eastbound 80. that ramp is closed. it was a police chase that ended there. chp place police closed that ramp. chp issued a sigalert so you know to avoid the area. some people missed some very important meetings today because of the b.a.r.t. trouble. the u.s. citizens and immigration services say people who were not able to get to their scheduled interviews will be able to reschedule. the uscis says it is automatically rescheduling interviews and will send out appointment letters. we showed you long lines to get through downtown oakland there were long lines at the b.a.r.t. station away from down town this is video for people waiting at the mcarthur situation. people came here expected to get on b.a.r.t. got in line to get on buses

instead. some came here hoping to get a ride into san francisco but ended up waiting for a long time for the buses to show up. >> i heard about this on the news. i left my house at 6:00, and it is now 9:00 and i'm still here. it is very, very unacceptable on the part of b.a.r.t. >> it was adventure for buses to arrive. there were hand painted signs at stations. >> a group of kids had planned to go to the california academy of sciences in golden gate park. without any trains, they were left outside on the pavement. they say they are keeping up their spirits and they are not too upset. >> it puts a little hiccup on our day but we'll still come through and have a lot of fun. >> we can't go to the academy

of science. >> no. we'll talk about it a little more. >> reporter: the group tells us they will likely make the trip to the golden gate park and the museums there tomorrow. in just the last half hour, the san francisco district attorney confirmed what he told us, clues civil last night. the bicyclist who killed a pedestrian will be charged. gascone says that chris bucchere will be charged for running down a 78-year-old people. he struck sutchi hui. the man later died. today, the district attorney says that bucchere was

disregarding laws. >> we have an individual who had a need for speed. he was trying to break his own record california democratic leaders say they will schedule a vote on the latest budget plan before tomorrow's deadline. that's before governor brown having said he will sign it. but lawmakers say they are on the same page. democratic leaders say their plan meets the governor's criteria for a balanced about jet but makes smaller cuts. san jose police rushed to mallard court after getting reports of a fight. when they got there, a 35-year- old man had been stabbed. he was treated for serious injuries. police say the attackers ran off and are still on the loose. the bay area nurses strike is over, but nurses who walked out yesterday are not back on

the job today. nurses from 11 sutter hospitals staged a one-day strike yesterday. they had planned on returning to work today, but the hospital had signed a five-day contract to replace them. so they were locked out. golfers are teeing off at the olympic club and looks like tiger woods is surging. he is just one shot off the lead right now. wood and mickelson are paired in the championship today for the fir time since 2008. they started on the 9th tee. mcilroy and luke donald edwards will have an afternoon start. they are receiving applause from the thousands of fans. >> i want to see the challenge that the club brings to one of the best golfers in the woad. >> reporter: right now, woods is in second place at 2 under par, one behind the leader

michael thompson and mickelson is struggling in early play. he is 6 over. tiger woods and mickelson have played through 16 holes. the fire that caused the problems in west oakland was big and difficult to fight. let's go back to ktvu's tara moriarty who has been at the scene of the fire all morning long. tara? >> reporter: what was one a five-story building right behind me here is basically reduced to rubble. the concrete is still standing but the wood framing is gone. you can see firefighters there standing over the bridge. joining me here is the battalion chief. there are some atf investigator on the scene. >> that is correct. we are still investigating the scene, being assisted by the atf and the oakland police fire investigators. >> reporter: jew said there was

a security guard that noticed some possible suspicious activity. there are cameras on street lamps, one on every street lamp. can you tell us what sort of help you need from the public in trying to see if perhaps this was arson? >> the fire investigator unit wants everyone that might have saw anything suspicious in the area from 215 to call their unit which the number is (510)283-5032 >> reporter: again, this is on the corner where mandela parkway and 5th. >> we are on the corner of mandela parkway and 5th and the fire was on 5th and union. >> reporter: it covers a very massive area. have you ever seen anything like this before? these flames were shooting 150 feet up into the air. >> the flames were very high. we are lucky that there was no wind much the first arriving units respond quickly and they did a very safe and aggressive attack. we were able to contain the

fire. we did have embers that were slightly blowing in the area and we had engines patrolling to make sure that nothing else was catching on fire. the first and all other arriving units did a very outstanding job. >> reporter: thanks for joining us live, lisa baker. again, if you saw anything in this area of 5th and mandela parkway, you are asked to call fire investigations. they really want to hear what you have to say. they did notice some people in this area, some suspicious activity and want to try to catch whoever is responsible if it does, indeed, turn out to be arson. live from oakland, i'm tara moriarty, ktvu channel 2 news. just a quick update. plenty of sunshine across the bay, just lingering patches of fog near parts of the san mateo county coast line towards monterey bay but over san francisco bay, a little bit of

haze, but clear skies otherwise. san francisco in the 60s. warming up in san jose, checking in at 73 degrees. santa rosa in the upper 70s. look at these inland spots in the upper 70s on track to reach the low 80s this afternoon. forecast headlines for today, lots of sunshine. we'll call it mild to warm. big warmup begins or your friday and the weekend, major warming expected by saturday. temperatures inland, we'll see that coming up right now. graphically, we are warming up across the entire bay area. the extreme numbers out towards livermore, concord. tracks to reach low 90s. by saturday, that will be the hottest day of the weekend. temperatures right around 100 degrees. for today, we have partly to mostly sunny skies, patchy fog near parts of the coast line closer to monterey bay. here is the bigger perspective if you can pick out in the pacific. here is some of that fog closer

to monterey. high pressure returns. strong high pressure and also working in tandem with some fairly strong offshore winds that will warm up the entire bay area. the beaches, upper 70s to right around 80 degrees. san francisco, easily in the mid-80s by saturday. temperatures in lands, like i mentioned, right around100 degrees. with that, increasing fire danger. fire watch already posted for the north by hales. i expect that will be extended to the east pay hills. but for now, that's friday night into saturday in the north bay hills. warm towards santa rose yassments san jose tops out quite around 80 degrees. half moon bay, 64. here ace look ahead at the five- day forecast. we're going to have some patchy

fog first thing tomorrow morning many once that fog clears, we are warming back up. saturday will be the hottest day of the period. you can see the range there. inland spot around 100 degrees. if you are not a fan of the heat, you always hear the responses as people want to cool down. that will happen beginning monday. we should begin it trend down the second half of the weekend and into monday of next week. tori. the heat wave, we are talking about two to three to four days. that's the concern but this is a one-day deal and we'll have some relief in sight. >> nice to have some relief there. giants fans sill celebrating after matt cain threw first perfect game in giants history. >> from deep, he got him. that's the perfect game. >> reporter: his teammates went wild along