closed as a result -- initially closed as a result but they have since been reopened. take 780 to 80. this map gives you a sense of where the fire is burning in fairfield. ktvu's debora villalon is at the scene. you have been tweeting pictures of a water drop and fire. tell us where you are and what the situation on the ground is. >> reporter: i am on cordelia road. in the middle of the fire fight. since cal fire arrived it intensified and they are getting more water on the flames from the engines and the air. [ indiscernible ] >> reporter: they were at one point working three fires. the two structures that you have been seeing from news chopper 2 and also a fire that startedoon grassy hill. -- started on a grassy hill. [ indiscernible ] >> reporter: they are just

trying to get control of the one that was an unoccupied home. not sure if the homeowner wasn't there or if it was a vacant home. the winds are whipping. i have you have seen that and it is making it difficult for -- i know you have seen that and it is making it difficult for firefighters out here. there are still evacuations of homes in the area as a precaution. >> can you tell what is on fire right now? the last time we looked it looked like one other house and maybe some trucks or other equipment were on fire, what can you see? >> reporter: this is a rural road. it is off the freeway. but you have big rural lots with atv or farm equipment, barnes, outbuildings. not all of the structures are

inhabited. some are barnes or for storing equipment. i think some of those things may have been on the large lots and on the properties. the main building that was fully ablaze when we arrived was a home but we are not sure if it was an occupied home or not. >> ktvu's debora villalon on the scene, thank you for all the information. we will check in with you in a moment. mike mibach is also live at the scene. tell us where you are and what do you see? >> reporter: right now i am south of the fire. we were in benicia, the winds starting going up. took us 45 minutes but we are just south of where the fire is. pulled up 5 minutes ago. here you can see engines in

front of the homes. one, two, three. doing structure protection. trying to make sure the smoke doesn't get there and the flames don't catch that house there, homes there on fire. we have been noticing a couple cal fire planes at this time. seems like they are mapping it. seeing which direction it goes. the wind definitely blowing west to east. one of the witnesses talked about maybe the lack of possibility of water. since i have been here i have seen a cal fire chopper coming and going and seems like they were dumping down into the slew and picking it up what it could. it should be coming back in a couple minutes. what was your name? >> chris. >> reporter: what did you see? >> the fire started on the other pseudoof the freeway -- side of the freeway, 680.

jumped over here. other side. caught more grass. caught somebody's front yard and a house was on fire that they got put out. next thing you know this building is on fire. not sure, maybe a house. i am not sure. >> tell me your thoughts and emotions. >> it is crazy. i feel bad for the people, it is their homes. them for years and year. it is heart breaking. >> reporter: what about the firefighters, quick response from what you saw? >> yeah. very quick. they were on the other side of the freeway dealing with the small grass fire and they started calling other agencies and they got here quick. >> as we watch this water drop, that is that cal fire chopper, it is about to make another drop on one of the houses here. as we watch that, do you have a lot of fire hydrants in the

area? >> there is a few. i am not sure if there is a lot. i don't think there is. >> reporter: i don't know how far you are from where we are standing, were you hold to evacuate? >> we were told to evacuate because the moke is really bad for -- smoke is really bad for your health. >> reporter: thank you for taking the time. appreciate it. watching the cal fire chopper. haven't seen a lot of hoses out here. at least from my ventage point, they -- advantage point, they have water. the only water we are seeing is that cal fire chopper. >> when we look at the dry grass and brush seems like that is what is leading to the fire spreading so fast. along with the wind.

>> reporter: yeah. right here. yeah. i am, what, 5'9", this is 3 feet. a lot of dry grass in the area. the wind has been blowing hard. i noticed it at 4:00 p.m. that was in benicia. fairfield and beyond. the other thing, you could show how strong the wind is, usually the smoke billows up. on 680 i couldn't see the smoke. and then we turned around a bin you could see it. almost parallel to the ground. not going up. blowing east towards sacramento. shows you how strong the wind is blowing. >> we turn now to our chief meteorologist. that backs up what you were telling us about how strong winds are. >> this is one of the windiest places in the bay area. 25, 35 miles per hour routinely

this time of year. i think the most fascinating thing from mike's shot, besides good information, the brush that he showed. this brush, you see the ground, right? that stuff is high. 3, 4 feet high. it is dry. if you were to light that where mike was standing with the winds, it would take no time for that fire to travel a city block. my thought is, in this fire as we reconstruct it visually, you look at how this thing looks like it went down, it is almost clear it just ran. as it did it caught the homes on fire. winds gusting. 28, 30 miles per hour. down to 23 miles per hour on the gusts. backing down a little bit. 88 degrees.

humidity right now, 25%. fire zone is in here. right? the smoke was blowing in this direction. like this. okay? 80. towards the fairfield area. right now fairfield 23. to the north, napa 26. look, this is one of the windiest places in the bay area. what i mentioned earlier, their fighting a wild land fire and structure fire. you have cars with gas, you have oil, you have houses, brush, trees. everything is thrown in. i see a hot of hoses, their water pressure is taking a hit as well. there is a lot going on. very scary, especially when we first started an hour ago, we looked at each other, wow! this could be real trouble.

>> when you look at this, white smoke when homes are burning. white smoke is an indication they are getting the fire under control and we are seeing a lot of white smoke here. couple minutes ago we were seeing black smoke. looks like they are making progress right now. i want to show you tape we shot earlier here. we have been talking about how a couple homes have been burned to the ground. we have video showing one of the houses -- unfortunately we watched this house burn to the ground while we were on the air. started on the porch. you see the results here. burned through the house. there is almost nothing left now. >> this is -- you see the firefighters, they have moved on to the next structure. that is a loss. they are looking to see what else is next, how could we save it, again that one home, the fire was -- [ talking at the same time ] >> you see how black that smoke

was. this is tape right here. by the way. you can see how black the smoke is. >> we have another tape, dealing with the traffic. before we get to the traffic, this is the picture, the fire on the far side of the house. the traffic here. traffic on 680 was and is a mess. almost down to lake herman road. chp is telling people to stay away from the area. take 780 to 80 to get around it. the traffic remains. this is a piece of video showing you what cars were able to get through, it was slow. 680 backed up to lake herman road. >> a witness who saw the fire just moments after it started. he said it started in some

brush. right next to 680. jumped 680 and then caught this house on fire that you are looking at here. because of the winds, 30 miles per hour, the flames just kept spreading. spot fires breaking out in several different locations. this again is that one house. you see the green thing right there, that is a boat. initially that boat was nexts to the house and firefighters made sure they moved that boat, that boat could have a lot of gas on board and that could lead to an explosion if it caught fire so they moved the boat to a safer location. >> back now, live picture, on the left hand side of the screen. a water drop. you see white smoke. that is a indication firefighters may be getting a good handle on the fire.

this picture you see no orange, you see white smoke rising from the ashes now of that fire. we will stay on top of this breaking news situation as we have been for an hour, we will get you more information, how it started, how many people asked to evacuated, as soon as we get that information we will get it to you. more after a short break.

back now oo breaking news we have -- to breaking news we have been following for an hour and 15 minutes, these are live pictures from news chopper 2. you can see they have made progress with this fire but it is still a very active situation. and we have a couple of

buildings still burning here. gone to 5 alarms. ktvu's mike mibach is right in the middle of things. mike? >> reporter: yeah. we just pulled up 30 minutes ago, 20 minutes ago. winds still blowing. that is 680 right there. approaches 80. a witness told me the fire started on the other side of that. jumped 680 and started making its way quickly east in this direction. as you can see they are doing structure protection on the homes in the area. just, again, just south of where the fire started. tony, you saw this thing from the start, tell us the story. >> when i got here, the structure to my right was on fire, within 45 minutes the structure was engulfed. >> reporter: talk about the condition. you said that you hate to see it but it is expected.

>> yeah. real windy. just started flaming good. just went up quick. >> one structure. within a minute, 2 minutes, we had it live, that thing took off. >> yeah. it went up fast. matter of minutes. just engulfed. trees caught on fire. just went quickly. fast. burned fast. >> reporter: tony pointed something out, there is a ridge east of where we are, we noticed crews. a few individuals. there is that threat of the wind picking up embers and tossing it into dry areas and starting another fire. there is crews up there monitoring that situation. we talked about water 5 minutes ago, i saw firefighters putting water on what may have been part of the structure that burned. i can't tell. i saw a hose, water and a

hydrant on the street that we are on. not being used. maybe two far from the flames. again that chopper still flying over head. we don't see the bucket now. again, probably from the first time we step foot on the scene the smoke has gone down, which is aigate -- is a great sign. >> that last picture, the helicopter, we could see the tops of the trees blowing around because of all the wind. let's switch our crews here, another ktvu channel 2 news reporter, debora villalon. you have been tweeting updates and photos from the fire. we have seen a water drop, fire beyond a fence line. tell us what is happening where you are now. >> reporter: i am at that ridge that mike just talked about. there are firefighters here. grass on the ridge was actively

burning and was one of the spot fires. they have that one out but just while we have been standing here, crews came running and they were getting water on it. this is the situation that is getting better by the minute but it could also change by the minute because the wind is blowing and there is still an active fire that can, you know -- [ indiscernible ] >> reporter: the sky does seem to be clearing as far as smoke goes. i talked to someone who said that this started along the freeway, along 680 and crews happened to be driving by and just spotted it. flames 20 feet. there was a quick response in

terms of being on top of it. this stretch of cordelia road at richy road is where the fire headquarters is. so they were leaving or coming back and saw this fire right in their backyard. >> we are able to give viewers a live picture of what is going on. white from the fire scene and we can see that picture. there is a firefighter on top of an engine using a hose to put water on the burned area. firefighters still very active at the scene. but this white smoke is taken as good news. i know you are familiar with the area, can you tell us about that part of fairfield. i heard people talking about those are old homes. does that match with what you know about the area?

>> reporter: yeah. this is very much country. most of the homes here, you could have country homes out here, 100 years old. big porch and big lots with barnes and outbuildings. good amount of machineries for folks who work out here in construction or agriculture. there is quite a bit olmaterial that could -- bit of material that could burn but the lots are big. this gives firefighters a lot of places to stand. there is room for them to maneuver. >> we will let you get back to gathering more information. we have been talking to debora villalon and mike mibach on the scene. an update before break, a 5 alarm fire. a couple homes burned to the

ground. the problem is the strong winds. started as a small brush fire and just like that it spread and created several spot fires. they got a couple of them under control. there is still some flame burning. we will take a short break. when we come back more on this fire, also what is ahead for the weekend. we will talk to our chief meteorologist and get the weather update for the weekend. we will be back right after this. bulldog: ah, the dog days of summer!

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a quick look at the five- day forecast with your bay area weekend in view. like it was today. cooler tomorrow. temperatures in the upper 80s. today we had low 90 said. sunday back into the upper 90s. temperatures all similar through the weekend. fog is along the coast. we have been following had breaking news of the fire. fast moving brush fire. we saw it come up. now it looks like they are getting a good handle on it. as the winds continue to be strong, firefighters fighting this fire smartly. >> it grew as you were watching

it with us. started as a small fire from the side of the freeway on 680. we had a number of people speak with us live during this past hour and a half telling us the story, started small, jumped the freeway and grew. people describe the area as old cordelia. older home. a lot of space. a hot of dry brush. not just a rural fire fight, not a city type situation that fire crews are dealing with. between the low humidity, the heat and the winds, that is how weather is effecting what is happening here and we have seen two homes go up in flames. live on the air as we have been bringing the story to you. >> one witness said the fire went up like that because the winds in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 miles per hour. debora villalon talked to the fire department who said they happened to be driving by as

the fire started. but just like that they were dealing with huge flames. the wind spread to fire to several different spot locations. we watched one home burn to the ground live on the air. another home burned to the ground as well. at least two. maybe more. there has been a massive response from agencies all over the area. cal fire has responded. we have been watching water drops. they have been taking water out out of the slew and dropping it on the fire. seemed like they started to make a lot of progress on the fire. live pictures from news chopper 2, on the screen, you can see there is not a lot of smoke. maybe 45 minutes ago, that smoke was thick, jet black smoke. now it is just puffs of white smoke. that is a good indication they are getting the fire under control.

>> we haven't seen reports of anyone injured. no firefighters injured. no residents hurt because of the flames. that is the number one job, keep people safe and then property. we will stay on top of this breaking news story. it appears there is good news to report, looks like that fire is on its way out but still a very active active scene. more coverage on www.ktvu.com and on ktvu channel 2 news at 7:00 p.m. on tv 36. female announcer: don't miss sleep train's 4th of july sale.

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[ siren wailing, indistinct conversations ] do we know anything? oh, no. they're in there now with the doctor. we're lucky, though. the paramedics said it could've been a lot worse. my god, how did this even happen? there he is. big day's coming up. what do you want for your birthday, big dog? it's okay. i'm good. come on. the sky's the limit. dream big, my boy. well, i guess i could use a belt. a belt? yeah, you're right. i don't need it. an extension cord works pretty good. phil: every year, luke's birthday falls right around thanksgiving, and so it gets lost in the holiday shuffle. yeah, one year we forgot completely, and we had to improvise a cake out of stuffing. which, by the way, he was fine with. he's one of those kids, you get him a gift, and all he wants to do is play with the box.