has predicted a continued red flag weather event with strong winds and low humidities. placing all residents of los angeles county in danger. >> the firestorm raging in southern california. four fires fueled by winds forcing 70,000 people. excuse me, from their

homes. communities leveled by flames. the challenges crews continue to face on the front lines. and now southern california is getting support from across the west and the national guard. then strong winds here in the bay area, damage caused by winds and the cleanup that's now underway. also, san francisco welcomes a new mayor at an inauguration ceremony in the city by the bay. live pictures. here is. daniel lowry is now outlining his plans to make public safety a top priority. the news at noon starts now. >> this is ktvu, fox two news at noon. >> good afternoon. i'm gasia mikaelian. our big story continues to be the four major fires burning now in southern california. the images are devastating. there's the palisades fire, the eaton fire, the hurst fire and woodley fire. firefighters say this is the worst they've seen in 25 years. winds reaching over 100 miles an hour. they're now calling for support from the federal government. president biden and governor newsom got a briefing from cal fire just a short time

ago. a major disaster declaration was approved. >> we're prepared to do anything and everything as long as it takes to contain these fires and help reconstruct and make sure that we get back to normal. >> it's going to be a #### of a long way. >> aircraft have returned to the skies over pacific palisades, dumping water on flames. hundreds of firefighters also on the ground. firefighters say they're doing everything they can to protect life. first property next. here's what we know so far. at least two people have died in these four major wildfires, many others injured. the fires have destroyed more than 1000 structures, many of them homes. nearly 28,000 structures are threatened as these fires burn out of control from the coast to pasadena. at least 70,000 people have been evacuated. the governor has deployed the national guard to help in the fire fight. we'll turn now to ktvu. ali rasmus live in our newsroom for the latest update here. ali. yeah. >> gasia the latest information. just about 20 minutes ago, we've been informed that aircraft have now returned to the skies over los angeles, able to fight this

fire once again from the air and dump water on the complex of fires you just mentioned burning throughout los angeles county up until now. and for much of the morning, low visibility and high winds had grounded that fire fight from the air, forcing the more than 1400 firefighters tackling this disaster to fight the flames by land. only now the palisades, hurst, eaton and woodley fires all broke out just within the past 24 hours or so. in their latest update this morning, the la fire chief and other emergency responders confirmed at least two people have died and there is a, quote, high number of significant injuries to people who did not evacuate. more than a thousand structures have burned. the fires are all 0% contained. as firefighters struggle to contain the flames. los angeles leaders say it's been a, quote, immensely painful 24 hours as tens of thousands of people had to evacuate their homes, thousands more are on standby to be ready to evacuate at a moment's notice. >> we got notified by our

neighbors. this is a real close knit community. we look out for each other, and the neighbors drove around telling us of the fire. so we heeded the warning. we evacuated. >> as soon as i opened my door, it was like, right there. it hit me. it blew me back. >> i was getting more and more frantic. as you know, the lights were getting darker and the sun was. the sky was getting more red. it was scary. >> together, these fires are stretching the capacity of emergency services to their maximum limits. we want to make sure that everybody understands we are absolutely not out of danger yet. >> more than 100 schools, about 10% of the entire la unified school district, the second largest in the nation, are closed today to due to the fire risk and air quality concerns. the fires also cut off power to more than 180,000 people, mostly in los angeles county. as southern california edison cut service because of the risk of continued fire. another 500,000 could face shutoffs, depending

on the ongoing weather conditions. and while what sparked these destructive fires exactly is still not known, they are under investigation. we do know what is fanning these flames. wind gusts between 80 to up to 100 miles an hour and extremely dry conditions. l.a. county has only had about a 10th of an inch of rain since may. the national weather service says the red flag warning is expected to continue today, but the latest update in positive news firefighting aircraft are now once again able to fly over these fires and tackle the flames from the air for the first time today, after those planes had been grounded by windy conditions. we'll continue to monitor the fires burning in southern california and have another update later in the show. back to you, garcia. >> ali. rasmus. thank you. bay area emergency responders have arrived in southern california to help fire crews battle the multiple wildfires in their area. a group of alameda county firefighters left overnight made up of two strike teams. one strike team consists of crews from oakland, hayward and fremont, as well as alameda county. the other includes firefighters from east bay

regional parks, livermore, pleasanton, and the city of alameda. fire departments. 44 firefighters in all are part of the state emergency response. >> these crews are going to the palisades fire, which a lot of that is more terrain as opposed to community in the direct line of it, such as at the eaton fire. so they're gearing theirselves up of what they might see, but also they're staying aware that things could change at any time. >> fire crews from other parts of the bay, including san francisco and menlo park, are also headed south or on standby, prepared to mobilize. firefighters are keeping an eye on the weather conditions as they look to bring that fire under control. an awful lot of dry brush out there. heavy winds as well. our meteorologist, mark tamayo, has been monitoring conditions in southern california. it looks like there's no break in sight. >> not really. garcia. in fact, the winds have been relentless, picking up quite a bit yesterday. then a big uptick in those wind speeds yesterday evening. and take a look at some of the winds from this morning. the malibu hills, 70 miles an hour, even out toward the coast.

winds of 40 miles an hour. so the red flag warning started yesterday. it continues today into thursday, but i will say this will likely be extended into friday as well. we are expecting another round of some winds, probably not as strong as what we have been dealing with in southern california so far, but still the winds are not going to go away. so damaging winds. unfortunately, these these alarming projections are kind of a reality right now. alarming of the winds around 60 to 100 miles an hour. it's also a very dry weather pattern as well. relative humidity coming down around 8 to 15%. take a look at some of the wind speeds right now. these are some of some of the airports in ontario right now. a gust of 53 miles an hour lacks a wind gust to 33 miles an hour. as we show you, the three biggest fires will kind of get an idea of the layout here. and some of the weather stations are actually not reporting anything right now, so we're just kind of picking out some of the reports from around the fire zone, and we're still showing you some winds at least closer to the

palisades fire. gusting to over 30 miles an hour. as we show you the weather conditions around the eaton fire, closer to pasadena and altadena, you can see winds. one gust of up to 41 miles an hour. some of this topography hill, some of the topography in the hillsides having a big impact on the fire fight there. and then also with the hearst fire. right now you can see temperatures in the upper 50s. winds gusting to 45 miles an hour. this particular forecast model shows you kind of lumps everything together. the wind, the relative humidity, the temperature. and thankfully, later on today, we should have somewhat of an improvement later on this afternoon into into tonight. but once again, the winds could actually ramp up. this is a thursday afternoon. and then you'll notice the winds do back off into thursday afternoon late thursday. but then possibly into friday we could we could see those winds pulse up once again. so we'll continue to keep an eye on the fire zone conditions, multiple fires in southern california. and unfortunately the strong winds will stick around. at least they're not going to go away over the next couple of

days. >> mark tamayo, thank you. here in the bay area, strong wind gusts overnight knocked down trees and took out power poles, temporarily shutting down part of a freeway early this morning. tree trimming crews chopped up what was left of a 40 foot tree that came down onto the driveway of a home happened around 140 this morning. luckily, no one was hurt, but the person who lives there said both of his vehicles were damaged by that fallen tree. wind gusts also caused more widespread power outages in alameda. in fact, an entire block near buena vista and clement street was without power overnight. over on pacific and walnut streets, another resident lucked out when a pine tree fell onto the street away from her home and parked cars. residents say howling winds last night kept them up. >> it was pretty wild, like things were moving around in the backyard, like just patio furniture sliding around, and you could just really hear it whipping around, you know? and we just kind of hunkered down and hoped for the best and really didn't, didn't notice anything. when we went to bed and woke up to this, the wind was really, really tremendously

strong. >> i don't think we've been here for 27 years, and i don't think i've ever heard it that strong. >> overnight in oakland, the wind caused problems on highway 13 just before 3:00. trees came down, blocking the southbound lanes of 13 at redwood road. there was a similar issue at the southbound broadway terrace exit off 13 around the same time. by 4:00 this morning, the highway was cleared and reopened. happening now new leadership in san francisco. daniel lurie is now the mayor of that city. ktvu christien kafton live in san francisco here, as many are celebrating this new beginning with a new leader. and he just took the oath of office. right, christian? >> our first. that's exactly right. as a matter of fact, newly sworn in mayor daniel lurie is addressing the crowd as we speak. he was sworn in just ten minutes ago. right now, discussing the fentanyl crisis and new steps that he's taking to declare a state of emergency, to make sure that the city addresses that we're actually going to dip in right now to his speech. these are his opening

remarks and his first remarks as san francisco's mayor. >> and let's be clear, we must also operate with the understanding that not every issue needs to be solved by someone with a badge and a gun. we currently have at least nine street teams operated by five different departments, and despite having made a vast investment of resources and personnel. no one, no one thinks the current structure is working. our first step in streamlining our crisis response is to mandate that all departments coordinate to build and maintain a single public facing street conditions. dashboard. you can't build strong solutions without good data. [applause] we will also be embedding behavioral health specialists and dedicated first responder units. until now, the only options are first responders have had is to take those who

are suffering from mental health issues or addiction to hospital or jail. i'm excited to announce that this spring, we will open the city's first 24 over seven police friendly drop off center. this will create better pathways to treatment and give police the authority to hold those who refuse help accountable. as we move people off the streets and into into recovery. we will also expand the journey home program, providing increased transportation and support for those ready to reunite with loved ones or access care outside of san francisco. another key to producing better outcomes on our streets is to focus our investments in high performing nonprofit service providers. this will not only save us money, it will help the city's best nonprofits shine and

better serve the needs of the most vulnerable san franciscans. more accountability and effective distribution of our resources will clear the path for san francisco's recovery. making our streets safer and cleaner will supercharge the revitalization of our downtown corridor. i'm excited to announce that we will be launching the sfpd hospitality zone task force. this dedicated police unit will create a more welcoming and safe environment for workers, shoppers and visitors in the union square, market street and moscone center areas. and not just when there's a conference in town, but when it's every single day, 365 days a year. [applause] from engaging local artists to once again becoming a destination for world class

events and tourism, we are building the foundation for a safe urban core that is thriving and inviting to all. my job is not to demand that the private sector be back in the office every day. my job is to make you want to be downtown again for work with your family and with your friends. and let me take a moment and say none of this. none of this can happen if the hotel industry isn't open for business. i want to i want to take a moment. i want to take a moment to acknowledge the hotel workers of local two and hotel management, for coming together, for coming together to reach an agreement that ended the longest hotel strike in city history. we got people back to work in time for the holidays, and our hotels are welcoming visitors again, enabling us to attract and host events like the jp morgan healthcare conference next week and the nba all star game in february.

[applause] there is no denying it, no denying it. san francisco is coming back the that there's a rising sense of pride and optimism in this city right now that cannot be stopped. with that momentum, we must proactively plan for the next housing and economic boom. within our first 100 days, we will take bold action to enable more housing at all income levels and help new businesses and buildings get their permits more quickly. [applause] to our small businesses, who i know have been suffering the era of a new restaurant, going through 40 inspections and receiving 50 different answers is over. that's our promise to you. [applause] we can no longer wait for the

right conditions to build. we must do our part to create those conditions. now, better coordination between departments may not sound sexy, but it's going to be a hallmark of this administration. i'm talking about the kind of coordination that will keep one department from tearing up your street for maintenance, and another from doing it again two weeks later. we have allowed far too many people to lose faith in government. i know that we can restore that faith. as your mayor, i'm going to take aim at the problems that need solving right here in san francisco, because that is what you elected me to do. but i also know that many feel a great sense of fear and loss about the state of our country right now. i share those concerns. san francisco has long been a historic beacon for human

rights, and we cannot be complacent. attacks on lgbtq plus rights, hate crimes, and the vilification of immigrant communities are happening across the country, including right here at home. san francisco must be a city where every individual feels safe, valued, and empowered. that means standing firm against discrimination and fighting for the dignity of all communities, no matter what comes our way. [applause] as your mayor, i will always tell you the truth, even when they are hard truths. the challenges ahead of us are enormous. but in the words of harvey. harvey milk, you have to give them hope. hope for a better world. hope for a better tomorrow. and i got to tell you,

as i look out on this incredible crowd, i feel that hope. but but that feeling on its own, it's not enough. it must be paired with the courage to act. now is the time for action. this is where our comeback begins. there are green shoots everywhere, but my standard for success is sky high. it is. [applause] it is the greatest honor of my life to serve as your mayor at this critical moment in our history. i'm asking all of you, every single one of you, to join me in reclaiming our place as the greatest city in the world with a new era of accountability, service, and change. it's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. san francisco. thank you very much.

[applause] >> and san francisco's new mayor, daniel lowry, just wrapping up his comments and you heard some of the themes that he's been hammering away at today, one of them being accountability. he says that this is a new era of accountability for san francisco's mayor's office. he says that he is going to try to streamline as much government bureaucracy as possible to act quickly. the mayor also discussing some of the issues that are facing san francisco, including the fentanyl crisis, saying that he hopes to empower new units and new methods for treatment, making sure that the city adequately addresses that, while still acknowledging some of the severe challenges that he faces, including a looming $875 million budget crisis that he will have to try to close with his first budget. so this new mayor, facing a lot of challenges, but also, as you heard, striking a very

optimistic tone, saying that this is a time of hope for san francisco singer songwriter michael activities here continuing behind me. the crowd also expected to move inside san francisco's city hall for an open house that is set to start as soon as things wind down here in civic center plaza. but i'll tell you that there is a large crowd here of people. uniformly, the folks that i spoke to said that there is a feeling of optimism and hope. as daniel lurie is sworn in as san francisco's 46th mayor. >> all right, christien kafton will break you loose as the celebration continues there in front of city hall. we'll turn now to our weather. we could see gorgeous sunshine there in san francisco, and that really is the story. crystal clear clarity, of course, thanks to those high winds. but with those winds, as we see down south comes a risk of fire danger. mark. yeah. >> that's right, garcia, they have the extreme fire danger in southern california that continues for today. we had some windy conditions here in the bay area, with even the oakland

hills reporting a wind gust of 60 miles an hour overnight. right now, here's the satellite where you can see lots of clear skies. there's a big ridge out here in the pacific. this is the upper level wind pattern and the circulation here. that pressure difference from that high to that area of low pressure, setting up the wind event, especially to our south, will come in closer. right now, we'll check out some of the current wind speeds. and the wind advisory expired earlier this morning. and right now it's nice to show you winds in the single digits for santa rosa out toward oakland, concord and in fairfield. here's some more reports for you showing you sfo winds at about seven miles an hour and livermore an easterly breeze at 16 miles an hour. so there's still a breeze out there. but not talking about the strong winds that we had earlier today. current numbers. it is a mild afternoon. it's a mild and dry afternoon. remember two days ago we had all that persistent fog. it was chilly, a complete reversal. so lots of 60s to report with lots of sunshine this afternoon. and here is our live camera looking above san francisco, looking out toward

the bay. and you can see lots of lots of blue sky up there. and this has been we've been talking so much about the wind as we should over the past few days, but it has been a dry weather stretch. it's here to stay this week, so it looks like a dry weather pattern continues into the weekend. what's happening in this area of high pressure has been building in and this area of low pressure, as we showed you on the other graphic, has kind of been settling down into southern california. that pressure difference is setting up the wind event. but thankfully we're not seeing that. we're seeing this this pattern change a bit now. as a result, the windy pattern we had yesterday into this morning is starting to back off, and we just have mostly sunny skies and mild conditions, lots of 60s and a few neighborhoods could be approaching the 70 degree mark this afternoon. so it is a mild afternoon, mostly sunny skies and this pattern will continue. this dry weather pattern will continue over the next few days. here is our five day forecast. a chilly start tomorrow morning, probably when you step outside the door this morning you were saying to yourself, it kind of

feels warm out there because those winds kind of keeping those temperatures up. but tomorrow morning should be chilly. more sunshine into your friday, into the weekend. mostly sunny skies and a cold start sunday morning. so gasia, you know, just looking around and you know, all those devastating scenes out of southern california. you look around here in the bay area, you see those green hillsides, all that rainfall. really thankful for that. at least the rainfall we have picked up. >> we are so fortunate for what we've received. yeah, mark. thank you. we'll see you again in just a few. all right. mark, i know you've been to this taco bell, the one in pacifica, right? it's the taco bell that stands out from the mall, but it's closed temporarily. while you won't be able to get a $4 burrito with $1 millio

announced she is running for mayor of oakland. she posted on x this morning that with the support of oakland firefighters, business and labor leaders, and the community, i've made the decision to run for mayor to unite our city, make it stronger and safer, and improve opportunity for everyone. lee just ended more than two decades of public service as a member of the u.s. house of representatives. about a dozen people have filed paperwork to run for oakland mayor after former mayor xiang tao was recaed by voters in november. a special election is to be held on april 15th. federal regulators are investigating tesla over technology that allows drivers to summon their vehicles remotely. investigators are looking into 12 total incidents reported by users of the summons technology. the cars failed to recognize objects,

including parked cars. the national highway traffic safety administration says tesla did not provide information on any of the crashes. well, the bay area's most famous taco bell will be closed at least for a few weeks. the pacifica taco bell, which is right there on the beach, is reportedly closing for a two week long remodel. according to a social media post from the company that manages the franchise, we're working on getting more information about changes and an official reopening date for you. we continue to follow the latest developments in southern california, as thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes. flames tearing through neighborhoods. several homes destroyed. the efforts to bring t major f

lo angeles county. ts map shows four major fires now burning in the most populous county in the country. two people have died. at least 1000 struures have been destroyed. these fir are burning out of the pacific palisades fe iss say now the most destructive fire in the history of los angeles as a city. we'll bring in ktvu greg lee here live in the newsroom after hearing from president biden and local officials on what's happening to the south of us, greg garcia.

>> president biden offering the full force of the federal government and its resources amid this growing disaster. those powerful winds are expected to persist today, creating dangerous conditions for fire crews and increasing the risk of new fires. overnight. a scene of devastation across los angeles county. destructive winds and dry conditions fueling for out of control wildfires that have now turned deadly. >> we're prepared to do anything and everything as long as it takes to contain these fires and help reconstruct and make sure that we get back to normal. >> it's going to be a #### of a long way. >> president biden and governor newsom receiving a briefing at a santa monica fire station about the firestorm. the president announcing the deployment of national guard aircraft and navy helicopters to help. >> i've directed dod and the department of defense to rapidly provide additional firefighting personnel and capabilities. >> combined, tens of thousands of people have been evacuated and thousands of structures remain threatened. two people died in the eaton fire near altadena and pasadena.

>> last night was one of the most devastating and terrifying nights that we've seen in any part of our city, at any part of our history. >> the palisades fire burning down pacific coast highway, ripping through homes in pacific palisades and malibu. evacuations caused traffic gridlock, prompting some people to leave their cars, which then had to be bulldozed out of the way. >> we have an estimated 1000 structures destroyed. and also no reported fatalities and a high number of significant injuries to residents who did not evacuate. in addition to first responders, the eaton fire broke out tuesday night near altadena and pasadena, exploding in size and destroying at least 100 structures. >> the flames carried by santa ana winds, with some gusts clocked at 100mph. >> the national weather service has predicted a continued red flag weather event, with strong winds and low humidities,

placing all residents of los angeles county in danger. >> the hurst fire ignited tuesday night in sylmar, and the woodley fire started wednesday morning in the sepulveda basin. >> together, these fires are stretching the capacity of emergency services to their maximum limits. >> l.a. firefighters calling for resources from around the state, including strike teams from the bay area and now requesting aid from nevada, oregon and washington state. >> this is a tragic time in our history here in los angeles, but a time where we're really tested and see who we really are. and it's critical that at these times we be patient, that we come together, that we focus on saving lives. >> now, some good news today in the fire fight after being grounded due to extreme winds, la fire announced air operations have resumed, which means much needed water and retardant drops. live in the newsroom today. greg lee, ktvu, fox two news. garcia. greg. >> thank you. fire crews here in the bay area have been deployed

to help those in southern california early this morning. alameda county fire crews shared a video of their leaving to join a cal oes strike team, one that includes oakland fire, hayward fire and fremont firefighters. cal fire, scu, and ccu teams that are normally based in the bay area are already in southern california. share these photos on social media showing firefighters supporting agencies fighting the flames there. more teams are on standby. fire officials say crews across the state can be ready to hit the road in under an hour if called upon, to help of specific engines that are prepared with wildland equipment, etc. >> up here in northern california, we have the diablo winds, which are very similar. it comes at different times of the year, but in southern california they do have the east winds or the santa ana's as they are known. they are seasonal. however, we are seeing that they are lasting longer into the year, which is not typical. >> the strong winds will continue to challenge containment efforts today. wind

gusts up to 60 miles an hour are expected at least through tomorrow. 22 members of the san francisco fire department packed up their gear and headed to the palisades fire station seven this morning. they're sending five engines, along with a strike team leader and assistant. these are city crews. the department says they all have training in wildland firefighting. it's part of a requirement for firefighters here in california. officials say their crews are always willing to help their neighbors down south. >> the big event, it's a big fire. we've seen some of the images out there. we see all the stuff going on and people's homes burning. so because of the fact that there's so many homes threatened, they're going with these type one larger city type fire engines. and the reason for that is because they're trying to protect structures. >> san francisco fire officials say the assignment is scheduled to last up to two weeks. they're set to arrive this evening. firefighters are keeping an eye on weather conditions as they look to bring that fire under control. ktvu meteorologist mark tamayo. live again here with a much closer look at the

conditions those crews are facing. mark. hi there. >> garcia. yeah. typically we talk about red flag fire warnings, but this is a particularly dangerous situation with this red flag warning. almost just like the extreme red flag warning combined with those real strong winds. the strongest wind event since 2011. so you can see some of the winds from this morning. of course, yesterday we had winds gusting close to 100 miles an hour. so the red flag warning is in place today into your thursday. but there's the chance we could have wind advisories for friday. so fire danger is still elevated for friday. but fortunately these alarming values have been a reality. see the damaging winds? it's a dry weather setup as well. relative humidity right around 8 to 15%. so this is the pattern we do not like to see. and remember this is january. we're talking about a pattern like this. you can see some of the current wind reports from some of the airports in southern california and out toward ontario. winds gusting to 53 miles an hour. sandberg winds gusting to 62 lax at 33 miles an hour. but what's interesting when you look at the topography

in southern california, these, you know, these it's a windy day in la. but when you get some of these canyons and passes, the winds could actually accelerate through some of those kind of funneling. and that could lead to some stronger winds. that's what we have been noticing with these fires in southern california. so these are the three biggest fires, as you can see on this map right now. will come in closer. we'll show you. this is the first one that started yesterday, the palisades fire. and to be honest, some of the weather sensors are actually not reporting anymore. so we're kind of getting some of the information from the nearby sensors. but the key headline, it is still windy out there, gusting to over 30 miles an hour closer to that fire zone. the eaton fire started last night and has been growing rapidly right now. winds gusting to nearly 40 miles an hour. and it's a dry pattern typically in southern california with that fog in place or maybe some some storm clouds nearby, we could be talking about moisture levels closer to 80%, but those moisture levels have been coming down. and then this is the first fire here. you can see that some of the topography here and winds gusting to right around 45 miles an hour. now this is a forecast

model that incorporates everything the wind, the relative humidity, temperature and all that. just kind of lumps everything together. so where you see some coverage here with these colors, that indicates the elevated fire danger. so obviously we have that for today. you can still see later on today some improvement here. this is 4:00 this afternoon and then into your thursday. actually a better chance for the fire crews to really fight these fires. as those winds it will still be breezy to windy, but scaling back on those wind speeds for tomorrow. unfortunately though, they could pick up once again for tomorrow afternoon between 12 and 3:00. so those strong offshore winds still a big challenge for the fire crews today. and we had some winds here in the bay area. we'll talk more about our pattern coming up in a few minutes. >> mark thank you. former president jimmy carter is lying in state as washington says goodbye. their 39th president was honored in a ceremony yesterday by vice president kamala harris and members of congress. fox correspondent rebecca castro has more. >> one by one, a stream of mourners filed into the capitol rotunda paying their respects to

former president jimmy carter, the 39th president's flag draped casket, guarded by members of the u.s. military, will lie in state until thursday morning. >> i felt kind of a personal moral obligation to pay my respects to a president who was a very moral person. >> carter's casket sits atop the same platform president lincoln was placed upon in 1865. he is just the 13th president to lie in state in the rotunda, the last being george h.w. bush in 2018. the honor requires approval from both the house and senate. after a procession to the capitol, carter's children and grandchildren paid their respects at a solemn ceremony tuesday afternoon. vice president kamala harris, house speaker mike johnson and other members of congress were among those who offered tributes. they say the former commander in chief will be most remembered for his deep faith, public

service and decades of humanitarian work. >> if you were to ask him why he did it all, he would likely point to his faith. >> the gifted man who also walks with humility, modesty and grace. >> president biden will be among those giving eulogies at the state funeral tomorrow, before carter is brought back to georgia for his burial. in washington. rebecca castor, ktvu, fox two news we continue to follow what's happening in southern california. >> the personal connection the fire has to warriors head ac

fires raging in southern california. as the pacific palisades fire is now the most destructive fire in the history of the city of los angeles. some 1000 structures are destroyed. we heard from one woman who said she escaped flames before they came into her neighborhood. >> we ended up going through the smoke and the flames and getting down to the bottom, which i thought would be good, but it was just the beginning of a nightmare that had been going on while we were up there. it's a thousand times worse than anything anyone's seen. this has never happened. >> as evacuation orders continue to expand, the county is making multiple shelters available. of course, strong winds fueling those flames again today. following last night's warriors game, head coach steve kerr spoke about the fires in southern california, said his mother had to evacuate her home

because of the palisades fire. >> before i start, i want to send my thoughts and condolences to everybody in los angeles dealing with the fires. you know, my mom lives in pacific palisades. she had to evacuate, coach kerr said. >> other staff members have ties to the area. everett dayton, part of the warriors player development department, grew up in pacific palisades. his childhood home has burned down. get some more insight on what's happening to the south of us by turning, as we often do, to former fema coordinator mark nouveau. thank you so much for joining us again this afternoon. i think about this bay area strike. teams were either in or headed to southern california. they may not have ever been in this area before, and now they're being called upon to save lives and property. >> exactly. they've asked for 250 more fire engines. but let's paint a picture for what they're facing. they travel five engines and battalion chief called a strike team. they're going to be sent into a neighborhood. they have to pick which house they're going to try and save. the temperatures are probably up to 1000 degrees. it'll blister the paint on the engines. they're

exhausted. they're trying to pull hose. they're running out of water. the winds are extreme. you know, we're talking about hurricane force winds. so that's not just the firefighters. imagine all the people and the residents that are facing that too, right? >> we heard from earlier emergency officials saying, you know, the city of la is massive. and they're still daily life happening there. >> absolutely. we were talking earlier, they run about 1500 calls a day, requests for service. they were at 3400 yesterday. so they're trying to manage 3 or 4 different fires as well as their existing load. great challenge before them. that's why you're seeing so many engines come from the north part of the state down there to help, help on the ground, also in the air. >> we understand that the air attack has restarted after being grounded last night. this has to be good news. >> oh, it's huge because number one, you can get intelligence. last night they couldn't fly the drones to be able to determine where the hotspots were. that's number one. number two, we know pacific palisades. they had three large water tanks are out of water. so now they've got to figure out how do we get water into that area to try and combat the fire. and so that's going to have to be aerial operations

along with some ground stuff. >> does the pacific ocean's proximity help at all? >> it does help because you can dip in there with the buckets of helicopters going down and drop the water on there, but you still have to be able to get a quantities in there. so they're going to use aerial operations. they're bringing in, you know, the 747 seconds. i'm sure you're going to see them dropping loads on homes, which is fairly rare, but that's about where we are. in this whole incident. >> we heard the county fire chief say that number one is protecting life. second comes property. one step beyond that, i'm thinking of all the kids who are out of school. right? 10% of schools in l.a. county are closed today. we just got news here that universal studios is closed down for the day. you know, mom and pop businesses losing money when you really try to get your arms around the enormity of the situation, it's hard to do. >> absolutely. add to that the infrastructure in particular power. last i looked, there were 400,000 people without power. so it's going to take time to restore that power for those businesses and homes to rebuild. so it's a compounding effect in terms of not just the fire being tragic, but it's the aftermath

that comes with that fire. >> a lot of this is so familiar to people who live in southern california. one fire official noted that one of the fires that's burning is sort of in the same footprint as the saddle ridge fire. back in october of 2019, that fire burned for 20 days. do you see this event going as long? >> well, we're not in wild land, so that's part of it. but what we are seeing that i find fascinating is we're talking about no containment on fires that are really in an urbanized area. and so that's just mind boggling to me and what it takes to get resource. now, remember, most of those resources come from the north part of the state. so it's travel time for those fire engines to get down and help. certainly there are southern california that are helping, but it's going to take some time to get those resources down there. >> right. i think we heard, you know, firefighters from, you know, washington state, oregon, you know, i mean, far outside of california. at a certain point, do the resources stop or is there always more available? >> well, you're going to keep

drawing as much as possible. but as you see, you're having to go out of state to be able to do that, which is time, which is time. we've got the national guard deployed, you've got some of the larger aircraft, so it's just a matter of trying to figure out what they call zero impact period. in other words, when i call for resources, how long is it going to be before those resources are able to be effective and we can deploy them into an area. so they're calculating that. but in the meantime, you're still seeing the fire grow. burn temperatures are high and the winds have died down. but my understanding is they're going to ramp up this evening. right? >> right. we'll talk to mark about that in just a second. here. back to what's happening on the ground in southern california. you know, we've heard the city is opening up shelters. you know, what is the fema response, what can be provided to help those who are kind of back at square one for now? yeah. >> what they're doing is they've got an f mag, which is a fire management assistance grant. and we know the president was down in coachella, so he's getting a pretty good information flow as to what's going on. they've declared it. they're waiting for

a major presidential disaster declaration. but in the meantime, what they do have is money to be able to pay overtime, sheltering, traffic control, etc. so people are going to get some resources for life sustaining. then later on comes the rebuild part of it, when we it feels so early to even talk about that. >> so at this point we're looking at a couple nights in a hotel, you know, money for pajamas and toothbrushes. and yeah, it's a good reminder for all of us to have those things ready. >> and they had to leave in the middle of the night with nothing. hey, you got to go now. >> yeah, it does feel feel so, so familiar. mark. we'll have to leave it here. thank you. we'll turn now to our meteorologist, mark tamayo. here. we talked about those winds. you've been tracking. any sort of change? possibly. >> they have been backing off compared to last night. but as you guys have been talking about, they're expected to still be a factor later on today, possibly picking up once again. so in general, the red flag fire warning is in place today right on through thursday, 6 p.m. and this is a graphic showing you the satellite fire detection here. it's interesting. here you see two different colors. and the red color shows you the most

recent activity. so you can see the three fires showing up on this map. the biggest one the eaton fire over 10,000 acres. you can see these red boxes here showing you the growth over the past, over the past 12 hours, a little bit to the north and a little bit out here, as you can see here, a little bit to the east and a little bit to the north, i should say. so there is showing you the coverage and the growth of those fires over the past 12 hours or so. as far as the current wind reports, we are showing you some strong winds. ontario 53 miles an hour. santa ana winds gusting to 28 lacks. you can see winds at about 33 miles an hour. and all these winds, or at least most of them, have the same wind direction out of the northeast, that is that dry wind, that santa ana wind that really contributes to the to the explosive fire growth. now, here in the bay area, the wind advisory allowed to expire. we had some strong winds last night into this morning showing you this. mount saint helena, 68 miles an hour, the oakland hills at about 60 miles an hour. fairfield at 40, in livermore, 22 miles an hour. so it was breezy to very windy this

morning, but those winds have been backing off. here's the satellite where you can pick out some cloud cover. in fact, moving into southern california, it's interesting. these clouds are kind of following the upper level wind pattern moving up and over california into nevada and down into southern california. so they do have some high clouds drifting into the southern half of the state. but unfortunately, no rain drops for us here in the bay area. we are showing you the current wind reports and these numbers, most areas in the single digits, at least at the airports here, but still some breezy conditions for the hills, the highest peaks. and you can see livermore winds out of the east at about 16mph. current numbers it's a mild day. lots of 60s san jose right now, 67 napa is 66 degrees. and here's our live camera looking out above san francisco completely in the clear. remember two days ago we had all that dense fog and it was so much moisture out there, it's shivering. but today we have wiped out the fog. it's a mild pattern. also feels very dry as well. it's the same dry

weather pattern they're dealing with in southern california. for us, though, the windy pattern has faded a bit. so no, no longer wind advisories, but still a bit of a breeze out there. lots of 60s for forecast highs this afternoon, and i've not been talking about any rainfall. and that dry weather stretch will continue into thursday, friday and into the weekend. lots of sunshine, some chilly morning, chilly mornings headed our way, but into the afternoon hours. mostly sunny skies and lots of 60s. so we'll continue to keep an eye on the red flag conditions in southern california. those winds still a big factor. garcia. mark. >> thank you. coming up, it's a good bet he hasn't seen much in the way of snow. but through rain, heat and the gloom of night, one postman has been delivering critical communication for decades in the east bay. how the community he serves turned out for his last day on the job,

lower nicotine levels in

cigarettes. in the final days of the president's term, the fda says it has completed a regulatory review and that the proposed rule has not yet been finalized. public health experts say the ruling would help people use less harmful products or quit the habit altogether. now to the east bay, where one postal carrier has been making the rounds in lafayette for more than four decades and is now enjoying his first day of retirement. neighbors came out to thank a man they say is more like family. our jana katsuyama shows us how he was almost brought to tears with their special surprise. >> postman jeff, out on his route, rolled up to each house as he does every day, making sure the mail gets delivered. only this day is different. >> you know i'm not going to get any work done today. they'll probably end up firing me for that. >> no, not likely he'll be fired because after this shift he'll be retired. and on his last day on mailbox after mailbox lining the streets. neighbors who've known jeff gostomski for years

or even lifetimes put signs out showing their thanks for his 47 years of service. >> i started in 19th august of 1977. >> postman jeff says his career was almost by accident. a mention from his mother in law. >> i just had come out of the military and i was looking for a job and she said, hey, why don't you try the post office? so i went and i took the test. >> jeff passed the test and the navy vietnam veteran started driving one of the red, white and blue mail trucks a little different back then. >> the thing about him that was funny was we didn't have padding on the floorboard, and these things get very hot. and you could put your lunch on the on the floorboard and it would be heated by the time you took your lunch. >> neighbors know he'll be there, rain or shine, delivering more than mail. >> you know he stops. he. every time that i'm out there, he'll say hello. he can remember your name. >> he's always got a smile on his face. and we decided that we should put a smile on his face

on his last day of work. >> his deliveries come with hope, humor and good news to families through the generations. >> he even delivered me my college acceptance letters. because back then they came in the mail. so he would hand it to me and say, looks like a great day today. >> and yes, he's even been chased by dogs on rare occasions. >> i always tell people out, here i go, these dogs, you know, they live better than i do. they're not going to waste, you know, their lifestyle on on a lousy mailman. so you know everything is good. >> midway through his shift, he says he has to go to happy valley elementary school. asked him to stop in to see a kindergarten class. >> he comes and talks to our kids and kindergartners every year about the postal service, and they he's a local celebrity for us, and he goes above and beyond. >> but when he drove up, the whole school was waiting, waving flags. [applause] a chorus of kids chanting his

name, and on the wall, a sign full of love letters in the form of forever stamps. enough to almost bring this veteran postman to tears. >> i am, i'm really touched. i've been telling her that i'm trying not to cry at times. >> a postman who says the job like life is what you make of it. >> it can get boring at times, but you have to make it your own. you have to. you start to know people and you. you converse with them and stuff, and it makes the day a lot better and go a lot quicker. >> he's beyond a postman. he really cares. and he's really connected and deep rooted in the community. so he'll be very dearly missed. >> in lafayette. jana katsuyama, ktvu, fox two news. >> delta airlines is making it easier for people to earn miles through its loyalty program. the spring delta is partnering up with uber. customers who link their skymiles to their uber account will earn miles with delta for certain premium uber rides. uber eats deliveries silicon valley aviation companies hope to bring flying taxis to daily commuters. the

taxis would lift off the ground like a helicopter, then fly like a plane at speeds of up to 200mph, expected in a range of about 100 miles. the ceo of archer aviation in san jose says sky highways are the way of the future. >> there will be hundreds, thousands of these aircraft flying into individual cities and it will truly change the way our cities are even built. and so it's going to start small, but it's going to get really, really big and ultimately will change the way people travel. >> joby aviation in san carlos has also been testing its planes in northern california. there are still many regulatory hurdles before air taxis can go mainstream. thank you for joining us here at noon. a reminder to stream ktvu newscast and breaking news on your smart tv through the fox local app. you can download the app on your streaming devices, phones, tablets and televis welcome to like it or not, a show where a panel weighs in on daily experiences. maybe some annoyances you