call senator cardin today. ask him to protect the 90,000 maryland jobs biomedical research provides and the hopes of patients everywhere. it's not just the future, it's life. test swine flu is back in the news. the president talked about it today. there's news about the computerized phone calls we all get. "nightly news" from southern california begins now.

good evening, from soun california, we are actually just to the north of the city of los angeles. that is why we are here covering the fight against something called the station fire. it is burning in effect on the outer rim of the city of los angeles, very, very close to this metropolis, too close for comfort for a lot of people. behind us, they are fighting one small ten cal of this fire. when it's black, it's active fire. when it turns white, it's good news, they are getting water on the fire. this is a makeshift congressman post. firefighters are changing into clear socks earlier to go back out. all kinds of ap rat us through

the jurisdictions throughout the state. local, state, federal. they come here for instructions, get chow, take a rest and a shower. the fight is intense. the flames are burning. the fire fighting goes on. the ash and smoke are filling the sky in this region. if you live and work in los angeles, including hollywood, if you own a darker colored automobile, you are going to come out of work and find a light ash on your vehicle. it gets on computer screens. that's life these days in the city of los angeles. say nothing of the rest of the state. over 132,000 acres are burning and almost, as of tonight, almost 29,000 homes are threatened. all of that, as we5íw.ñ on the air from southern california. to begin the station fire,

miguel almaguer, good evening. >> reporter: it's chewed across los angeles county. firefighters are doing what they can, but the fire is still out of control. growing in intensity, more firefighters are called in. 3600 now on the ground. those on the front lines trying to keep pace with shifting walls of flames. today, crews allowed backfires. burning vegetation. using fire to fight fire. >> it is massive, this fire. it's staggering. >> reporter: it won't stop. still sweeping, from hillside to hillside, it continues its march toward homes. 12,000 homes threatened. more in danger every day. firefighters move. they are jumping from hillside to hillside to keep pace with the blaze. at least 120,000 acres are up in smoke. >> it's scary.

>> it is scary with the smoke and ash. >> reporter: it closes in on suburban neighborhoods. properties with spectacular views are now terrifying sights. cliff jones was ordered to evacuate twice. he's packed, but won't leave. >> they say you are risking their lives and yours. what is your response? >> i want to save my house an my maybes houses. >> reporter: concerned about hold outs, they are concerned about changing weather. >> there's talk of wind gusts we haven't had before. gusts, up to 40 miles per hour is predicted. >> reporter: los angeles is a smokestack, a toxic cloud poisoning the region. the fire has also left behind heart break, for the first time, the driscoll family returned to what used to be home.

>> it's a beautiful place to raise kids. nice community here and that's probably the saddest thing. >> reporter: families picking up the pieces as crews work on. this fight, a treacherous battle with no quick end in sight. it's only 5% contained. it will be two weeks until crews have a ring around the fire. >> it's just this one fire, it would be nice if that's all we were talking about here. but sadly, this is a very early start to what we used to call fire season here in california. there are several going at once. remember, we have been covering this state's financial crisis. california can barely afford basic human services say nothing about fighting fires across the state. let's go 70 miles east of here, san bernardino county.

another statewide battle. lee cowan is standing by there. >> reporter: thanks. firefighters are working all day here. it's 840 acres now. there are still mandatory evacuations in the neighborhood we are standing. for the people who live here, they are about as used to this as they can be. after all, there used to be a fire season that ran from now to christmas. now, with three years of draught, the threat of wildfires is pretty much year round. the color of california's hillsides say it all, brown. they are water starved boxes that crumble to the touch. >> here is an example of how dry it is. it's just ready -- look at this. it snaps off and crumples. this will ignite so easily. >> for bill peters, the real threat is the invisible one. the santa anas, hot dry, fists

of winds. the forecast to hit in a few weeks. >> you can imagine a hot, dry 50 miles per hour to 80-mile-per-hour winds. the potential for catastrophic fires this year. >> reporter: what makes this year different? drought. three years of it. there's no catching up. california recease-fiived 78% o water. last year, the state was 30% below normal. they fueled not only fires, but climatologists. they predict california isn't alone. more than 3.5 million acres are expected to burn. nearly all of them in the west and southwest. >> i'm concerned for the west as a whole that anything could go up. >> reporter: for california, especi especially, the burning question is how to pay for it.

huge fires devour huge amounts of money. take the helicopters, they cost about $6,000 an hour to operate. they have been going full time for almost a week. in only two months, california spent nearly half the state's emergency fire fighting funds. >> it's going to cost more money. >> reporter: the only choice, spend now and work out the accounting later. brian, there is $500 million the governor could dip into, if they have to. they have asked for federal money from fema. it would go a long way. brian. >> lee cowan in san bernardino county. thanks. back here to this fire, the so-called station fire, on our flight from new york the captain of american airlines directed everyone to the windows on the

right side. the flames were burning above the skyline of los angeles. so close to this huge population center. the fight is a huge effort. this is the command post for ground operations. another huge component comes from the air. the air operation is being run from an old airport that dates back to the dawn of a hollywood age. it's not far from here where today, we talk to the men who get in the choppers and are now involved in the fight. >> looks good. >> ethan is a helicopter pilot. when fires break out, he's among those overhead. sometimes dropping water, other times directing the drop. this is very close to the city of l.a. >> you have been doing something called forward air control. we associate that with wartime. in a war, forward air controllers go ahead of pilots

and in some cases artillery and decide what's going on up front. is this similar to that? >> similar. we have the holco. he's in charge of making sure they get to where they are needed. the fact they can get to where they are needed safely. >> does it strike you how unusual this fire is? to the left side is the skyline of the city of los angeles. >> it's an urban face fire. it's what we call it when it meets to houses. that's the challenging part. of it. >> the man running this show is john, official title air operations branch director. he's known as the air boss, directing the attack. >> how frantic has the air traffic, the two-way radio been today. you know enough to know when someone sees a hot spot, it

changes the tone in their voice. >> at times, it's very frantic. we have multiple areas in the fire that are critical. we are trying to manage helicopters and fix wings. >> this fire fighting effort switched to 24/7, around the clock operations. everywhere on the ground, it's dotted with tents so at least portions of shifts grab rest. we are behind a reservoir where all day and all night giant helicopters come in and grab water. they hover, pull up, dump it on the fire and come back and repeat the process, day and night, over and over. some of the pilots pulling eight-hour shifts in the cockpit. >> knowing what you know, are you optimistic about the future of the fire? >> you have to be. a couple days ago, there wasn't

much optimism. we were able to get on the line earlier. better conditions today, not good by any means. it looks like it's going to get better throughout the week. i'm hoping we can continue to pr every day. >> when we were finished talk i ing, we nos used something on the front of his helicopter. look at the ash, just flying through the ash. that's how bad it is. that helicopter had been cleaned off, stem to tern once today. those are some of the folks fighting the fire. life as we know it in los angeles can continue somewhat close to normal. we are away from the movie business where they are unaffected by this. a full thousand miles to the east of where we are now,

there's a haze hanging over downtown denver, colorado. you can barely see the skyline. forget about the mountains in the distance. where is the smoke coming from? most of it is originating right here, this huge fire zone in southern california being carried by the winds east across the kucountry and the city of l angeles continues to report smoke from these fires. when "nightly news" continues on this tuesday evening from southern california, a college coping with a possible swine flu outbreak and president obama warns americans about the challenges ahead when flu season really gets under way. later, we have been talking about the lack of wind, the up tick in humidity. will fire crews here get the help they need to bring the fire under control? al roker is here. he'll be with us with his forecast, coming up. if you're still one of the guys who's going over and over...

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we're back an with school back in session or close, in much of the country, the topic of swine flu is back on the agenda. a possible outbreak on one college campus is causing concern as president obama got an update today on the federal government preparations and spoke about it. the qo2pstory, tonight, from o chief science krnt, robert gazelle. >> reporter: president obama warned the new virus will cause challenges this fall. >> the way it's moving is somewhat unpredictable. i don't want anybody to be alarmed, but i want them to be prepared. >> reporter: new york city said it would offer voluntary vaccinations to all school children. >> there's a strong possibility

the virus, which cropped up in our city in may or june, will return sometime this fall or winter. >> reporter: big outbreaks are occurring. in north carolina, 80 suspected cases. the vast majority are in young people. most are moderate or mild. about 1 in 1,000 cases, the infection turns serious very quickly. 27-year-old ryan johnson was perfectly healthy, did not get a fever, only chest pains, then died. >> he was smiles and love. he was the happiest, most caring ever. >> reporter: officials say large quanties of vaccine will not arrive until november. the best is the one promoted in the "sesame street" public

service reminder. a reminder for a serious threat. here we are in the middle of a command coast in southern california. we have news on the economy from detroit. it's about the government's cash for clunkers program. we are in a recession. while it didn't work a miracle, it did bring some good news to the automakers. ford managed a 17% gainw, over last year's sales total. analysts continue to think ford is requarded by consumers for not taking bailout money. chrysler was down 15%. gm was down 20% from last year, even with the clunkers incentive. most people bought toyotas as part of the cash for clunkers program. toyota saw a 6. 5% rise in all.

the rally has gone too far, too fast, sold off some of them. the dough finished down 186 points. we'll take a break and continue from southern california. what happened today that could improve your peace of mind, right around dinner time. everything changed. i didn't know what to do. right about then, our doctor mentioned the exelon patch. he said it releases medicine continuously for 24 hours. he said it could help with her cognition which includes things like memory, reasoning, communicating and understanding. (announcer) the most common side effects of exelon patch are nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. the likelihood and severity of these side effects may increase as the dose increases. patients may experience loss of appetite or weight. patients who weigh less than 110 pounds may experience more side effects. people at risk for stomach ulcers or who take

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are dry mouth and constipation. joan wants to sit by the window and be closer to the clouds than the bathroom. so today, she's talking to her doctor about overactive bladder. why wait? ask about toviaz today. we're back. we mentioned this at the top of the broadcast. new rules went into effect that are intended to make life annoying, the part of life that involves the repeated automated computer generated phone calls we all get. now, the federal government is saying enough is enough, with some exceptions. the story from lisa myers. >> reporter: they have become a national anew san antonio spurs. >> it's urgent to contact us to lower your interest rates. >> reporter: millions of robo

calls. the latest preys on consumers with credit card debt. leona thought she was talking to her bank and was charged 500 tlars for a worthless back of papers. the better business bureau has thousands of consumer complaints about calls at all hours. >> they are getting the calls, even if they are on the do not call list. they can't get them to stop calling. >> we are banning the calls. they are an invasion of the american consumers privacy. >> reporter: the penalty, up to $16,000 per call. calls from a bank or debt collectors that are informational or which you authorize are still allowed. officials admit the new rule

won't guarantee an uncroup louse telemarketer can't rip you off. at least he will have to hire a real person to make the call. lisa myers, nbc news, washington. back here on the fire line, some odd, good news arrived here. yes, it's hot, but also humid. that may help things on the hillside behind us. we look at the weather where the fire fight is concerned, when al roker joins us after the break. you say call nina, you get nina. you say play puccini, 12 sony speakers... mf play puccini. you say get me to the game, you get there step by step. with our voice activated sync technology, no one speaks your language like we do. we speak the 2010 ford fusion. get in... and drive one.

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we're back here at the fire fight which goes on on the hilside behind us. we are with al roker. we were talking before the broadcast. how is it, a small up tick is humidity is going to help the fire efforts. >> as you know, as a volunteer firefighter, it's a living, breathing thing. when the fire has to evaporate the moisture, it knocks it down. it's hopefully what's going to be happening with the humidity. temperatures have been high.

for today, right now, you can see 95 in los angeles. humidity levels at 26%. the winds have been light. it's been a god send for the firefighters as you take a look now, temperatures are in the mid-80s to mid-90s. the winds, the good news is they are calm, relatively calm. wind speeds not bad. the forecast for tonight, evening showers in the mountains. koud see an up tick in the mountains. tomorrow, the winds not bad. the relative humidity is 50% to 60%. as we move into thursday, the humidity level, even though it's been higher, it will be lower in the mountains. a touch cooler thursday afternoon. we were hoping for a little help from hurricane jimena. it's not going to be the case. it's 110 miles south of san lucas. it's a category 3 storm. the path of the storm, we were hoping would bring it up into the bay of california and some

of the moisture would work intou here, into southern california. not happening, working more into the southwest. >> thanks for being with us. al roker here in southern california as the fight against the fire goes on, so will our coverage. that's going to do (announcer) if you think all batteries are the same, consider this: when a tornado tore through holly, colorado, air life denver took to the air... their night-vision goggles keeping them safe on a perilous flight... and powering those precision goggles--- is the only battery air life trusts: