early show national correspondent hattie kaufman is in acton with the very latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. this is the biggest and most dangerous fire, the station fire. i'm here where firefighters are get something rest, but this fire is massive. it's expected to grow to 100,000 acres today. just two days ago, it was only 10,000 acres. i believe you can see in the other screen mt. wilson, which is an area where it's burning fiercely right now, and an area that firefighters have been very concerned about, all of the telecommunications for l.a. are locate the at this site. broadcast towers for all of the television stations and radio and communication for the firefighters. so that is critical. but right now, this is a fire that is growing and out of control. it's an inferno racing lieu thousands of acres fueled by triple digit heat, low humidity and trees that haven't burned in decades. the station fire is threatening 12,000 homes and forcing evacuations over a 50 mile area. >> to say this is a dangerous fire is a total understatement. >> reporter: t

>> hattie kaufman in acton. thank you. >>> it is quite a crowd in space this morning.he space station last night. their combined crews total 13 people now. only the second time so many have been in orbit at one time. >>> the gravesite of senator edward kennedy has been open to the public. crowds gathered arrest at arlington national cemetery yesterday to pay their respect and some left flowers to honor his memory. now hear's maggie. >>> jaycee lee dugard is back with her family after being held cap 2i6 18 years. here to tell us how she's doing is her stepfather, carl probyn, and join us live from berkeley, california, twot officers who broke the case wide open, allison jacobs and lisa campbell. the biggest heros in america. good morning to all of you. let me start you with you, karl. i know you spoke with jay so he ig owe stepsister last night. she is with jaycee and the two girls in california. how are they do something. >> they're doing okay. step by step, like being on mars. this is a brand nuf situation. it's never happened before. 18 years being gone like this, it

the main body of the fire is moving north and they're very concerned about neighborhoods up in the acton area where this fire could head to next. staging a number of areas to fight it. >> kara finnstrom in the foothills of the san gabriel mountains. we presh it, appreciate it, kara. let's see what the folks in los angeles county will get, if any, relief from mother nature. want to go to meteorologist jacqui jeras from the cnn severe weather center. >> things will improve a little bit, but not a whole heck of a lot. we're approaching the time of the day now where the winds calm down a little bit and the humidity increases just a touch. overall we've been looking at relative humidity down in the single digits for percentages. temperatures in the upper 90s to lower triple digits, and the winds steady, less than ten miles per hour, but we have had some gusts beyond that today, and the smoke is just really billowing and thick. this is a picture to show you from mt. wilson observatory. there from ucla on their towercam. you can see the thick smoke as the winds calm down. really bad for the air

. >> it's believed the two fire fighters were killed south of acton near mount gleason where one hundreds were evacuated during a intense fire fight this afternoon. now they're getting a handle on the blaze that has tripled in size. >> we understand there are ation al structures -- >> one of the biggest concerns the antennas on mount wilson. the flames are slowly approaching the media to youers and could over run the mountain top. threufrpblts are a lot of agencies with equipment impacted by loss of mount wilson. we understand that as a incident and are doing all we can do protect it. >> governor -- the power tp*upl dc10 had a tough time making drops. crews will attempt to keep this from growing bigger especially after losing two of their own. >> we ask you, please, for your understanding, for your patience as we move through this difficult time. >> that report from kabc in loss apblosangeles. in northern calvin vest gators plan to spend another day digging up more evidence against phillip garrido. he's accused of kidnap and holding a girl for 18 years. they believe he cobb linked to uni

this is acton, calif., near what they are calling the station on fire.ating you throughout the day. in the meantime, remember all those school closures because of the swine flu? the cdc has a new strategy on how you can protect your kids. patti ann: and what is the real story of the government's use of the terror alert just before the 2004 elections? tom ridge speaking out over whether or not this was a political ploy. quality and reliability... are more than words here. it's personal. i have diabetes. rodney's kid too. so we're so proud to manufacture... the accu-chek® aviva meters and test strips... here in the u.s.a. plus, we've proven you'll waste 50% fewer strips... when you use our meter, which means greater savings... for people with diabetes, like me. patti ann: former homeland secretary to secretary -- homeland security secretary tom ridge says that he did not use the terror level for political reasons. he said members of the administration urged him to raise the tariff levels just before the election. he also noted that president bush's approva

across this area, in fact, there is a new flank of the fire guys that really flared up overnight near actona. this fire is extremely active. two firefighters were killed yesterday when they drove -- when they were trying to escape the flames and drove off the side of a cliff basically. the two firefighters were fire captain tedmon hall and arnie from palm dale killed in that crash. four other injuries along with that very sad day for los angeles county firefighters as you might imagine as they are dealing with these flames. dealing with trying to save as many homes as they possibly can at the same time, knowing that two of their own were killed by trying to escape the flames. now this fire, again, someone of several burning across california. the other major one was up near sacramento just to the east in auburn, california that burned down at least 50 homes yesterday into last night. they got a pretty good handle on that fire there as it burned in an urban area up in the foot hills above sacramento. some pretty expensive homes burentd down last night as the wind and dry heat. very low humid

two firefighters were killed on sunday near the city of acton.ht. >>> okay, the u.s. open begins today. in new york. no, no, no. well, tournament officials are banning players from using twitter. hi, larry. >> not only players, but their family, friends, coaches, anybody involved with a player. no twitter at all. they're calling it t.i.u. they've posted signs all around the stadium warning players about using twitter. they said they want to protect the players. they are really trying to dissuade possible gamblers. andy roddick doesn't like it saying if i want to put my thoughts on twitter, why can't i. be warned. >>> ocho cinco being fined because of wearing his orange chinstrap. he twittered back -- this is blank. you can fill in the blank if you like. he goes on to say he plans to sue the nfl for discrimination because he is color blind. the university is michigan, allegations of overpractice. rich rodriguez violated rules that limit practice time even though players had to sign documents stating everything was in the rules. they deny the alleg