thom jensen is live for us today. what's the latest this morning, thom? >> reporter: good morning.t up. there was some confusion about the school closures earlier. they are all closed now. we do know back on the scene here we can see a ladder truck down here this morning. earlier they were blasting the tanks in that area with foam and water. some of that foam blowing back up the hill here this morning as the winds that kari was talking about are blowing from the west to the east towards our backs here. out of an abundance of caution the school districts, john swett unified did decide to close all schools. they wanted enough time to make sure they had time to alert all parents and make sure the schools are environmentally safe for the parents. the closure affects about 1,400 students. at the height of the fire yesterday afternoon it was quite a scene out here, two explosions here at nustar energy at about 1:30 sent the top of one of the tanks hurling in the air and people on the ground said the ground shook violently. then the inferno that caused a massive smoke cloud that caused th

first we want to turn to nbc bay area's thom jensen live in crockett with an update on the latest. thom? >> reporter: good morning. being this close to the site, you get your first look at how big these tanks are, these storage tanks. the two that burns are on the other side of this group that we're standing in front of right now, the two that had about 3,000 gallons of an ethanol mix and this morning we got a good look from a perch above the damaged area at the two tanks that exploded into flames and burned for seven hours. it looks like they completely collapsed under the heat. cal osha inspectors are on-site right now and not allowing operation until all safety checks have been performed. in the meantime firefighters from contra costa county have been continually covering the entire area where the unburned ethanol was drained with a thick blanket of foam. >> they're keeping that foam blanket on those two secondary containment structures to ensure that oxygen does not get to that ethanol in them to prevent any possibility of a rekindle of the fires. >> reporter: in fact, firefight

nbc bay area thom jensen joins news orinda and we hear everybody has the power back on there tonight. >> that's right, janelle. after checking through all the power lines that weave through the trees on the populated hillsides in contra costa county. -- in fact i got off the phone with pg&e a couple seconds ago as we were going on air. the spokesperson told me that about 95% now of all of the customers mere in contra costa county have power back on. about 85% of the customers in alameda county. a lot of people counting blessings they made it through the outages with just financial losses. the high voltage lines in the contra costa dooft county hills humming against as a business leader surveys the closure signs in the door with as of pennsylvania lafayette shopping center. >> i honestly never thought it would come to this. and it's really busy ards. >> board member of the chamber of commerce. critical of pg&e preventative shut off policy. >> illustrate amazing they let it go this long, this far. appear they put all these 800,000 people through a miserable, scary existence for the last

thom jensen live in crockett this morning. i'm curious, how's the air quality out there right now? >> reporter: i canell you this morning -- good morning -- it is a lot better than when we arrived on the scene. it's cleared up with the winds blowing from west towards the east, blowing a lot of that smoke, a lot of the residual smell out of here. as we look down on the scene where the two tanks were, you can see that firefighters are still spraying foam on the area that burned. also around those remaining tanks to make sure that everything is safe this morning. we have a better look for investigators once the sun comes up. the big news, john swett unified school district is closed, all the campuses. this all began at about 1:30 yesterday afternoon here at the nustar energy storage facility, there was ethanol in those tanks. the blasts sent the top of one of the tanks hurling in the air and people said the ground shook violently, almost like an earthquake. then the inferno that caused a massive smoke cloud that the interstate was closed through the afternoon and evening commuting hou

thom jensen was reporting live for us that morning. lp us remember, thom, all that you saw and felt, because you were right there in the thick of it. >> reporter: we were all up that morning, weren't we, and as the sun comes up this morning over the hills to the east here, it reminds me of that next morning, and what we saw the night before as they evacuated hospitals and all of the neighborhoods around sonoma county, as the tubbs fire that started at about quarter to 10:00 on october 8th, two years ago, had moved all the way in to santa rosa overnight, and already just burned through thousands of homes and schools and businesses, and little did we know that this would go on until halloween, 36,000 acres and more than 5,600 buildings destroyed, most of them homes in sonoma county, mostly around santa rosa, and of course the 22 people who lost their lives in that fire. it was an incredibly destructive and deadly fire that i think none of us will ever forget, you guys. >> right. i worked on air for almost 20 years now and that day when th

"today in the bay's" thom jensen with this report on teens in crisis. >> angel diaz went to school with a shotgun loaded with shells they say he intended to hurt himself, not others. and was suffering from a mental health crisis. security guard and coach lowe came face to face with the student in a classroom. >> i saw the look in his face, looked at the gun, and realized it was a real gun and my instincts just took over. >> lowe hulgged him, told him h was there for him and everything would be okay. >> i was there for him and this is a life worth living. >> reporter: like so many students, diaz may have felt alone and socially isolated from his peers. the head of a bay area nonprofit tells nbc bay area lowe may have broken through that feeling in the caring way he confronted the teen and gently disarmed him. >> what he needed was an embrace, love, being seen and visible, and hopefully being accepted for whatever it was that was going on for him. >> reporter: diaz was sentenced to 36 months on probation and ordered to undergo mental health treatment. the organization beyond differences t

. >> "today in the bay's" thom jensen live in lafayette, one of the places there are concerns about hot, dry winds potentially damaging the power equipment and sparking fire. how are things looking out there today? >> reporter: right now they're looking good, but good morning you guys. the places that they're talking about especially in the hillsides around lafayette where we are right now, those areas that see those high winds typically other areas include pleasant hill, walnut creek, mara ga, orinda, those areas that typically experience the high gusting wind events this time of year but pg&e also warns that even their shopping centers like the one we're in right now and neighborhoods that are outside those immediate wildland fire danger areas could also be affected depending on where they shut the power down, where they have to, anyway. a long time contra costa firefighter told me yesterday we are in the height of the most dangerous part of the fire season. he said his stations are ready for power shutoffs and ready to jump in to action, if needed. this is what they train for all yea

thom jensen. >>> happening right now, you can see mayor sam liccardo discussing potential shutoffs that they were talking about. this is happening throughout santa clara county. it is going on right now. you can see it started about ten minutes ago. they're hook at a hive picture of that. numerous city leaders discussing safety man's if the lights do go out. what are the options? what do they do next? as soon as we know more, we'll bring it to you coming up at 6:00. >>> pg&e put m to show which counties could be affected. everything is highlights in blue. it could be impacted. the ma rt jo of san jose will likely stay online to parts of the foot hills. they could lose power. so could parts of saratoga and cupertino. in the east bay, at risk areas include berkly and the oakland hills and sections of walnut creek. we made it easy for you. we've put this on to our website. you can type in your address to see if you are directly affected. you can see it at nbcbayarea.com. >>> all right. let's take you outside so you can look at walnut creek. it is toasty. you can see the dry grass. this cou

we're live in san jose, thom jensen, nbc bay area news. >> that is a steep fine. thank you, thom. >>> the search is on for an air conditioning repairman accused of sexually molesting a child in the south bay. he skipped his court hearing two weeks ago and hasn't been seen since. detectives say johnson abused the yuck girl for more than a decade starting when she was just 6. the girl didn't tell anyone, police say, until 2016 when she was hospitalized for a panic attack. >>> well, back in court, the homeless man seen on video attacking a woman as she tried to enter her san francisco condo building will go before a judge tomorrow. this is video or a photo of austin vincent, and we see a video there of him reportedly attacking a woman. the video went viral last month reigniting controversy about a navigati center being built along the embarcadero. >>> he flew into the bay area from kansas city to attend his 50th high school reunion in milpitas. but before he went to the party, police say he set 13 fires. freddy graham is accused of starting fires that burned 128 acres

live in mill valley, thom jensen, nbc bay area news. >> eye opening stuff. thank you very much. >>> police are trying to get to the bottom of an overnight homicide near san jose state that happened about 2:00 this morning on south 10th street. officers say the victim who was not a student was shot. died at a hospital. this is the city's 30th homicide this year. a suspect is in custody in a string of arsons at pleasantville elementary school. jason allen is accused of setting eight fires over two days. it is believed the crimes happened this week. several school buildings and a fence were damaged. surveillance video and other evidence led to the arrest. >>> people in oakland came together today to mark 28 years since the catastrophic 1991 fire storm. this year's anniversary comes as we enter another stretch of elevated fire danger. nbc bay area's going live to oakland right now. you spoke with survivors about being prepared especially in light of the recent pg&e power shut offs. >> that's right. you know, we talked with people who gathered here today and of c

live in oakland, thom jensen, nbc bay area news. >> we continue to follow that. >>> and just in, students at thornton junior high were out of class because they were evacuated from campus. people on the scene tell us taf reported smelling something strange before classes started to students were taken to a nearby parking lot and picked up by parents or were given approval to walk home. police have cleared the scene. they say officers did not find anything out of the ordinary. >>> the weekend is finally here and you want to spend it outside. as we look live at san francisco where there is a number of events if your headed to the city, you're not alone. and you will need your sunscreen. meteorologist kari hall here. what should we expect? >> we're going to need a lot of sunscreen, sunglasses and it will warm up. we're talking about harvey strictly this weekend and that starts today and it is expected to bring 750,000 people into san francisco at golden gate park througho theweekend. that is the look at the beautiful scenery with sunshine. our temperatures are feeling nice and comfortable wi

nbc's bay area thom jensen is live in petaluma at one of the larnlgsest evacuation centers.ople, as we can imagine, probably really frustrated, especially those who lost their homes two years ago and now they're thinking they might have to go through it again. >> reporter: some of them downright angry, in fact, fearing that this will just be accepted as the norm in the future during the fall in these fire-prone areas. the governor today promising that the state is doing all it can to make sure that these fires and these evacuations and these planned power outages, forced power shutdowns are not the norm in the future. >> doing all right? >> yes, i mm am. >> reporter: governor gavin newsom visiting volunteers and patients at a makeshift medical center inside the sonoma marin fairgrounds. just one of several evacuation centers the governor visited sunday, thanking evacuees for heeding the warning from cal fire and others that they need to get out as soon as the mandatory evacuation notices go in effect. >> go means go. when we call for an evacuation, evacuate. >> reporter: it'