ktvu's tom vacar is live with the latest from the scene. tom? >> reporter: the situation is this, we are in a part of the town called the valley. what happened was this house under construction suddenly caught on fire. the cause is unknown. an investigator is on the way, this house is under construction. that fire went up. if you look to the right, you will see another house, there are two that had their roofs damaged as well as the large oak tree to the right. sustained damage. what happened is, the fire department responded and very quickly brought this blaze under control but the embers were all over the place and as a result they were able to do that. we know two homes have been damaged plus this one. the other homes are on the neighboring street. this happened at 4:22. investigators are on the way and they will know what caused the problem. already some utilities like pg&e on scene trying to do something about getting power on. reporting live, tom vacar, ktvu channel 2 news. >>> there is a troubling new problem tonight involving napa state

i'm tom vacar. that story still ahead. >> the cooling trend has moved into the bay area. i'll show you where the fog will be tomorrow morning and the one direction temperatures will be heading for your weekend. [ cow mooing ] ♪ [ female announcer ] there's no need to produce foods yourself to be sure they're 100% natural. ♪ now there's open nature foods from safeway. no preservatives, no artificial anything. all within budget. a wide choice of natural foods that meet your high standards. ♪ open nature. only at safeway. . >> investigators say they believe an electrical problem may caused a fire that damaged a bakery. broke out just before 5: 30 this morning. the fire burned the roof and attic space. the bakery provides bread for the bistro. >>> two passengers are dead after explosion and fire. the ship was off western coast when the blast ignited a fire in the engine room. all 207 passengers and 55 crew members evacuated. took more than 12 hours to control the fire. >>> gop presidential michelle back man. as jake explains, her visit had two purposes. >> reporter: the event

i'm consumer editor tom vacar, that story still ahead. >>> and your weekend is just around the corner. i'm going to show you which day on the weekend will be the warmest. one of them is going to warm up significantly. i'll see you back here in 10. >>> bones found in an irrigation ditch east of discovery bay are human remains. the coroner's office says a farm worker found the bones yesterday afternoon in a ditch at a corn field near the border with san joaquin county. an anthropologist is now working to determine if the bones belong to a native american. there is no word yet if they are the bones of a male or female. >>> there is concern tonight about an increase in dogs attacking each other at one berkeley park. some dog owners say aggressive dogs are attacking other dogs at alony park. now city officials are thinking about splitting the park into two sections, one far smaller dog, the other for larger breeds. but there is no official proposal just yet. >>> governor brown says he started plowing through the 600 bills on his desk with just over three weeks to make a final decision. he

ktvu consumer editor tom vacar is live now in san bruno with the steps pg & e took today to ensure its pipes are safe, tom. >> reporter: i'm in san bruno and to prevent something like that happening here or a fire such as we had in cupertino last week, the pipe replacement program has been stepped up. it's a pain staking big money door to door effort to replace millions of the street mains and feeder lines throughout pg & e service area. >> cast iron pipes have a tendency of cracking during earthquakes. we have a goal of replacing 100 miles of old pipes. we're 90% complete. >> it's made my uncomfortable just the noise and construction. i can't help but think about the things that have happened in the past. >> reporter: but last week's fire added 1,200 more miles of

i'm consumer editor tom vacar, that story still ahead. >>> and your weekend is just around the corner. i'm going to show you which day on the weekend will be the warmest. one of them is going to warm up significantly. i'll see you back here in 10.

tom vacar. >> members of san francisco's hotel union held a noisy marchand demonstration today in and around union square. workers for the hyatt he hotel chain say they are fighting for the right to strike and want hyatt to let other hotel employees join the union. management called the demonstration "street theater and accused the local 2 leaders not allowing the current contract offer to go before members for a vote. >>> two hours ago in san francisco, protesters say they will stage a mass action on thursday urging passengers to ride bart for free. >> we are going to be in that station protesting exercising our free speech rights. and protesting the existence of the bart police and we anticipate that if bart wants to keep the station running they will open the fare gates. >> the protesters say bart often opens its fare gates during protest or other big events to avoid station overcrowding. and now they are calling for a spare the fare day thursday at the pal street station.

i'm consumer editor tom vacar. pg & e's new project to he >>> as we first reported a couple of weeks ago a russian rocket carrying supplies failed during lift off and crashed in siberia. a second crew was supposed to blast off but all lift offs are on hold until russian space station can figure out what went wrong. >>> health and science editor john fowler joins us now with the lunar mystery the mission hopes to unravel. >> reporter: if you look out tonight in the clear sky you might ravel at the moon. it holds a secret. >> reporter: to your eye the moon is round. but if you could see gravity it would look like this. the lumpiest gravity known. no one knows why. and future missions depends on understanding. >> it's actually quite a dicey thing to fly or bits around the moon because the moon is not uniform. this mission's goal is to really pin that down. >> reporter: the grail mission is to launch twin spacecraft each about the size of a washing machine. controllers will maneuver a and b into the surface of the moon

problems but as ktvu consumer editor tom vacar reports, one of the leading candidates wind power has a serious problem of its own. it's a story you will see only on two. >>> the director of uc berkeley medical institute says the wind power has cost competitive. >> with wind energy you don't get to choose when the wind turbines turn. in the western united states they tend to turn at night when power is much less valuable. >> reporter: power electricity is made as it is used. there's no way to store it. >> if you could store power from wind power, it would make it much more efficient. >> reporter: now they could store the high pressure air under ground just like pge does in depleted gas and oil wells. >> we pump air into the ground when power is cheap and we let the air come out of the ground

reporting live, consumer editor tom vacar, ktvu channel 2 news. >>> there is a ray of hope for some of the people laid off from solyndra. many have high tech manufacturer skills. one wasted no time working for the out of work solyndra employees. >> same skill set. now, you know, it's our turn to bring them back in. >> his company global foundries has several hundred johns the solyndra workers may be able to fill. >>> another apple employee lost a apple prototype. it happened at a tequila bar. apple traced the home but it was not found. there are reports the iphone 5 will be released this fall. two men are set to be arraigned to selling a prototype from last year. >>> the justice department is blocking a merger from at&t and t-mobiles. alleging customers could face higher prices and fewer choices if it goes through. at&t will fight the claims in court. the dealed with make at&t the largest wireless carrier in the united states. >>> the dow rose 53.58 points to 11,613.53. the nasdaq composite index rose 3.35 to 2,579.46. the end of trading was the end of august, which was a brutal month.

i am consumer editor tom vacar, ktvu channel 2 news. >>> they are acretted with pumping $1 billion into california's economy. the company's revenue included $163 million in contracts with california businesses. they paid a million dollars in corporate tax. they have a campus in livermore with 2500 had employees. >>> watt street ended the day with gains. word of more help encouraged investors. the dow gained 141 points. nasdaq up 40%. >>> the nation sent a plane to iran. this comes among efforts to raise bail to free joshua fattal and shane bauer. they were arrested along with sarah shourd in 2009 while hiking long the iran-iraq border. a plane flew sarah shourd out of iran last year. >>> poll shows president obama is leading the republican contenders by double digits in california, despite the president low jobs approval ratings. president obama leads mitt romney by 13 points. 11% were undecided. he also leads rick perry by 19 points. also with 11% undecided. michele bachmann is headed to the bay area tomorrow. she will meet with votersover breakfast at a home and we will cover the even

i'm consumer editor tom vacar, the fight over faa funding still ahead. >>> overjoyed. the news out of iran today that has the families of shane bauer and josh fattal feeling very optimistic tonight. >>> and i will show you which cities will be the coolest. >>> a san leandro police officer slammed his patrol car into a liquor store last night. three robbers went into three ring liquor. one robber pistol whipped the clerk and then ran off. another customer held the suspect until police arrived. the clerk suffered minor injuries. >>> the families of two uc berkeley grads being held in iran say they are overjoyed. today the court ordered shane bauer and josh fattal to pay $500,000 each. that was the same amount paid by their friend sarah shourd. the family said it's a quote huge relief to read that they are going to be released. we hope to say more when they were finally more in our arms. >>> the transportation secretary came to see the work at the new oakland control tower everyone though the funding drags on -- even though the funding drags on. tom vacar looks at what is

i'm tom vacar, low cost living straight ahead. >>> it's the ncaa regular football game here at candle stick, find out what bay area team will play this saturday. >>> with so many homeowners under water with their mortgages, a new trend is taking shape -- underwater. they're staying afloat financially by choosing to live on the water in a boat. tom vacar is here to explain why for many their boat is a lifesaver. >> reporter: for more and more people it's only their boat that keeps them afloat. >> i entertain my clients, i work out of here and i live out of here. >> reporter: greg sason has lived aboard the annie for the last decade here at san rafael's marina. >> this is my room. >> reporter: a divorced changed his living and financial conditions. >> it is less expensive than getting another house. and that was my decision. >> reporter: since his monthly dock rent is only $634. the great recessions losses have created many new live aboards. >> what we have seen is our phone rings a lot more. our waiting list is longer. and we have more people wanting to be live aboards. >> right now yo

reporting live, consumer editor tom vacar, ktvu channel 2 news. >>> coming up at tiv 30:00. solyndra is the latest hit to fremont, the struggles and the silver lining for the city. >>> unemployment rates are falling across the country. jobless rates jobbed in 193 large areas in july. that is a change from june when unemployment rose in ninety% of the sitties. in oakland it rose slightly in from june to july. >>> even though businesses added more workers to their payroll this month it wasn't as many as predicted. jobs led the increase, increasing by 80,000s. the good rose 11,000. the total payroll amounted to 91,000 jobs. they forecast they would rise by 100,000. this is a preview of the government's monthly jobs report. on wall street stocked finished on the up side for the fourth trading day in a row. a surge in u.s. factory orders pushed the market higher. orders were up in july, the largest increase since march. the dow rose 53.58 points to 11,613.53. the nasdaq composite index rose 3.35 to 2,579.46. >>> the victims of hurricane irene saw the light at the end of the tunne

. >> reporter: tom vacar is holding pg & e's feet to the fire. he just spoke to the president of operations he joins us live from san francisco, tom. >> reporter: we talk to the man in charge of changing it all and improving it. pipe whether it's plastic or steel has a finite life span. pg & e has to deal with 40,000 miles of it. >> this is the new pg & e. >> reporter: we met nick -- this afternoon. he is the new ceo of pg & e. he says other leaks were found in the area and repaired. but it seems to keep breaking because it was installed nearly 40 years ago. >> this particular pipe has certain properties to it that make it more brittle over time. >> reporter: modern plastics are far better as a result pg & e is taking on another new vast upgrade program. >> we have about 1600 miles of pre1973 plastic pipe that's similar to what we saw in this particular event. >> reporter: he says dealing with that has become another top priority for him. >> reporter: well the company had replaced pipe in the past and had maintenance procedures in place, we're put

tom vacar is here now to explain how one country is having a massive impact on the world's markets. >> reporter: frank, greece is a very small hole in europe's over all financial dike. but unrepaired holes often lead to big failures. greece is only 1/3 of california's population and only 1/6 its size. yet it's debt has frustrated economic markets worldwide for the last two years, why? >> greece is interconnected with the euro. >> reporter: if greece can't pay a failure of just one euro bank can set up a domino effect like we saw with mortgage. >> what you would have is a multi failure. one would fail then another and another. >> so you've seen european banks that are hold all this debt, they decreased in price 1/3 since the start of this year. >> reporter: today the whisper was so high it could not find a buyer on the note they needed. >> compared to our three year treasure note is 16% to 1%. >> reporter: greece has become so ultra risky that it must now pay more than 900 times what the u.s. does to borrow the same money. and compared to other nations, greece is a peep squeak. >> eac

i'm consumer editor tom vacar, the story still ahead. >>> as we continue to follow breaking news, thisvideo from a witness of a plane crash in reno. we're getting new information on just how many people are reported killed and injured. >>> and in 10 minutes i have the forecast for your bay area weekend. one of these weekend days is going to get near 90, i'll tell you which one. >>> it's the huge crater that looks like an open wound from that deadly san bruno pipeline explosion. >> the hole not being filled is just amazing to us. >> reporter: the plan officials say they finally have for it. >>> also, trying to quiet the controversy over tagging pier 28. what the city says proves it has nothing to do with the america's cup. >>> helping our local hero, the big step taken today to make it easier for veterans to get the medical care they need. >>> you may remember seeing this video earlier this week when we showed it to you here at 5:00. the heart stopping rescue was caught on camera after a motorcyclist is pulled from beneath a burning car. so bystander sprang into action after that fiery

it is san bruno at the explosion that killed eight people to so is in turn up the building but as tom vacar is clicked, the future is still uncertain. >> reporter: for many the only locus of the new home for the holidays and i think people want to come back prepare finding out that it's not cheap to of the house. >> reporter: 38 homes were destroyed and 38 more were so badly damaged a working on opening day, of those 55 homes, on seven are under discussion. dirtying remain undecided storm to are a few of the much have chosen not to come back because it's too emotionally overwhelmed before them. >> reporter: pg&e guys are just six of the empty line. a deadly gas me is gone for was the was the only person we chose him back it's because they are taking that out of commission in. >> reporter: most votes is that at least another year before was he retired in i'm thinking, you know, it's impossible to say. >> reporter: a quicker will likely become a memorial park seem a storm russian authorities are trying to determine an object get the ai ai is acting to crash. the private jet went down today sh

ktvu's tom vacar joins us live from alameda with a move many consumers say is unfair. >> reporter: b of a was saved by a $45 billion taxpayer bailout. now it says these rounds every layoffs are just phase one. with its 5700 branches and 37 states, bank of america is the nation's largest. it currently has 288,000 employees, after having laid off 6,000 since the first of the year. now another 30,000 positions will be gone. >> what is happening is the bank is bleeding out from the self-inflicted wound. bank bought countrywide this, predatory lender a few years back. >> in a statement they write -- >> they've announced that executive compensation will not be affected whatsoever. >> i can't even comprehend that amounts of money. and you think about how many families -- i think it's just selfish. >> i remember hearing bonuses they were giving out to the high-end guys, and that should have been on the grounds for the people. >> i think it's a shame. and i think people should go to other banks. maybe smaller banks. because why should they get all the money and lay off their employees? one ma

our consumer editor tom vacar is live in fremont now with the political implications of solnydra's growing problems, tom. >> reporter: what the democratic president a year ago, in triumph, solyndra will use to pummel him. >> we're executing search warrants regarding a joint department of energy office of inspector general and fbi investigation. >>> the new remaining employees here were shocked. >> there's a wind down team of some where around 100 people who have been working on it. >> reporter: is this just a bad bed on the government's part? or would evidence of fraud make solyndra an exceptance of government bail outs. >> is there going to be a winner or loser in banks or does it take it offshore where it's made cheaper. you will see this in the long run, not who gets the money back but where do the jobs in fact, go. >> reporter: make no mistake, other countries are happy to bet on new technology jobs. >> let's be clear. there's other governments around the world doing that all the time. >> reporter: if the fbi doesn't find a smoking gun, solyndra will be a victim of other countries manu

tom vacar live in san bruno tonight with the next steps now for that neighborhood. tom-- >> reporter: well that's one the residents will be invited to throw in the first shovels of earth into this much larger hole of earth. a backhoe worked in preparation for covering compacting and closing san bruno's ugly car. >> this will conclude closing the hole and providing temporary repairs to the immediate areas so we can reopen the area to traffic. >> reporter: the bishop who's now repaired home will be happy to see it now. >> the hole not being closed is amazing to us. it should have been done a long time ago. >> reporter: crews say final certification had kept them from doing so. the next issue, where to put a memorial for the eight people now gone. >> i think they should be remembered for a long long time. >> something that will really be reflective of the communities interest in care for what happened here. >> reporter: rebuilding the destroyed homes remain some what a contentious issue. >> whether it's pg & e's fault. the city's fault. the residents themselves. but i t

and tom vacar, consumer reporter for ktvu. tom, was there substance in president obama's address? >> there was substance in it. the question is, can he get it through congress? that is a big question. the meat of it was that he's made a grand proposal and the grand proposal, if accepted, analysts say it will create jobs and the trick to it is if the republicans don't buy into it, then they're going to start owning this recession as much as he does for all that happens bad after they say no. now, they may say yes to parts of it, no to parts of else. if once they make their decision, they're going to be held accountable for the things they say no to in a way they've not been held accountable before. you have to remember in california -- in the united states right now -- there are 14 million people that are looking for jobs. 2.26 million of them. 12% right here in california. so that is a huge issue with everybody and it crosses party lines, crosses virtually every income level because this has hit people across the board in pretty much all professions and all income levels. it's a v

. >>> as for the under lying cause of today's sell off tom vacar explains much has to do with one reltivelyeuropeanination. aination some believe is not too big to fail. >> a third of california's population is 1/6 the size. but the stock market is effecting us. >> greece it is connected with the banking system through the euro and intercop neglected with the dollar. it could set off a domino effect. >> one of the things would be that you would have a multiple series of bank failures. one would fail and then another and another. >> reporter: euro banks carry's lot of greek debt it hurts them. >> you are seeing european banks hold all of the debt they decreased in price a third since the start of the year. >> reporter: today, the risk grew so high it could not find enough buyers for all of the short-term buyers needed. >> it is 57% compared to our two-year here in the united states is 16 of 1%. >> reporter: it is so risky it must pay 900 times what the u.s. does to borrow the same money. compared to otherinations in deep debt, too, grease is small. >> each one of them on their own would be e