Tonight generators across the state are on full blast as at least half a Million People are without electricity due to the fire danger. Smoky skies and high fire danger. Ill let you know when you can expect a change coming up. A possible setback in the race for a vaccine. The astrazeneca trials are on hold after a volunteer became ill. What this means for the bay area trials which were about to begin. South bay Business Owners find ways to reopen indoors, but they know that opportunity could slam shut again. Abc 7 news starts right now. Building a better bay area for a safe and secure future. This is abc 7 news. Tonight across the tales of harrowing escapes from ravaging wildfires. Skies darken. Thousands face another night without electricity. Power shut off to prevent park sparking any new fires. More than 167,000 pg e customers in fact in 21 counties are still without power. This map shows the current Public Safety power shutoffs. Theyre indicated by upside down purple triangles. And dan, right now utility crews are inspecting lines and working to restore power in some of these areas. Reporter thats righta ma. Theyre working fast as you know. J. R. Stone is in calistoga where entire neighborhoods are still in the dark tonight. Reporter complete darkness along these neighborhood streets on the western id of calistoga, a city where 40 of the people are without electricity and that includes tv. Tough for youngsters. Its hard, really hard. Reporter taylor may only be 6 but this is not the first time her family has lost power due to fire dangers. Now, though, they have a small generator that powers only the most essential items. I can only watch stuff on my ipad if its charged. If its charged. Have you been charging it . No. Because our charger doesnt work. Reporter across the state at least half a Million Peopleh plr shutoffs over fears of power lines falling and sparking a fire. You realize how much you depend on electricity when this happens. Reporter in calistoga you can hear the hum of generateors in neighborhoods. Winds are expected to pick up. Calistoga mayor chris canning says it is concerning, especially after monday night. Back in 2017 with the tubbs fire, last night was the first night that reminded me very eerily of that evening. Reporter while many that we talked with are remaining optimistic, taylors mom is doing the same. R husband and their father, who is a firefighter, remains busy on call at the fire station. Its one day at a time, and just trying to make the best of it. Reporter now, generators like this one here in calistoga are on full blast right now, but there is a hope that the electricity will be back on by wednesday night. In napa county j. R. Stone, abc 7 news. And we saw that apocalyptic glow of the sun through the haze in the bay area today. This is what it looked like in san ramon. The smoke and the fog was so thick in some places tonight, dan, it blocked out sunset. It was really just eerie. It was really thats a great word. It was eerie. Very strange. And as you said, apocalyptic. How long is that going to continue . Abc 7 news meteorologist sandhya patel has more on the air quality and the dangerous fire conditions that sandhya still persist. Reporter absolutely. And dan and ama, were going to wineally ight now gusting41 mis drying out a hount st. Ena or 50mileanhour windsthis ied f up until 8 00 a. M. Tomorrow for the North East Bay hills, santa cruz mountains. Wind gusts will be very drying. Low humidity. And so any fires that do develop will spread rapidly. Take a look at the fire danger index. Fire danger in the north bay will be running anywhere from high to extreme during the overnight hours. So definitely watch out. Now, the fires burning to our north creating bad air quality. Ukiah is unhealthy right now. Although we are starting to see a slight impochlt rovement in o parts of the bay area. Still poor in the east bay as youll notice in orange for sensitive groups. When you take a look at this time lapse from earlier tonight, san jose cameras showing you just how smoky the skies were. You couldnt even see the sun. It was dimmed by the smoke and the fog. I do have good news for you. Ill show you when the air quality will improve coming right up. Ama, dan . Sandhya, that is good news. Thank you. Well, breaking news here tonight. A new wildfire is exploding in Northern California right now near the town of paradise. Paradise, of course, was just devastated, ravageed in november 2018 by the massive camp fire. Tonight its being threatened by the bear fire burning in the Plumas National forest. There are mandatory evacuations in parts of plumas, butte, and yuba county. So far nearly 41,000 acres have burned and it is at this moment 51 contained. And tonight the creek fire remains out of control in fresno and madera counties, forcing a new round of, everybodies. Daring rescues of hikers and campers in the sierra forest have taken place. Helicopters lifted more than 150 people overnight and this morning to safety. The missions have been dangerous, not just because oe f ad use nightvision goggles after their first attempt failed. The fire is northeast of fresno and has exploded in size, scorching more than 152,000 acres since friday. Its 0 contained. As awful as this fire sounds, not a Single Person or firefighter haseen hurt. It was such an anxious wait, not knowing what was going to happen and when they were going to be here. So its surreal just having them here in the flesh. The smokes been so thick that the pilots dont have a visual of the terrain to land safely or to identify the locations where the evacuees are. This fire has also been destructive. Dozens of structures have been wiped out by the flames including at least 60 homes. Firefighters from San Francisco left this afternoon to help on the front lines of the creek fire. More than a dozen firefighters were hurt, some severely, while fighting the dolan fire in Monterey County this morning. They had to deploy their emergency shelter. Think of it as sort of a fireproof or fireresistant sleeping bag. Three firefighters were airlifted to a hospital in fresno, and one is in critical condition. The fire has been burning for three weeks now and just exploded in size overnight. Pretty busy night for us last night. The fire in general grew anywhere between 50,000 and 60,000 acres from where we were yesterday to now. Officials say the dolan fire was started by arson on august 18th. A man has been arrested. Cal fire is worried about flareups because of the weather thats triggered a red flag warning through wednesday morning. The big concern here is with the czu complex in san mateo and san mateo counties. While it is the smallest of the three fires, it also has the lowest containment. Yeah, so we continue to monitor, that but california isnt the only state dealing with raging wildfires. A large portion of medford, oregon has been ordered to evacuate togh80,000 residents and is being threatened by a wildfire. The fire started this morning and also caused 25 miles of i5 to be shut down all the way to the californian a fastmoving wildfire all but destroyed the town of malden. Its about 30 miles south of spokane. The fire station, post office, city hall and library all went up in flames along with nearly all of the homes. Officials say it took just three hours to sweep through that town. And you can follow the latest details on the fires all across california with our exclusive wildfire tracker. It its7news. Com and the abc 7 news app. New developments tonight, tiburons police chief has announced his retirement as the department deals with a racially charged incident. Chief Michael Cronin was appointed chief in 2007. The manager says theyve been discussing cronins retirement for some time now. His last date will be on sunday. Are you guys restocking the store . Theres no problem going on. Why are you here so late . It follows this incident last month when a black store owner says he was racially profiled by police at his store. The sergeant involved in the confrontation has now resigned. The marin independent journal reports that cronin denies his departure is connected to this controversy. Now we want to tell you about a possible setback in the race for a vaccine. The bay area was set to begin its phase 3 trials of astrazene astrazenecas covid19 vaccine, but now the entire study is on hold. Abc 7 News Reporter kate larsen has been following this trial, and kate, what happened . Reporter wella ma, a trial participant actually became ill. So now they must stop to investigate whether it was a serious side effect or completely unrelated to the injection. There is actually some surprise and disappointment within San Franciscos department of Public Health since theyve been working so hard to prepare the bay area phase 3 trials of the vaccine. But they cant comment right now, since all inquiries must be deferred to astrazeneca. The final stages of nteereceals aren in atent sent abcreview safety data, which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials. A source says the affected patient is in the uk, where astrazeneca is based. It is reason to be concerned, but its not unusual that this would ham, especially with enrolling thousands and thousands of patients. Reporter dr. Yvonne maldonado is a stanford epidemiologist. Shes not part of the astrazeneca trial but shes conducted clinical vaccine trials all over the world. The only reason you need to do this trial these ways is because of exactly this reason. Its possible that the safety signal will be determined to be unrelated and they can move forward. Reporter last month abc 7 got an inside look at a San Francisco trial site for the astrazeneca vaccine. The bay area trial was already. Generally speaking, when theres a stopping point, when our trials able to resume again . The product sponsor needs to investigate what happened. Every single detail about this patient. They need to meet with the data safety monitoring board. Theres a lot that will need to reporteusf doctor told me ite a matter of days or even much longer depending on exactly what happened. For abc 7 im kate larsen. Back to you. Okay. Thank you, kate. Coming up, caution and reluctance over new reopening guidelines. Business owners in the south bay say they understand how quickly conditions can change. Plus, if you ever go back to the office, how lu get to your office . See how risky a highrise elevator really is when it comes to coronavirus. First, a look at whats coming up tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live with guest host josh gad. Thanks, dan and ama. Im josh gad. Lets see how this goes. Please welcome all the way from arandale kristen bell, idina menzel, and an army family who is always at the ready. So when they got a little surprise. Two . They didnt panic. They got a bigger car for their soontobebigger family. After shopping around for insurance, they called usaa who helped find the right coverage for them and even some muchneeded savings. That was the easy part. Usaa insurance is made the way liz and mike need it easy. Santa clara and santa cruz counties moved on the states colortiered coronavirus tracker. The change from the purple to red tier means gyms can reopen with modifications. Amanda del castillo found for many Business Owners theres a sense of caution and reluctance when if comes to these new indoor reopenings. Reporter the owner of blossom nail spa in campbell says her employees are now tough as nails as theyve had to maneuver constantly changing reopening plans. Its one reason linda doe admits to feeling some reluctance when her employees and customers told her the county was allowing her to finally move indoors. Im like you know what . I will believe it when Governor Newsom says it, its official. Reporter she was happy to see governor gavin newsom announce santa clara skounty has moved from purple to the less restrictive red tier. The change also means nail and waxing salons and tattoo and piercing parlors are able to open their doors with modifications. Museums, zoos and aquariums can do the same at 25 capacity. Shopping malls at 50 capacity, up from 25 . If the county remains in the red tier for 14 days, k through 12 schools can reopen. Fitness centers can also move indoors at 10 capacity. We were open for 48 hours exactly july 13th and 14th and had to shut back down unfortunately very quickly. Reporter on tuesday retro fitnesss outdoor class continued as planned. Owner Jason Bumgardner says the move indoors will come once staffing is in place. Admits tht return with caution knowing other counties have experienced reopenings only to be shut down again. I know my members and my staff who have been unemployed for six months dont ever want to shut down again. Right now we get to do indoors. Im going to invite my customers indoors if they feel comfortable. If not we still have outdoors, and we just take it from there. Reporter indoor gatherings, dining and movie theaters remain off limits. In san jose im amanda delcastillo, abc 7 news. Some parents want their children return to school and today they made that opinion known. A small group of parents along with their children held a rally in Pleasant Hill outside the Contra Costa County office of education. It is safe for kids to go back. Of course we have to take the precautions necessary. But i do believe that inperson instruction is overall key right now. The group wants parents to have a choice about whether their children return to the classroom. Bart is making some changes to its schedule starting next monday. Trains will be running more frequently during the commuteho except for two lines. The dublin daly city and Richmond Berryessa lines will not be changing. Bart is adapting the weekend schedule. Instead of 20minute intervals trains will be on 30minute frequencies. However, they will be starting about 15 minutes earlier. Keep that in mind. Bart has been so badly affected by all this. And because of the pandemic bay area workers are all facing, ama, new job realities. They are, dan. From new safety protocols to working from home, changing careers and managing worklife balance, everyone is looking for solutions. And as part of our commitment to building a better bay area, were spending this entire week looking at our changing workplace, highlighting ways people are starting to make it work. Today abc 7 mornings anchor ka massi aaron looks at elm vaitors and ensuring they are not a roadblock to getting people back to work safely. Reporter this is the pandemic reality at some places in the bay area. Little did i grams on the elevator floor with people carefully moving to their spots. Signs limit the number of riders. People push buttons with their elbows. And lots of reminders to maintain social distance while you wait. I understand the anxiety is high. But the reality is that risk in the elevators is quite low. Reporter thats joe allen, a harvard Public Health expert who says riding an elevator even with other people on board is relatively safe if you take precautions. Allens top tips always wear your mask. Dont talk when you get on the elevator unless it is absolutely necessary. And if you have to cough or you have to sneeze, turn and face the wall and do it into your elbow. And that will go a long way in keeping airborne viral particles low for that short ride. Reporter there have been so many questions about covid19 and elevators. Allen even has a facebook video with more advice. Load in a checkerboard pattern and maximize spacing. Everyone should face forward. Announce your own floor. 28, please. But the person who is closest to the buttons should push them and use your knuckles. If you do touch something, many buildings now have Hand Sanitizer near the elevators. Some Elevator Companies are selling buttons you can tap with your feet and air purifiers. We know this virus has th mn. Reporter evenareas oe ildings restrictions. Tisencrup is one of the bay areas largest elevator providers with thousands of elevators digitally connected to monitor activity. The company says bay area elevator use was at its lowest in mid april and is rising slowly. During the last week of august the number of tisencrup elevator trips in San FranciscoOffice Buildings was just 23 of normal. And san jose 40 . In oakland 46 . And its likely most of the elevator cars on each trip up and down were not full. The companys Hightech System can assign people to specific elevator cars. Elevator traffic is down across the board. So what that allows us to do is actually reprogram those elevators so it doesnt direct people to maximize or fill the elevator up but only direct four or less people onto a cabin so they have room in that cabin to socially diance. Elevator Company Called schindler is also using its advanced systems to make rides safer. At the post montgomery building in San Francisco, employees have schindler preprogrammed cards that tell the elevator which floor they work on without pushing buttons. Schindler is now piloting the next phase, using smartphones. We can put bluetooth beacons inside the devices and it will connect to your phone through a schindler app so you could actually maintain your social distance in the lobby and enter your call using your own smartphone. Reporter california regulations that are slowing the return to work are also allowing ace. Time to get innovations in but employers have a Critical Role as well. Companies are going to have to do their job in terms of extending the workday so we can have standard arrivals and departures and dedensifying the office. Reporter no matter whael vaitor enhancements turn up, experts say you should still use your common sense. So if the elevator comes and its crowded, just skip it. And get on the next one. Kumasi aaron, abc 7 news. I like that theres a way to not have to touch the number at all because ill be honest, dan, i never wanted to touch it even before covid. I know, ive become a little more aware of it before covid as well. I like the Elevator Buttons you can push with your feet. Thats a clever idea