Petaluma, novato, just anywhere to get away from this area. They have Evacuation Centers set up there for a lot of people to get there. This includes so many homes, hundreds of homes, thousands of people potentially affected. It is the area to the north and to the south of highway 12 from kenwood to east santa rosa. For people who cant get out, if you dont have a car, if you dont have any way to get out of town, there is a bus or a set of buses stationed at the safeway at calistoga road and highway 12. But also, we were talking to the Sheriffs Office of Sonoma County. They told us if you cant get out, they will come to you. They are so determined to get people into safety, they will come to you and help you save yourself. They want people to go as marcus said west on highway 12, south on 101, go as far as novato and petaluma. They dont want people heading just the next town over. They need people to evacuate farther south. Now what youre looking at on your screen is the first mandatory evacuation that was called this morning. This is just southeast of downtown sonoma. What had happened was they called this mandatory evacuation. They said they felt calmer about the severity of it. It was about 50 homes, a rural area, unincorporated Sonoma County. Right. But then a couple hours later, 35foot flames shot up about a half mile from downtown sonoma so that is just one little microcosm of how serious this wind event is changing things this morning. And you can see right there, this is new video from overnight. As you can see, those sheriffs deputies actually going throughout the areas to try to make sure people are aware of whats going on and get them out of those mandatory evacuation areas and this is the reason why. This is some of the video that we shot overnight. As you can see, those flames burning. This is coming near those areas that were told they had to leave. Many of those neighborhoods, were talking about some neighborhoods with anywhere from 30 50 50 to 100 homes and then were talking about at least 1,000 people within the community so this is certainly a situation that changed quickly. We were speaking with one of the deputies from Sonoma CountySheriffs Office, and he was saying, you know, we think weve got this under control, weve evacuated the people in that area and then an hour or two later, get out. We want people to get out. And that was when they said, immediately, get out. Now, definitely that fist situati first situation in Sonoma Valley was less populated but we saw those flames shooting 30 feet in the air. One of our crews out there, anser hassan, he saw that with his own eyes, and anser, youve been out there and how are things looking now . It seems like its changing. Reporter marcus, kira, good morning. It definitely is changing as daybreak happens, were getting a much better sense of whats happening out here. Earlier, about an hour ago, this was a staging area. Fire crews were out here. All crews have been sent out to fight this fire. If you look there, thats the fire line. Earlier it was an orange glow. Then it became bright red. Now smoke. What that means, fire crews are making progress on the front lines. This is east macarthur street at 8th street in sonoma. We are less than half a mile from downtown sonoma. Mandatory Evacuation Orders are in place in this neighborhood. The power has also been cut as the fire came very close to this neighborhood. One of the big issues as weve been talking about, the wind. Fire crews say the uptick in the wind not only pushes the fire along but employees these embers and ashes through the air that can spark hot spots and we have seen the fire jump as we drove through the neighborhood earlier, some streets, quiet, intact, others, homes that were fully engulfed in flames. And as we see the shift in winds and the pickup in wind speed, thats pushing the fires into areas much faster than they predicted. Now, joining me right now is captain tony mchale with cal fire. I appreciate you talking to us. And i know you guys have had a Bernie Sanders supporte busy morning. I did a quick reconnaissance. We were anticipating a change in the weather this weekend starting last night. We have relatively low humidities and a very receptive fuel bed w. This much active fire in the area, this is not surprising to us that we would have a flareup like this. We do have a great amount of fire to the east of the city here. We have numerous resources deployed in the neighborhood. Were urging all people east of highway 12 along napa street from downtown to the east of the story evacuate, pack up, head out. The power is out in the area as well. Reporter now, the past couple hours, we have seen this really change. Tell us a little bit about the progress. What are you seeing out on the front line. This is what we call a complex fire. We have numerous fires burning throughout the county with a very receptive fuel bed, very diverse fuel bed. This presents enormous challenges. We have about 8,000 firefighters at the de employed. We have Engine Companies coming back here to defend structures. Were activated, engaged, doing our very best. Absolutely. Let me ask you about the wind. Weve been talking about the wind patterns and the uptick in the wind. How is that creating fire conditions out on the wind are a very difficult element to deal with because they are be variable. They can be strong and gusty. So you have to adapt your tactics accordingly but what we had was enough wind that kicked the fire up, the fire activity, it began to make a run towards the eastern side of sonoma, and thats what were engaging right now. When the sun comes up, we get some better air quality. Well probably start using aircraft and every resource that we have available were going to use. Reporter now, i know you said you were out there doing a recontour. Do you anticipate any Evacuation Orders. Ill leave that to the sheriffs department. Its good. One thing i can tell you as a company officer, it creates a great deal of anxiety when we have civilians in an evacuation area. I know people, its a very emotional time, they want to protect their homes, but for us, it creates tremendous anxiety because our number one priority is human life and we would rather see people pack up and get out of harms way so that we can do our job and engage in structure protection ops. Reporter one last question. Your crews are exhausted, especially the ones who have lived in this neighborhood, lived in the area. What are they dealing with. Some crews have been out for as long as three or four days at a time. Ill tell you, here im a seasoned veteran myself, we are very dedicated. We are trained to do this. This is what we do. This is what the public expects of us and we are going to deliver. Reporter captain mchale, i appreciate your time. You bet. Reporter be safe out there. As you hear, the mandatory evacuations orders have been issued and the fire crews really emphasizing people to people who live in the area, if youve been told to leave, try to get out. Despite as emotional as it can be, but it really makes their job a lot easier. The people who are evacuating, youre suggests to go to sebastopol, roehnert park or hell or high water petaluma. As weve been reporting all morning, bus systems have been put in place for people who may be struggling with transportation. Ill send it back to you guys. Anser hassan for us just outside of downtown sonoma. What was so interesting about that is of course the Sonoma CountySheriffs Office will determine further mandatory evacuations. But that cal fire captain saying he would recommend people who are east of highway 12 to evacuate. Get out. Lets not mess around with this wind. It could change direction. It could change course. And a couple hours ago, we were looking at that area was fine. Right. They were confident. And now everything has changed. It just goes to show how alert people need to be this morning and really take those precautions. As he said, its all about saving lives. And he also said that the power is out in that area so thats another reason. Once the power is out, theres really no need for you to stay at home. You want to get out and get to safety because you never know what can happen and it makes communication a little bit harder for families in those areas and i want to give you the nixle, that number again, just to be sure, sign up for it now even if you have power. You can text your zip code to six digits. Ead on88777. And that way, you will get information up to date of whats going on in your neighborhood when the evacuations are called for as well as, you know, when you can go back to your home and when you have to leave your home. All right. Invaluable service. At 7 10, we do have much more ahead on today in the bay. We have continued breaking News Coverage ahead. Hope you stay with us. Let s update you on the overa welcome back to our breaking News Coverage as we continue to update you on the north bay fires. We want to get you up to date on all the things that are going on throughout the state. Right now, this map is showing the names of those fires. The tubbs fire is already the third deadliest fire in the states history. 17 people have died in those fires. Cal fire says that they are making progress on the containment. We have a graphic up that we have worked throughout the night to get you up to date on those numbers, to give you a sense of the containment levels. The atlas fire is now 45 contained. The tubbs fire is 44 contained and those are good numbers. Now the nuns fire, this is a different situation, an aggressive fire. It is at 10 containment. That pocket fire is 5 contained. Here are the newest details on all the north bay fires combined. At least 36 people are confirmed dead. More than 20,000 people have evacuated but keep in mind this morning we have two brandnew mandatory evacuations for both sonoma and kenwood to santa rosa. So that number surely will change. 220,000 acres have charred. We were on the phone with cal fire, and they said think about this. An acre is a football field. 220,000 football fields have charred. 345 square miles. The one piece of good news were looking at right now is 69 of the 77 cell towers that had been knocked out of service have been restored so were hoping that will help families get back in touch with one another, neighbors, and also give people the ability to look at where they can evacuate. Look at where the buses can come pick them up and take them, give them the ability to text nixle and get help. Right because you know, the thing about it is, the winds. We have been talking about that for since the beginning. That is really the thing thats forcing that fire to move into different directions. Vianey arana has been following this and you told us that these winds were going to pick up. Theres going to be a drop at some point in the day but not right now. There is. Compared to where we were about 2 30 or 3 00 a. M. , you heard a couple reporters say the winds seem to be dying down. It just means theres a slight shift in fact wind. What tends to happen is we see a decrease in those gusts right now at napa earlier, they were at about 25, 26. Right now theyre at 15. So even that it might seem like the winds have died down a bit for now, they havent peaked so lets look at that timeline because the threat of the winds will continue and you mix that up with the relative humidity and north bay humidity, 40 or higher helps. We are officially dropped out from under that 40 range and right now it is about 7 15 a. M. Sunrise is 7 17 a. M. So were just two minutes away from official sunrise and hopefully they can get that aircraft up and running and hereally help i putting out these fires. In the 80s by about 2 00 which is when were expecting to see the change in that humidity. Lets talk about the expected winds. As i mentioned, even though right now in the north bay, at about 15 Miles Per Hour, were still expecting those winds to really peak at about 9 00 a. M. Napa possibly 38mileperhour gusts coming into play. Santa rosa, 26 Miles Per Hour and this will continue where you see the arrows, this will continue to blow in the direction north northeast at the moment which pushes a lot of that fire further south and of course those embers, which can quickly spread throughout the area. Fast forward through this timeline. Well keep the peak wind through about 10 30 so from 9 00 a. M. To 10 30, were talking 38 Miles Per Hour and then if we fast forward, which is this is what we really need, when do the winds start tapering off . This is when the winds start tapering off, around 2 00 p. M. , santa rosa, 13 Miles Per Hour, napa, 17 Miles Per Hour, and then we really start seeing the winds really quickly tapering off and then fast forward through the 10 00 hour and napa now really at 6 Miles Per Hour, a nonwind event from that point forward. Now, even though the winds are expected to taper off, were still dealing with low humidity and dry area for concern so for now, all of those active fires that are burning although these three fires down here have been grouped into one. If you are just south of any of these locations and you can see any of those flames over the hillside, youre too close for comfort. You must stay alert. That wind will blow in from the north northeast for the next several hours at least through the 10 00, 11 00 and 12 00 a. M. Hours. Were not expecting to see a big relief, at least not until past 2 00 which means all of the areas in the red flag warning will remain at a high fire threat at least through 11 00 p. M. Now why are we remaining under a red flag warning to 11 00 p. M. If the winds are supposed to taper off by 2 00 . The reason is that relative humidity is expected to decrease and get even worse over the next couple of hours. So were still going to deal with hot temperatures, especially in the north bay. Were talking 80degree temperatures in the north bay and when you drop down that humidity below 10 , im going to step out so you can really look at this map. That still creates a concern for fire danger. What does a red flag warning mean . A red flag warning means that the weather conditions in the highlighted areas have the perfect mix and combination of a fire quickly starting or quickly happening or quickly spreading in that area. So it means that youre at an elevated risk of a fire starting or quickly spreading in that area. It does not mean that that is where the wildfires burning right now in the north bay will spread. So i dont want you to get confused because i did have some folks ask me on twitter. I want to bring back up that humidity. Why does this humidity come into play after the winds taper off because i want to take you through this timeline. Right now, we have seen that humidity decrease. It recovers overnight and when the winds kick in, it dries out that air mass and drops that relative humidity yet again and thats exactly whats going to happen tonight. By about 10 30 a. M. , right at the peak of those winds, when we could see gusty conditions ranging above 35 Miles Per Hour, look at napa. 13 humidity, relative humidity. Concord, 23 relative humidity. Santa rosa and the novato area also relative humidity but then it gets worse in terms of the humidity. By about 3 30 p. M. , look at the humidity in napa. Were talking less than 10 . Now that humidity is actually lower than what we saw on sunday when the fire conditions initially broke out in those latenight hours so thats why that red flag warning will remain in place through 11 00 p. M. Tonight because even when the winds died down, you need to remain alert because the fire conditions are going to remain very, very dangerous. Now, lets talk about the next seven days. What can we expect in terms of relief . Now, this is i want to bring you a little bit of good news to look forward to. If you look right here at the timeline, october 19 on thursday, this is when we have our next chance of seeing some rain. Weve got a system thats going to possibly bring over a tenth of an inch, possibly even 1 4 inch judging by the models right now. Theyre flipflopping a little bit but the north bay area has a way of seeing mother natures way of putting out the fire. That rain is arriving as early as thursday, continuing into friday, possibly. But for right now, what we really need to get through are those gusts that are going to kick back on and off again within the next couple of hours. The reason that we stay on air, you might have an app on your phone, is because these winds are constantly changing so even though your map or our app or whatever you have on your phone says the winds are come from the northeast at about 15 Miles Per Hour, they might be coming in at that speed at that hour but 8 30, were talking 38 Miles Per Hour in the napa area so you really need to be up to date on how quickly those conditions can change because when the gusts start coming, whats the difference between a sustained wind and a gust. Sustained wind means its consistent and gusts are those periods, youve probably seen this when it happens outside, strong bu strong burst of wind, thats a gust and thats when we see the really big threat of seeing those embers pushing south. Thats what can quickly spread this fire and thats why this wind has played such a bad and terrible role, however, it looks like right now, the key points, were looking ahead towar toward 2 00 p. M. , that relative humidity drops to about 8 by 3 30 p. M. So the elevated fire danger will continue but at least now that we are in sunrise, they will be able to get that aircraft up and probably get a better hold of this fire and then hopefully by about 10 30, once those peak gusts move out, well get a better view of what we can expect in terms of the fire conditions, but for now, just remain alert. The winds arent tapering off until later this afternoon. Ill be back with an update in just a bit. It is 7 2 1. We still have much more ahead on today in the bay. Continued breaking News Coverage is ahead. An inside look at the effort to evacuate people. The body camera foote this morning, we are getting an inside look at the effort to evacuate people from the wildfire area. The body camera footage youre seeing right there comes from Sonoma County sheriffs deputies. Heres part of it. You can just see its a tough situation out there. This was sunday night as flames first erupted. You can even see the ride