Survival. When youre in it, youre fighting it. Youre not going to give up. The bay area man who risked his life to save his home, doing something firefighters tell you not to do. From the flames to the air quality and the weather, we have a lot to get to tonight. Lets sta ng in the bay area. Tonight progress on the front lines. We begin our Team Coverage withn san mateo and santa cruz counties. Cal fire says two things are helping them tonight. Reporter yeah, and there is some progress luckily on this fire. They say, one, the weather is providing some good visibility because, two, the good thing, their helicopters can finally drop some water, make some real progress. Today alone they dropped 200,000 gallons of water on the flames up in the mountains. One fire chief is expressing some caution, saying he believes theyll be fighting these flames for quite some time. Tonight on the front lines, Santa Cruz County firefighters dousing the truck of a redwood tree to save it and keep the fire spr spreading through this iconic forest. Cal fire says this is the most dangerous part of the fire, along the highway 9 corridor from north of boulder creek. That whole stretch is the most active, very problematic in the fact we cant employ our traditional strategy due to the topography. Reporter firefighters say there are smaller fires burning up to felton empire road there, going to let go because it creates a natural fire break, protecting homes down the way. The fire is only 13 contained. It has destroyed 276 structures so far and still threatening 25,000 more. But tonights update from cal fire was mostly positive. Before today, air support has been limited due to poor visibility, but now choppers and planes are dropping water and flame retardant again. Theyve also had more crews come in to help and lines of protection have been bulldozed from the north to the south to help protect areas like davenport for now. As for the tens of thousands of evacuees so we continue to ask for your patience. Let us get the work done that needs to be done to make that environment as safe as possible so that we can get people back into their residence. Reporter there are many impacts to these fires. One more sad update today. Cal fire did identify the man whose body was found yesterday. They identified him as thad jones found in the last chance area. Thank you, ian. New at 11 00, more people packing up and getting out. This is video from marin county. A new Evacuation Order in effect for people near the woodward fire thats burning in the Point Reyes National seashore. Anyone living on silver hills road, fox drive, they need to leave immediately. For so many of us, this is all new. Getting a go bag ready and waiting out an evacuation warning. Tonight in fremont, thousands of people are hoping for the best. Part of the city is under a warning as the scu fire continues to spread. You can see it here. This is east of 680 near mission peak. Flames from that nearby fire have scorched about 360,000 acres. Containment stands at 15 . Lets bring in nbc bay areas cheryl hurd, who joins us in fremont. I believe there people are following the orders. Reporter they are indeed, and as you can see, mission peak is closed right now because of high fire danger. But people here in the bay area got lucky. They got lower temperatures and winds, but people who live here in the evacuation zone are listening to authorities and theyre getting ready. Fremont fire crews are on alert, making sure theyre ready to protect homes if the scu complex fire comes this way. Rory leone is ready. Trying to take the most important things that we can. Reporter like her brandnew puppy, clothing, important documents, and electronics. She and her family have been preparing for evacuation for a couple of days now. Ive been in the bay area for 20some years. This is the First Time Ever ive had to do anything kind of crazy like this. Reporter Alameda County fire releasing these pictures of crews battling the scu fire in remote terrain. People living in fremont cant see the fire, but they can smell it. So much smoke that you cant really see anything. We dont know if the fire is spreading or is it coming closer or just the wind direction. So its very concerning. Its on our minds, but its more the thing of youre worried about the other people who are impacted. Reporter People Living in morgan hill and areas surrounding it were ordered to evacuate sunday afternoon. Fremont residents are hoping its an order they dont receive. We have all these warnings, so we can at least protect our life, you know. Reporter the scu fire is threatening 20,000 homes. 12 structures have been destroyed. Two civilians have been injured. Reporting live in fremont, cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. If you stepped youtside tonight, you might have noticed it was a little easier to believe. Chief meteorologist jeff ranieri is tracking our air quality and conditions on the fire lines. Firefighters got some help from Mother Nature today. Yeah. Big break in the forecast today as we had that fog build really aggressively at the coastline, and its helping to stir up the atmosphere and clear out some of the lower levels, which not only help with the air quality but some of that fog is also increasing the moisture along the fire lines. So lets get a look. You can see this live sky camera on the lefthand side of the screen. Thats San Francisco. Its not smoke but again fog thats moving in with some drizzle. And take a look at our air quality here. You can see over San Francisco, its rating a 60, which is considered moderate. Weve got the key at the top of the screen. Also oakland at 95 and palo alto, 91. So that is much, much better albeit in san jose and livermore, youre in that red color, which remains unhealthy. Whats happening on the fire lines right now . We have some cooler 60s and 70s, but notice tomorrow. Down here in the south bay, 8 5 degrees for the scu lightning complex. Wind gusts of only 20. Warmest location will be on the north bay fire with 91 degrees but wind gusts of only 20. Then down here to the santa cruz mountains, a cooler 78 and gusts of 20 as well. So the lack of major, major wind is also helping firefighters. So they are getting a little bit of an upper hand here. Right now on storm ranger, mobile doppler radar, we do have some showers right here through the central valley. Well tell you what our lightning chances are over the next couple of days. Ill see you in about 15 minutes. Here we go again. Thank you, jeff. New at 11 00, this is a story Getting National attention. Police say this man stole a firefighters wallet right out of his truck while that truck was parked at the fire station in bonny doon. Officers say he used a credit card from that stolen wallet at the shell station and safeway on 41st avenue in capitola. He has shoulderlength hair and had a black and white checkered face mask. The fire in the north bay has been the deadliest so far. Five people killed, three from the same home in napa county. Mary hint mire died last week along with her boyfriend Leo Mcdermott and her boyfriends son, tom. Mary escaped to a roadblock but then went home to get her boyfriend, who was in a wheelchair. Her biggest fear was actually burning, and she didnt even want to be cremated. And thats pretty much the way things ended up. The remains of the three victims were found in a makeshift fire shelter built into the side of the hill near their home. We are seeing a lot of people who are taking the firefight into their own hands, defending their own property. This can be a life or death decision, and one man escaped death. Nbc bay areas jean elle is in vacaville with the details. You can see them, and theyre pretty big coming across the grass. Reporter flames that raced through vacaville, headed for alans home near English Hills road. Woke up, looked out the back windows. Bright orange sky. Reporter he and his family got to work row tow tilling a fire break, grabbing hoses. When youre in it, youre fighting it. Youre not going to give up. Reporter they were engulfed in smoke and facing a wall of hot flames when help arrived. Two trucks rolled up the driveway just before the flames got to the back of the house, and one of them was from fullerton and one was from ontario. Those guys literally saved us by knocking down those flames. Reporter he says he gets emotional when he looks at the video a friend took of his home nearly burning down. You cant believe it, and youre just thankful. You feel bad because other people, you know, they lost theirs. Reporter hes feeling for neighbors like mike johnson. There was nothing to do but get out. Reporter johnsons vacaville home is destroyed. Hes not alone. Along English Hills road the ground is scorched. Many homes are reduced to rubble. Johnson says its hard to believe. Its kind of hard to process, if i think too much about it, thats when you get emotional. Reporter a stunned community now facing a long recovery. That is jean elle reporting. It is hit and miss for so many people around the bay area in these fire zones. Now, weve posted the latest Evacuation Orders and warnings for all of our fires. You can also check out the map showing the perimeter of the fires. You can find it. Its really good resources at nbcbayarea. Com. Ill show you the latest on where the air quality will improve for tomorrow and whats happening on the fire lines. Plus our lightning chances in a few minutes. American progress. Now is the time to build on that progress. An unconventional convention. Who and what took center stage on the Opening Night of the rnc. And breaking news in wisconsin. Protests erupting for a second straight night after Police Officers shoot an unarmed black man. Were back in a moment. Its not going away. Covid19. More than ever, california need. Robust contact tracing. Support for Community Health clinics. Masks and ppe for those saving lives. For teachers and School Personnel educating students. These heroes are doing their jobs. Now government must do theirs. Keep working through a special session to combat this crisis right now and provide the revenues to solve the problems we know are coming. 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. We conxaut to get new information and video from the fire lines. This is a sobering look in the santa cruz mountains. This is from our drone over the m in bonny doon. This is empire grade near vic drive. More than 200 homes have been destroyed in the czulxaomplex fire. It is 13 cokcontained. There is more unrest tonight in wisconsin following the Police Shooting of an e1unarmed black man. This is in kenosha, a city about 40 miles south ofe1 milwaukee. A state of emergency is declared and a curfew enacted. Yesterday 31yearold jacob times in the back. He is in serious condition but is expected to be okay. First the democrats, now its thee1 republicans. ni theq republica. na National Convention kicked off tonight with diverse speakers and passionate pleas. Stand for an american president who is fearless, who believes in you,e1 and who love this country and will fight for her. Thats kimberly guilfoyle, the former first lady of San Francisco, qexwife of governor uy and u onm1 of many from President Trumps innerlp circl who praised the president and what hes done in the last four] years. Welcome to the ni2020 reporter on nighte q one ofe republican National Convention, a parade of speakers both celebrating and defending the record of President Trump. One leader took decisive ouco represent an incredible groe of people. Reporter the Convention Speakers downplaying the countrys death toll. More than 177,000 lives lost and millions of americqx still ni unemployed. Donald trump jr. Standing behind his father and attacking democrats at every turn. Bidens radical e1leftwing policies would stop ourcoe1 ecoc recovery cold. E1 reporter the program diving into the culture wars with speeches from mark and patricia mccloskey, the st. Louis couple that pulled guns on black lives matter protesters marchingfj through their gated community. What you saw happen to us any of you who are watching from quiet neighborhoodsc around our country. Reporter thelp president s personal friend, football great herschel walker, coming to his defense. It hurt my soul to hear the terrible nammsz that people cal rac. Reporter senator tim scott making the case that President Trump is the besto[9r choice foe black community. So when it comes toni what j actions. Look at his policies. Look at what he already did and what he didnt do. This convention and for what. Tomorrow night First Lady Melania Trump is set to speak two of the zvpresident s child and secretary of state mike pompeo also among the speakers. The post office and its role in the upcoming election is still in the spotlight. A recent poll shows california voters are confident with the vote by mail system. 84 said they trust the u. S. 67 of the peoplepo among conse voters. Trust in the vote by mail ni system. The poll was conducted by two institutes at uc berkeley. So how and when do you cast your ballot duringq thisjf pandemic . Nbc news has put together an interactive plan to plan your vote. Its a tool online. You can find the link on our website at nbcbayarea. Com. Lets talk about our air quality. Some of the smoke blowing out of the bay area righgz now, especially in the San Francisco, along the coast. Good news. Tonight i found a little bit of time to get outside on my break, stepped outside, andni jt it was nice to be able to breathe in for a little bit and even see some blue sky out there. We have the fog att the coastle to thank for that right lpnow. Its acting like a big fan ande pushing a lot of the smoke thats just been kind of, you sitting around the bay area the past couple of days andt startg to get some circulation going. Q you can see right now in san [ i city hall and all of that is the fog thats moving in right now. Again, its not smoke. It is actually the fog. And temperatures are coolni wit that fog moving in. 58 degrees and a little bit of drizzle as well. Well hold on to that fog as we move through tomorrow morning. Now, its becausee1 of that oce breeze that we will see some improvements tomorrow. Now, im really thinking at this point we have the best chance of seeing the most markede1 the coastline where that breeze is and also through the nibay. Air quality would be considr q moderate at 100 albeit the rest fluctuate into the unhealthy so ift youok notice that smoke much, you still may ve to limit your outside exposure. But overall we aret seeing som improvement and the firefighters are getting a better handle on some of the firee1q situations well. So 5 00 tomorrow morning, the other thing i want to draw your attention to is off to the north. You can see some of this green out here. Thats some rain and a slight chance oflp some thunderstorms also right here over the sierra foothills. Were not expecting anything for us right now but anytimei] you have thunderstorms in california, you have to watch it real closely. So well have our eyes fixed on the radar. Otherwise, its all about that fog. You can see it here from the north bay down through the east bay and also for thei] south ba tomorrow morning. Then by the afternoon, best chance of thunderstorms would go right there over thenr cosierra. So what about the fires . We have three major fires. I know youve all heard about them,t one in the north bay, south cbay, also the santa cruzr mountains. Lets take you into the north tomorrow the good news. Temperatures are cooling off 90 tomorrow and wind gusts of about 20 miles per lphour. Weve seen most of the hot spots there on the northern flank of the fire today. Down tot the south bay, this fe has just been, you know,fae1 horrific on so many levels, burning so much, polluting and sending those evacuations. Tomorrow also better news. Down to afa cooler 86 degrees a wind gusts of about 20. Over tojf the santa cruz mountains, we have you at 78 tomorrow. Thats better. Also increased humidity with that foggy breeze at the coastline. So theres a few bright spotsxu here at least in that overall forecast. Temperatures across the bay area tomorrow, i do see them cooling off everywhere. Were going to go down a couple of degrees. We. 87 here in morgan hill. 85 san jose. 90 in livermore. Closer to thefa bay, down to 77n oakland. 60s herexd through half moon ba and sanuffrancisco. My extended forecast in San Francisco keeps 60s. Notice the lightning icons i have on tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. I really wanted to highlight this so you canlp see howxdt t are trending. Tomorrow, 40 xdchance. ni wednesday, 35 . And thursday, a 10 chance. So were going to have some activity close to us. Thats based on that current reading of what im seeing right now. For the inland valleys, well also see some decreasing chances staying in the 90s as we head throughout the next couple of days. So, raj and janelle, i dont know about you guys but just tonightu1len was nice to at leat breathe a little bit of fresh air. You know its afa lot better wh lucy, whoxd hasnt really beenr smiling a whole lot because she cant go outside with the smoke, kind of looked up and was like, this isq a lotq better. Where is he going is what shq was asking. Holding up you where it is and what doctors say andys t ening now, covid19 testing is starting up again at themm9 county fairgrounds. It shut down last week because of poor air quality but Health Officials say air quality in the triv lley is getting better. The testing site opens at 9 00 tomorrow morning. Well be right back with more news. Its time for the biggest sale of the year on the sleep number 360 smart bed. You can adjust your comfort on both sides. Your sleep number setting. 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