Seeing smoke as fire rages at the steel recycling plant near the port of oakland. The latest on what we know about air quality concerns because of this fire. Plus, wildfires across the state in past years have fire specialists looking for a different way to fight fires before they happen. Well talk about the new tool cal fire is using to do just that. This is ktvu fox two news at noon. Good afternoon. Im andrere senior. M allie rasmus. This afternoon, parts of maui are a wasteland of burned out homes and obliterated communities. The results of several wildfires that continue to tear through the island, which has already claimed three dozen lives. And Officials Say the death toll could increase in the hours and days ahead. And while firefighters are starting to get a handle of some of those wildfires, now comes the massive and difficult task of sifting through the damage. Overnight, we learned that on top of the 36 deaths, more than 270 buildings have been destroyed or damaged, including most of the Historic Town of lahaina. Local, state and federal Officials Say aid is starting to arrive in hawaii now the mayor of maui posted a message of gratitude to wellwishers these past few days. The resolve of our families business and visitors have been tested like never before in our lifetime. Earlier today, President Biden declared a major disaster on maui, clearing the way for federal assets to help with the response. The president said the Hawaii National guard is using firefighting helicopters to help as well. Again, those helicopters from the National Guard tried to dampen the flames. The fireed tf thousands of others. Strong winds from Hurricane Dora are contributing to the fire spreading quickly and so quickly that some people jumped into the Pacific Ocean to escape the smoke and fire. And they had to be rescued by the coast guard. Now, along with the National Guard, the coast guard, the marines and department of transportation, those are the federal agencies that have stepped in to help with evacuation efforts and Mass Evacuation efforts resume today for stranded visitors and residents. Busses are picking up people in kaanapali, north of lahaina, and taking residents to a shelter in central maui, or taking visitors directly to the airport. Some of them are coming back home to the bay area after experience, seeing the tragedy and panic from those horrific fires, ctvs Amanda Quintana brings us to sfo as passengers landed this morning. Leaders in hawaii are urging visitors to stay away from maui and leave, sending thousands scrambling, trying to evacuate to get home safely. The hotel just put up a sign and said maui county says to get out, evacuate as soon as possible, head to the airport. Stacy snowden says for a while she and her husband didnt realize the magnitude of the maui fires until their friends showed up at their hotel door. They got screaming bangs at their door, their condo that said, get out, get out now. Theyre kids were just petrified because they were seeing the fires. They were seeing the smoke. And you know, they thought they were going to have to jump into the water. Many others took in friends and even strangers as the fire got closer, they sent us a picture right out of their window with fire coming to their house. So in the middle of the night, they came and stayed with us. Families. Theyre on vacation. Thats their first trip to hawaii. And i think itll be something they never forget. Forced to spend hours at the airport waiting for their chance to get out, some even shedding tears at the relief of being home. Many remembering their time in lahaina just days before we went out to dinner at the line of grill, really old, famous restaurant there. And we were there saturday night just having such a beautiful time. And its gone. Its gone now. Now watching footage of the Historic Town in ashes. It looks unreal. Yeah it looks like a bomb went off. Its unbelievable. Its just like Fishermans Wharf being burned down. You cant think about that, mickey pandit says just minutes after he and his wife arrived at their hotel, evacuations started with no food, water or gas stations open and the main roads closed. Everyone was sent the same direction. We had to take the treacherous route that goes through the back of the island, which is like a three hour, the most dangerous journey ive ever seen because like its probably size, the roads that big and there are two suv is trying to cross each other because it was like a panic. One of the biggest issues was communication nation. The response was really bad from the government side because they were paralyzed pretty much. They didnt know what to do with no power or cell service. People had no connection to the outside world. Were there with no information at all. And we were just hopeful that the world knows whats going on here because mauis in trouble. Hawaii is in trouble, and they need a lot of help right now. I mean, lives are being lost. Amanda quintana, ktvu fox two news. And we of course know that california is no stranger to destructive wildfires. And after the mosquito fire tore through the sierra foothills last year. Cal fire continues. Wildfire preparedness efforts and its led to the creation of a new tool. The chronicle reports that technology is called the Weather Research forecasting system. It was built by researchers at san jose state university, and its set to help the agency get a head start on fire spotting and weather influenced behavior. Now this new tool is set to help with predicting where embers from a fire might land and ignite new hotspots, as well as understanding how the hot and dry winds will influence the weather. Meanwhile in recent years of destructive wildfires, pgd has been at the center of blame here and pressure to improve safety. Now the east bay times reports this year the utility is working on Circuit Breaker technology to reduce fire risk and have it minimally impact most customers. But a recent spark and outages this monday as the city of lafayette calling on pga to provide updates on that situation as a result, the utility is planning on Holding Community events soon to address questions and concerns in lafayette, as well as los gatos. Across california, Water Management groups are taking steps to prevent another repeat of some of the problems we saw earlier this year. In the wintertime, were talking about levee breaks. Governor gavin newsom signed an executive order to make it easier to repair levees and remove debris ahead of this coming winter. Last year, levee breaks caused flooding and significant damage along the river. It also refilled the long, empty tulare lake. The la times reports that this order will also suspend many environmental laws with the goal of speeding up the process of repairing damaged levees. None of this story a live look now from where more than 20 hours ago, a large pile of burning steel debris near the port of oakland is no longer producing those plumes of smoke. We saw over the last day or so. The fire broke out at their steel off embarcadero west. As dave ktvbs dave dowling reports, the concern now is the air quality. It was crazy. It was like you could see it early, like start to smolder and then it was a big giant plume. It was this constant plume of smoke that had everyone talking across the bay. Couldnt really differentiate between either one. Figure out where the cloud was, where the smoke was, if it was over. Yeah, its surreal. So i was just wondering what was on fire. And then typical coming from this direction, being in oakland, i thought it was another homeless encampment. It was no encampment, but rather a large pile of steel debris that somehow caught fire at the schnitzer steel recycling plant wednesday off embarcadero west in oakland. Not only could you see it, but you could smell it. It burned for nearly 15 hours. We saw it from our window. So i was like, im not going to open my windows or take a walk outside. So we just kind of hunkered down and just watched it from our window. Yesterday was real bad, and today we had other people asking about the air quality while most of the smoke has dissipated, theyre still concerned about particles in the air from the burning debris. We saw readings last night and this morning from particulate matter in the east bay and south bay. Those readings are picking up levels from the unhealthy for sensitive groups category on the aqi or the orange range. All the way up to the unhealthy range or red. The bay area air Quality Management district says its monitoring the air around the steel site and beyond and will continue to do so until conditions improve. An air quality advisory is in place through midnight. The first and best defense to protect yourself from the smoke is to remain indoors with windows and doors closed. We also advise people to either turn off your ac units or set them to recirculate to avoid pulling in that smoky air from outside for people who need to be outside, officials recommend wearing an n95 mask until the advisory is lifted. As for the debris site at schnitzer steel crews continue to hose down the debris pile to minimize flare ups, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation. In west oakland. Dave devlin, ktvu fox two news, San Francisco 49 ers ceo jed york is facing multiple lawsuits stemming from his business interests outside of the nfl. Two lawsuits accuse york of Insider Trading and violating federal laws in his role with a santa clara based Education Company. According to the San Francisco chronicle, shareholders claim that york and executives from that company concealed their role in helping students cheat in online exams. Shareholders say york and Company Executives sold stock without informing investors of the extent of the cheating scandal. Now, in a statement, a spokesperson for that Education Company called chegg said, quote, the recent securities related lawsuits against us are without merit. We are vigorously defending ourselves in these lawsuits. Chegg takes academic integrity very seriously and has invested significant resources to protect it. China has been helping millions of students learn and thrive for many years, including during the pandemic, creating a Digital Learning platform to improve outcomes, end quote. In a statement yesterday, 49ers spokesperson brian brokaw said, quote, the 49 ers are proud of the work we accomplished with chegg to provide scholarships for First Generation College students, end quote. Brokaw did not address the chronicles questions about the pending lawsuits against ceo jed york. Now a group of low income students can indeed file a lawsuit against the state of california for Remote Learning inequities. Studies show educational inequities increased from 2019 to 2022 between Public School students of different races and income levels. Alameda county superior court judge Brad Seligman said evidence shows that the state implemented a Remote Learning policy that failed to provide all students with computers and technology. He said a trial would determine whether the state violated Discrimination Laws and a state constitutional guarantee of educational equity. While workers are protesting here in the bay area, the emmy awards are confirmed to be delayed as a result of the hollywood strike. Details on the upcoming negotiations, plus, a vote will be determined today about robo taxis on the streets of San Francisco. When we come back, whats expected to happen at that meeting today and in bay area, whether more sunshine this afternoon. We still have some low clouds and fog hanging out near the coastline. Were watching some activity to the south, some showers and well see those showers could approach the bay area. Well have the update from the mountains to the coast. Heatin up the kitchen we got somethin different spreadin good vibes all day todos a la mesa que buena la mezcla it dont get no better livin in the golden state lovin this land everyday norte a sur lo puedes ver nada se puede comparar livin in the golden state vive en el estado dorado. Yeah for this rally. Sagaftra union actors have been on strike since july and thats shut down tv and Film Production performers and studios have not yet come to an agreement on working conditions, pay and the future use of Artificial Intelligence in creative projects. New at noon, the 75th emmy awards will be postponed another four months because of the ongoing actors strike. The emmys are now set to air on monday, january 15th, 2024. Now, the timing of that award show means that the emmys , which honored the best shows on television, will actually air weeks before the Screen Actors Guild awards for the following year. A number of other awards ceremonies like the Golden Globe Awards and the critics Choice Awards are also held in january. Again, ceremony will be happening roughly four months later than originally planned. Well, the San FranciscoTaxi Workers Alliance rallied at a protest just a few hours ago in response to the meeting underway by the state Public Utilities commission to decide whether there should be more self driving taxis on San Francisco streets. Both cruz and waymo were hoping to get approval for around the clock robotaxi rides if its approved, it could make San Francisco the first city in the country to have two fleets of Driverless Cars competing for passengers against rideshares and taxis. But critics, including the San Francisco fire department, wants state regulators to reject the proposal because of safety concerns. Theyre talking about progress, safe roads for all. Well i would ask these people who are across the street looking at them, what about the cars that are stopping in the middle of the street . Is that safe . What about the cars that are stalling out . Is that safe . What about the cars that are blocking emergency exits . Is that safe . At the same time, other organizations argue an approved vote would create more jobs and opportunities for people. We cant stop the technology. Were really excited about the potential that these vehicles have for transportation and accessibility and safety and general improvement for blind people with access to transportation. So the meeting is currently underway and we expect the vote to come down later today. Time now is 1217. Lets check in with meteorologist mark tamayo for a look at the forecast. A little bit of a warm up, maybe this weekend, looking ahead to the weekend. Yeah, already thinking about the weekend, right . I guess were getting close enough and yeah, we are right. We are right with that forecast. Temperatures will be heating up, especially inland will be approaching the mid 90s as we head toward the second half of the weekend. For today, though, of course, you heard about the fire yesterday and this morning near the port of oakland impacting air quality. The air quality advisory is in place for today. But thankfully, as we take a look at these sensors, were showing you a lot of green sensors and a little yellow sensors here indicating some moderate air quality. So air quality is not too bad, at least according to those sensors. And heres a live camera looking out toward the sfo, some blue sky up above. But then we have some low clouds near the coast and kind of lingering near portions of the bay this afternoon. That is the headline, though, as far as temperatures, we are warming back up this weekend. Some more 90 is expected by saturday and sunday and into monday. Today, some 80s for a place like concord, 84 degrees and maybe some slight cooling into tomorrow. Heres a satellite just like yesterday. Were showing you the low clouds and fog trying to clear back to just offshore. As we looks like we e lingering patches right around half moon bay. Also toward the marin headlands, right around portions of San Francisco as well. Were going to move the maps now closer to southern and Central California because the remnant moisture, what we have been talking about over the past couple of days of what was once Tropical Storm eugene is moving into portions of the state. In fact, fairly active radar right now closer to a santa barbara. Some lightning strikes detected. And this is the activity well be watching later on this afternoon. Tonight and into friday for us right now, looks like a slight chance of a shower closer to monterey bay, but even closer to the golden gate. Well be watching out for that action. But it looks like the main focus will be towards south kurt number of San Francisco, 66, santa rosa in the 70s, 70s and some lower 80s for san jose and in livermore. So heres a setup. You can see this system has some cooling us off over the past few days, but we have this this what was once a Tropical Storm eugene. That moisture is moving into central and Southern California will be watching out for that over the next couple of days. So for today and tomorrow, we will increase the high clouds. Most likely by this evening, it could feel a bit humid out there, especially for your friday and the showers. Definitely watching that activity to our