A private investigation combing through the charred evidence which is in multiple locations. Nbc bay areas cheryl hurd joins us near the Oakland Airport where some of the debris is stored. Reporter well, the search for evidence will shift to a hangar here at the airport in a couple of weeks. The cause of the ghost ship fire is under investigation, but one attorney is determined to figure out exactly what caused that fire. It was december 2nd of last year. 36 people died during a concert and dance party in what is now known as the ghost ship fire. Now, an independent search for the cause of that deadly fire is under way. Were looking for evidence. Reporter Mary Alexander is the lead attorney in a civil suit representing 31 of the 36 people who died that night. Were looking for what might be here in the way of, for example, some cameras with photos and anything having to do with the fire pattern. Reporter sifting through all that burned debris is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. There was a second floor where the party was being held. And so thats helpful to us because witnesses talk about how they saw the fire coming up through the floorboards. Reporter last month, ghost ship operator and his second in command mampl ris were each charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter. In the civil suit, families of the victims are going after the two men. The building owners, concert promoters and pg e. We feel its very important that we preserve the evidence after we go through the debris in even though going through a second time provides new guarantee, alexander is looking for answers for her clients. No matter what the cause of the fire was, they couldnt get out. Reporter now, conducting an independent investigation like this is not unusual because this is a civil case, not a criminal case. Now, finding evidence no matter how small could help this case. Reporting live in oakland, im cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. Thank you, cheryl. New details and new video from last nights clash between San Francisco police and hundreds of skateboarders. The Police Department is now reviewing videos to get to the bottom of exactly how it unfolded and what happened. But tonight a man who came to the aid of that seriously injured skater says the crowd turned on Police Officers as they tried to help. Nbc bay areas jean elle had joins us with the very latest. Reporter police tonight say they were just trying to shut down a dangerous event up there on the hill. Skaters saying police were out of line. Some here say the fun turned dangerous when the crowd made it difficult for medics to get to a patient. It was right there. Reporter fire crews had to wash blood off the street after skate boarder whos took over dolores street wiped out on the pavement. Damian joseph of the fryerry says people called him outside when thrasher Magazine Editor jake phelps smacked his head on the street. He says the crowd turned on police as they tried to help fleps. People were upset enough that they were crowding around him and refusing the Police Direction to get out of the way so that medics could get through. Reporter tensions escalated as officers tried to shut down the unpermitted event. Another skater and an officer made contact sending the skater airborne into a patrol car and injuring the officer. Last nights situation was unsafe for the public. Reporter bill scott updated the Police Commission tonight. I found the video disturbing. Reporter the chief says the department had review video from social media and body cameras. We are addressing some of the concerns ive heard about in terms of the collision between the skate boarder and one of our officers. Our officer was injured. Hes doing okay now. But well take a look at it and investigate it. Reporter last night skaters said police overreaced. Joseph said while hes often critical of the police he believe add they were trying to protect people. We had seen one major injury. That the point the police widely decided it was time for the activity to disband. They got no cooperation on that. On this case, i cant fault them. Reporter now, as this investigation continues, the chief says his department is trying to figure out how to prevent the skaters from ever taking over the hill again. As for mr. Phelps, he is listed in fair condition. Jean ellie, nbc bay area news. Were following breaking news right now in southern california. These are live pictures. A major scare on the ucla campus at this hour. Youre seeing down below hundreds if not a couple thousand students being evacuated from several on campus dorms being moved to a nearby sports field right there on campus. Not quite sure what the emergency is, but initial reports suggest a bomb threat. This is right on the ucla campus. This is our live video from our sister station in l. A. Weve seen a lot of those students and Staff Members and administrators being evacuated. Were going to continue to monitor this situation and bring you any more information as it becomes available. A fire in marin county could be seen for miles. It was located in a remote area west of novato. Its 100 contained now and took about 90 firefighters, three tankers and two helicopters to put it out. 35 acres burn. No structures were damaged. In the south bay, crews still on scene. This was the view from our sky ranger. The aftermath near alum rock park. About 100 acres burned including one home and plenty of residents were the evacuated. I was more like shocked while theres fire. I had to get out of there. Me and my neighbor ran down the hill. They got to safety. Tonight that fire is 75 contained. We have new video of a Close Encounter with a whale. The whale gets really close to that boat. They nearly collide. A man versus mammal altercation that seems to be happening more often in the bay. Just last month, a kite surfer went flying over a humpback whale near the Golden Gate Bridge we talked with the kite surfer today. Getting that close is not only dangerous but it can be illegal. Theres federal statutes against get too close to them. The kite surfer believes one humpback may have been circling him and made contact with him twice. Six seconds into the video, you can see andre hit what looks like a wave. But he raises his hand to his mouth in shock. He says it was a whale. Theres something huge around you. Hefs coming back. As he was approaching me, i was getting more and more scared. Reporter he believes the same whale circled around and surfaced right in front of him. And they made contact. He didnt just come out, but he came out with the fountains rolling and you know, trying to scare me or something. Reporter marine experts have been logging more and more of these incidents. This weekend, another was caught on video coming within feet of a small yacht. Theyre coming into the bay to eat. For the last couple years, there have been anchovies. They seem to be collecting at the narrowest part of the strait which is one of the busiest shipping and leisure channels in the country. Experts say people should stay away. Whales are wild animals and could be dangerous. He says he tried to hop over the whale he encountered. If i would hurt him, the first thing he would do is move to thats what they do. That would hurt. Actually fatal encounters with whales can be deadly. Earlier this week, an expert just helped free one entangled in ropes. Whale nicked him with his tail and he was killed. Back to you. Thank you very much. On our website, we posted that entire video of the kite boarders wild encounter. If you want to check it out again, logon to nbcbayarea. Com. Click on the link kite boarder humpback whale collide in San Francisco bay. A respected lawyer was shot dead last october. There are very few clues. Today his family, friends and investigators got proactive. The das office unveiling a billboard that will advertise a 100,000 reward for help in solving the murder of this man, James Gilliland junior. Someone shot him last year in el cerrito. This was after he returned from choir practice at his church. It is hard for us to imagine who would want to kill such a kind and gentle soul. Police say they have no witnesses and no motive. This was not a robbery. A teenager suspected of killing a woman in san jose has been caught at the border. The murder happened a house near the san jose state campus last week. Officers found a woman suffering from a gunshot wound. Police caught up with the suspect, a 19yearold man trying to cross the border into mexico yesterday. Investigators say he and the woman knew each other. No word on a motive. President trump and first lady will soon be landing in paris, france, a trip ha comes with some tension. A few weeks ago, the president pulled the u. S. Out of the paris climate agreement and created controversy. Mr. Trump said he was elected to represent the citizens of pittsburg, not paris. The president will land on bastille day, a French National holiday and meeting with frances president emmanuel macron. Still ahead here, bay Elementary Schools hit by thieves. The tiny thing left at the keen that led police to two young suspects. Plus a few years from now, your daughter will be the first child on earth with her immune system trained to be leukemia, it would have seemed like a far stretch. A sick girl who is now cancer free. The medical break through that changed her dna. Im meteorologist jeff ranieri. A dry warm saturday. 10 to 20 Miles Per Hour already increase our fire danger. How long we see this lasting. My forecast in less than ten minutes. Busy road in south china, today. Take vo eight cars buried in the the moment the mudslide hit a busy road in south china. Eight cars buried in the blink of an eye. Most of the drivers managed to get out through the car windows. One driver was trapped inside his car. Firefighters managed to rescue him and took him to the hospital. He suffered leg and back injuries but hes alive. Investigators say that persistent rain led to the mudslide. More information and a new look at that near daft at sfo. Take a look at animation based on real data from an air canada jet that nearly landed on that taxiway at sfo filled with other planes. It shows how close the pilot was to landing in the wrong area last friday night. The plane was supposed to land on oneway 28r which is the second strip from the right. Instead it approached taxiway c. Pilot dropped to as low as 335 feet above the ground before sharply pulling back up. That air canada jet eventually circled back around sfo and successfully landed on the correct runway into new at 11 00 is, two boys under arrest in connection with a series of school burglaries. All of them Elementary Schools. Crimes happened between may and june of this year. Police say in all of the cases apple ipads, mac book, laptops were taken. Investigators were able to track down the suspects based on their fingerprints. Police found several items belonging to the San Leandro School district in one of those boys homes. A major step toward creating more Affordable Housing this in San Francisco. Two new loss to help low and middle income residents. The first requires landlords prove they the second requires large Scale Developers to make 18 of their units affordable and increases the limit on income that allows to you qualify for the housing. It impacts so many families and now a breakthrough in the battle against cancer. Today an Advisory Panel recommended approval of americas first gene therapy treatment. What exactly does it do and what type of cancer will it fight. Ian cole joins us with some answers. Reporter the therapy changes the patients dna to better fight the disease. Its a Development Decades in the making and it all started with one little girl shes a young pioneer, Emily Whitehead now the textbook example of this Ground Breaking therapy. At age 5, emily was diagnosed with an acute form of leukemia. At one point, the doctor come in and said you need to call your family in because emilys not going to be here tomorrow. Reporter but doctors at the university of pennsylvania and Childrens Hospital of philadelphia developed a t cell treatment. Emily was the first child in the world to receive it. Shes cancer free. I couldnt believe it. I thought it was a dream. Reporter a patients own immune cells are separated out in a blood sample. Then genetically reprogrammed, turning them into super fighters that hunt out and destroy cancer cells. At the fda hearing today, fighting back tears, Tom Whitehead testified next to emily. If you want to see what a cure looks like, shes standing right beside me. Reporter this fall the full fda is expected to approve the treatment for relapsing leukemia in children and young adults. The treatment is grueling but 83 of patients went into remission. The ultimate goal, try it out on other cancers. Its hard for me to even articulate how exciting this is. This is everybody has been working toward this for so long. Reporter for eply whitehead, todays decision is about hope. Its exciting because it will get the treatment to a lot more kids. Reporter a historic step in science thanks to a brave young girl. Ian cole, nbc bay area news. Happy for her. A building on the peninsula that once housed a promising it Silicon Valley company is up for rent. The former serra knows building. The tech giant laid up nearly 400 employees after news broke its blood testing machines werent exactly. It will move Head Quarters into a building in newark. It is being called a success, the first major test of elon musks hyper loop, the plan to move people in pneumatic tubes. You can see the sled moving through a vacuum sealed tube. It reaches 70 miles an hour. The ultimate goal is it to transport people at speeds of up to 700 miles an hour. I hear that jeff has signed up to be one of the first human testers. Ill do it along the peninsula on 101. This is like the bank when you used to stick your check in the bank, it used to go in the tube. Pneumatic tube in. You should have trademarked that years ago. Ill let you know how it is. What have you got . Some fog rolling in right now. Still very hot temperatures as we head into the upcoming weekend. Weve got it all broken down for you. A live look outside of our highdefinition camera. You can see its a fog storm of sorts. Plenty of drizzle happening right now. Commuters with their windshield wipers on. 57. And by tomorrow morning, the cloud cover stays in place and down to 53. We can show you the fog on the current view. You can see how thick it is, even a little bit of drizzle showing down near san mateo. As the a good bet well continue to see clouds moving across oakland, hayward possibly through fremont for the start. Its not going to be foggy everywhere. Sunny skies expected in the south bay and 62. Plenty of sunshine in the trivalley and 63. San francisco as we mentioned, the fog and also the mist to begin. For the north bay, a few early clouds and 58. No big problems on the forecast as we head throughout your thursday. Temperatures will be warm. I think it will be nice from cupertino to san jose. Low to mid 80s. Once you ahead away from the bay, another day where temperatures go up to 90 degrees. Contra costa county warmer temperatures. Danville 91. Over towards the bay, 78 in hayward. For the peninsula, palo alto 80. San mateo 74. The westerly wind we usually ethis time of year keeps San Francisco cooler with 60s. It will be gusting up to 18 Miles Per Hour. If youre here visiting, you may need to buy one of those hoodies on the street. Youll definitely need one if youre headed out to the marina with 64 degrees. 74 mill valley. Napa 84. The one thing thats been able to keep temperatures comfortable the past couple days has been the jet stream near the Northern California border. But were on the cusp of big changes. Hot High Pressure is going to strengthen. Thats good enough to bring the heat once we hit saturday and sunday. Temperatures warm up in San Francisco. Its not going to get too uncomfortable. Mid70s this weekend and cooler 60s for the early part of the week. Its the interior valleys when we go up to 01 on saturday. A dry wind 10 to 20 Miles Per Hour. This keep fire danger with us as we head into sundays forecast. But the best news im able to deliver is its not going to be a six or sevenday heat wave like the last time. We get a break here. This weekend, find a pool. A friend with a pool. Anyone with a pool. You need it. A cool bathtub, anything. Thanks, jeff. Do you have a pool . Im not telling you. Beware of a social media trap. The trick thieves are using to leuer people into a robbery. And we have jimmy. Amy poehler is my guest tonight plus zen dayia, music from imagine dragons do not change the channel. Isaac hou has mastered gravity defying moves to amaze his audience. Great show. Here you go. Now hes added a new routine. Making depositing a check seem so effortless. Easy to use chase technology, for whatever youre trying to master. Isaac, are you ready . Yeah. Chase. So you can. Tonight, four people are under arrest, accused of using facebooto it was a setup via facebook. Tonight four people are under arrest accused of using facebook to scout out their prey. Hung channing put a pair of sneakers up for sale for almost 700 bucks. The buyer wanted to meet up in a Shopping Center but instead of handing over the cash for the shoes, that buyer took out a gun. Next thing you know he pull out a gun and say get away or ill shoot you. Police say the ringleader may be tied to as many as nine robberies in the county. A safe place for folks to meet up for transactions right in front has been set up at the Police Departments. A potential remedy for overbooked flights is getting tested by United Airlines