fire, the fire continues to march towards the city of south lake tahoe. >> firefighters facing tough conditions including fierce winds. containment rose from 18% to 20%. the flames have now burned nearly 205,000 acres and destroyed more than 700 homes and buildings. let's bring in our chief meteorologist, jeff ranieri, let's talk about those winds again. what's ahead? >> we are looking at the overall wind situation starting to calm down as we head into tomorrow. i want to start around the lucas valley. you can see the fire right here north of san rafael. a closer view will show the way the fire is moving. also back to green berry lane, you got to be on alert and of

course if you got the message to get out and evacuate, you definitely want to follow those orders. we are looking at wind gusts 10 to 25. and keeping at that trend tomorrow, firefighters are again going to be watching out for those hot spots. let's bring you out to the caldor fire, the wind in the fire zone still at times gusting 20 to 50. tomorrow, wind gusts drop to 10 to 20 miles per hour. talk about a phenomenal effort by firefighters. they are literally changing the way this fire is moving. they put out such a strong containment line just north of myers, they kept the flames out of myers today. keeping it away from south lake tahoe. i will have more in my forecast in our cooler bay area weather

in about 18 minutes. >> thousands of people in south lake tahoe evacuated. one popular hotel asked evacuees to leave their rooms this morning. why? a hotel employee says the hotel is only taking in fire crews and emergency personnel. melissa colorado spoke to evacuees who say they have nowhere else to go. she joins us live from south lake tahoe with more. >> reporter: right, janelle, the hotel behind me caters to tourists until recently it was catered to evacuees who came here with all of their belongings and pets. this morning, evacuees told me they got a bit of surprising news, hotel employees telling them we need you to give up your room. we need you to give up your room because we need to provide these rooms for firefighters for emergency personnel. yet again these evacuees having

no choice but to pack up their stuff and head further east. >> i understand first responders have to have some where to stay, they have to sleep. >> so by the end of the day when all the firefighters come in, so we can take care of them and it is all it is going to be here. >> reporter: dozens of south lake tahoe evacuees had to do it all over again this morning. we watch as the blue hotel employees help escorting the people out into the unknown. >> we thought it was a site to place and it has been until an hour ago. >> he pulled up his limo and stacked it with his belongings, his kids, dogs and his wife's parrots.

>> reporter: where are you going to go? >> i guess i feel bad for lot of people that i know here that don't have any money and anywhere to go. i am lucky i can leave, i got my pets with me. >> reporter: derek roger says his home in christmas valley survived the fire but now he's stuck in the evacuation limbo. not allowed to return home yet and not many places to spend the night. >> i am hitting my breaking point right now because i don't know what to do from here. >> reporter: a lot of folks hitting their breaking point and a heartbreaking scene this morning. there was an elderly woman who was really worried because her insulin needed to be refrigerated and she had no idea where she's going to be spending the night. he just can't find an available

hotel room. that goes to show how far these evacuees have to travel if they don't have friends or family willing to offer them a room. nbc bay area news, melissa colorado. >> it is a difficult situation but they do need to get out of that area. today governor newsom visited the burned areas. the flames are threatening lake tahoe, an area that's so special to so many californians. newsom says that includes his family. tahoe is where his parents met. >> we talk in terms of climate change, we don't talk enough about loss and traditions and places and people and memories, wiped off the map. i think that's what radically changed southwest. >> reporter: the governor says protecting southwest tahoe and battling this caldor fire is the state's top priority.

a lot of people left their sprinklers and hoses running off the roof. firefighters say don't do it. not only it rarely keeping homes destroyed but it could be detrimental for fires. a lot of your hiking plans this labor day weekend are off. take a look at this map. the green area is national forest land. closures are in effect until september 17th. el dorado forest will be closed until the end of the month. hazy and smoky skies prompting air quality advisory for the bay area tomorrow and friday. our rob mayeda is joining us now. it seems like the air got better the last day or two but the smoke could be heading back our

way, huh? yes, we can see the strong sea breeze weakening a bit and allowing some smoke from the wildfires. we'll take a closer look at the likely impact on the aqi index, something you are not going to find on your weather app or iphone. we'll show it to you now. as kids head off to school tomorrow morning. i want to point out here, napa towards fairfield. those areas of orange showing up may indicate we could be looking at unhealthy air quality. we are looking at moderate air quality all the way through midday. look at what's happening in south lake tahoe. this is the end of the second week, we have seen unhealthy conditions there. this is going to continue likely through friday. you see it right there south shore, lake tahoe. it is the combination of the

caldor fire. >> thank you so much, rob. we are going to continue this reporting for you online. nbcbayarea.com, check it out, we have an interactive map where you can see where the caldor fire have burned. if you are unvaccinated, stay home this labor day weekend, that's the message from the director of the cdc. covid's hospitalizations reaching at 100,000 cases since last winter's surge. everyone including those vaccinated should wear a mask in public and indoor settings. big change of rule, the city reinstated their indoor mask policies regardless of your vaccination status. the move signals a break between vallejo and county health officials. it had no plans to reinstitute a

mask rule county wise. >> reporter: the big change is effective immediately. if you want to go anywhere indoors or in vallejo, you have to wear a mask. bringing back the indoor mask mandate would do little good. >> it was a unanimous vote. last night vallejo's city council reinstating an indoor mask rule for everyone and the community appears to be on board. >> it is for everyone's protection. >> it needs to be enforced. if they need to take drastic measures then they should. >> reporter: the mayor of vallejo says in a statement, the public has a power to determine when this mandate is lifted.

vallejo's vote does not surprise health director dr. baylor who says the city has a philosophical consensus when it comes to masks. its current health order does not require vaccinated people to wear masks indoors. the doctor believes science supports his decision. >> very much we believe masks work. we don't believe they're going to make a difference indoor public spaces for vaccinated people. >> reporter: he agrees improving vaccination rates are the answer to curtailing covid. >> our best weapon is vaccinations. so far we have given so many vaccines that we can state with very strong confidence that the vaccines are safe and they are effective. >> reporter: 74% of eligible solano county residents have had a first dose of the vaccine and 62% are fully vaccinated.

something the city of vallejo are committed to improving. ginger saab, nbc bay area news. let's look at the state's positivity rate. overall it is trending down which is in the right direction. right now the positivity rate as you can see right now is at 4.8%. that's good. it is going down. if you look at county by county, you can see some improvements as well, showing good signs. the positivity rate and the seven-day average is less than 3%. that's really good. alameda county is doing very well. you can see 3.7%. that's the seven-day average. those are holding steady and doing well. it is an eye brow raising program. cash to help curb crimes. drivers how they were able to clear a tree toppling on tp

road even before caltran arrives. what a day, we are down anywhere from 10 to 13 degrees from some of our in land spots. we'll talk about the fall tomorrow and how long this trend lasts, i will see you here in about eight minutes. ♪ ♪ have you seen those small bowl---? oh! careful with the... (dishes break)

sorry, mrs. c! excuse me, could we-- ♪ ♪ excuse me, i was wondering could we-- ? bedroom! finding the right person for the job isn't always easy... ...but when you have an insurance question, you can always count on your local geico agent. they can give you personalized advice and could help you save hundreds. who wants some dress shirts!? for expert help with all your insurance needs, get to know your local geico agent today. controversial violent crime prevention strategies that have been used in the east bay may soon come to san francisco. it involves paying people in hopes of preventing them from committing crimes. cash for criminals. nbc bay area's christie smith shows us how it works. >> reporter: cheryl davis, the executive director of san francisco's human rights

commission. today she explains a plan for a pilot program started next month by identifying the first ten people. >> it is going to be a wide range of folks that are either maybe have come through something and been involved in a criminal justice system as well as people who may have been impacted. >> reporter: the fellowship focuses on neighborhoods. in this program, at-risk participants would go through assessments and then becoming an ambassador. >> there will be funds provided to them. >> $200 for their contributions to developing policies and recommendations or strategies to address violence. >> reporter: critics dubbing the program cash for criminals. they're paying people not to shoot other people. >> david muhammad with the national institute for criminal justice reform says it is not a fair description.

>> a small component is a modest financial -- when individuals who were identified as high-risk as violence. >> paying criminals to not shoot is an enticing headlines but it is a significant inaccurate description of the program. the primary intervention is a positive and trusting relationship with what we call intensive life coach. >> reporter: oakland's program are funded with donations and state's and federal grants and local dollars. christie smith, nbc bay area news. less than two weeks of the recall election of governor newsom, he's seeing encouraging

numbers. according to the polls, 51% voted no on the ballot. that means they don't want governor newsom recalled. 43% voted yes for him to be removed in office. 6% undecided. that's a big turn around from a previous poll done 51% of the people wanted the governor recalled. promising news for the governor. 81% says they'll vote. an earlier poll found that number at 62%. we are getting a clear picture of who already voted. twice as many ballots did go out to registered democrats. will enough of those be turned in? we have some numbers tonight, one of our political experts will join us live to help us, that comes up at 7:00. >> if you have questions on the ballots, we have the answer for you from our scott mcgrew. you can find it on

nbcbayarea.com/recall or you can click on "recall" in the trending bar at the top of our homepage. tesla is dealing with recalls. tesla must provide the information next month or face a fine up to $115 million. tesla's autopilot failed to detect stop emergency vehicles that had flashing lights on. it happened at least a thousand times. tesla's autopilot does not have proper safe call to ensure drivers keeping their eyes on the road and hands-on their wheels at all time. this happens before noon. the highway would have been closed for longer if it were not for these people. check them out. these are random drivers, they stopped to help and chopped the

trees and started cleaning up before officials arrive. highway 17 is all clear. let's get a check on our forecast and talk about the caldor fire. we have warnings still in effect and hopefully after that some more promising weather for firefighters. >> winds are decreasing across the sierra and firefighters made excellent head way. i want to bring it out here to lucas valley. san rafael, that's where the fire is located as of last checked. i will go over that in a second, i want to give you a closer view again. the way the winds been blowing out of the south and west is pushing those flames up the hill and away from the homes but you still have to watch out if you are in any of these areas that have been evacuated.

winds tonight, 10 to 25, also keeping 10 to 25 miles per hour winds tomorrow. firefighters are going to have to be managing these hot spots. the evacuations pretty widespread in this area from right around bridge gate drive to mount raneer drive and it continues with logan berry drive to about los colinas. check alerts on your phone and head to nbcbayarea.com, we also have more information. in the bay area today has been cooler temperatures. walnut creek. this past weekend was in the upper 90s. it felt like fall. 69 degrees. if you got errands to run and whatever you have happening the next couple of hours, make sure

you take your jacket. this is the system here that's helping to change up the weather. i still think it is going to be comfortable. the worse of the smoke is away from us. i still think we could have some moderate and a few areas of unhealthy air. also for the east bay, not much for the south bay and some of that there down towards gilroy. we get our sunshine returning. morning temperatures, you got to be ready for this, too. it was probably abrupt walk out the door this morning if you didn't have the jacket, we got a repeat performance coming our way. down to the low 50s. over the south bay and tri-valley. more of that chill over the north bay, 50 san francisco. 52 in the east bay at 53. daytime highs tomorrow, we'll warm up a couple degrees but we'll stay below average. it will keep us below 80s in

concord. >> in sf, we'll get into a few low 70s here once we hit labor day. it is not going to last too long. labor day, 95, then we get some 80s back as we roll into next week. we'll have more on the caldor fire coming up tonight. >> thank you, jeff. google returning to work, a push back again. what employees are expected to head back to the office. next.

google is pushing back its return to work date for the third time because of the delta variant. the company's ceo says after that, facebook will allow

different countries and locations when they are working from home. we are learning that from google. employees will be given a 30-day notice. google delayed its return to date septembe 1st then in july facebook announced their return to work. amazon and apple reassessing their return to office plans. a lot of companies are pushing the work date back into the office until january. apple is still working on its new technology. the company says it will focus on emergency situations according to bloomberg, apple wants to allow users to send texts to first responders and report car accidents in areas without cell coverage. we have all been through so much this last year and a half. one doctor says between covid

and the regular stress of children's, kids can use a mental health day in school. >> something we need to address now and be prepared for it even though we think the kids are going back to school and everything is fine again. there could be significance effects down the road. >> you can watch the report on our new platform on nbxlx.com. you can stream it any time and you can watch lx over the air on channel 11-15 or 185 xfinity cable. three months away, some are getting into the christmas spirit. we'll tell you. you can get in on the action, too. that's next.

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all . all right, it's september 1st, and it's time to start thinking about christmas. >> yeah, if you're a fan of san jose's christmas in the park, good news. tickets for christmas in the park went on sale today. the event returns to downtown san jose at plaza de-chavez park. it's very popular. i guess that's why you have to

prepare, get your tickets now, in advancement. >> they have a hybrid version. >> let's just focus on labor day and halloween. it's messy and controversial, the withdrawal from afghanistan. america as top military advisers assess what went right and what went wrong. >> we want to make sure we learn every lesson that can be learned from this experience. >> and what they think about working with the taliban in the future. and are we any closer to forecasting kwiefrld behavior? that's the goal of san jose state weather team taking a closer look at the caldor fire. we'll have the results coming up. and texas now has the most-restrictive abortion law in the country. the swift and forceful response from president biden. the news at