Right now we're following a fire
burning in East County a couple
miles from the US Mexico border.
It started off Coyote Hollow Rd.
near Potrero. People living there are
being ordered to evacuate tonig.
Good evening.
Thanks so much for joining us.
I'm Marcella Lee. And
I'm Jesse Pagan.
Carlos Chiquetto is off tonight.
The Coyote fire is now 400
acres and 0% contained.
A temporary shelter is set up at Mountain
Empire High School in Pine Vally
for people evacuated meeting CB.
Steve Fiorina has been on
the scene all afternoon.
He's live with what we know right now.
Steve.
We have moved. Jesse.
We are a little bit farther I'm
guessing to the West and you can
see the progress they've made.
As you said, it's grown now from
100 to 200 now to 400 acres.
We see a lot of white smoke as
a pretty good indication that a
lot of the flames have gone out,
but I can still see some flamesp
very top of that one Crest up t.
Just below it.
You can see the pink on the roc,
the fire retardant that was
dropped earlier that knocked out
a lot of those flames below it.
We get our first chance to see
some of the homes and other
outbuildings that were threaten.
Those are the people we that
were told that they needed to
evacuate and they have moved ou.
We've also spoken with people cg
out here to try it from the volunteers
to help with the rescue of anim,
any horses, cows, that type of thing.
As you can see, the the planes,
the helicopters,
still very much in effect.
Let's show you some closeups of
earlier when they were making
some of those helicopter drops.
This is firefighting at its
absolute most succinct.
The air battle is extremely
central to making sure that thee
types of fires are controlled.
Again,
400 acres.
We spoke with the one man who
says he's been caught four
times as he's lived out here.
Yeah, it's terrifying.
It's absolutely terrifying.
You come out and you scan
the area and you know your
pathography of the the area that
you're in and you're like okay,
if the wind changes,
it's going to come this way.
I I have this much time.
The last time we had less than 5
minutes to get out and if it wat
for the neighbor plowing his fi,
we would have lost everything.
They are still working the
fire and will for a number
of hours into the evening.
We have no idea when the
evacuation order may be lifted,
but it certainly won't be for quite a while.
We'll stay on top of this,
bring you the latest as
it occurs live at Potrero,
Steve Fiorina, CBS age. We've
seen that fire double over the
past couple hours from 200 acres
that you mentioned, now 400 acr.
Hopefully the aerial attacks are
making a big difference and thee
able to slow that forward sprea.
Thanks so much, Steve.
We're going to stay on top the
latest or go to our website cbs8.com.
Right now a hurricane is moving
towards Southern California,
bringing heavy rain and strong winds.
Hurricane Hillary is now a Category 3,
but will likely weaken
before it hits the US. Still,
the storm could impact millions
of people throughout the region
with significant flooding.
Experts say people should get food and water,
even sandbags, before this weekd
and get everything ready to go.
Here's the current path for Hil.
As of right now,
it's moving N from Mexico.
It could make landfall here in
San Diego early Monday morning.
CBS H Chief Meteorologist
Carlene Chavis joins us now,
Carlene, and the team has been
tracking the storm for the
past couple of days currently.
What do we know at this
point? You've got a better
look at it right there. Yeah.
So we are talking about it now upgrading
to a major hurricane that's a Category 3.
It's expected to strengthen even
more as it moves over much warmr
waters just towards the South o,
becoming a Category 4 hurricane
in just the next day or so.
But then it does look to weaken,
but it has a small window of
opportunity when it comes to th.
So let's go.
Go ahead and take a closer
look at what I'm talking about.
You have a category three
hurricane right now with Hillar.
It is tracking towards the West,
northwest about 14 mph.
It has maximum sustained wind speeds at
120 mph over 400 miles South of San Lucas,
Mexico.
It will continue to move towards the north.
That is what's going to make
it even stronger.
You're talking about a Category4
by tomorrow at 11:00 AM because
those sea surface temperatures,
that water,
you're talking about the 80s evn
threading 90s in some spots as t
continues to maintain that streh
all the way through Saturday morning.
But when I talk about the
timing when it comes to this,
so we typically don't talk about
having direct impacts when it
comes to tropical cyclones for
us here in Southern California.
But the latest forecast track does have
it as a Category 2 near Imperial Beach.
That would be in the overnight s
from going Sunday morning or Suy
night all the way into Monday morning.
The major concern here is
regardless of where it does tra,
just yesterday the forecast Cone
was showing as a tropical storm.
Now it's showing it potentiallys
a category two hurricane because
it's such a big storm system.
You're talking about the size of Texas.
No matter where you're at in Southern
California, you will have effec.
You will have impacts.
You're talking about a lot of hy
rainfall and some strong winds.
It will continue to track towards the north,
becoming a tropical depression
potentially as it is a category
two hurricane closer towards us.
That means maximum sustained
wind speeds up to 100 mph,
then it will go rapidly down to about
30 mph as a tropical depression
near the LA area around 11:00 in
the morning and then rain itself
out over Northern California.
Also seeing some impacts when it
comes to heavy rain for Nevada.
We do have some headlines when t
comes to this, the timing of everything.
We're going to go ahead and take
a look at that coming up in your
complete forecast, Jesse.
All right, Carling,
thank you for the latest on Hurricane
Hillary and how you can prepare.
Make sure to stay.
To download our free CBS8 app,
you can head to cbs8.com as wel.
A camp peddle to Marine accused
of having sex with a 14 year old
girl in his barracks was identid
for the first time today during
a preliminary hearing on base,
Avery Rosario walked into
military court and handcuffs.
As CBS8's Derek Offerton report,
his defense team argued.
The girl pretended to be 21
on the dating app Tinder and
then told Rosario she was 22.
The military has been doing everything
they can to combat sexual assau.
Private First Class Avery Rosario was
flanked by his defense attorneys as he
walked into a military courtroom Thursday
morning on base at Camp Pendlet.
No cameras were allowed in the preliminary
hearing where a judicial offices
to decide if there is probable e
to support sexual assault chargs
against Rosario involving a 14 r
old girl found inside his barra.
The entire case hinges on whethr
the Marine knew she was underag.
It is a legal defense if he reasonably
believed that she was of age.
Gary Barthel is a military law attorney
who is not associated with the .
In court, the Marines defense tm
argued the girl had an account n
the dating app Tinder where shed
a fake name and said she was ag.
The defense said when the accusd
Marine actually how old she was,
told him she was 22.
Their argument, obviously to the
preliminary hearing officer,
is that the probable cause shoud
not be found in this particular
case because there's no reliable
or credible evidence establishig
that the accused knew that she
was underage at the time that
he had sexual contact with her.
The girl had been missing from
her Spring Valley home for more
than two weeks when she was foud
in the barracks on June 28th.
Military prosecutors made no orl
arguments whatsoever during the hearing,
choosing instead to file written
evidence and exhibits with the court,
including text messages between
the girl and the Marine,
a videotaped interview with the
teenager and images of the girl.
Tinder account that made for a
fairly one sided hearing where y
the defense gave a closing argut
saying the sex was consensual,
and multiple Marines in the barracks,
including the accused,
believed the girl was an adult.
It's not only that he recently
believed that she was of age,
but there were other witnesses o
also believed that she was of a.
The preliminary hearing officers
expected to issue a recommendatn
by the beginning of September.
Then it will be up to a commandg
officer to make the final decisn
as to whether the case goes to
court martial at Camp Pendleton.
David Gotfordson, CBS8.
All right, David, thank you.
Now to our coverage of the growing problem
of sky high surprise at water b.
CBS8 is working for you to
find out what's going on,
what you can do about it and hoe
city is working to fix the prob.
CBS8's Kirsten Holmes went to
work for one man in San Diego wo
says he hasn't received a water
bill since last year. Kirsten.
Yeah, we have
received so many emails from
viewers since our first story
aired of the man in San Carlos.
They got that $11,000 water bil.
People are telling us that
they either have not received a
water bill at all in a while,
or their water bill is a lot
higher than what it's supposed
to be and they're not getting a
whole lot of help from the city.
So we went to work for you on this story.
We took a look at water bills
and water meters and we heard
back from the city of San Diego.
But what they had to say may surprise you.
And the November bill was $487..
So that's why I was obviously very concerned.
C Kate Littlewood lives in this0
square foot home with his wife d
says he doesn't understand why s
bill more than doubled last November.
I immediately thought there's ak
somewhere, so I went out to the water
meter and I'm familiar with how they work.
So I opened the cover and note and noted
that the little flower was not spinning,
which indicates water
going through the system.
So there there's not a leak.
So I've called probably 8
times since last November.
No response from them and
no response to my e-mail.
I have not gotten a bill since t
bill was watching your story one
gentleman that got an $11,000 b.
My wife looked at me and said ls
hope the next bill we get is nor
thousands and thousands of doll.
With
little to no response from the ,
CK is left waiting.
Like so many other San Diegoans
who tell CBS8 they are going
through the same thing.
We reached out to the city of San Diego.
They refused to go on camera,
but we got this e-mail response
back to our questions about what
is happening with the water bil.
We let CK take a look at
what the city had to say.
The answer from the utility is Currently,
more than 90% of Public Utilitis
customers receive timely bills
due to staffing challenges. The
city goes on to say they are
planning to deploy smart water
meter readers throughout the
city of San Diego to help,
but that will take years.
In the meantime,
CK says he still has questions.
Why does it take so long to contact someone?
I can understand a month, maybe,
but I've literally been had not
had a bill for almost 11 months.
Scared to see what the bill wile
when eventually they do generate a bill.
The City of San Diego says they
are working on an IT enhancement
that will let customers know whn
there is a problem with their wr
bill that they need to be aware.
For the City of San Diego's
full response to this issue,
go to our website cbs8.com
and click on this story.
Now here at CBS8,
we are not letting up on this
story and we are going to contie
asking your questions until we
get your answers working for yo.
I'm Kirsten Holmes for CBS8.
Kirsten Holmes, thank you very .
Continuing our coverage of all of that.
Now, the one man who got that 11,000 bill,
he found out it was because of a leak.
So we're working for you
on that corner as well,
CBS Eight's Abby offered.
Abby Black shows us how you cand
your own meter and check for le,
even if you're not getting a bil
from the city of San Diego. Abb,
there could be many reasons
why your water bill's so high.
We're working for you on how you
can accurately read your water
meter and if there's any leaks.
The first thing you're going tot
to do is locate that concrete bk
that's near the curb in front of your
home or in front of your busine.
That also can be found out in the alley.
Using a screwdriver,
you can remove the concrete lid
to give us more room to read it.
I'm going to remove the entire ,
which is pretty heavy.
I want to clear out the area toe
sure there's there's no harmful
bugs and then wipe down the scr.
All City of San Diego meters
measure water and cubic feet,
so let's break down what that m.
This meter reads 265607.
That's the amount of water that's been
used since this meter was insta.
Now for these purposes,
the city says to ignore the
last two digits in black 07,
be vigilant about checking your
meter and document it so you can
cross check it with your bill
to break down your usage.
We've helped to do the math.
Just go to cbs8.com.
Now let's check for any leaks.
And the most important step is
to make sure that you don't have
any water on and that includes
you don't have the dishwasher,
your ice maker,
or you're not out watering the .
You have two indicators on your meter,
this red hand and this triangle.
And this is what's going to tell
you if you have a leak or not.
It's not moving, so that's good news.
There's no leak at this meter,
but if you observe it for a little bit
and you notice that it slowly m,
that means you have a slow leak.
Now if it stops and then it sta,
that means you have a leaky toilet or
a leak in your pool or spa whene
water is refilling and then sto.
Now let's check the red hand on the meter,
Take a picture of it and after about 15
minutes come back and take a picture again.
If the dial did not move,
that's a good sign,
but you can also check after 4 s
to give you a more concrete ans.
Now, if the Dow did move,
you're going to want to start checking
those hose connections, faucets,
and the toilets for water leaks.
If you are positive that you do
not have any leaks internally,
you might have a head leak
in an underground pipe.
Check to see if you have any swy
or puddling landscape or unusual
cracks in the pavement or floor.
If you do,
you'll need to call a plumber to
determine if it's on the city's end or
you were at working for you in Pacific Beach.
Abby Black,
CBS8.
Great advice, Abby, on how peope
can kind of take matters into tr
own hands since it seems like a
lot of customers aren't getting
regular bills which would allow
them to see that their usage is.
So again, great advice and a reminder here
at CBS8 we are always working for you.
If there's something you'd like
us to look into.
If you have high water bills oru
haven't gotten a bill in a whil,
e-mail us working for you at cbs8.com
and when we work for you,
we get results. After the break,
we have an update on a gate that needed
to be replaced in Normal Height,
and people in Tirasanna are breathing
a sigh of relief tonight after y
were concerned about flammable plants
over running their neighborhood,
plus mass evacuations in Canada after
a wildfire is spreading rapidly
in its Northwest Territories.