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CNN Live Today

Colorado Firefighters Battling to Protect Homes from Wildfire

Aired April 25, 2002 - 11:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Firefighters in Colorado are battling to protect hundreds of homes from a wildfire that doubled in size in 24 hours. That fire is near the town of Bailey, which is southwest of Denver.

CNN's Rusty Dornin joins us now live from Bailey. She's got the very latest.

Rusty, how's it looking now?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, erratic winds has -- is what has been driving this fire. There were actually 1,000 homes that are -- were evacuated, about 2,000 people. Yesterday the sheriff's deputies were driving through neighborhoods telling people to get out of the area. Now they were actually -- most of them have returned home since that time because the winds died down overnight and that allowed firefighter to get into some of those hot spots and get in there and try to get some containment on this fire.

But the problem is it is very dry here right now. It is very unusual for them to be fighting a wildland fire (ph) in the west in April, but the conditions are so dry here in Colorado. You can see in the grass here there is some green left in the grass, but there is a lot of brown. And one of the firefighters was telling me if you threw a match -- 10 matches into this area, 9 of them would probably ignite and start a fire here.

So it looks like they say that if the winds die down today, and the winds are calmer than apparently they were yesterday at this time, they may be able to get in to make some real headway on this fire. But the folks who evacuated are cautioned that they may have to flee again if the winds kick up -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, Rusty Dornin. Here's wishing those folks out there some luck. They're going to need it.

Rusty Dornin out there near Bailey, Colorado, thank you very much.

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