Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Wildfire Rages in Northern Arizona

Aired May 16, 2002 - 10:18   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A very serious situation to check out in northern Arizona, where there is a wildfire not even a day old yet. And it has already claimed a half dozen homes, chased hundreds of people from its path, winds pushing the flames across some 800 acres in a wooded area near Prescott, less than a hundred miles north of Phoenix.

Fire crews are bracing for a long, busy summer. Northern Arizona is coming out of its driest fall and winter in more than a century.

Reporter Gina Maravilla of our affiliate KTVK is at the shelter with some of the people who have had to evacuate -- Gina, good morning.

GINA MARAVILLA, KTVK CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. And just to give an idea -- or give folks an idea of exactly where Prescott is located, it's about 50-60 miles northwest of the Phoenix area. This fire right now is centered about two miles south of Prescott, south of the center of town here. And as Daryn said, about 800 acres thus far has burned.

There were seven crews, hand crews overnight that worked this fire, which equates to about 140 people on the ground, digging trenches, looking for hot spots, trying to put a line around this fire. Additionally, about 20 fire engines from local fire departments also working this fire.

Authorities out here tell us that cooler temperatures overnight, as well as winds that have died down, have helped them tremendously get a hold of this fire. However, it is by no means under control.

And today, they expect the weather to not cooperate with them. Yesterday, we had winds of about 30 miles per hour out here, which really fanned these flames out here. They expect those same types of conditions today as well.

Today, they are going to send about 400 people, 400 crewmembers out to the fire lines to work this. Additionally, there will be about five air tankers dropping slurry, as well as helicopters with Bambi buckets dropping water on this fire.

There have been six homes that have been burned to the ground, about four to five subdivisions in this area evacuated. And as daylight came up, we were able to see some of these homes, and the authorities were able to evaluate the damage again. Six homes in the newer subdivision burned to the ground. In fact, we understand that these may even be luxury homes.

Now, about anywhere from 900 to 1,300 people in the Prescott area were evacuated. We are at the middle school here in Prescott, where a makeshift shelter has been set up by the Red Cross, where many people spent the night.

We are talking to Lori Hancock and her family. And, Lori, you tried to stay in your home until the very last minute.

LORI HANCOCK, EVACUEE: We did. We stayed until right around 11:00, when they came around with bull horns and told us that we had to leave, that it was mandatory at that point, and no one could stay. And we had five minutes to get packed up and try and get out.

MIRAVILLA: Did you quickly pack up belongings? Or did you have things...

HANCOCK: No, we had already packed up earlier and taken everything over to our church, and so we just -- once that call -- once they came by and told us we had to leave, we went ahead and just got in the car and went back to the church.

MIRAVILLA: This morning, have you been able to assess the damage or find out whether or not your home survived?

HANCOCK: No. We went up there at about 5:30, 5:45, something like that, and they wouldn't let us through. And we told them our dogs were there, and we wanted to just check on them, and they said there was just absolutely no way they could let us up there.

MIRAVILLA: So at this point, it's just sit and wait?

HANCOCK: Yes.

MIRAVILLA: Very difficult. Lori, thank you very much. And we want to talk to some other folks back over here. Jennifer and Steve Spears, you guys spent the night here at the shelter.

JENNIFER SPEARS, EVACUEE: Yes, we did.

MIRAVILLA: And even though you spent the night here, there really wasn't any sleeping.

SPEARS: There was no sleep going on at all, just too worried about what's going on with the house and being in a strange place. All those things added up to a long night.

MIRAVILLA: In the morning, actually about 2:30 this morning, you took a walk to try and assess the damage to your home.

SPEARS: We did. We did. We tried to walk up around the corner to see what we could see. When we left our house, we could see the glow of the fire over the ridge, and it seemed like at 2:00 in the morning it was farther away than when we left the house. So we are optimistic.

MIRAVILLA: Jennifer, thank you very much, and good luck to you and your family.

SPEARS: Thank you.

MIRAVILLA: Again, anywhere from 900 to 1,300 people evacuated. Today, authorities here expect that more will be evacuated. They don't expect Mother Nature to cooperate, so crews from all over the country have been sent in to fight this blaze -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, and, Gina, from what I have been reading, what must be even more difficult for these folks that they don't think that it was Mother Nature that caused this fire. That some person perhaps being careless or on purpose caused the fire.

MIRAVILLA: Exactly. They believe that it was indeed man- started, because there was no lightning in the area. There were campers around here, but there are fire restrictions throughout this area. So somebody had started a fire when they certainly were not supposed to.

KAGAN: Gina Maravilla for KTVK. On a personal note, I just have to say I used to be a general assignment reporter just like Gina at KTVK, and she was one of my interns. I'm very proud today, Gina. You did a great job.

MARAVILLA: It's an honor to be working with you today.

KAGAN: Thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com