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CNN Live Today

Fire Menacing Denver Suburbs

Aired June 12, 2002 - 13:01   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The biggest wildfire in Colorado history has thousands of people on the run right now. Entire towns are under siege, and the flames are nearly at Denver's doorstep. That fire is one of more than half a dozen spreading across Colorado.

CNN's John Zarrella is back with us. He is just outside of Denver in Castle Rock. What's the latest, John?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, in fact about 150,000 acres in all have burned throughout Colorado, 87,000 so far from the Hayman fire, which is the largest fire in the state's history.

Now, we are outside of what is the northern command center. They have now divided the commands into two halves. This command center handling the northern half of the fire, because of the enormity of the fire, and they are hoping that within the next few minutes or so, we might get some later information on what the status is today.

Now, our viewers are probably asking, well, gee, it looks like it's a blue sky, a light breeze. In fact, it is. The fire is about 15 miles to our southwest, and because of a wind change direction yesterday, most of the smoke that was over this area yesterday is being blown back to the south. In fact, the fire itself burned back on itself yesterday, and actually gave some temporary relief at least to the fears of people in the outlying areas around the suburbs of Denver that they might have to evacuate. They were packed, ready to go, but because the fire shifted direction, they didn't have to.

Now, people on the southern end, where the fire began, had to evacuate yesterday, about 5,000, because the fire had turned back on itself and actually moved south. But no word at this point of any damage to any homes, additional homes in that particular area.

Now, the news we do have today is that within the next 24 to 48 hours, fire officials hope to have another 1,600 to 1,800 firefighters from wherever they can get them around the country here to help battle the Hayman blaze. And they say that they are getting another additional 20 helicopters in here, three or four of them may already be here, another 16 on the way. They are using air tankers to drop a slurry, which is a fire retardant material, 6 to 8 air tankers on the front lines of the fire to try and keep the flames down, to try and suppress the front line of the fire, so they can hopefully get firefighters in there. As far as evacuations are concerned, again, the 5,000 in the south. Red Cross told us this morning that what they did have were several hundred people who went to shelters yesterday, the five shelters that are here, but only 100 spent the night. The others left the shelters and went to stay at friends' houses or in the many hotels along here. And those hotels are all filled with people.

Now, to get a good idea of how bad the fire is and what it looks like, the Space Shuttle Endeavor has been flying overhead. You know, every 90 minutes it circles the earth, and when it has passed over this area, it has got some incredible pictures that show just the scope of the smoke that is covering the state of Colorado and the areas out west here from these fires.

Again, hoping for a break in the weather. If the wind direction continues to remain to the south and if they can, in fact, the temperatures remain down in the lower 80s and the humidities stay up, perhaps today will be a day when they can start to get a handle on this massive fire.

This is John Zarrella reporting live just outside of Denver -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: John, we talked a little bit about the firefighters and the fires themselves, the acreage. What about the areas that will be affected that concern the people? Are we talking camps, towns? And also what about all of the ranches out there? Are farmers concerned?

ZARRELLA: Oh, absolutely. There is no question at all around this area. Everybody is keeping a close eye, no matter whether they are ranchers, some of the communities that have sprung up in the outlying areas of Denver, very high-priced communities. Some of those people are just watching and waiting for the orders to be given, listening to local authorities. They have been urged to do that, because if the wind changes direction, this fire is completely at the mercy of the weather, and firefighters know that if it switches directions again today and starts back to the north towards the Denver area, they will have to start evacuating those people again.

So everybody in this area, tens of thousands of people could be affected before all of this is over. At one point, there was talk that up to 40,000 people might ultimately be -- have to be evacuated.

PHILLIPS: Got you.

ZARRELLA: But fortunately, that has not come to pass. The number right now is that about 10,000 to 13,000 in all have been evacuated, many of them have already returned to their homes -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. John Zarrella live in Colorado there -- thanks so much, John.

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