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American Morning

Hayman Fire Covers 135 Square Miles

Aired June 13, 2002 - 08:37   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to take you back now to the wildfires that are burning out of control near Denver, Colorado. In the worst of the fire, the Hayman Fire, more than 90,000 acres have been lost, at least 21 buildings have been destroyed. The fire covers 135 square miles. There is no end in sight, some people saying it could be three months before this fire is contained.

Mike Silva is a helicopter pilot for KCNC TV, who has been covering these wildfires. And for a look at what the firefighters are fighting against, he joins us now with a bird's eye view of the destination.

Good morning, Mike. How bad does it look from the air today?

MIKE SILVA, KCNC-TV HELICOPTER PILOT: Good morning, Paula.

In the mornings, it always lays flat. A lot of clouds, a lot of smoke. It kind of settles in. The air is a little bit thicker, a little cooler temperatures. So what you're seeing is one of the main reasons there's so many problems trying to fight this fire. Those problems experienced by the tanker pilots.

The visibility in some of these areas is less than half a mile, sometimes less than a quarter mile. When it gets that bad, these tanker pilots cannot get in there and drop that retardant on target areas. So right now, morning here in Colorado, things are very quiet. Fires lay down. A lot of smoke, the incident commander here on scene evaluates the situation about 8:00. They decide then to survey the area and make a decision on what they're going to do with the flight activity.

ZAHN: And, Mike, you talked a little bit about how the tanker's activities are compromised by the smoke. How close are you able to safely get to the flames?

SILVA: Well, we have to abide by the same safety measures as the U.S. Forest Service. But right now, we're at about 12,000 feet. That puts us, oh, just slightly greater than a mile above the surface. The average elevation of this fire is about 8,000 feet above sea level. What we're looking at now is 90,000 acres in this Hayman Fire, 20,000 people are on standby to evacuate; 5,400 have evacuated already. We're looking at 20-mile-long access at 14-mile wide, huge, huge fire. And right now, once again, lots of smoke. It's settled down a little bit, still early. We have light winds on the north, and this is the interesting thing about this fire, this terrain. The wind on the north side of the fire, 20 miles up, light breeze out of the north. The wind in the middle of the fire on the east side is very light out of the east. We get down to the south end, the wind's out of the south-southwest.

ZAHN: Mike, tell us a little about the residents living in the suburban Denver areas. Are they still fighting a lot of soot and ash on their windows on their cars when they wake up every morning?

SILVA: Not as much. I'll tell you, we live down wind from the fire. On Sunday, Sunday was the worst, Sunday afternoon. We had ash falling from the sky at my home. I'm about 12 miles north of Centennial Airport, put us about 60 miles from the center of this fire. And it was snowing soot. Visibility was less than a mile. And as the sun set, it cast a golden hue across the sunset in the sky. It was something I never experienced in my whole life. I was born and raised here in Colorado, never seen this size of a fire, and have never seen that kind of a visibility issue created by the smoke and the particulates, the ash in the air.

ZAHN: And just to give people perspective, we should say you have a lot of experience in the air. You served in the Vietnam War, and you've made it quite clear the magnitude of what we're looking at here. What happens if this isn't contained in three months, as some officials are predicting?

SILVA: Well, they're saying three months, but that is only if we experience no rain. Now, as a meteorologist, we're looking at some possible thundershowers over the fire later this afternoon. Our next best chance, if not today, will be Saturday. So we're keeping our fingers crossed, watching the weather patterns. If we do not get any significant rainfall here in the next few days, to a couple of weeks, this fire could actually smolder for 90 more days -- Paula.

ZAHN: Wow. Depressing, indeed. Mike Silva, thank you very much for the tour, not a tour that any of us particularly ever wanted to think about having to take. But you've made it clear what you all are up against out there.

Good luck. Mike Silva of the KCNC chopper. Thanks for your time this morning.

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