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American Morning
In Colorado, Reinforcements Have Joined Firefighters
Aired June 13, 2002 - 11:33 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: In Colorado, reinforcements have joined firefighters who are battling that huge blaze south of Denver. But officials say it could take months to bring the massive wildfire under control.
Our John Zarrella is in Castle Rock, Colorado with the latest.
John, good morning.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
That's right, it could take months, up to 3 months to build a 50- mile firewall around the fire.
I want to give the viewers an idea of where we are. Of course most of them probably say we do not see any smoke, or flames or fire. That's because it is about 20 miles in the distance passed that ridgeline out there. And yesterday though, for folks that may have seen some of our coverage, you could not see those mountains, because they were completely obscured by the haze and smoke from the fires, of course.
Today, clearly visible. Wind shift directions have made it a lot clearer out in the distance. Now fire officials are telling us that they estimate that between 90,000 and 100,000 acres have already burned, and before all is said and done, it could be up to 200,000 acres, that have already burned.
They are getting reinforcements in. About 400 new people arrived on scene today. The teams were assembling here, at this command center, which is handling the northern part of the fire. In fact, they began assembling earlier today. They came in from Washington State. They came in from places as far as the Black Hills of the Dakotas, coming in to help reinforce the firefighters here, bringing in their own equipment, and the forestry officials are saying what they need more of now are these type I teams, these very highly trained, specialized ideas 20-member teams. They need to get them in as soon as possible, get up to the front lines of the fire to get in there and start to build the fire breaks, to try to get a handle on it while the temperatures are a little bit cooler, only in the 70s here today.
As far as the evacuation, still about 5,000. Here in the northern part of the fire, because of the wind shift direction, still no mandatory evacuations up close to the Denver area, not unless there is another shift in the wind. Still about 22 homes reported to have been destroyed, although there were reports of more homes to the south that may have been damaged or destroyed, but because of the intensity the of the fire, particularly down in the southern areas today, it has been very difficult for firefighters to get in and get my kind of assessment on any new damage that may have occurred.
You can see the wind is beginning to go pick here, too, and that of course is not good news. This is John Zarrella, reporting live, from Castle Rock -- Daryn.
KAGAN: John, before we let you go, a couple of questions, with the possible evacuations, there could be a problem with the folks who have caller ID on the phones. So reverse 911 would not work if you have a private caller block?
ZARRELLA: Right, and you know what, a lot of -- what they're doing in a lot of cases now, they are actually trying to get out into the neighborhoods as best they can, in some places use bull horns to get the information out to people. But fortunately, at least right now, that is become less of a concern, because of the wind shift, at least in the northern areas of fire, which are the closest areas to Denver -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And I also understand one of the problems in fighting this fire is something that people across America can appreciate, and that is suburban sprawl. A lot of the areas ten years ago were forests. They could have let this burn, but now it's come down to protecting homes that did not used to be there.
ZARRELLA: That's absolutely right. You can see right behind me, this here is another one of these developments, these subdivisions that have sprawled up here in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and they dot this entire area, so the kinds of places that we're talking about that are being effected, is not the major metropolitan area of Denver, but it is all of these subdivisions and ranches, and this urban sprawl that has really moved its way to the outskirts of Denver, people wanting to live out in the wilds of nature, and of course with that, comes the danger, particularly out here in the West, of these terrible, terrible fires -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And finally, just one more question on tourism. I am sure it is taking a big hit. You watch our pictures, you think the whole state is on fire, but there are probably still plenty of places that are safe to visit in Colorado.
ZARRELLA: Absolutely, and many of the folks in the tourism industry here have taken issue with Governor Owens because of the statements that he has made, calling this such a terrible inferno, et cetera, et cetera, and they have been critical of him, saying you are hurting tourism. There are lots of places in Colorado that are perfectly safe, perfectly fine, to come to vacation, but that is not the message, they fear, that is getting out.
KAGAN: John Zarrella, in Colorado. Thank you so much, John. Good to see you. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
