Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Firefighters Go High-Tech

Aired June 14, 2002 - 14:12   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: To fight a massive fire like the ones in Colorado, firefighters are using conventional weapons, like water hoses and pick axes, but they are also using high-tech tools, like Palm Pilots.

And our CNN Miles O'Brien, he of course, has the low-down on all of these great gadgets as you usually do.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Fredricka. Let's start in space, an appropriate place to start, and tell you a little bit about some of the technology that's out there that firefighters can use.

And you can sort of look over their shoulder and partake as well if you go to this site, www.SpaceImageing.com. The IKONOS commercial satellite, which offers images there, gives you an incredible picture of the smoke, which is over Colorado. And as you progress down on this image, take a look at this distinct line if you will right there, between brown or dark gray and green. That's fire over there, and that's an area that has not burned yet. We hope it doesn't burn as the firefighters do their job and continue their efforts. Maybe with the weather as it is, maybe they will get a lucky break.

Now, you might think that the air quality in Denver is not so good with all of that smoke we just showed you, but take a look at this. This from the EPA site, epa.gov is your Web site for this. This is kind of real-time information about air pollution and air quality in our country. This is yesterday's time lapse. Look at where the real problems are for air pollution, not Denver, but the Atlanta area and the Los Angeles area. So really, automobile emissions are a bigger concern than fires. So if you are in Denver I guess you can quite literally breathe easy.

Here's a great place to find out information on individual fires. It comes from the Interagency Fire Center. And each of these fires has its own individual Web site. One of them, which is a big fire, one of the ones that John Zarrella was just telling you about, the coal seam fire, lots of pictures coming directly from there. They call this thing here a bambi bucket. That picks up the fire retardant or water that is dyed and carries it to a hot spot wherever it may be needed.

You can find a glossary of terms there, what a Pulaski is. A Pulaski is an ax with a shovel on the other end. It's kind of a standby tool used by a lot of these wildfire fighters. And if you want to find out more about them and what they do, take a look at this equipment list. Some of the stuff they bring with them into the field. There is everything from helmets to earplugs. And let me just show you that Pulaski, since I had mentioned that. The Pulaski is sort of the symbol almost of this group here, right down there on the lower portion.

In addition to all of that, just because we told you about Palm Pilots, I've got to at least show you quickly. I found some software, which it can be loaded on to a Palm Pilot, and which gives firefighters through their Palm Pilot, these are depictions of the screen for the little Palm Pilot. If they put in stuff like the relative humidity, the fuel moisture, the wind speed and all of that, they can come up with a graph which tells them how much trouble they are in. Basically, if the pinpoint comes out there, they know that fire is in a very bad way and probably going to get worse. And they can make real-time decisions about whether to get in or out of a location -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Tools for firefighting as well as safety -- all very important. Thank you very much, Miles O'Brien.

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