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CNN Live Today

Colorado Wildfires: Hundreds Forced to Evacuate

Aired June 18, 2002 - 12:33   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the Colorado wildfires: Hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes in two separate communities near Durango and Denver.

CNN's Rusty Dornin has been with fire crews and joins us now from Castle Rock with the latest from there -- Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, winds are very calm now. We are just south of Denver.

But just south of here, erratic winds yesterday forced another 100 people in three different subdivisions to evacuate. Now, there's more than 5,600 people out of their homes, but the officials do let some folks back into their homes to check on their livestock and to check on their homes, get some more belongings, in some cases.

Now, photographer John Coles (ph), Mike Miller, the editor, and myself joined one Buffalo rancher as he went to check on his herd. We got kind of a firsthand lesson in what it is like and how stubborn wildland fires can be.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): Twenty miles from the nearest paved road, there is not much standing of Neil and Teresa (ph) Fischer's buffalo ranch. Gray ash, that's all that is left of six buildings on the property. Fires marched right up to the back door of their cabin. Firefighters turned it back.

(on camera): Were you just amazed when you came in to see what had been destroyed and what had been saved?

NEIL FISCHER, BUFFALO RANCHER: I was just beyond words. I mean, we couldn't -- I couldn't believe that these could be totally burned down, and the house isn't burned.

DORNIN (voice-over): We've gone behind the fire line with the Fischers. They're only allowed in for a few hours a day, a quick look up the hill, an eerie reminder of just why.

FISCHER: Just over the hill, there is another fire that just kicked up, and up over the hill is the bigger part of the fire, and then, you saw down where the buffalo are, there is another spot fire. So, it is far from being out. DORNIN: Fischer is worried about that smoke just over the hill. There, flames once extinguished rise again. During a fire like this, there is no such thing as spectators. The TV crew becomes part of the fire crew.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right on the tree. Ready? Go.

DORNIN: For 45 minutes, we haul water to dampen the blaze.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See, it's burning on the other side of the stump again.

DORNIN (on camera): The firefighters come and put the fire out, but then you have got to worry also, too, about it coming back?

FISCHER: This happened last year. They put it out, and they said watch it. The next morning, myself and the four kids were out doing exactly this for four hours.

DORNIN (voice-over): Satisfied we had reduced it to a smolder, it is back in the truck, and on to the main mission, feed the herd of 27 buffalo.

FISCHER: A few days ago, they were just laying down and they were almost dead. Smoke was so heavy here for three days.

DORNIN: So Fischer mixes a medical concoction of aspirin mash and sweet syrup.

FISCHER: This is going to help the inflammation in their lungs to subside somewhat.

DORNIN: But fire, smoke, helicopters hauling water, and firefighters invading their pasture have stressed out the herd. Fischer says he can usually walk safely among them. Not today. The risks of life on the ranch...

FISCHER: Spending time up here, there is no place like this in the world we know of.

DORNIN: Risks they're willing to continue to take.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: Of course, Fischer and thousands of others hoping to get back in their homes. He was on the northern edge of the fire. This fire is 47 percent contained, but it's the folks in the south. Apparently, 7,000 more people have been put on evacuation alert. That means they have got to pay attention to the radio and the television because, at any time, when the winds come up, they could be forced to flee their homes -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Wow.

Rusty Dornin, thanks for that report.

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