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American Morning

Arizona Wildfires Meet, Make Wall of Destruction

Aired June 24, 2002 - 08:01   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Up front first this hour, though, two raging wildfires in Arizona now one monster wall of smoke and flames. Three hundred thousand acres so far have been burned, nearly 200 homes destroyed. That raging fire now at the front door of the evacuated town known as Show Low.

Charles Molineaux is there this morning and joins us live -- Charles, good morning to you.

CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Bill.

We're actually looking at an improved picture right now. The haze that we're seeing on the western horizon is a big improvement over the huge smoke plumes that we have been seeing for the past several days, even though this fire is now a lot closer to where we are, a lot closer to Show Low. The fire crews here at Camp Show Low, the major command center for this fire, are planning to keep up their very aggressive rear guard action to keep this fire from moving into town right here.

The expectation is that, has been that by today the town would be overrun, but they've gotten a break from the weather. The heavy winds out of the southwest have died down somewhat, and temperatures have dropped down by about 5 degrees. That may not sound like much, but that can make a huge difference, according to the Forest Service, in how quickly we see the fuels -- the trees and the underbrush -- ignite.

And we've already seen this fire get up to 300,000 acres. And a lot of homes have been destroyed -- the word is at least 170 -- and in fact, just over the course of the past few hours in an area known as Timberland Lakes right near Show Low, one big one was burned up. Firefighters were uptight about that. They had hoped to minimize damage in town here. Dozens more are burned up in smaller towns such as Overgaard, Pinedale, and Heber, all of which have been evacuated.

Now, overnight, crews kept up their work on the fire lines with their hoses, their shovels and bulldozers, as well as drops of fire retardant all on the fire lines.

Now, in the past few hours, they've been trying to create a new fire break along the strategic Cottonwood Canyon, which is just west of Show Low. They say that if they can manage to finish up the fire break that they are trying to create there, they can pretty much cut off or at least minimize the likelihood of this fire, making what they're calling a major frontal assault eastward, which could carry it right over the town of Show Low.

They are getting this continued break. There are some 30,000 people who were evacuated from the combined Rodeo and Chediski Fires. And already the Red Cross reports that some 6,000 to 10,000 of them have reported in to shelters.

They've got a big one set up in the town of Eagars, which is just to the east of here, maybe about 60 miles out. It's a long drive for them. And over the course of the past couple of nights as these towns were being evacuated, roads out of the area were pretty much jam- packed, as people have been checking into these shelters and in some cases watching TV for some sign of what happened to their homes.

Of course, watching homes destroyed by fire is pretty big guesswork for them because they're trying to recognize landmarks in the midst of the flames to see if they have anywhere to go back to.

But right now, we're looking at a pretty positive situation. Overnight, things were a lot better than they had expected. But we can still see this morning the fire is at the front door right here in Show Low -- Bill.

HEMMER: They will take some news that is good news. Certainly over the weekend tough, tough going out there.

Charles, thanks.

Charles Molineaux this morning in Show Low, Arizona.

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