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CNN Live Today

Fires Controlled Around Show Low, Arizona

Aired June 27, 2002 - 10:11   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In Arizona, the fire line is holding just outside of Show Low, a virtual ghost town now. It emptied out days ago, by orders to evacuate.

Our Bill Delaney is not evacuated. He is checking in live once again.

Bill, good morning.

How is it looking there?

BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's looking pretty darn good, Leon. You know, 4,000 firefighters still fighting this enormous 640-square-mile blaze, which is still only 5 percent contained. But the news here in Show Low, Arizona is awfully good.

Firefighters do not expect fire to come into this city now. They are saying it quite clearly and definitively, and that's because of the really heroic work of these 4,000 firefighters, working these grueling 14-hour shifts. They managed to build a kind of a wall, a protective wall, if you will, around this city, with back fires, tens of thousands of acres of back fires. What they did was, consume the fuel that the fire would have consumed if it came into Show Low. They burned it before the fire could get there, staying one step ahead of it.

Now, if we can look just down the street here, Leon, you will see that fringe of smoke that we have been looking at all day, that kind of low, horizon of smoke. But let's go up in the sky with our camera, here, Greg (ph), and you will see a kind of Arizona blue sky we haven't seen here in many, many days. And I can tell you now around 7:15 in the morning here, it is already quite hot. The first clear sun we have seen in many, many days. That's all good news.

Now, the attention here shifting somewhat to the investigation as to who started this fire nine days ago on the White Mountain Apache Reservation. It was started, this fire -- officials are quite clear about that. Investigators from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Fire Service, and FBI are looking into it and trying to find the person or persons who started this fire.

Let's listen to Walter Lamar of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WALTER LAMAR, BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS: We have a fully functional law enforcement command post that's addressing the cause of the Chediski-Rodeo fires. The command post includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Law Enforcement Services, and we are working in very close partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Forest Service. We are covering numerous leads, and we have been covering the leads since the inception of the fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DELANEY: Eight million dollars a day is what it is costing to fight this fire. They have lost more than 400 homes. And of course, let's not forget, 30,000 people still away from their homes, living in gymnasiums around this region. They now say that it's possible in as few as a few days that people could come back here to Show Low, but those few days will, of course, be still a very long and excruciating time for people who want to go home. There are tens of thousands of them here in central Arizona -- Leon.

HARRIS: I bet they can't wait to get back into their homes.

All right. Thanks, Bill. We'll get back with you later on.

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