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CNN Live Today

Interview with Rusty Ludwig

Aired July 01, 2002 - 11:12   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, with that we turn now to the monstrous fire that is eating up hundreds of thousands of acres in Arizona. A contract firefighter is charged in setting this blaze, his possible motive, making some money.

Our David Mattingly is live from Pinedale, Arizona with more on the case and the firefighting efforts and trying to get to the bottom of just who started it -- David, good morning once again.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Daryn. This is Pinedale, Arizona one of the first communities threatened by the fire. In fact, just almost two weeks ago now, the fire was roaring over that ridge, setting everything on fire from the ground up to the tops of the trees.

This town would have gone up in smoke if it hadn't been for the heroic efforts of some volunteers here in this area. Now this is the fire line that's been set up. This is the actual fire station of Pinedale. It was one of the casualties of this fire as volunteers were going around saving everyone else's home.

We've crossed the fire line. I don't think anybody's going to be too upset about it. We're here to interview Rusty Ludwig. Rusty, you are not a volunteer fireman. You were just a resident. You were ordered to evacuate. You didn't go. Why?

RUSTY LUDWIG, PINEDALE RESIDENT: I've been through a fire four years ago and stayed through that one and I came back to town to see what I could do to stop the fire.

MATTINGLY: You had to sign a waiver. You had to promise that you wouldn't leave your property. Police said you could be arrested if you did, but you didn't listen to that. You went around and did what?

LUDWIG: Watered houses and put out fires, tried to keep fires from spreading to other homes.

MATTINGLY: Just grabbing everybody's garden hose, go around spraying their yards, keeping them wet, putting out fires that were popping up in their yards?

LUDWIG: Yes, feeding animals and making phone calls in between. MATTINGLY: Now you also played a particular role in working on the fire station here. As this station was burning and getting particularly hot, what were you doing? And if you could, turn around this way for us.

LUDWIG: I actually wasn't here when the station was burning to the ground; you know when it went up. But I came back a couple times later to try to keep the fire from spreading over to the house next door.

MATTINGLY: Now, you don't know the people who live in this house.

LUDWIG: I have never talked to them, no.

MATTINGLY: But here you were, you were actually risking your life in a certain respect, putting water on this fire to keep their house from going up. Why were you doing that?

LUDWIG: Well, it was putting on hot spots, you know, wherever was the hottest, we'd just drive over there and squirt it down and run some hoses or sprinklers or whatever we could do.

MATTINGLY: What would have happened if you had stayed on your property like police had told you?

LUDWIG: Well, after they told me, I did stay on my property.

MATTINGLY: Oh, really, OK.

LUDWIG: That was about four days later, so I fought fires for four days and then I stayed home after that.

MATTINGLY: You still acted as a liaison. People were calling you from here because they knew you were here and you were checking on their houses.

LUDWIG: Yes, I got calls from people's kids and people from Tucson and San Diego and Phoenix wanting to know where people were and if their house was still remaining.

MATTINGLY: Just how close did this town come to going completely up in smoke?

LUDWIG: If it wasn't for the wind shift, a lot more places could have burned, and if people hadn't have come back and put out the small fires, definitely a lot more houses would have burned.

MATTINGLY: We have the news that a part-time firefighter may have been responsible for starting this blaze. How do you respond to that? How do you react?

LUDWIG: Well, there's always a little firebug in those firefighters, and this guy just was trying to do something crazy and he did it. MATTINGLY: I'm sure that bug's not in all firefighters. There are a lot of people out here like you who are actually trying to put this out, working very hard to do that.

LUDWIG: Yes, we had some real professional crews come in after the initial blaze went through town and they knew what they were doing and put fires out like in the middle of the night, and up at the cemetery, and hot shots from New Mexico and they were real good, real good people.

MATTINGLY: Rusty Ludwig, Pinedale resident and one of the local heroes here, keeping property safe while the owners had to evacuate, Daryn back to you.

KAGAN: David Mattingly in eastern Arizona. David, thank you very much.

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