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CNN Live At Daybreak

Update on Impact of Oregon Wildfires

Aired July 22, 2002 - 05:07   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.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And a pair of fires that have merged in Oregon have now burned 87,000 acres. Firefighters on the scene will get help today from the state National Guard troops.

Ryan Deal of CNN affiliate KPTV looks at how residents there are coping.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN DEAL, KPTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By dusk, the newest danger was barely visible through the thick smoke. Clouds rolling in carrying the potential for lightning. As new fire camps spring up, housing well over 2,000 firefighters and support personnel, locals begin to understand the danger is far from over.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're used to seeing farm equipment going up and down the roads and now you're seeing all the firefighting equipment, helicopters in the sky daily.

DEAL: This group of high school teaching aides are now helping to ready the newest fire camp, their school, all the while knowing the building itself could be in the fire's path within days. Here, the flag is already at half staff.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really scary to think that, you know, this is a relatively new facility and to think that a school could be wiped out and then what would our kids do? I mean where would we -- it's a long ways to another school, that's for sure.

DEAL: And this fire is far from containment. The most skilled firefighters in the nation are now working on the ground as the air assault continues. Officials fear these power lines could be next to go. The buzzing a warning to thousands in northern California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It kind of creeped up to this side.

DEAL: Nearby, on Highway 31, a rancher wishes the hundreds of firefighters were here sooner.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We wouldn't have had it this big. It would have been about a 10 acre fire.

DEAL: Already he's lost nearly all of his animal feed and more than 800 acres of land, the incineration stopping at fire lines he dug himself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only way a fire can start now is if somebody flicked their cigarette out the window driving by the house.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: That report was from Ryan Deal of our Portland affiliate KPTV.

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