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CNN Live Saturday

Wildfire in Arizona Forces Hundreds Out of Homes

Aired June 21, 2003 - 12:00   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.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: But first, a look at our very serious top story, the path of destruction caused by an out of control wildfire near Tucson, Arizona, the blaze has charred thousands of acres and forced hundreds of people from their homes. CNN's Dan Lothian is there with the latest.
Hi, Dan.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello Fredricka, and this will no doubt be a difficult day for firefighters as they continue trying to attack this wildfire. And now, the latest numbers, the fire has burned more than 6300 acres. I'm standing about 25 to 30 miles away from that fire, which is up on Mount Lemmon, behind me. But earlier, we were able to get a good shot of that fire. What you see at the top of that mountain, thick, heavy smoke, we also saw at least one water dropping helicopter working in that area.

I just talked to a public information officer and told me that they have seven helicopters up in the air working today; in addition to that, they have two air tankers. They also hope to have by midday or so, at least a thousand firefighters working on the ground. now, some firefighters were working throughout the evening, essentially what they were doing is trying to dig trenches in order to keep the fire in a certain area, to contain the fire which they have not yet been to do. The fire is zero percent contained.

One thing that is working to their favor in the east flank of the fire, that's an area where they had a fire last year, it's a large area that was burned last year, so it's somewhat of a natural fire break, although it could still burn but if fire does gets in there, it won't be as intense as the fire that we have seen so far.

No additional structures have been burned since the initial run through the town of Summerhaven, about 500 homes there, 250 or so of the homes were destroyed. Perhaps later this morning, a couple of hours, we're supposed to be hearing from officials at a press conference the latest numbers, we might find out that additional structures were lost overnight, but the latest word is that they don't know if any additional homes were lost. The governor of Arizona is expected to be arriving here about 3:00 local time, today. She will be flying over the fire to get a firsthand view of the destruction. She will also be coming back here to the staging area to talk with reporters and then, she will be meeting with the local residents who have lost everything -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Dan, because so many of the homes in that area are considered vacation homes, is it the feeling that the majority of them are unoccupied because they are rather weekend homes?

LOTHIAN: Right. All the -- well, everybody has been evacuated. Officials told everybody to get out, not only from that town, but also there were some summer camps that were southeast of that town, everyone from there has been evacuated. There are about 100 or so residents who do live up there year around, but they are no longer there. Some of them staying in Red Cross shelters.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dan Lothian, thanks very much from just outside Tucson, Arizona. Let's bring in Rob Marciano, talk a little bit more about the weather picture out there. It's windy, it's dry, that does not help the firefighters, there, at all.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not at all and as you can see from that picture, it's sunny, it's not going to rain there today. The big thing is the wind and it's a dry wind and it's going to continuing to blow, looks like, for a couple of the days. The all -- overall pattern has been one which has brought rain to the East and nothing but dry weather to the West. All in all, they have seen well below normal rainfall totals about half of what they typically would see in this part of the country.

Cool, wet conditions across the Pacific Northwest, that is dipping the jet stream farther to the South, not far enough to give them rainfall, but far enough South to give some headaches, but sometimes the jet stream wind, as we get the heating of the day in the afternoon, will actually mix down to surface and that's what's creating that Southwest wind at about 20 to -- at times 40 miles an hour, tat coupled with some of the mountains around the area. This is going to continue today and also going to continue tomorrow. It will probably relax heading towards Tuesday and Wednesday, but there's no rain in sight. There's only two -- really two ways to get rainfall at this time of year, Fredricka, you get a tropical storm or a hurricane off the coastline of the Baja of California to die off the rain fall, there. There is one out there, but it's too far south. The other way is a monsoon flow or season, which really doesn't kick in for another month. So, there's no rain in sight. Winds aren't going to die down probably until Tuesday.

WHITFIELD: Oh, not good news at all. All right, thanks very much, Rob.

MARCIANO: You bet.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired June 21, 2003 - 12:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: But first, a look at our very serious top story, the path of destruction caused by an out of control wildfire near Tucson, Arizona, the blaze has charred thousands of acres and forced hundreds of people from their homes. CNN's Dan Lothian is there with the latest.
Hi, Dan.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello Fredricka, and this will no doubt be a difficult day for firefighters as they continue trying to attack this wildfire. And now, the latest numbers, the fire has burned more than 6300 acres. I'm standing about 25 to 30 miles away from that fire, which is up on Mount Lemmon, behind me. But earlier, we were able to get a good shot of that fire. What you see at the top of that mountain, thick, heavy smoke, we also saw at least one water dropping helicopter working in that area.

I just talked to a public information officer and told me that they have seven helicopters up in the air working today; in addition to that, they have two air tankers. They also hope to have by midday or so, at least a thousand firefighters working on the ground. now, some firefighters were working throughout the evening, essentially what they were doing is trying to dig trenches in order to keep the fire in a certain area, to contain the fire which they have not yet been to do. The fire is zero percent contained.

One thing that is working to their favor in the east flank of the fire, that's an area where they had a fire last year, it's a large area that was burned last year, so it's somewhat of a natural fire break, although it could still burn but if fire does gets in there, it won't be as intense as the fire that we have seen so far.

No additional structures have been burned since the initial run through the town of Summerhaven, about 500 homes there, 250 or so of the homes were destroyed. Perhaps later this morning, a couple of hours, we're supposed to be hearing from officials at a press conference the latest numbers, we might find out that additional structures were lost overnight, but the latest word is that they don't know if any additional homes were lost. The governor of Arizona is expected to be arriving here about 3:00 local time, today. She will be flying over the fire to get a firsthand view of the destruction. She will also be coming back here to the staging area to talk with reporters and then, she will be meeting with the local residents who have lost everything -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Dan, because so many of the homes in that area are considered vacation homes, is it the feeling that the majority of them are unoccupied because they are rather weekend homes?

LOTHIAN: Right. All the -- well, everybody has been evacuated. Officials told everybody to get out, not only from that town, but also there were some summer camps that were southeast of that town, everyone from there has been evacuated. There are about 100 or so residents who do live up there year around, but they are no longer there. Some of them staying in Red Cross shelters.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dan Lothian, thanks very much from just outside Tucson, Arizona. Let's bring in Rob Marciano, talk a little bit more about the weather picture out there. It's windy, it's dry, that does not help the firefighters, there, at all.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not at all and as you can see from that picture, it's sunny, it's not going to rain there today. The big thing is the wind and it's a dry wind and it's going to continuing to blow, looks like, for a couple of the days. The all -- overall pattern has been one which has brought rain to the East and nothing but dry weather to the West. All in all, they have seen well below normal rainfall totals about half of what they typically would see in this part of the country.

Cool, wet conditions across the Pacific Northwest, that is dipping the jet stream farther to the South, not far enough to give them rainfall, but far enough South to give some headaches, but sometimes the jet stream wind, as we get the heating of the day in the afternoon, will actually mix down to surface and that's what's creating that Southwest wind at about 20 to -- at times 40 miles an hour, tat coupled with some of the mountains around the area. This is going to continue today and also going to continue tomorrow. It will probably relax heading towards Tuesday and Wednesday, but there's no rain in sight. There's only two -- really two ways to get rainfall at this time of year, Fredricka, you get a tropical storm or a hurricane off the coastline of the Baja of California to die off the rain fall, there. There is one out there, but it's too far south. The other way is a monsoon flow or season, which really doesn't kick in for another month. So, there's no rain in sight. Winds aren't going to die down probably until Tuesday.

WHITFIELD: Oh, not good news at all. All right, thanks very much, Rob.

MARCIANO: You bet.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com