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CNN Live Today

Ongoing Battle Being Waged in Community of Stevenson Ranch

Aired October 30, 2003 - 11:34   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.


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Fire crews are fighting neighborhood by neighborhood against the wildfires consuming areas of Southern California. And one of those ongoing battles is being waged in the Simi Valley community of Stevenson Ranch.
CNN's Martin Savidge joins us with more from there.

Marty, we've bee focusing much further to the south. this is what's happening to the north of the big fires in San Diego. What is the latest from your scene?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Carol, from Southern California, where here at the Simi Valley Fire, there is a sense that things are improving dramatically, due to the fact that Mother Nature seems to be doing the best of firefighting today, with all due respect to the firefighters that are gathered here. Clouds have moved in, humidity levels have gone up, the winds are staying relatively light, and a little bit of rain has actually been falling down.

Let me tell you exactly where we are. We're near Santa Clarita right now, about 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles, and we are just south of the Stevenson Ranch, which was the real problem yesterday.

Let me bring in Scott Poster, and he is a battalion fire chief with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Let's talk about the weather. How does it help today?

SCOTT POSTER, L.A. CO. FIRE BATTALION CHIEF: The weather is two- fold this morning. One, it reduces our rate of spread, which is good, because we don't have a lot of fire generated. However, it does hamper us in the ability to tie the line in. We want to bring a black line through this rough, jagged edge of the fire, and we should be able to do this morning regardless. However, it makes it a little bit easier when the humidity is a little lower.

SAVIDGE: So it's not burning as fast for you right now?

POSTER: It's a vacuum fire. It's going slow. It's giving us some time to provide some good structure protection, and build a line around the fire.

SAVIDGE: You're working what is described as a box. What exactly does that mean?

POSTER: In a wildfire, we establish a box around a fire. And one of the borders of the box is the I-5 freeway here. We try to keep that fire within the controlled objectives, within the box. And the box has been expanded in this incident, but currently we are operating within the box, put a lot of retardant down over the ridge behind you. And we have the i-5 freeway behind you to your right, and I think we can keep that in there today. The fire is going very slow, with a vacuum fire this morning. Unless we have, you know, lower or higher winds, then I think we'll be in pretty good shape.

SAVIDGE: How are your men? How are the fire crews holding up today?

POSTER: The fire crews are looking pretty good. We're rotating the people out in a 24-hour period. They work 24, and then we rest them. We have a CDF, California Department of Forestry team, that is running this fire. It's a Ventura County fire, and they're doing a pretty good job of keeping the crews rested, and they're taking care of their folks.

SAVIDGE: Chief Poster, we wish you and the rest of your team well. Thank you very much for talking to us.

So as you hear, Mother Nature is lending a hand to the firefighters. And not only is there some light rain in the air, for the first time, a sense of optimism.

Carol, back to you.

LIN: We need a lot of that right now as these firefighters are working so terribly hard out there, Marty. Thanks so much.

Martin Savidge, reporting live from Stevenson Ranch.

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




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Aired October 30, 2003 - 11:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Fire crews are fighting neighborhood by neighborhood against the wildfires consuming areas of Southern California. And one of those ongoing battles is being waged in the Simi Valley community of Stevenson Ranch.
CNN's Martin Savidge joins us with more from there.

Marty, we've bee focusing much further to the south. this is what's happening to the north of the big fires in San Diego. What is the latest from your scene?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Carol, from Southern California, where here at the Simi Valley Fire, there is a sense that things are improving dramatically, due to the fact that Mother Nature seems to be doing the best of firefighting today, with all due respect to the firefighters that are gathered here. Clouds have moved in, humidity levels have gone up, the winds are staying relatively light, and a little bit of rain has actually been falling down.

Let me tell you exactly where we are. We're near Santa Clarita right now, about 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles, and we are just south of the Stevenson Ranch, which was the real problem yesterday.

Let me bring in Scott Poster, and he is a battalion fire chief with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Let's talk about the weather. How does it help today?

SCOTT POSTER, L.A. CO. FIRE BATTALION CHIEF: The weather is two- fold this morning. One, it reduces our rate of spread, which is good, because we don't have a lot of fire generated. However, it does hamper us in the ability to tie the line in. We want to bring a black line through this rough, jagged edge of the fire, and we should be able to do this morning regardless. However, it makes it a little bit easier when the humidity is a little lower.

SAVIDGE: So it's not burning as fast for you right now?

POSTER: It's a vacuum fire. It's going slow. It's giving us some time to provide some good structure protection, and build a line around the fire.

SAVIDGE: You're working what is described as a box. What exactly does that mean?

POSTER: In a wildfire, we establish a box around a fire. And one of the borders of the box is the I-5 freeway here. We try to keep that fire within the controlled objectives, within the box. And the box has been expanded in this incident, but currently we are operating within the box, put a lot of retardant down over the ridge behind you. And we have the i-5 freeway behind you to your right, and I think we can keep that in there today. The fire is going very slow, with a vacuum fire this morning. Unless we have, you know, lower or higher winds, then I think we'll be in pretty good shape.

SAVIDGE: How are your men? How are the fire crews holding up today?

POSTER: The fire crews are looking pretty good. We're rotating the people out in a 24-hour period. They work 24, and then we rest them. We have a CDF, California Department of Forestry team, that is running this fire. It's a Ventura County fire, and they're doing a pretty good job of keeping the crews rested, and they're taking care of their folks.

SAVIDGE: Chief Poster, we wish you and the rest of your team well. Thank you very much for talking to us.

So as you hear, Mother Nature is lending a hand to the firefighters. And not only is there some light rain in the air, for the first time, a sense of optimism.

Carol, back to you.

LIN: We need a lot of that right now as these firefighters are working so terribly hard out there, Marty. Thanks so much.

Martin Savidge, reporting live from Stevenson Ranch.

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




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