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Day Four of the Southern California Firefight
Aired October 24, 2007 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.
Watch events come into the NEWSROOM live on this Wednesday morning. It is October 24th. Here's what's on the rundown.
Southern California in flames. Major wildfires burning for a fourth straight day. Live pictures there. We'll tell you how the areas are doing and what is in danger right now.
HARRIS: Seeking shelter from the firestorm, we check on evacuees. Where are they now? And what are they saying about what they left behind?
COLLINS: And on the fire lines. We'll hear from those battles the wildfires, firsthand. What's the biggest concern? Tell you all about it in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: Fingers crossed here. In Southern California, hope may be on the horizon. But for thousands, the next several hours will mean everything. More than a dozen wildfires are sweeping across the landscape before Mother Nature can provide any relief.
More than a thousand homes have already burned to the ground. Close to a million people are on the run trying to stay one step ahead of the flames. Many have lost everything. Some will suffer that same fate in the coming hours. Exhausted residents and battle-weary firefighters slog into a fourth day of a growing crisis.
CNN correspondents are fanned out across the region focusing on the fires, the evacuees, the firefighters and the volunteers. Let's begin northeast of San Diego. CNN's Sean Callebs is in Spring Valley, where firefighters are trying to take a bit of a breather.
Sean, not all of the victims, we understand, in that area are homeowners. What can you tell us about that?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, SPRING VALLEY, CALIFORNIA: Yes, interesting, Tony. We're in an area where, when I checked on the fire 72,000 acres have burned here in the Harris Fire. And what we're hearing is 25 injuries yesterday. I thought, well, that seems like an awful lot. I talked with the local firefighters and they told me, where we are right now, Highway 94, behind me, carving its way through these mountains, 20 miles from the Mexican border.
And what we're hearing, a lot of immigrants try to make their way into the U.S., over these mountains behind me. And apparently a lot of what they're calling hikers got caught in some of these flames yesterday. So more than two dozen injuries, apparently a lot of these people, those trying to come into the United States. Something we really haven't heard a whole lot about, up until now.
I want to show you what's going on behind me, on the hill here, in Steel Canyon behind me. You can see these flames that have been kicking up for sometime, just above the fire you're looking at right now, just to the north, I mean a matter of feet, there is another home. The firefighters are worried about losing that structure.
What we're told, there are a number of the fire trucks, like you see behind me, that are up on that hillside and they are the actual entity between the homes and the fires. So they bring giant water- carrying trucks up in there and then these firefighters are what's called trying to protect the structure, so they're up there throughout the day doing that. These firefighters are actually sleeping in the vehicles right now. I feel kind of bad talking out here, this loud, this time of day, but, Tony, that is what is playing out here in this area and it is going to be another long one. And they're just hoping for some kind of break.
HARRIS: OK, Sean Callebs for us this morning.
Sean, good to see you. Thank you.
COLLINS: Let's go ahead and move north just a bit now to Los Angeles County, where CNN's John Zarrella is standing by in Santa Clarita, to be exact.
John, give us the picture from where you are.
JOHN ZARELLA, SANTA CLARITA, CALIFORNIA: Well, Heidi, we are at the command post in Santa Clarita, and in this general area around us, during the past our days, no less than four fires burning. Of course, a lot of the concern early on was that they might merge into one super fire. That has not happened. But late yesterday afternoon, just before the sun went down, we had an opportunity to fly in a helicopter over those fires. And from the air, you can really see the magnitude of how far and wide these fires stretch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARELLA (voice-over): Only from up here, flying at 6,500 feet above the fires can you begin and just begin to get a sense of their breadth and their magnitude. Below us, the high roof fire. That's what this one is called. And they seem to be everywhere. Columns of wind-driven, super-charged flames driving down hillsides and across valleys, consuming everything in their path.
Give us an idea -- a sense of what we're looking at right now. I know I can see some flames in the distance. VOICE OF AARON FITZGERALD, HELICOPTER PILOT: Well, what you see in front of us here to the left is the Piru Fire, the one north of us is the Ranch Fire, and we just flew over the Magic Fire, and then off behind us is the Buckwheat Fire. Any one of those four would be a challenge for these -- for these local crews. And, you could see, with so many of them burning at one time, the amount of smoke in the air -- just the general scope of how far of an area they're fighting these fires that is really stretching everything thin.
ZARELLA: And you could see for miles and miles, everything that's been burned out below us. It's just incredible.
What do you think when you're up here and you see this and you fly this? What's going through your mind?
FITZGERALD: Well, the first thing you're thinking about is the safety of the aircraft and staying out of the smoke and things like that, obviously. But as you look down, you can see the fire moving towards these homes and you know that there are thousands of people being evacuated right now from their homes and a lot of these are agricultural properties, so you have livestock of different sorts, people are trying to move animals and grab their possessions.
So, while it can be beautiful and eerie from the air, it's just terrifying on the ground, and you know that when you're looking down. And you can also see the scope of the damage, look at the amount of burned out vegetation for miles and miles.
ZARELLA: You can see the smoke rising from those columns of flames, those killers of smoke going up as the flames move through and consume acre upon acre of land. In so many other natural disasters, whether they're hurricanes or earthquakes or tornadoes, you know that the victims usually have something they can go back to, something that's left behind. Not in these fires.
They appear to be all-consuming. Whatever they touch, they burn up and they burn up completely. There's very little left. It makes you wonder, what's going to stop them? Is there any way that they can be stopped? Or are we just going to have to watch until they burn themselves out?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Lines of fire trucks moving in here this morning to the command post, obviously, getting ready to go out to those hillsides and those communities out there, to see if they can go ahead and beat these fires back. Some of the trucks you see behind me, the firefighters here, we talked to them last night, and they had taken their bed wraps and they were going to get some sleep -- the first sleep that they've had in 36 to 40 hours, they said.
But a little bit of -- you can see smiles creeping on their faces here, because here, at least in L.A. County, a bit of good news. These fires we've been talking about, some of them 80, 90 percent contained now. And, you can see the wind is laid down here. Unless something dramatically changes for the worse, the hope here is that in the next couple of days, they'll really begin to get into a mop-up phase here, Heidi. So, fortunately, at least here, in this part of Southern California, finally, some good news -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, isn't it just incredible, too, that view that you have up there? I got to go up in a Blackhawk over the Georgia fires, which are just nothing in comparison to what you just experienced from above. You just can't seem to get the perspective of the enormity of it until you see it from above.
So, John Zarrella, thanks so much for those pictures.
We also want to take a moment to tell you about the situation at Camp Pendleton. We've been talking about it yesterday. Some new information, new video right now coming in to us from KUSI, at Camp Pendleton, California.
Here's what we know. Apparently, Interstate 5, obviously, a very big throughway there, has been closed in both directions now, early this morning. It's along the portion of the freeway, just north of Oceanside, (INAUDIBLE) Camp Pendleton. Because of what you are seeing there very, very heavy smoke from the fires on the marine base, but this is not all of that threatening. Apparently, they want people to know, because it is from a controlled back burn.
And, I wish that we've actually been able to see more of this, in fighting these fires, but that really has not been a possibility, because of the nature of what we are seeing in Southern California.
Normally, they do a lot more controlled back burns, but it's been very, very difficult, as we've been telling you, because of the Santa Ana winds, and because of the temperatures. So, they've just been able to run (INAUDIBLE).
Again, new video coming in. This stuff, now from KFMB, also at Camp Pendleton, California. I-5 closed in both directions, because of all of the smoke coming off of these controlled back burns. We'll keep our eye on that, as well.
It's just hard to turn away from those pictures, isn't it?
The latest facts and figures now, coming out from all of the smoke that we have been watching. More than 412,000 acres burned. That's right, 412,000 acres that adds up to about 645 square miles. About 1,100 homes now destroyed. More than 900,000 people evacuated. Nineteen separate fires burning now, in that last report, three of those are contained.
HARRIS: OK. Across the Southern California more than 900,000 people have left their homes, many are hunkered down at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium, so is our Kiran Chetry.
And, Kiran, good to see you this morning. You are covering the real human drama of all of this. How are those evacuees holding up there, this morning?
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: You know, because -- in spite of the tragedy and the uncertainty, this really is a story of a community coming together, to help their fellow neighbors, like we have really never seen before.
We want to just give you a little bit of the scene here. When you first come in to Qualcomm, this is one of the areas where the evacuees can sign in. There's volunteers here. We have Samantha, we have David, we have Lewis. They're sitting here, taking your names, giving out information. There's a big makeshift board up here that has just general information for people, letting them know where they can go if they have pets. Let's say, go to Gate F, on cases for animals, if they need general info. And then you come over here and they explain, where there's free Internet and e-mail. It's being provided by Best Buy just outside of Gate A.
And they're also guiding people to the site called SanDiegoFires.info, giving out little strips of paper. They can go there and actually find out the status of their home, find out whether or not their community is one where homes have been burned or whether firefighters have been able to save them.
We've seen a rush of volunteers, as we head into the breakfast hour. They say they have so much food here and they need volunteers to help disburse the food to the evacuees. Some of them who have just sort of made cots or sleeping bags along the areas of the stadium that are protected, some of them choosing to sleep in their cars, but either way, they're finding people are doing everything they can to provide some measure of comfort for them.
And we want to talk right now with Jennifer Ki, as well as her son, Christian. Christian is seven years old -- a mini-reporter in training. I see you have the microphone right there.
How is everything going this morning, Christian?
CHRISTIAN KI, EVACUEE: Good.
CHETRY: Tell us a little bit about what you've been doing here.
C. KI: Playing soccer.
CHETRY: Playing soccer? You've been spending some time?
They have a kid center here, as well.
And what else was going on at the kid center?
C. KI: We play some baseball and kickball.
CHETRY: Are you playing some video games?
C. KI: Yes.
CHETRY: I heard there was a clown, too?
C. KI: Yes.
CHETRY: So how has it been?
C. KI: Good.
CHETRY: It's been going good. Well, you're certainly a trooper. May I have the microphone? I'm going to ask your mom a couple of questions, as well.
You guys are from a community that's a suburb of Rancho Bernardo, and why did you guys make the call to leave and to come here?
JENNIFER KI, EVACUEE: Well, about Monday morning, about 5:00 a.m., we got a reverse 911 call, saying that we needed to leave and -- well, at first, we weren't sure if they got the right number. Because we went to sleep, thinking the fire was still in the Ramona area and woke up to the reverse 911 call at 5:00.
CHETRY: So you guys did decide to come out at Monday morning and since then, you have been able to get information that your home is OK?
J. KI: Yes, they did. They brought the list last night and we were able to take a look and see that our home was OK.
CHETRY: Now, you have another child, an 11-year-old daughter, as well. What's it been like for the family displaced like this, being here at the Qualcomm center?
J. KI: You know the resources here have been great. We actually had a 6-month-old puppy, who is with us and a lady was nice enough to board him through this time.
CHETRY: Now, Christian seems to be in pretty good spirits. How are your kids holding up through all of this?
J. KI: They are actually doing wonderful. Teachers have come, university students have come to watch the kids, and they'll take the kids, and keep for the day, and keep them entertained. And, we actually had an offer, last night, to go to a home that they were able to re-enter and he -- they didn't want to leave! He didn't want to leave!
CHETRY: Yes, you know, that's the interesting part, the children and the animals a little bit oblivious to what's going on. The parents are the ones that end up having to worry, but we're glad that at least you guys are finding it an easy transition before you head back to your neighborhood. You may be able to head back today. In fact, that's some of the news we've been hearing.
Jennifer, thanks for talking with us. And Christian, thanks for talking with us and good luck.
J. KI: Thank you.
CHETRY: So, you know, the situation here is that people are making the best of a pretty tough time. Some of the people that we talked to don't know if they have a home to go back to. Others have been able to find out, like I said, through this Web site and through this real concerted effort by local and state authorities, to make sure people are made aware, Tony, of what is going on in their communities. And like I said, volunteers in this community, opening up their hearts, donating their time, and trying to make this feel at least a little bit like home, in a very tough situation.
HARRIS: And great to hear that Jennifer will get an opportunity, possibly today, to get back home with her family.
Kiran, great to see you. Thank you.
Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego is the largest single evacuation center right now. There are about 12,000 people seeking shelter there. But that is a small number when you consider more than 900,000 people -- can you imagine that -- have evacuated their homes. And there are dozens of other smaller shelters set up through Southern California. In the San Diego area alone, there are at least 30 shelters open. The Red Cross is operating eight shelters in that area. In the Los Angeles area, there are at least 15 shelters, housing evacuees.
COLLINS: Jacqui Jeras is standing by now, because we want to talk a little bit more about the Santa Ana winds.
Jacqui, obviously, this has been a major part of the story for the past three days. Now we're in our fourth day. Is today the day where we might see some relief?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's better, you know, it's not golden and that's for sure, but it's certainly a lot better. As you take a look at this map behind me -- if you remember, we showed you this yesterday and we saw a lot of orange on the map, because we had high wind warnings, with those gusts beyond hurricane strength. Well, today, we're down to yellow, which means the winds are going to be more like 30, 40 miles an hour. So it's something. We'll take anything we can get.
And also notice, we're just looking at the regular old ground here, the Los Angeles area down to the coastal area of San Diego. So the coast doesn't even have any advisory. So things are looking a little bit better.
We'll show you the current wind speeds out there right now. We're in the single digits and a couple of teens, staying out of the 20-mile-per-hour range. So that is also good news. Some of the wind gusts were still kind of on the strong side, overnight. Cheeseborough (ph) had a wind gust of 67 miles per hour, at 2:00 this morning, and that was the strongest gust that I could find. Laguna Peak, last evening was 50 miles per hour, Warm Springs down to 40, and the Malibu Hills at about 35 miles per hour.
So those winds today, with our high pressure system, the high is starting to shift on off to the east. You know it's still a critical situation today, but it's not extreme like it was yesterday. Our relative humidity remains extremely low, down to 48 percent. But look at our winds, they're half today, guys -- 20 to 30 miles per hour, gusts up to 50, and most of that is going to be up into the hill areas.
The temperatures have been very warm with this. We had a number of record highs yesterday. Look at that, Santa Ana, California, 99 degrees, as well as Fullerton. We don't think we'll see nearly these temperatures today. And by tomorrow, we'll be in more of a transitional state, where we'll start to see the humidity increase just a little bit. So there's better news and it will progressively get better throughout the weekend.
COLLINS: Those onshore winds that we're talking about.
HARRIS: That's -- that's it right there.
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: Lots of moisture. Looking forward to it very much, as I'm sure, the folks out there are.
Thank you, Jacqui. We'll check in with you a little bit later on.
Plus, more coverage ahead, of course, this morning, in the NEWSROOM. Firefighters braving the Southern California flames to save a community. A CNN I-Reporter captures their heroic work.
HARRIS: Also, incredible video from the center of the fire. It's called the firewhirl and it can mean extreme danger for firefighters.
COLLINS: This view of the wildfires now, captured from the living room window of a San Diego college student who is refusing to evacuate. We're going to talk to him live at his apartment "In The Line Of Fire."
HARRIS: And remembering the Cedar Fire. San Diego was devastated before, but, were lessons learned from that fire? We're "Keeping Them Honest," ahead in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And, good morning, again. Welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris. As you've been told, in the fierce of wildfires, Dr. Sanjay Gupta gives us exclusive access to one of the premier burn centers in the United States, and it's in the fire zone.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: This is CNN, the most trusted name in news. Now, back to the CNN NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: The Southern Cali-fire -- Cali-fire -- California wildfires -- boy, it actually is becoming sort of just one word, isn't it? We are in the fourth day of this tragedy that is occurring. We are still getting just incredible pictures coming in to us. Live shot now, coming our way from KABC. Santiago Canyon in California, just to give you sort of an overview of what the situation is today. We just heard from Jacqui Jeras. A bit of relief from those Santa Ana winds. Now down to 30 to 40-mile-per-hour winds which is a yellow advisory today.
Yesterday and the day before, we were at hurricane strength, sometimes getting up to 80-mile-per-hour. So, certainly a little bit better situation there, but still, such a massive job for all of the firefighters on hand, all across these seven different counties that have actually been declared federal disaster areas now, which will, of course, will allow for federal aid to come in.
We've got one death at this point, about 70 injuries and 34 of those are firefighters. So, obviously, their work is just really, really heroic.
Up to about 413,000 acres burned. And, in the middle of at all, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta did get some exclusive access to the University of California, San Diego burn center.
Sanjay, amazing that this is exactly where the burn center is. Given the story we've been following for so long now, tell us what you saw.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, it is pretty fortuitous in so many ways that this big burn center is actually located where it is. It is sort of the place where a lot of patients are being funneled. You know, we got an exclusive look inside, as you mentioned. It was around 1:30 on Sunday that they got their first patient, Heidi. And after that, the patients just started to come in. It has tapered off over the last day or so.
But behind all those patients, you know, there are some stories. Patients in the waiting rooms, waiting for their family members to recover -- to be diagnosed. There are -- many of them are crippled and wounded. Here's a -- just a little glimpse of what we saw.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA (voice-over): An anguished, worried mother.
LINDA LEWIS, MOTHER OF BURN VICTIM: An anguished worried mother: Her first response to me was I'm sorry.
GUPTA: Linda Lewis is talking about her daughter, who is also a firefighter.
(on camera): So these are pictures of your daughter?
LEWIS: Yes, this is her with her daughter and then her with her sister.
GUPTA: So pretty.
(voice-over): And now, she's critically injured.
Do you know what happened to her? Have they told you specifically what happened to her?
LEWIS: She told me that the -- she was in the truck when the fire overtook them, and had to get out of the truck. So that's how, with all their protective gear, everything was covered, but her face was exposed somewhat and so that's why she was burned there.
GUPTA: And there were reports that she was dead. The reality is she's very much alive, thanks in large part to this trauma center.
(on camera): What's -- what's going on in here? These beds are all full with burn patients?
(voice-over): Dr. Raul Coimbra gave me an exclusive behind the scenes look at what has become the home for the sickest of the sick patients.
(on camera): I mean we can, obviously, see a patient over here and we're not identifying any patients, but can you tell me anything about some of the injuries of these patients right here?
DR. RAUL COIMBRA, UCSD BURN CENTER: Yes. Here's a patient that was one of the last that they got early this morning. A 40 percent of the body surface area burned, patient with severe inhalation injury that was promptly intubated in the trauma room and stabilized and brought up here to the burn unit.
GUPTA: So we're giving you a look inside one of these ICU rooms here. We could see all of the equipment over here. They're used to provide sedation, they're used to actually paralyze the patient, they're used for pain control.
We won't show you the patient's face, but it's amazing how much swelling they get, just as a result of all that fluids. This patient was someone that actually got caught in the fire, who's actually in what's called as a chemical coma now. Given so much medications to keep her pain under control, and so that her lungs can rest and recover from all this.
So, you're pretty optimistic about your daughter's recovery?
LEWIS: Very, very optimistic.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Coimbra is confident that Linda's daughter will survive and even fight fires again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: You know, it's interesting, right now, as it stands, Heidi, there's nine patients who remain in critical condition in this particular burn center. About seven are -- have been upgraded over the last several hours. But they're still requiring lots of care and that's sort of the name of the game. These doctors are sort of working around the clock. But they say that they have adequate staff. People have been coming in from all over the county, to offer their services. So that's a piece of good news in all of this, as well -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, and I'm sure that they feel so very lucky to have a facility like that, when all of this has been happening around them. And, Sanjay, I wonder, though, when we talk about burns, obviously, we know that this is a really painful, painful thing to go through and the process of healing a burn. Talk to us a little bit about that and what these patients are going through.
GUPTA: Yes, it can be an extremely painful process. You know, within the first day or two, it's all about trying to make sure that someone gets all their fluids replaced. They've lost a part of the largest organ in your body. The largest organ in your body is your skin. When you lose a large part of that, you can lose fluids. That has to be replaced. You worry about infection, as well. After that, you know, you really have to start trying to cover some of that skin.
So first, they use actually cadaveric skin from cadavers, and then slowly take skin from other parts of the body to start covering that. It is a long process. The airway can get swollen as a result of smoke inhalation injuries, and these patients are often on breathing machines, they often have lots of bandages, they're on pain medication, they're on sedatives, they're on medications to paralyze them, they look like they are, for all intents and purposes, dead.
In fact, the mother that you just met, they thought her daughter had died or was dead, because of how she looked at that time. But they are recovering. And you know, it looks like the news is good for most of the patients right now in that ICU.
COLLINS: Well, that's terrific. We know it will be a really long haul, but everybody across the nation, I think, it's fair to say, is thinking about them certainly.
All right, Sanjay Gupta, our Chief Medical Correspondent, coming to us from the University of California, San Diego's burn center. Thanks, Sanjay.
HARRIS: And still ahead, she watched her house go up in flames on television. Southern California fire survivor speaks, straight ahead.
And take a look at this, incredible video from the center of the fire. It's called a firewhirl and it could mean extreme danger for firefighters. A closer look, ahead in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Bottom of the hour. Welcome back, everyone, to the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.
COLLINS: Hi to everybody.
I'm Heidi Collins.
It is day four of the Southern California firefight. More than a dozen wildfires continue to devour dry brush and anything in the way. Residents in some San Diego neighborhoods are going back to see what's left of their homes, but a million people have been evacuated. Hundreds of homes are gone. Thousands of firefighters, marines, the National Guard and even prison inmates are busy in fighting the fires and CNN reporters are all over Southern California this morning bringing you the very latest.
HARRIS: And right now let's take you back to Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. And let's talk to Trudy and Kevin McCune evacuated from their home in Rancho Bernardo. Trudy, great to see you. Kevin, I don't know if you can hear me if your Mic out but great to see you as well. Trudy, tell us about the last couple of days. We know you were evacuated from your home on Monday. Walk us through. Takes some time, the range of emotions you've experienced over the last couple of days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUDY MCCUNE, EVACUEE: On Monday morning, my neighbor called me and said that we're going to have to evacuate and the place came through our condo complex, parking lot and told us we needed to get out. They hadn't gotten phone calls to us yet. So, we left about 6:30 Monday morning and we got here to Qualcomm Stadium Monday morning.
HARRIS: How are you holding up, Trudy?
T. MCCUNE: Pretty good. We got more sleep last night. We have tents and air mattresses and cots, so we've got everything.
HARRIS: Hey, Trudy, do we have a Mic on Kevin?
T. MCCUNE: Yes.
HARRIS: OK. Kevin, how are you doing, big man?
KEVIN MCCUNE: Good.
HARRIS: You taking care of mom?
K. MCCUNE: Yes.
HARRIS: OK. As best you can. What was it like for you? Talk me through your experience. What is it like to be evacuated from your home? Your mom telling you to get up and we've got to go?
K. MCCUNE: Well, I was really nervous and I was scared that my house is going to get burned down from the fire and I didn't want to leave all my stuff there. So I bring a bunch of my stuff.
HARRIS: Hey, Trudy, how much of your emotions right now are about staying strong for Kevin? T. MCCUNE: Yes, I'm trying to keep things going and, you know, take care of him and, you know, talk to him and see, you know, how he's doing, trying to keep busy. A lot of things around here.
HARRIS: Yes. How are your emotions? How are you holding up? I hear the quiver in your voice a little bit. This has to be tough for you. Explain that, if you would, for us.
T. MCCUNE: Yes. Yesterday, it was pretty hard. We heard that a restaurant next door to us had burned, but then we found out that that wasn't true, so the fire was just about a quarter mile from us. It was hard Monday, too because we had friends here who lost their home Monday in the apartment complex and quite a few people from church and Kevin's Cub Scout Leader, she lost her home Monday morning, so it's been kind of hard.
HARRIS: And is your home OK?
T. MCCUNE: Our home is OK. It just got within a few blocks of us and pretty much surrounded us. There's quite a bit, about a quarter mile north of us and apartment complexes on both sides of us about a quarter mile on each side, so it kind of missed us. It went down our street and then went on the other side of the street.
HARRIS: Any sort of -- I'm going to ask a tricky one here. Any sort of guilt associated with sort of a randomness of this kind of event where your home is fine but dear friends have lost everything?
T. MCCUNE: Yes. I feel kind of bad because I'm hoping that I don't lose my home, but then I feel bad because I know a lot of people that have lost their homes, so I had a lot of guilt yesterday about that.
HARRIS: Will you get -- will you get an opportunity to go back and visit your home today?
T. MCCUNE: We're not sure if they're going to let us in today and we've been trying to get to relatives house in Orange County. And the freeways are closed.
HARRIS: Are you getting everything that you need from Qualcomm, everything that you need there?
T. MCCUNE: Yes. We've got everything set up in our tents and we're getting a lot of food. We've just need showers at this point.
HARRIS: Yes. Hey, Kevin. Can you hear me OK, Kevin?
K. MCCUNE: Yes.
HARRIS: All right. Give your mom a hug. You take care of her, all right? She needs a big hug, all right?
K. MCCUNE: OK.
HARRIS: All right. Kevin, good man. Good man. Trudy, good to see you. The best to you and be strong for yourself and for the little man, all right? Thank you.
T. MCCUNE: OK.
COLLINS: Staying in the fire zone. San Diego State University students Spencer Scranton refusing to leave his apartment. There has been a voluntary evacuation order put into effect. He is joining me now by phone from La Mesa, California. Spencer, I guess we should begin by asking you, do you feel like you're in any danger. Imagine if you did, you would get out of there, right?
SPENCER SCRANTON, SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT: Absolutely. I mean, we've been watching the fire for about three days now and stayed at a relative distance. You know, sort of like, we want to hang around and make sure that everything is OK here and see what happens.
COLLINS: Right now, just so people know at home, we are looking at some pictures that you have been able to take directly from your living room window. And I don't know. But it looks very, very close to me. Tell me a little bit about what you're saying. I know there's a lot of firefighter, a lot of fire trucks all around. What exactly have you guys been able to witness from that living room window?
SCRANTON: Yes. About Monday night was one of the most spectacular times I've ever had. I mean, the fire was within five or six miles of us and it was taking over a large portion of the mountainside. It was just incredible to see the amount of damage that was going on. But it really -- it sort of calmed down in the day time yesterday. But I can see it right now, looking out the front of my house, in front of my living room, that there is a fire that I believe they've been calling the Harris fire that sort of reached the San Miguel Mountains and is moving past Chula Vista down into what I believe is El Cajon area.
COLLINS: Yes, that Harris Fire. Some information that we have on at least last check. About 72 thousand acres have burned. Only 10 percent of it is contained. So, yes, it certainly one of the largest ones in San Diego County that the firefighters and everyone really mostly concerned about there. Spencer, why don't you want to go? Do you feel like you want to get the heck out of there just in case?
SCRANTON: No. I mean, you know, as I said earlier, the fire has been at a fairly relative distance about, you know, five or ten miles and so we really sort of decided to stay in our home just to -- I don't know. Just to be safe. It hasn't really seemed like the fire is going to breach. I mean, we have a huge valley in front of us. We have two freeways, so it's stayed a quite of distance to us. The only thing we're worried about is the air quality because there is so much smoke in the atmosphere around us.
COLLINS: Yes, tell me about that. Can you smell it inside your apartment? I mean...
SCRANTON: Oh, yes!
COLLINS: Tell me about what that's like. SCRANTON: It's, you know, it smells like your garden variety camp fire except that it's constant. And if you're looking at the sky right now, especially, it's quite dark and, you know, there's a lot of smoke in the air and it's becoming mainly from that Harris Fire. And I can see it right now breaching over those mountains. It's quite a side.
COLLINS: Yes, and just let me remind you that what were looking at on the screen, all of these still photos coming in to us by the gentleman who is talking to us right now. Spencer Scranton is a San Diego State University student. These pictures are just pretty unbelievable, taken from his living room window. Spencer, what is next? I mean, this is pretty scary. I don't know. Have you ever seen anything like this before?
SCRANTON: I have never seen anything like this before in my life. I mean, it's absolutely incredible. It's a little bit scary and a little bit startling but, you know, it seems to me at least from our advantage point is that the fire officials have been doing such a great job in controlling this fire, especially from the air. We've been watching helicopters overhead for the last two days. You know, we got our binoculars out and we can see the fire trucks and the firefighters around the mountain ridges. We still, you know, we're still safe in a sense because everybody is doing such a great job and, you know, we've been in close contact with this for about three days now.
COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. We appreciate those pictures coming in to us by Spencer Scranton, San Diego State University student. Boy, oh, boy. Stay safe, Spencer. We appreciate your time.
HARRIS: The Southern California firefighters face the perfect firestorm.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, the fuels in California, the driest in 200 years. So, that with the weather conditions that we have, the Santa Ana's, it was a recipe for disaster, which we've seen.
HARRIS: And once again, we will tell you what the fire crews are focusing on today. That is still ahead.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Ali Velshi in New York. "Minding Your Business." This could add up to a billion dollars a day and as it stands right now. When we come back, I'll tell you about the financial impact of these fires and what it means to you if you're traveling through the region.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: The stock exchange now. We heard the opening bell. Let's get the business started this morning. The DOW starts at 13,676 after picking up about 109 points yesterday and out of the gate were down 30. You know what, The DOW futures market indicated kind of a slow start out of the game this morning. More fall off from the subprime mortgage sector dragging down earnings for banks and investment houses. We are following the markets throughout the day with Susan Lisovicz right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. More of our continuing coverage of the California wildfires right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Well, the impact to the economy in Southern California from some of the worst wildfires this century may approach. Can you believe this? $1 billion. Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business" this morning. Ali, explain that number, break it out for us if you please.
VELSHI: Sure. Well, Tony, first of all, you know, Tony, it's tough when you talk about the money of these things, while people are still escaping their homes. But as soon as this has passed through, people start to concern themselves with how they recover the loss. Now, of the damage, because it's not centered in large commercial areas, the lost businesses tend to be very local so it's under $50 million a day. The property damage, of course, is the big issue. And right now, rough estimates, and this moves every hour are upward of $785 million, this from Moodies (ph). But it could be worsened. It depends on where these winds go and what kind of properties they take and then the issue is what happens with the insurance.
HARRIS: Oh, boy, yes.
VELSHI: Now, the issue is after Katrina, one of the things that tend to happens after disaster is there's an up tick in the economy because there's a lot of rebuilding. There's a lot of purchasing in order to rebuild. So, there doesn't tend to be a long-term effect on the economy when something like this happens but there is an immediate effect. In San Diego which is the area that we're sort of concerned about in terms of commercial activity, the port is closed. The port of San Diego is closed. But about nine or ten crews companies go through San Diego, either picking up or dropping off.
And the cruise terminal is still operating right now. So, for people involved in that, they're okay. Also, Tony, the airlines, all of the airlines that operate out of the area. All of the major airlines have either waived their change fees or allowing people to change if they are within a window, if they're affected by this. So, go straight to the airline if you do have to make changes and they will waive the fees for you.
HARRIS: I think it's interesting when you talk about if we go back -- circle back to the whole rebuilding aspect of this now. So, you're talking about people who say the lows of the world, the home depots of the world, riding a bit of a spike here. And then you talk about big ticket items. You better put refrigerators and televisions and those things back in the home.
VELSHI: Yes, so the targets, the Wal-Marts, the department stores, the lows, the home depot, they all end up being there and people have to come into work to rebuild those things. So, there is a silver lining to disasters, so that the aftermath tends to show some recovery and people tend to get some benefit, maybe to offset their loss. I think most people would rather say I'd rather not take the loss but at least there is something on the way that could help people out.
HARRIS: And there he is "Minding Your Business" this morning. Ali Velshi for us. Ali, thanks.
VELSHI: OK, Tony.
COLLINS: We want to take a moment now to show you some tape that we just got in here to the CNN NEWSROOM. This is a reporter from one of our affiliates in the Southern California area, KSNB, talking to a firefighter. We haven't really heard very much from the firefighters. Frankly, because many of them are so very busy. This firefighter working that Harris fire that we've been telling you about, one of the largest fires certainly in San Diego County. Let's go ahead and listen for a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KSNB REPORTER: Good morning. We are inside the evacuation center which has been set up here at Steel Canyon High School in San Miguel. The San Miguel mountain range is just behind me here. We have some good news to report concerning the Harris Fire. Boy, the undertaking by the fire crews here overnight has been absolutely spectacular. What happened is on Tuesday, the winds changed directions and this fire started coming up from Chula Vista on the other side of the San Miguel Mountains and started heading here toward the 94 freeway but fire crews got a beat on it.
They started letting some back fires and able to head off that fire. As you look at some of the video here, you'd see some of the flames are shooting up and look perilous at times. But these were the back fires that were set. Eventually, this fire started to burn itself out. I had a chance to speak with fire captain Scott McClain. He will explain the operation.
SCOTT MCCLAIN, FIRE CAPTAIN: Fire came over the ridge earlier today and it started backing down the hill. As far as the fire is concerned, the fire goes slower as it backs down a hill. So, we opted to be in control of this fire in the reference to, we cut line and cleaned the debris and brush at the base of the hill and then we started firing off that clearance line to meet the other fire halfway out. In that way we controlled it and were able to move it in the direction we wanted it to.
KSNB REPORTER: We see some flames up here on the mountainside right now. Are those good things to see at this point?
MCCLAIN: Those are good things to see. The fire is going to moving sideways left-to-right as you can see out there right now. And it is in a slower pace. You can feel the humidity in air tonight and you feel the coolness in the air. So everything is working really good.
KSNB REPORTER: So fire crews are starting to get a handle on this Harris Fire. The great news is up until Tuesday, 70,000 acres had burned in the Harris Fire but only 2,000 acres burning on Tuesday. Here's the best news of all, no homes were destroyed. Thanks to the great effort in operation by the fire crews here. But, of course, they warn this fire is only 10% contained at this point. And anything could change at a moment's notice. It really depends on the weather conditions and Mother Nature. We're in San Miguel. We'll send in back to you in the studio.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Yes, you know, we really probably just couldn't say it enough. All of the heroic work the firefighters are doing in this massive, massive blaze. Unfortunately, almost 35 of them now that we know about have been injured so it's certainly something to keep our eye on. Meanwhile, Jacqui Jeras certainly keeping our eye on the winds and the fact that they have died down just a bit. Hopefully that will help the firefighters.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: Firefighters braving the Southern California flames to save a community. A CNN I-reporter captures their heroic work.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: We invite you to watch continuing coverage of the wildfires ravaging California all day on CNN. And when you're not in front of the television, you certainly can't watch television, for example, from work. We understand that. So here is a thing. You can check out our online network cnn.com/live. Once you're there, you can choose from multiple live feeds or from a wide selection of videos. It is all at cnn.com and when we come back, we will have the latest on the I-5 closure, major interstate there, Camp Pendleton, California. The latest on the closure coming up in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: With fire and danger bearing down, CNN I-reporters are capturing some very dramatic images. I want to share some of them with you now. Robert Breit says fire crews saved his entire neighborhood from the flames. Breit says 500 firefighters were in his community even before the first flamed erupted. We've been hearing a lot of stories about those firefighters. And Negar Shekarabi-Hosseini shot these photos with her camera phone as she and her husband drove toward her hometown at Irvine. She called the scene frightening and surreal. And Mark Brooks use his cell phone to take these eerie photos of smoke clouds. Brooks was flying home from a visit with his father in Palm Springs.
HARRIS: You know, there are two ways to send I-reports to us on your computer. Just go to the cnn.com and click on I-report or type ireport@cnn.com into your cell phone. Now, of course, you know, we say this all the time, we should say it every time and we do. Please, don't put yourself in harm's way to send us I-reports.
COLLINS: Fleeing the fires and then having to wait for a word. We will talk to an evacuee who has been trying to find out if her home has been burned down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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