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Sports Bar Deck Collapses into Bay; Wildfire Kills, Destroys 370 Homes; More Severe Weather Expected; White House Ramp Up Syrian Rebel Support; China Silent on NSA Leaker; Refinery Blast Under Investigation

Aired June 14, 2013 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ROMANS: "NEW DAY" of course is Chris Cuomo.

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ROMANS: Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira, begins Monday at 6:00. It's going to be a heck of a lot of fun. A heck of a lot of the fun.

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"NEWSROOM" continues now with Brianna Keilar.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, guys.

Happening now in NEWSROOM sudden collapse. A packed Miami area sports bar deck gives way, tossing dozens into Biscayne Bay.

And life and death. Inside the fire zone. A massive Colorado wildfire doubles in size since this time yesterday and claims its first lives.

And better watch your knees. One airline is packing in the passengers, adding even more seats to that crowded coach section we love so much.

And he is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive. But is the new "Man of Steel" strong enough to save the Superman franchise?

We'll see if Superman can bring in the fans or if he's box office kryptonite. You're live in CNN NEWSROOM.

Hi there, I'm Brianna Keilar in for Carol Costello and this morning a Miami area sports bar deck is no longer recognizable after collapsing and sending dozens into the water. About 100 people packed the deck outside of Shuckers Bar and Grill on Thursday night when it gave way. Many were watching the Miami Heat play in the NBA Finals.

Dive teams and a helicopter had to be called in to search for the injured. Two dozen people were hurt, three of them have critical injuries and John Zarrella is outside of the sports bar.

John, some say that they had very little warning that something was going to happen here.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's absolutely right, Brianna. It happened almost in a matter of an instant and you can see exactly now with daylight, exactly how bad it was here. That dock, which was supported by pilings on one side, the sea wall on the other. Collapsing in the middle there. You can see the tables and the chairs and the potted palm trees and the railing.

Actually, you can see food and dishes that are down there in the water. And imagine all those people, up to 100 of them, actually being toppled one on top of the other with debris covering them. But, fortunately, less than a mile from here is a fire rescue station and a dive teams, as you mentioned, they got here very quickly. And there are no people missing and, fortunately, now we are being told just two serious injuries of the 24 people that were transported.

But as patrons in the restaurant were sitting down and eating and witnessing what happened, they said it did happen almost instantaneously.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM TUCKWELL, WITNESS: I was maybe six feet from the deck when it collapsed. All I can describe it as it's like 1,000 people standing up at the same time. It was this peculiar just roar of noise and by the time I turned around in a split second, there was -- where there was once people, I mean, 50, 100 people maybe at least. There was nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Now Coast Guard patrol boat has been out here much of the morning. They're actually out there right now and just a few minutes ago they pulled up to the dock and they picked up an inspector from North Bay Village, the community where this accident took place. And he was out taking photographs of the scene. Obviously, as they start to try to get the investigation under way -- Brianna.

KEILAR: John, did they have any idea why this deck may have collapsed? When you're talking about 100 people, of course, it makes you wonder if they weren't overcapacity on it. ZARRELLA: Yes. Absolutely. That's the first question that comes to everyone's minds. But people that have come here frequently say when there is big sporting events in Miami or big sporting events on television, it's not uncommon to have that many people out here on this dock. But certainly that's going to be one of the first things they look into is capacity and then whether there were wear and tear and stress on all of that wood and all those beams out there. But we're told it's going to take some time before they can come up with a determination of the cause -- Brianna.

KEILAR: John Zarrella in Miami. Thank you, John.

Now, in Colorado, the most destructive wildfire in state history is likely to grow even more ferocious today. The fire which is northeast of Colorado Springs has turned deadly with the discovery of two bodies. They may have been trying to escape an inferno that has destroyed hundreds of homes at this point. It's also forced 41,000 people to evacuate.

CNN's Dan Simon is joining us now. He's in Colorado Springs with the latest -- Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Brianna. A little bit of hope for the people of this community. This fire is now partially contained. It's a modest number, 5 percent. But it just goes to show you that the fire efforts might be beginning to pay off.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON (voice-over): Listen to the crackling of the flames. This, just one of the 379 homes now reduced to rubble in what is now being called the most destructive wildfire in Colorado state history.

The Black Forest wildfire has scorched nearly 16,000 acres of land. Its flames widespread threatening neighboring cities like the densely populated Colorado Springs.

DALE MIELKE, RETIRED FIREFIGHTER: It was extremely fast moving. I kept my family here too long because I thought we were safe. And then next thing you know it was crossing the street to the south of us within minutes.

SIMON: The inferno moving rapidly is now deadly, taking the lives of two people who were in the midst of evacuating. Fire officials say just 40 minutes after the victims started packing, the flames were on their doorstep.

MAYOR STEVE BACH, COLORADO SPRINGS: Our hearts go out to their loved ones. And our thoughts and prayers are with all the people who have been hurt by this fire.

SIMON: Thousands fleeing their homes. And for some, like the Coyne family, they are now facing the reality of losing their house.

JAENETTE COYNE, LOST HOME IN COLORADO WILDFIRE: It was probably the worst thing I have ever seen in my life. You have that moment where you say, is that really my house?

SIMON: Seven hundred fifty firefighters working tirelessly to contain the flames. And now we're getting a rare look from inside the fire lines.

Watch as Air Force Academy firefighter (INAUDIBLE) Newbanks aids in the battle against the inferno.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me some water.

SIMON: Working diligently alongside his team to extinguish the flames.

The Black Forest is just one of several wildfires burning in the state. To the south the Royal Gorge Fire threatens the iconic suspension bridge that has hosted tourists for so many years. While up north, lightning has ignited a fire in Rocky Mountain National Park.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: And you've got a whole lot of people displaced. Forty thousand people have been evacuated. It's virtually impossible to get a hotel room in the city and no one knows when things will improve. Of course, it's going to be contingent on the firefighting effort, but more so on the weather, the temperature and the wind.

Brianna, right now it's a little bit cooler, not much wind at the moment. But let's just hope that it keeps up. Back to you.

KEILAR: Certainly. And Dan, I do want to tell our viewers that we were looking there at some live pictures coming to us from our affiliate KMGH where you really just get a sense of just how big this is. Forty thousand people evacuated. This is a big, developing story.

And Dan Simon will continue to follow this there from Colorado Springs. Thank you, Dan.

Now severe weather is blowing through the northeast today after a day of chaotic weather and storm damage in the eastern third of the country. Hundreds of thousands of people spent the night in the dark after storms knocked out power. You're looking here at the scene in Maryland where a 400-year-old tree was just ripped out of the ground, barely missed a house, very good news there.

A tornado was spotted touching down just outside of Washington, D.C. If you can imagine that. There were water spouts, as well, seen on Chesapeake Bay. And in Richmond, Virginia, a 4-year-old boy was killed when a tree fell over. The boy and his father were hit by the tree as they evacuated a nature center.

In Iowa, a dramatic rescue. A family was trapped in an SUV surrounded by rushing flood water. This took about 45 minutes but crews, thankfully, were able to pull everyone out to safety and volunteer firefighters were very busy in West Virginia, as well, where flood waters were about to wash away a home.

There were three children trapped inside and some adults tried to help them, but they got stuck there, too. Crews helped get them all to dry land and to safety.

Meteorologist Indra Petersons is in New York monitoring all of this.

This is sort of amazing, Indra, when you look at all these different areas facing all of these problems. Are we expecting some more severe weather today?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, this is the good news. That massive storm system we were talking about really spreads from the Midwest all the way to the East Coast very easy to see right now making its way off shore. We're taking all that lightning and all that wind damage with it.

Now I just want to show you how much wind damage it caused yesterday. Look at the amount of reports. Very easy to tell the amount of damage it did, 645 wind reports. We're talking about downed trees, downed electricity poles, a lot of people without even power this morning. And of course we're covering from that.

I do want to jump in to the West Coast where we're actually watching today again the threat of wildfires. We're not really recovering too much. A little bit of moisture. This is like relative community in that water vapor map that shows so much moisture is moving in the area.

It looks better than it actually is. A lot of this moisture is at the upper levels. If you look at the atmosphere at the upper level lower, a lot of it is kind of evaporating before it hits those lower levels.

Overnight about 39 percent humidity. So that's where the chances are for them to recover. But by the afternoon, of course the sun comes out, things dry out, and notice how dry they are still getting.

The only good news, yes, they a chance for thunderstorm and a hint of rain but like I said, the bulk of it not hitting the ground and of course with thunderstorms comes lightning so the threat of sparking possibly even another wildfire so we're going to continue to monitor that -- Brianna.

KEILAR: The opposite of what they want. For it to get warm and dry. For sure. We will monitor that.

Indra Petersons, thank you so much.

Now the Obama administration says it will ramp up support for Syrian rebels after announcing forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have crossed what it calls a red line by using chemical weapons. The White House estimating that as many as 150 people have died in sarin gas attacks.

The Syrian government, though, is angrily denouncing the claims as it has now for months saying, this morning, quote, "The United States administration is using flagrant tricks to come up with any possible means to justify the decision of President Barack Obama to arm the Syrian opposition." And they are clearly, "exercising scandalous double standards in dealing with terrorism."

Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more on the White House's decision and what help for the Syrian rebels could look like.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Obama administration is now confirming what was feared, that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons multiple times.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus.

STARR: Pressure is growing on President Obama to act.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: So I applaud the president's decision and I appreciate it. But the president of the United States had better understand that just supplying weapons is not going to change the equation on the ground and the balance of power.

STARR: The White House says it will boost military support to the rebels but won't say exactly how. A leading option, arming the rebels. That could include desperately needed ammunition for rifles and machine guns, as well as new shipments of machine guns, shoulder- fired weapons to attack tanks, artillery, helicopters and jets, and mortars and rockets.

The White House does not plan to put U.S. troops on the ground in Syria and is far from ready to commit to a no-fly zone.