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CNN Live Saturday
Favorable Weather is Aiding California Firefighters
Aired November 01, 2003 - 14:08 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.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN ANCHOR: Mild weather, rain and even snow are aiding southern California firefighters in their weeklong battle against the wildfires. So far, the fires have killed 20 people and destroyed 3,300 homes across five counties in southern California.
We have two reports now direct from the fire zones. CNN's Miguel Marquez is in San Bernardino, and CNN's Bob Franken is further south in San Diego.
Bob, let's start with you.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the fire here, of course, is the by now infamous Cedar fire. And I wanted to give you some idea of its magnitude. All of that was lush land just a week ago, and residents say that the fires that they would see way in the distance, so far in the distance they didn't think they a threat, they'd leave to go get coffee or something like that, and an hour later they had done this.
Gone up and down the hills, gone over the ridge, and left this neighborhood, like so many others, an absolute rubble. 2,207 homes destroyed that they've counted so far in the Cedar fire which, by the way, is now considered the biggest wildfire in California history. Fourteen people have been killed in that fire.
They expect it will be contained by Monday. I'll talk about that more in just a moment.
There was also a Paradise fire also in San Diego County, 56,700 acres, 169 homes destroyed. Now, when they say that they expect the fires to be contained by Monday evening, contained means they have, in effect, built a fire line around it, they have bulldozed out the area, somehow put in an area that is clean between the fire and more incendiary burnable kind of property.
They do not expect that the fires will be controlled -- that is to say, suppressed, that is to say out of danger -- until November 16th. So they've got a long haul here. They're hoping that the weather helps a lot.
Governor Gray Davis and federal officials and Governor-Elect Arnold Schwarzenegger have been making their various tours around the state, trying to reassure all the people who have been displaced, who have seen their lives completely uprooted, have had tragedy in their lives, telling them about all the possible services they can get. There's also the talk of possible better responses next time. A lot of people complaining that things didn't move as quickly as possible.
But the one thing that moved all too quickly, of course, Jon, was the fire.
KARL: Well, Bob, at least now today it looks like the clearest I've seen the skies there in southern California around San Diego that we've seen all week. So thank you very much.
Now to San Bernardino and the fire control center where we find CNN's Miguel Marquez with the latest from there.
Miguel what do you got?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's lunchtime here at the evacuation center. We are joined by a couple of folks who are making this lunchtime possible, Leonard Snyder with Leonard's Catering and Thomas Serrato with the Far West Meat sales.
Tell us what you guys are doing here today.
LEONARD SNYDER, LEONARD'S CATERING: Well, we just came out to feed the people that were displaced.
MARQUEZ: How many are you feeding?
SNYDER: Well, anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 people. Whatever comes here.
MARQUEZ: So not only are people staying here, but people come in for lunch that are displaced as well?
SNYDER: Correct.
MARQUEZ: And what are you guys donating here today?
THOMAS SERRATO, FAR WEST MEATS: Everything. Everything from clothes to all the food. And anything else we can come up with from the community.
MARQUEZ: What has this experience been like for the community?
SERRATO: It's been devastating for the community. I mean, personally, we've lost some homes, my employees. A lot of them were evacuated. Some of them are living here now.
And the community as a whole was devastated. But what's happened is you see, like today, everybody is just coming together. So you can kill their homes but you can't kill the spirit. And these people are really coming together.
MARQUEZ: Leonard, you're seeing the same things with your employees out of their homes?
SNYDER: We only had one member to lose their home. And that was one of my church members.
MARQUEZ: And how hard is it to see all of this stuff happen?
SNYDER: It eats at you. It's my involvement.
MARQUEZ: Do you think San Bernardino and the area will survive?
SNYDER: I know they will. We'll be back.
MARQUEZ: OK. Thank you very much, guys.
They got to get to work. They've been bugging me here, how long is it going to take? Because they've got to get back and make burgers and find some more buns, I think.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Jonathan, fire officials here hope that by November 8th they will have the old fire contained, and then at that point they can start letting folks back into their homes in the mountain community above San Bernardino -- Jonathan.
KARL: It's been a rough run. Thanks a lot, Miguel. Appreciate that.
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 November 1, 2003 - 14:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN ANCHOR: Mild weather, rain and even snow are aiding southern California firefighters in their weeklong battle against the wildfires. So far, the fires have killed 20 people and destroyed 3,300 homes across five counties in southern California.
We have two reports now direct from the fire zones. CNN's Miguel Marquez is in San Bernardino, and CNN's Bob Franken is further south in San Diego.
Bob, let's start with you.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the fire here, of course, is the by now infamous Cedar fire. And I wanted to give you some idea of its magnitude. All of that was lush land just a week ago, and residents say that the fires that they would see way in the distance, so far in the distance they didn't think they a threat, they'd leave to go get coffee or something like that, and an hour later they had done this.
Gone up and down the hills, gone over the ridge, and left this neighborhood, like so many others, an absolute rubble. 2,207 homes destroyed that they've counted so far in the Cedar fire which, by the way, is now considered the biggest wildfire in California history. Fourteen people have been killed in that fire.
They expect it will be contained by Monday. I'll talk about that more in just a moment.
There was also a Paradise fire also in San Diego County, 56,700 acres, 169 homes destroyed. Now, when they say that they expect the fires to be contained by Monday evening, contained means they have, in effect, built a fire line around it, they have bulldozed out the area, somehow put in an area that is clean between the fire and more incendiary burnable kind of property.
They do not expect that the fires will be controlled -- that is to say, suppressed, that is to say out of danger -- until November 16th. So they've got a long haul here. They're hoping that the weather helps a lot.
Governor Gray Davis and federal officials and Governor-Elect Arnold Schwarzenegger have been making their various tours around the state, trying to reassure all the people who have been displaced, who have seen their lives completely uprooted, have had tragedy in their lives, telling them about all the possible services they can get. There's also the talk of possible better responses next time. A lot of people complaining that things didn't move as quickly as possible.
But the one thing that moved all too quickly, of course, Jon, was the fire.
KARL: Well, Bob, at least now today it looks like the clearest I've seen the skies there in southern California around San Diego that we've seen all week. So thank you very much.
Now to San Bernardino and the fire control center where we find CNN's Miguel Marquez with the latest from there.
Miguel what do you got?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's lunchtime here at the evacuation center. We are joined by a couple of folks who are making this lunchtime possible, Leonard Snyder with Leonard's Catering and Thomas Serrato with the Far West Meat sales.
Tell us what you guys are doing here today.
LEONARD SNYDER, LEONARD'S CATERING: Well, we just came out to feed the people that were displaced.
MARQUEZ: How many are you feeding?
SNYDER: Well, anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 people. Whatever comes here.
MARQUEZ: So not only are people staying here, but people come in for lunch that are displaced as well?
SNYDER: Correct.
MARQUEZ: And what are you guys donating here today?
THOMAS SERRATO, FAR WEST MEATS: Everything. Everything from clothes to all the food. And anything else we can come up with from the community.
MARQUEZ: What has this experience been like for the community?
SERRATO: It's been devastating for the community. I mean, personally, we've lost some homes, my employees. A lot of them were evacuated. Some of them are living here now.
And the community as a whole was devastated. But what's happened is you see, like today, everybody is just coming together. So you can kill their homes but you can't kill the spirit. And these people are really coming together.
MARQUEZ: Leonard, you're seeing the same things with your employees out of their homes?
SNYDER: We only had one member to lose their home. And that was one of my church members.
MARQUEZ: And how hard is it to see all of this stuff happen?
SNYDER: It eats at you. It's my involvement.
MARQUEZ: Do you think San Bernardino and the area will survive?
SNYDER: I know they will. We'll be back.
MARQUEZ: OK. Thank you very much, guys.
They got to get to work. They've been bugging me here, how long is it going to take? Because they've got to get back and make burgers and find some more buns, I think.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Jonathan, fire officials here hope that by November 8th they will have the old fire contained, and then at that point they can start letting folks back into their homes in the mountain community above San Bernardino -- Jonathan.
KARL: It's been a rough run. Thanks a lot, Miguel. Appreciate that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
