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CNN Live At Daybreak

Firefighters Battle Wyoming Wildfires

Aired July 30, 2001 - 08:10   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: Yes, Jill, that's not going to be very good news for those folks in Wyoming. It is wildfire season there, and one fast-moving fire bears down on Yellowstone National Park now. Another casts a shroud of smoke over the Jackson Hole Resort. But firefighters say they are winning the battle over that 4,500 acre blaze and they're getting an assist from the weather there.

CNN's Eric Philips is on the fire line at Wilson, Wyoming, about five miles from Jackson.

Eric, we're getting a better view from behind you where the fire looks like it's still burning.

ERIC PHILIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, the fire is still burning behind me, Carol. These are the mountains where firefighters have been working for the past seven days. Today is day eight.

As you know, this fire was - began or at least believed to have begun by someone not paying attention to their campfire. Firefighters have been working by air and on land. They've been trying to get a perimeter established around this fire. Right now they're telling us the fire is 70 percent contained but that's not before it has burned some 4,500 acres.

Right now they're telling us that people are still evacuated from their homes. You've got about a hundred families who have evacuated. Some have been evacuate since last Wednesday. Many are waiting to find out when, in fact, they can come back to their homes. But again, fire officials don't' want to allow them to come back in until they're sure that they are out of danger and the only way they can do that is by waiting because so much depends on the weather.

Today, they're expecting scattered showers, but they're not sure whether or not those scattered showers will bring gusting winds. If the gusting winds come, that's bad news for firefighters here who have made so much headway over the last couple days.

Again, about 150 to 200 homes are threatened by these wildfires and those homes are estimated at an average value of $5 million each. So firefighters are working to protect all the structures in this area. So far no structures, no homes, no tool sheds, not even a garage, has been lost in the flames.

LIN: Eric, give us a sense of what it's like to be there because we keep hearing about the weather, but you know when you were with us about an hour ago, we could see the moisture on your breath. So how is it that you see the conditions evolve through the day? Give us an idea of what it's like to be there.

PHILIPS: Well, generally in the morning there'll be cooler temperatures. And what you'll find is that you may have a false sense of security or a false sense of optimism because of the cooler temperatures. The humidity may be a little higher in the morning. But as the temperatures go up during the day and the land starts to dry out more, the fire starts to flare up and that's when the firefighters really have to attack it by hitting hot spots and trying to get those hot pockets out before they spread. All they need is for one or two hot pockets to be there and for the gusting winds to come and before they know it, the fire has spread once again and all the progress they have made over the last couple days is for naught. And so they're trying to attack it from the very beginning and not get caught up in a false sense of optimism because of the lower temperatures and the humidity that exists in the morning.

LIN: Yes, and you know from covering so many wildfires that that afternoon period when the winds pick up is that critical time that it gets pretty nasty for those guys.

PHILIPS: That's right.

LIN: All right. Thanks very much for, Eric, checking in here.

Well, one of the main entrances to Yellowstone National Park is closed right now. And coming up in 20 minutes, we're going to speak with a park ranger about alternatives if you're heading to America's oldest national park.

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