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CNN Live At Daybreak
Community of Leavenworth, Washington Battles Wildfires
Aired August 20, 2001 - 07:05 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.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now to those wildfires in several Western states and the massive effort to bring them under control.
CNN's Lilian Kim is in Washington state at one of the hot spots near the tourist community of Leavenworth.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LILIAN KIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They've come from all over the U.S. to fight flames that have blackened much of the West. Days are long, the labor intense. But firefighters are ready for more.
UNIDENTIFIED FIREFIGHTER: Ready for a good hike.
KIM: So far, 6,900 acres have burned near Leavenworth, Washington. Flames have yet to reach any homes, but a burned out vehicle and melted metal stand as a reminder of the fire's wrath. With cooler temperatures and higher humidity, firefighters are gaining ground. Crews are busy constructing a containment mine and dousing remaining hot spots.
UNIDENTIFIED FIREFIGHTER: I'm not too worried about it. The fire has calmed way down. The more scary parts is when it crowns over the trees. Right now it's settled down quite a bit since yesterday.
KIM: This is just one of 35 fires burning throughout the West, 800,000 acres total. In California, flames are erupting in the northern part of the state. Fire is kicking up in Utah, as well. And in Oregon, the battle continues.
While the situation is improving in Washington state, firefighters know conditions can change at any time. What they're worried about most, gusting winds that could quickly flare up a smoldering fire.
UNIDENTIFIED FIREFIGHTER: You know, as it's been, it's been really erratic and, you know, we've been doing what we can with what we have so.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KIM: Despite progress being made here in Washington, evacuation orders remain in effect, 68 homes total here in Leavenworth. Now, rain is in the forecast. Wet weather could come as early as tomorrow.
Reporting live from Leavenworth, Washington, I'm Lilian Kim -- Brian, back to you.
NELSON: Thank you, Lilian.
And CNN's Jeff Flock is at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. Let's check in with him now -- Jeff.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Brian, in about 30 minutes time the daily briefing, morning report comes out. We've got an advanced peak at that and I'm going to give you that in just a moment. But first I want to give you some sense of where we are. Indeed, this is the nerve center for the fighting of the nation's wildfires. In this room, you see this is where the intelligence is gathered, where the equipment, the aircraft, the personnel is all deployed for all of the nation's firefighter efforts. This pod that you see over here, this is a weather station where they are obtaining all the latest weather information.
Now, on to that morning briefing, this is the latest word from the National Interagency Fire Center. Ten new large fires burning today, according to their report. And a large fire, by the way, is defined as one that is uncontained and burning at least 100 acres. They say that overall the fire center is now monitoring 40 large fires and those 40 fires are burning between 300,000 and 400,000 acres.
So far this year, 2.8 million acres have burned so far. To give you some indication of the kind of year this has been, this is pretty average. That's about the 10 year average. Last year, about twice as many acres had burned by this time.
Now, as to containment, here's the latest numbers on that. Five large fires contained as of yesterday and to give you some sense of where we are in the firefighting season at its peak time, 241 new fires were reported yesterday, but they report here from the Fire Center that 96 percent of them were contained during what they call initial attack. That means that the first crews on the scene did contain them.
Now, as you might expect, the Pacific Northwest remaining the hot spot, according to the morning report, 15 large fires still burning. But most of those had progress made on them yesterday in Oregon and Washington, that in large part, thanks to good weather conditions.
They are watching, though, very closely here weather conditions in the Pacific Northwest because that will determine where the efforts are intensified and where they're pulled back as the week goes on.
Throughout this day on CNN we'll be giving you up close and personal here at the National Interagency Fire Center here in Boise, giving you a sense of what they do here and they're right now at the peak of it, very, very difficult conditions out there, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. We'll have further reports throughout the day so stay tuned.
Jeff Flock, CNN, reporting live from Boise, Idaho.
NELSON: Jeff, I've got a question before you leave. Last week the army and the marines said they were sending a battalion each to help fight the fires. Have they made much of an impact over the weekend?
FLOCK: Yes. Although, you know, I'll tell you, it's fair to say despite the efforts it's usually the weather that has the most impact and that's what had the most impact over the weekend, that good news in both Oregon and Washington. But it's in this room where those forces are all deployed. So we'll be watching that throughout the morning -- Brian.
NELSON: All right, thanks very much, Jeff.
And the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise will be releasing its overnight report in about 30 minutes and we'll cover that live.
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