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CNN Live At Daybreak

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Aired August 28, 2001 - 08:04   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: In the West, firefighters remain on the scene in Northern Los Angeles County this morning. A brush fire has charred more than 1,800 acres of land.

CNN's Hena Cuevas is in Castaic Lake to tell us more. Hena?

HENA CUEVAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the brush fire has covered an area of about 1,800 acres and is about 80 percent contained.

Firefighters will go out again in about an hour to take advantage of the low temperature and the high humidity at this time of the morning.

The fire began yesterday and was reported at about 12:45 local time and spread quickly getting very, very close to some homes in the area. Interstate 5, which is the one that connects Sacramento to San Diego, was closed down for a few hours. But it was opened early last night.

So far, no injuries have been reported with the exception of two camp crew inmates, which were treated for heat exhaustion but were later released. The cause of the fire hasn't been determined, but is now under investigation.

And this morning joining us is Captain Henry Rodriguez of the L.A. County Fire Department to tell us a little bit more about what they will be doing this morning.

Thank you very much. What is the plan -- what is the plan this morning?

CAPT. HENRY RODRIGUEZ, L.A. COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: OK. We're going to continue our efforts on getting full containment. We are expecting to get that by 6:00 p.m. today. We'll have approximately 250 firefighters on the line working diligently to get the full containment, and from there, we'll go to our control measures.

CUEVAS: What are you most afraid of?

RODRIGUEZ: Obviously, if the weather -- the same weather patterns that we may have. We are always concerned that within those containment lines the fire could jump those lines. So that's one of our major concerns. As long as we keep working aggressively, like we have been, and we keep our resources on the fire lines, we are anticipating that we'll get a good handle on it, and we could use our weather.

CUEVAS: OK. Well, thank you very much. That was Captain Henry Rodriguez of the L.A. County Fire Department -- Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right. Hena Cuevas, thanks so much.

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