Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Interview With Duane Baker
Aired October 24, 2003 - 13:00 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Evacuations ordered east of Los Angeles, where an unpredictable wildfire is threatening hundreds of homes. Fire-fanning winds blew in overnight, apparently sooner than some had expected. And a lot of folks are leaving today in a hurry.
Joining us now by phone is Duane Baker. He is the public information officer for Rancho Cucamonga. Duane, are you with us? Thanks for being here.
I just want to ask you if you could summarize the situation for us. We have been watching some pretty incredible video coming in all morning. Things look like they're moving very quickly.
DUANE BAKER, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, RANCHO CUCAMONGA: The winds certainly make this a fast-moving situation. The fire is moving west across the foothills north of our city. We've expanded our evacuation area. We have got some homes in the foothills north of our city limits, on Snow Drop Road and Santina Drive. We are seeking evacuations there now.
And we are also advising some tract homes, some residents and neighborhoods, a little bit further west, we're putting them on notice of evacuations. We have four elementary schools and intermediate schools closed and a high school closed as well today due to fire activity.
COLLINS: It appears you're trying your very hardest to keep the situation safe. How many people now roughly are we talking about that have been and will be evacuated in this area?
BAKER: Again, we're looking at about -- probably close to 200 homes right now that are going to be affected by the evacuation currently, and another 150 homes that are under advisory right now.
COLLINS: We talked a little bit in the introduction to the piece about these winds kicking up overnight sooner than expected. What sort of complications did that bring to the firefighters?
BAKER: Well, certainly, that makes it a much more fluid situation for them. We had to bring our strike teams in earlier than anticipated. We were expecting late this afternoon or tomorrow for the Santa Annas to kick in, coming up overnight. We had to move our plans forward.
COLLINS: Are people cooperating?
BAKER: Yes, right now, the word we're getting is orderly and people are being very cooperative. We happened to have a community meeting last night. We had about 600 folks from the community, informing them of what the plans would be, what would happen if we needed to do evacuations. So hopefully that's paying off.
COLLINS: Want to emphasize, we know of one man that was injured, apparently trying to defend his home and refused an evacuation. Do you know anything about his condition?
BAKER: I have no information about that.
COLLINS: That was in Little Creek area. We'll try to check on that.
I want to ask you a little bit more about how the crews are hold up. How do you handle this whole issue of manpower versus fatigue in a situation like this?
BAKER: Certainly, a lot of resources come to bear, not just Rancho Cucamonga, but we bring in the resources of the United States Forest Service, California Department of Forestry, and we have probably the best mutual system aid in the world in this state. We have people from across the state, agencies across the state and the federal government, fighting this fire.
COLLINS: So are you talking about hot shot crews at this point?
BAKER: I don't know the exact designations of the crews, but we certainly do have U.S. Forest Service crews, we've got NCDF crews out there working.
COLLINS: Last question for you -- what can people do at this point if they are anywhere near that area? Obviously, listen to authorities. Anything else they can do to try to keep their homes safe on their own?
BAKER: The best thing they can do is be aware of what's going on, be up to date on the news. If an order comes to evacuate, take your valuables, and your possessions with you, and evacuate orderly. We'll do it in enough time to be safe.
We have fire engines and strike teams that are going into the neighborhoods to make sure if embers go in we're on top of that. We'll do everything possible to make sure this fire does not transfer to homes. These are newer homes. We feel fairly confident we'll be able to protect them.
COLLINS: All right, thank you, Duane Baker, the public information officer for the area.
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 October 24, 2003 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Evacuations ordered east of Los Angeles, where an unpredictable wildfire is threatening hundreds of homes. Fire-fanning winds blew in overnight, apparently sooner than some had expected. And a lot of folks are leaving today in a hurry.
Joining us now by phone is Duane Baker. He is the public information officer for Rancho Cucamonga. Duane, are you with us? Thanks for being here.
I just want to ask you if you could summarize the situation for us. We have been watching some pretty incredible video coming in all morning. Things look like they're moving very quickly.
DUANE BAKER, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, RANCHO CUCAMONGA: The winds certainly make this a fast-moving situation. The fire is moving west across the foothills north of our city. We've expanded our evacuation area. We have got some homes in the foothills north of our city limits, on Snow Drop Road and Santina Drive. We are seeking evacuations there now.
And we are also advising some tract homes, some residents and neighborhoods, a little bit further west, we're putting them on notice of evacuations. We have four elementary schools and intermediate schools closed and a high school closed as well today due to fire activity.
COLLINS: It appears you're trying your very hardest to keep the situation safe. How many people now roughly are we talking about that have been and will be evacuated in this area?
BAKER: Again, we're looking at about -- probably close to 200 homes right now that are going to be affected by the evacuation currently, and another 150 homes that are under advisory right now.
COLLINS: We talked a little bit in the introduction to the piece about these winds kicking up overnight sooner than expected. What sort of complications did that bring to the firefighters?
BAKER: Well, certainly, that makes it a much more fluid situation for them. We had to bring our strike teams in earlier than anticipated. We were expecting late this afternoon or tomorrow for the Santa Annas to kick in, coming up overnight. We had to move our plans forward.
COLLINS: Are people cooperating?
BAKER: Yes, right now, the word we're getting is orderly and people are being very cooperative. We happened to have a community meeting last night. We had about 600 folks from the community, informing them of what the plans would be, what would happen if we needed to do evacuations. So hopefully that's paying off.
COLLINS: Want to emphasize, we know of one man that was injured, apparently trying to defend his home and refused an evacuation. Do you know anything about his condition?
BAKER: I have no information about that.
COLLINS: That was in Little Creek area. We'll try to check on that.
I want to ask you a little bit more about how the crews are hold up. How do you handle this whole issue of manpower versus fatigue in a situation like this?
BAKER: Certainly, a lot of resources come to bear, not just Rancho Cucamonga, but we bring in the resources of the United States Forest Service, California Department of Forestry, and we have probably the best mutual system aid in the world in this state. We have people from across the state, agencies across the state and the federal government, fighting this fire.
COLLINS: So are you talking about hot shot crews at this point?
BAKER: I don't know the exact designations of the crews, but we certainly do have U.S. Forest Service crews, we've got NCDF crews out there working.
COLLINS: Last question for you -- what can people do at this point if they are anywhere near that area? Obviously, listen to authorities. Anything else they can do to try to keep their homes safe on their own?
BAKER: The best thing they can do is be aware of what's going on, be up to date on the news. If an order comes to evacuate, take your valuables, and your possessions with you, and evacuate orderly. We'll do it in enough time to be safe.
We have fire engines and strike teams that are going into the neighborhoods to make sure if embers go in we're on top of that. We'll do everything possible to make sure this fire does not transfer to homes. These are newer homes. We feel fairly confident we'll be able to protect them.
COLLINS: All right, thank you, Duane Baker, the public information officer for the area.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
