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California Wildfires Approach Suburbs
Aired October 24, 2003 - 15:01 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.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Our lead story this hour are the wildfires threatening homes and families in Southern California, literally moving into backyards in the Los Angeles suburbs.
CNN's Miguel Marquez is near the fire zone in Rancho Cucamonga.
Miguel, what is the latest?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it really is moving up on the suburbs very fast, Judy.
I can tell you that there was over 1,000 evacuations last night. And the Forest Service is saying that another community was evacuated today. It could bring the total up to over 2,000 residents already evacuated.
I want to show live what's going on right now. You can see this smoke. When we got here about an hour ago, the smoke was sort of laying down and all headed east. But now it's starting to come back toward where we are now, where Rancho Cucamonga is. That's because of the Santa Ana winds in this area. It's a sort of phenomena that happens around this time of year every year. It happens sort of at the worst time possible, under very dry conditions, with lots of brush out here.
And now they have a moderate Santa Ana pushing this fire straight toward Rancho Cucamonga. I spoke to a fire official out here a short time ago. And he said that there's another 300 to 400 homes that are threatened here at Rancho Cucamonga. And it's not just homes. There's some fire lines, some electricity lines out there as well. They supply 25 percent of the electricity to Los Angeles County. If those go up, obviously, that would cause some problems for the city.
And helicopters have been working that line all day long. They have choppers and out here and fixed-wing aircraft. But because of the wind conditions out here, the fixed-wings have been unable to fly and to get on this fire. The only thing I can tell you is that the firefighters do believe that this was arson caused, because they don't seem to have any other reason for why this fire would have started.
And they believe -- they believe it's going to take at least three days before they can get this thing under control. The question will be whether be whether or not, in those three days, will it make its run into the of Rancho Cucamonga -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: Miguel, California clearly regularly has these wildfires. Is this one any different from the others in any significant way?
MARQUEZ: It is different in the sense that it is a very dry year. It's been very hot the last few days. And you have the Santa Ana blowing at just the right time and in just the right location that it's threatening a major city and a major suburb of Los Angeles. So, in that sense, it's different.
The Santa Anas happen every year. They do get fires in here, but the confluence of all of these events, I think, does portend a more serious situation than they've had in the past -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right, Miguel Marquez, watching those wildfires -- thank you very much, Miguel.
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 - 15:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Our lead story this hour are the wildfires threatening homes and families in Southern California, literally moving into backyards in the Los Angeles suburbs.
CNN's Miguel Marquez is near the fire zone in Rancho Cucamonga.
Miguel, what is the latest?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it really is moving up on the suburbs very fast, Judy.
I can tell you that there was over 1,000 evacuations last night. And the Forest Service is saying that another community was evacuated today. It could bring the total up to over 2,000 residents already evacuated.
I want to show live what's going on right now. You can see this smoke. When we got here about an hour ago, the smoke was sort of laying down and all headed east. But now it's starting to come back toward where we are now, where Rancho Cucamonga is. That's because of the Santa Ana winds in this area. It's a sort of phenomena that happens around this time of year every year. It happens sort of at the worst time possible, under very dry conditions, with lots of brush out here.
And now they have a moderate Santa Ana pushing this fire straight toward Rancho Cucamonga. I spoke to a fire official out here a short time ago. And he said that there's another 300 to 400 homes that are threatened here at Rancho Cucamonga. And it's not just homes. There's some fire lines, some electricity lines out there as well. They supply 25 percent of the electricity to Los Angeles County. If those go up, obviously, that would cause some problems for the city.
And helicopters have been working that line all day long. They have choppers and out here and fixed-wing aircraft. But because of the wind conditions out here, the fixed-wings have been unable to fly and to get on this fire. The only thing I can tell you is that the firefighters do believe that this was arson caused, because they don't seem to have any other reason for why this fire would have started.
And they believe -- they believe it's going to take at least three days before they can get this thing under control. The question will be whether be whether or not, in those three days, will it make its run into the of Rancho Cucamonga -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: Miguel, California clearly regularly has these wildfires. Is this one any different from the others in any significant way?
MARQUEZ: It is different in the sense that it is a very dry year. It's been very hot the last few days. And you have the Santa Ana blowing at just the right time and in just the right location that it's threatening a major city and a major suburb of Los Angeles. So, in that sense, it's different.
The Santa Anas happen every year. They do get fires in here, but the confluence of all of these events, I think, does portend a more serious situation than they've had in the past -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: All right, Miguel Marquez, watching those wildfires -- thank you very much, Miguel.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
