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At Least 20 Killed in California Wildfires

Aired October 30, 2003 - 15:04   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.


JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: More than 13,000 firefighters now are on the front lines against the worst blazes in California in a decade. And their exhausting battle can shift, for better or worse, as quickly as the winds.
Colder weather and higher humidity have dampened some fires across the southern part of the state. But, at the same time, erratic breezes are fanning the flames. At least 20 deaths have been reported, including one firefighter.

The winds are threatening to reverse some of the progress made against the Simi Valley fire in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

CNN's Martin Savidge is at the fire zone at the Stevenson Ranch in California and joins us live now -- Marty.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, John.

Take a look at what the fire is doing right now, as you take -- well, take a view down in the distance there. You can see how the wind, which has started to pick up now, is starting to fan the flames. This is really just a finger of the Simi Valley fire. We're located about 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

It may look severe to you. It is not a major concern for firefighters. No. 1, it's not threatening any large number of structures. And, No. 1 they've got a lot of firefighters standing by, ready to douse it if it's gets too close. So it is really more smoke and fire than it is any real threat to anything.

But let me show what they are concerned about. All you have to do is look in this direction. Just up this hillside here is the very busy north-south artery that is known as I-5. Highway I-5 is the boundary that firefighters are very much dead set against preventing this fire from going across. For the most part, this fire has covered about 40 miles of territory in the five days, six days that it's been burning. They don't want it to go any farther east.

So that's the line in the sand that they have drawn. You can see, though, that, by those flames, they're only a few hundred yards away. And with the way these winds are blowing, it would not be impossible for some embers to overfly the highway and get on that side. Fire crews are there. They're prepared. They're ready to handle it if it does come to that point.

Weather conditions, otherwise, though, besides the winds, have improved, cloud cover coming in. Humidity levels have gone up, temperatures gone down, even had a little bit of rainfall today. That's given optimism that, if the weather conditions stay pretty much the way they are, they could talk about containment, not about putting it out. But containment means they could extinguish this fire about a week from now.

This fire has not been that severe, as far as no loss of life and only a few homes have been destroyed. It would mean firefighters could get rest and others could be deployed to the more serious areas down in San Diego or in San Bernardino -- John.

KING: Marty Savidge live for us from the front lines there in Simi Valley -- thank you, Marty.

And California officials say more than 650,000 acres have been charred by the wildfires and 2,600 homes destroyed. The Cedar Fire in San Diego County is the largest and deadliest blaze. That's where firefighter Steve Rucker was killed in the line of duty yesterday. At last report, the Cedar Fire was only about 15 percent contained.

To the northeast, in San Bernardino County, fires have burned an estimated 350 homes outside of Lake Arrowhead. A county fire official says today's cooler weather is keeping the blaze from spreading as quickly. A few hundred acres of thick forest burned overnight.

Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger has cut short his visit here to Washington, the nation's capital. And he's heading back to California now to tour the San Bernardino fire area later today. Before leaving Washington, Schwarzenegger had a 20-minute White House meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney. He says he leaves reassured, the Bush administration will do all it can to rush aid to California and its fire victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR-ELECT: I've had a meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney. And we talked about expediting the funds for the victims, their homes, the people whose homes burned and their business burned. And we talked also about homeland security. And we had a very positive, very good meeting. And I'm looking forward to working together with the White House, with the vice president and the president in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger did not meet today with President Bush, who is out of Washington on a campaign swing in Ohio and Texas.

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 30, 2003 - 15:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: More than 13,000 firefighters now are on the front lines against the worst blazes in California in a decade. And their exhausting battle can shift, for better or worse, as quickly as the winds.
Colder weather and higher humidity have dampened some fires across the southern part of the state. But, at the same time, erratic breezes are fanning the flames. At least 20 deaths have been reported, including one firefighter.

The winds are threatening to reverse some of the progress made against the Simi Valley fire in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

CNN's Martin Savidge is at the fire zone at the Stevenson Ranch in California and joins us live now -- Marty.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, John.

Take a look at what the fire is doing right now, as you take -- well, take a view down in the distance there. You can see how the wind, which has started to pick up now, is starting to fan the flames. This is really just a finger of the Simi Valley fire. We're located about 35 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

It may look severe to you. It is not a major concern for firefighters. No. 1, it's not threatening any large number of structures. And, No. 1 they've got a lot of firefighters standing by, ready to douse it if it's gets too close. So it is really more smoke and fire than it is any real threat to anything.

But let me show what they are concerned about. All you have to do is look in this direction. Just up this hillside here is the very busy north-south artery that is known as I-5. Highway I-5 is the boundary that firefighters are very much dead set against preventing this fire from going across. For the most part, this fire has covered about 40 miles of territory in the five days, six days that it's been burning. They don't want it to go any farther east.

So that's the line in the sand that they have drawn. You can see, though, that, by those flames, they're only a few hundred yards away. And with the way these winds are blowing, it would not be impossible for some embers to overfly the highway and get on that side. Fire crews are there. They're prepared. They're ready to handle it if it does come to that point.

Weather conditions, otherwise, though, besides the winds, have improved, cloud cover coming in. Humidity levels have gone up, temperatures gone down, even had a little bit of rainfall today. That's given optimism that, if the weather conditions stay pretty much the way they are, they could talk about containment, not about putting it out. But containment means they could extinguish this fire about a week from now.

This fire has not been that severe, as far as no loss of life and only a few homes have been destroyed. It would mean firefighters could get rest and others could be deployed to the more serious areas down in San Diego or in San Bernardino -- John.

KING: Marty Savidge live for us from the front lines there in Simi Valley -- thank you, Marty.

And California officials say more than 650,000 acres have been charred by the wildfires and 2,600 homes destroyed. The Cedar Fire in San Diego County is the largest and deadliest blaze. That's where firefighter Steve Rucker was killed in the line of duty yesterday. At last report, the Cedar Fire was only about 15 percent contained.

To the northeast, in San Bernardino County, fires have burned an estimated 350 homes outside of Lake Arrowhead. A county fire official says today's cooler weather is keeping the blaze from spreading as quickly. A few hundred acres of thick forest burned overnight.

Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger has cut short his visit here to Washington, the nation's capital. And he's heading back to California now to tour the San Bernardino fire area later today. Before leaving Washington, Schwarzenegger had a 20-minute White House meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney. He says he leaves reassured, the Bush administration will do all it can to rush aid to California and its fire victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR-ELECT: I've had a meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney. And we talked about expediting the funds for the victims, their homes, the people whose homes burned and their business burned. And we talked also about homeland security. And we had a very positive, very good meeting. And I'm looking forward to working together with the White House, with the vice president and the president in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger did not meet today with President Bush, who is out of Washington on a campaign swing in Ohio and Texas.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com