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Thanksgiving Parade Accident; Holiday Fire Prevention; First Thanksgiving

Aired November 24, 2005 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Returning to this new video, courtesy of Andrew Pakula, amateur photographer that was out there during the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. This is the balloon mishap that injured two people, an 11-year-old girl and 26-year-old woman. Mary Snow with an update now.

Do we know how those two are doing since this happened a few hours ago, Mary?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kyra, thankfully the mayor of New York just spoke to us and said that the injuries do not appear to be serious or life-threatening. He said the 11-year-old girl received some minor abrasions. A 26-year-old woman who was -- both of the girls are sisters, is going to be held overnight the mayor says, for observations. But he says apparently at this point her injuries do not appear to be all serious. She did receive six stitches.

The mayor saying the city is going to investigate, take a look at videos, just like the one you just showed, and some still photographs to find out exactly what happened. About two hours ago, an M&M balloon, it was a mid-sized balloon, was making its way down this parade route and the mayor says a rope got entangled with a lamp post. That lamp post then fell and struck the two people.

And what the mayor -- it was also pointed out, behind me, I'm not sure if you can see it, but some of those lamppost, he said they were specifically designed so that these kinds of things wouldn't happen. There had been an accident in 1997 when winds were about 45 miles per hour. Since then there have been safety guidelines put in place.

Those lampposts were part of those guidelines put in place since then. So that is something that the city is going to be looking in to. But he also pointed out the winds were about 15 miles an hour which were within the range of the balloons being able to fly. Because there is a cutoff point. If the winds hit about 23 miles per hour or 34, gusting winds, then the balloons can't go up. But he said the winds were within the range -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Mary Snow, there on the streets of New York, thank you so much. We'll follow up on the investigation.

Meanwhile, here's something else that you don't want to see happen this holiday, your house on fire. This Nashville homeowner tried to get a jump on Thanksgiving dinner by frying the turkey yesterday. Well, he left it unattended on his back deck just for a second, so he says, and you see the result.

And this is what's left of a house that had just been built in Eugene, Oregon after some folks tried to fry their turkey in the garage. Our consumer correspondent Greg Hunter says it's an all-too- common occurrence since Turkey fryers caught on a couple of years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GREG HUNTER, CNN CONSUMER CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At an apartment complex in Tucson, Arizona, Christmas Eve 2002, ended with this fire investigators say was caused by a turkey fryer.

K.D. PREBLE, HOMEOWNER: My dad and two sisters ran out the door, and I had to jump out my bedroom window.

HUNTER: Incidents of fires or burns have happened at least 112 times in the last seven years, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, attributed to people around the country improperly using turkey fryers.

One industry group estimates there are 10 million propane fryers in use today. People who cook with them say they work fast and the turkey is delicious -- most of the time.

Thanksgiving Day, 2003, at the Moon home in Aloha, Oregon, described by a couple of terrified neighbors.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a house on fire.

OPERATOR: Where?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. Sarala, up 170th.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's -- the flames are 20 feet high. There's black smoke in the air. It's the whole backside of it. It started at the -- on the deck.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HUNTER: Dr. Stephen Moon says he had been cooking the family feast with a turkey fryer.

DR. STEPHEN MOON, HOMEOWNER: And I thought, well, you know, if something happens, I have got a fire extinguisher. That will take care of it. And it was like spitting in the wind. It was nothing compared to this fire that was going on.

HUNTER: The fire raged on. And, eventually, the fire department had to come put it out, but not before it caused more than $100,000 in damages.

Underwriters Laboratories in Northbrook, Illinois, a world- recognized product testing organization, says frying a turkey can be hazardous. Spokesman John Drengenberg says that's why U.L. will not put its seal of approval on any turkey fryer.

JOHN DRENGENBERG, UNDERWRITERS LABORATORIES: There have been safety improvements on turkey fryers. But it's still not at the point where U.L. will authorize the use of its mark.

HUNTER (on camera): It's not safe?

DRENGENBERG: Because we don't believe it's safe enough for people to use.

HUNTER (voice-over): U.L. has been testing turkey fryers for the past three years. In this company video, they show easily fires can get out of control when typical consumer mistakes are made, like dropping a partially frozen bird into a pot of overheated oil.

The industry says, over the last few years, they have corrected many problems. In 2002, the Canadian Standards Association, a U.L. consumer testing competitor, began certifying some turkey fryers as safe. The stands are sturdier and the tanks are better marked, so consumers won't overfill.

Manufacturers have also decreased the intensity of the flame, so the oil won't overheat as quickly. And fryers come with pages of explicit cautions. One booklet contains at least 15 specific warnings on the dangers of frying a turkey.

Industry group the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association, suggested we talk to Don and John McLemore, who own Masterbuilt, one of the biggest makers of turkey fryers.

JOHN MCLEMORE, CO-OWNER, MASTERBUILT: If you don't drive your car attentive and like you should, automobiles can be dangerous. So, turkey frying is the same way. If you use it, follow the instructions and do what we say in our instructions, no, it's a perfectly safe product to use.

HUNTER: Simple instructions like making sure the fryer is outside, away from all buildings on level ground, and is watched at all times.

(on camera): The industry has warnings on their products. Isn't it the consumer's fault that they don't listen to the warnings?

DRENGENBERG: Well, the industry has added a lot of warnings to these turkey fryers. But the fact is, the construction has to be improved to the level of safety that U.L. would demand for such a product.

HUNTER (voice-over): U.L. says it wants a device that will automatically limit the temperature of the oil in a gas turkey fryer, because it's not practical to expect consumers to watch a turkey fryer every minute, especially around the holidays. The McLemore brothers point out, they already make an electric fryer with a control to keep the oil at the correct temperature. But it will take time to develop one for their gas fryer that is safe.

DON MCLEMORE, CO-OWNER, MASTERBUILT: It's got to be done right. It can't be just done overnight and thrown in the marketplace. That could be a worse mistake than not having one at all.

HUNTER: Until a thermostat is developed, overheating oil is Underwriters Laboratories' main concern. U.L. set up a demonstration for CNN.

(on camera): One thing you need to be careful of when using a turkey fryer is something called the oil flash point. That's where, if you leave this unattended too long, and the oil gets too hot, it can ignite without even touching a flame. Watch.

(voice-over): As you can see, even putting the lid on doesn't stop the fire and within seconds, flames are leaping four feet over the fryer. Within two-and-a-half minutes, the demonstration wall catches fire.

This shows how quickly one of these fires can get out of control. And when U.L.'s firefighters take the lid off to extinguish the fire, watch what happened. They spray foam on the fire, but even in this controlled situation, it's not easy to put out.

To see how it works in the real world, we went to this house, awaiting demolition near Chicago. With the help of Frankfort, Illinois, firefighters, we set up a turkey fryer with the kind of mistakes the Assistant Chief Larry Rauk (ph) says he sees all the time.

(on camera): This looks like kind of a dangerous setup, it's by the back door. You've got the leaves around there, it might be a little bit about the full line. Is that how some people would treat this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.

HUNTER: Not surprising?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not surprising at all.

HUNTER: Homeowners often make mistakes when using a turkey fryer. For example, this one is way too close to the house, it's too full of oil and too hot. On top of that, we're going to put a semi frozen bird right into the fryer to show you what can happen.

We had firefighters standing by to make sure this didn't get out of control. Because as Dr. Stephen Moon will tell you, turkey fryer fires can get out of control in a hurry.

(on camera): Would you fry one here at your house again?

MOON: Not at my house, no.

HUNTER (voice-over): For those who will, follow the instructions carefully or risk a holiday dinner tragedy. Greg Hunter, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Pretty good story. Now I don't know if you can see Jen (ph). You can sort of see her in the corner, right behind me. Well, Jen Bernstein (ph) there, there we go. My wonderful producer. Her husband just called the control room wondering how to baste the turkey.

So did you tell him to call his mother?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Thank you, call your mother, Beau (ph). OK?

Now here's what we're going to talk about coming up after the break besides Beau and basting the turkey, we're talking about Squanto, does it mean anything to you? Well, as you count your blessings today, we're going to tell you why you should be giving thanks to Squanto. Turkey day trivia every American should want to know, next on LIVE FROM.

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PHILLIPS: A young boy was ripped away from his parents, sold into slavery, shipped halfway around the world. And when he finally made it back home, his family and his entire village had been wiped out. But that was not the end of the story for a Patuxet named Squanto. It was a beginning, not only for him, but for America. In fact, historians say, without Squanto, the pilgrims who settled America would likely not have survived their first winters in near Plymouth, Massachusetts. The story of overcoming adversity is told in a beautifully illustrated book called "Squanto & the Miracle of Thanksgiving," written by Eric Metaxas. He joins me now live from New York.

Hi, Eric.

ERIC METAXAS, AUTHOR, "SQUANTO & THE MIRACLE OF THANKSGIVING: How do you do?

PHILLIPS: While we were talking about your book and setting up this segment, we sort of went around the group and said, OK, does everybody remember the story of Squanto? And it was about 50-50. And a couple of people said, you know, when you made the hats and you talked about the pilgrims, and I mean, seriously, a lot of people don't remember his life, what he stood for, and why it's important to remember him.

METAXAS: Well, it's an amazing story. And if I hadn't done the original research myself, I kind of wouldn't believe it. It's one of those stories, there's not that much primary material on it. I mean, they didn't write too much in 1620. But when you read it all and you put it all together, you say, this is an out and out miracle. I can't see any other way to read it. But God's hand seemed to be involved in what happened to these pilgrims. And I said I have to put this in a book for kids to read and also for parents to read because hardly anyone I know knows this story. And it's just -- it's so outrageous I have to get it out there.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about that miracle and why you view it as so outrageous that you had to get it out there.

METAXAS: Well, I think, you know, we've all -- I shouldn't say, we've all, but a lot of people have heard of Squanto. But what they don't know is the story behind the story. Like, how did he get there? He just pops out of woods, you know, and he helps them do all these different kinds of things. And so when I did the research, what I found absolutely astounded me.

For example, around 1608, this is, you know, 12 years before pilgrims landed, we have English trading ships coming down along the coast of what is today Massachusetts, trading with the Indians. I had no idea that there were English ships lurking around Massachusetts and trading with these folks.

And so these Indians trustingly came down to the water to trade with these Englishmen. And of course, these were bad Englishmen in this ship, and they took Squanto, they put him on their ship. They took him across the Atlantic Ocean in 1608, a little boy from a tribe in Massachusetts, and sold him into slavery in Malaga, Spain.

But where it gets really insane is that he was he was bought by some monks who had evidently treated him really well and figured out a way to get him all the way up to England so that around 1612 he finds himself in England working as a stable hand in London for a family called Slaney with the idea that he would get the next ship back over the Massachusetts.

But, you know, if you're looking for a ship back, that's like being on the Moon and saying, so when is the next ship going back to Earth? There are no ships going back. You know, you're kind of stuck. So he was sort of stuck there, but amazingly around 1618, after he had lived away for 10 years and lived in London for five years, he found a ship and they took him all the way back, he worked as a translator or something like that...

PHILLIPS: Because he had learned the language from this family in England.

METAXAS: Exactly. And so he gets kind of dropped off today around you know what's today Plymouth, which is where he grew up. And he runs home and he goes to the village and there's no one there. Everyone has been wiped out by smallpox, which is a nightmare. So after 10 years of dreaming of the day that he would go home, he actually gets home and everyone has died.

And so he went to live in the woods alone by himself. It's really -- it's incredibly sad that his dream almost came true and then everyone had died. So he's living in the woods alone. And then cut to a year later, this band of pilgrims, we call them pilgrims, gets off a ship called the Mayflower. And they settle in a place called Plymouth, Massachusetts, which was exactly where Squanto had grown up.

And of course, what we forget is that they had some of the most brutal, horrifying times any human being can imagine. They were all dying basically. I mean, any of us who has a wife or a husband or kids, to think of burying your family, I mean, these pilgrims were following God and they get there, everything goes wrong and they're dying like flies.

And so in the spring 50 of them had died, 50 out of 100. And you can imagine them praying and begging God for some kind of an answer, some kind of deliverance. Help us. And out of the wood woods walks an Indian named Squanto speaking perfect English. He had obviously been in London more recently than they had.

PHILLIPS: And they believed -- you talk about, they believed he was the Joseph. They look in the Bible, they read about Joseph They said, Squanto, you're our Joseph, God sent you to us. And then let's talk about the relationship. What happens and what they do for each other?

METAXAS: They basically adopted him. I mean, he had nowhere to go. He was the last member of his tribe, so he had no place to go. And he had grown up where they had settled. So he showed them everything there was to know. He showed them how to catch fish, where the lobsters were, how to tread the eels out of the mud in the stream beds. He basically single-handedly showed them how to survive.

And they adopted him as one of theirs. And again, he could speak English and he knew London and they totally adopted them. And in fact, in his journal, William Bradford writes that Squanto was a special instrument sent by God to deliver us. I mean, it's one of those things that if you don't see God's hand in that, you know, it's just completely amazing that they're in the middle of nowhere and an Indian walks out of woods speaking English. I mean, it almost doesn't make sense and yet we know historically that it's true.

PHILLIPS: And they had this Thanksgiving dinner, we have got to bring it into context to the fact that we celebrate like they did on this day every year.

METAXAS: A few months later, exactly, you know, they had survived, they decided to stay. I mean, we forget that they could have gone home. They didn't go home, they stayed and they flourished and, of course, a couple of months later they celebrated being there on the day that we call Thanksgiving. And we have been celebrating it ever since.

PHILLIPS: So remembering Squanto's character, there's a lot of things not just -- you've touched on the spiritual angle, but also just the fact that no matter what race, what color, everybody embraced each other.

METAXAS: Well, that is what is so amazing, that this isn't some kind of politically correct spin that somebody put on this. This is historically true. You have a picture of a bunch of English people who were broken, they were just at their wit's end, and then on the other hand you have a picture of a Native American who was also broken, totally at his wit's end.

Both of them are just, you can imagine, crying out to God or whoever is listening, how did I get in this situation, what can I do? And God miraculously weaves them together in such a way that, as I say, you couldn't make it up. It's like right out of a movie.

And it's just a beautiful, beautiful story. And it's a picture of the harmony that we had right at the beginning of our history. It's a beautiful thing. It should -- something we should think about.

PHILLIPS: Whether Squanto or Sacagawea, we can't forget what American Indians have done for us. The book, "Squanto & the Miracle of Thanksgiving." Eric Metaxas, what a pleasure to talk to you today.

METAXAS: My pleasure, thank you.

PHILLIPS: Now, straight ahead, a quick break, the news keeps coming, we're going to keep bringing it to you, more LIVE FROM.

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PHILLIPS: And a beautiful historic city full of canals now a city on ice. Welcome to Bruges, Belgium, now filled with spectacular ice sculptures at every turn. This year's ice festival features a mysterious kingdom where mystical creatures live. There's even a hidden treasure chest. And to think, it only took 20 ice carvers to create it all. They're hoping it won't melt until after the first of the year.

The second hour of LIVE FROM starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHANNON COOK, CNN.COM: This week, cnn.com is highlighting the helping hands that have reached out to families displaced during the hurricane season and in conjunction with CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," we have asked survivors to share their own stories of thanks. Rebecca evacuated Saint Bernard parish to Baltimore when Katrina hit. She writes: "Baltimore has been a great place for me. Strangers have bought me breakfast when they heard I was displaced. They sent pots and pans, gift cards, and other items to make me feel at home.

Bob from New Orleans lost his home and wants to thank one family for its kindness: "I found a tin left for me by the Marinos," he says. "In it were brownies and cards. Each of the kids has sent me some of their allowance for that month to help me get a start in my new life."

To read more, go to cnn.com/am. For the .comdesk, I'm Shannon Cook.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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