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CNN Live Today
Wildfires Devastate Arizona
Aired June 20, 2003 - 11:16 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: At least 200 buildings, many of them vacation homes, have been lost in the raging wildfire burning northeast of Tucson since Tuesday. The fire has scorched more than 4,000 acres. Yesterday, the inferno drove firefighters away but they are moving back this morning.
Mike Levitt of our Phoenix affiliate KPHO joins us now from Summerhaven with a progress report, hello to you Mike.
MIKE LEVITT, KPHO CORRESPONDENT: Good morning and we can tell you that this morning the plan of attack on that huge fire is being planned right now.
Up on the mountain as we speak, the fire command center is telling us that the 400 to 500 firefighters involved in this fight, plus aerial tankers, they are trying to coordinate that attack.
Late yesterday when this fire blew up from a 400 acre to a 4,000- acre blaze, they could not get the aerial support they needed and that was one of the reasons why this fire took off and went through this tiny community of Summerhaven near the top of the mountains.
Several hundred structures, as you said, destroyed including a lot of summer cabins, some of them year-round homes and some historic structures burned as well, some of them date back to the early 1900s, including a lodge, and these are places that people from Tucson use as summer refuges. They also go up there in the winter. It's a cool elevation, 6,000 feet above the city.
But the people who were evacuated from there this morning are waiting for word exactly what structures were destroyed and which ones were saved. We are waiting for word a little bit later on this morning from the fire incident command folks on exactly what their plan of attack will be and, as we said, it's going to depend greatly on the winds. The winds were very erratic yesterday. If they get more of a handle on it today, they may be able to get this blaze somewhat under control.
COLLINS: Mike, I had a chance to cover the fires of Colorado just a couple of years ago and devastating because those fires would jump from treetop to treetop. I believe they call it crowning. Have they talked about the path that this sort of fire is taking? Is in the treetops or is it running along the ground?
LEVITT: It's definitely a crowned fire and was very much a crowned fire yesterday. The problem that they had is they tried to stop it at a trail just outside the village.
They were hopeful of doing that but then when the winds picked up the fire basically took off over their heads. The firefighters had to make a quick run for it and they managed to get everybody out of there safely and everyone, of course, had evacuated that community so no lives were in danger but had the firefighters stayed where they were and tried to fight this thing, there could have been some lost lives this morning.
COLLINS: Well, thankfully that is not the situation. Very good, Mike Levitt from KPHO thanks so much coming to us live from Arizona this morning.
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 June 20, 2003 - 11:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: At least 200 buildings, many of them vacation homes, have been lost in the raging wildfire burning northeast of Tucson since Tuesday. The fire has scorched more than 4,000 acres. Yesterday, the inferno drove firefighters away but they are moving back this morning.
Mike Levitt of our Phoenix affiliate KPHO joins us now from Summerhaven with a progress report, hello to you Mike.
MIKE LEVITT, KPHO CORRESPONDENT: Good morning and we can tell you that this morning the plan of attack on that huge fire is being planned right now.
Up on the mountain as we speak, the fire command center is telling us that the 400 to 500 firefighters involved in this fight, plus aerial tankers, they are trying to coordinate that attack.
Late yesterday when this fire blew up from a 400 acre to a 4,000- acre blaze, they could not get the aerial support they needed and that was one of the reasons why this fire took off and went through this tiny community of Summerhaven near the top of the mountains.
Several hundred structures, as you said, destroyed including a lot of summer cabins, some of them year-round homes and some historic structures burned as well, some of them date back to the early 1900s, including a lodge, and these are places that people from Tucson use as summer refuges. They also go up there in the winter. It's a cool elevation, 6,000 feet above the city.
But the people who were evacuated from there this morning are waiting for word exactly what structures were destroyed and which ones were saved. We are waiting for word a little bit later on this morning from the fire incident command folks on exactly what their plan of attack will be and, as we said, it's going to depend greatly on the winds. The winds were very erratic yesterday. If they get more of a handle on it today, they may be able to get this blaze somewhat under control.
COLLINS: Mike, I had a chance to cover the fires of Colorado just a couple of years ago and devastating because those fires would jump from treetop to treetop. I believe they call it crowning. Have they talked about the path that this sort of fire is taking? Is in the treetops or is it running along the ground?
LEVITT: It's definitely a crowned fire and was very much a crowned fire yesterday. The problem that they had is they tried to stop it at a trail just outside the village.
They were hopeful of doing that but then when the winds picked up the fire basically took off over their heads. The firefighters had to make a quick run for it and they managed to get everybody out of there safely and everyone, of course, had evacuated that community so no lives were in danger but had the firefighters stayed where they were and tried to fight this thing, there could have been some lost lives this morning.
COLLINS: Well, thankfully that is not the situation. Very good, Mike Levitt from KPHO thanks so much coming to us live from Arizona this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
