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American Morning

Colorado Wildfire Kills Four Firefighters

Aired July 11, 2001 - 10:14   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: To Washington state now, where a smoldering wildfire erupted to life with such ferocity and speed yesterday that it overran a group of firefighters. Four firefighters were killed when the flames overtook them. A fifth suffered severe burns. Forestry officials say the blaze in the state's North Cascades leapt from a mere 50 acres to some 2,500 acres in just a few hours.

For more, we're going to check in now with reporter Kevin Oliver. He is with our Spokane affiliate KREM and he is joining us from near Winthrop, Washington -- Kevin, good morning.

KEVIN OLIVER, KREM CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Right now what's happening here is firefighters are gathering together, trying to figure out what their plans are for attack today. Now, a lot of these firefighters just came out of a morning briefing just a short while ago where a lot of them heard for the first time that these firefighters died in that blaze yesterday afternoon.

Now, as you mentioned, a single crew was trapped yesterday as the Andrews Creek fire exploded from 100 acres to over 4,000 in just a couple of hours. Four firefighters tried to get inside their fire shelters. They were found dead late last night. Another one was airlifted to a burn center in Seattle and four more were taken to local hospitals for treatment.

Everyone else, though, has been hit pretty hard by this tragedy. In fact, some of the firefighters this morning says it reminds them of some of the risks they take with this job. Now, right now firefighters are strategizing, trying to figure out how to put out this killer fire. They've brought in two special teams. The forest service has brought in what they call a type one team, which is a nationally recognized team that's brought in to fight dangerous and unpredictable fires. They've also brought in another team to investigate exactly how these firefighters died in this blaze. And firefighters with the forest service are also right now planning memorials for those four fallen firefighters.

In Okanogan County, Kevin Oliver, CNN.

KAGAN: Kevin, before we let you go, do we know anything more about these four firefighters that lost their lives, where they're from, how old they were, were they all men? OLIVER: We don't know that. We know that they were ground crews. There was some question about whether they might be smoke jumpers that flew in. But from what we understand they are U.S. Forest Service ground crews. They haven't released the identities of these people yet. From what we understand, they are still trying to notify next of kin at this hour -- Daryn?

KAGAN: Kevin Oliver with the latest, thank you very much, with our affiliate KREM.

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