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American Morning
Western Fires Rage
Aired August 15, 2001 - 10:04 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Ryan Yamamoto of our affiliate KCRA is there. We checked with him yesterday. And Ryan, it looks like things are beginning to look a bit uglier out there.
RYAN YAMAMOTO, KCRA CORRESPONDENT: Well, things were definitely getting uglier here yesterday and earlier this morning. Probably the best indication that the status of this fire is the view behind me. For the first time we actually can see the Sierra Ridge rather than that big giant plume of smoke. Also, some good news this morning, Interstate 80 is open to traffic after being shut down for the second time, because yesterday it was quite a different story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
YAMAMOTO (voice-over): Towering flames shoot up a ravine and onto Interstate 80 then over it as the freeway becomes the front line for the Sierra Gap fire, a fire that once again decided to flare up during the afternoon hours, growing from 1,600 acres to 2,300.
CAPT. DAVID LAFOLLETTE, CALIFORNIA DIVISION OF FORESTRY: And I think the fire hurt us and then it started kicking our butts and it jumped the road and interstate. We made a couple of attacks on spot fires over the line and got run out of those.
YAMAMOTO: To stay ahead of the fire, firefighters relied on help from the air as air tankers and helicopters continued to bombard the blaze during the day. Overnight, strike teams continued to secure the perimeter that is now 40 percent contained. But firefighters admit the dry conditions can change optimism into fear.
DON WILL, U.S. FOREST SERVICE: All of the fuel is available to burn. Everything is available, even the fuel between the rocks, the moss on the rocks. It's all available to burn and that's what the fire behavior is showing us right now.
YAMAMOTO: But despite the very dry conditions and all that fuel that there is still to burn, also some good news to report this morning, the fact that there is absolutely no wind this morning and firefighters say that should help their cause at least through the early morning hours. In fact, there's talk at the base camp that they actually may send some of the 1,100 firefighters home this morning. That's the story from here.
Reporting live from Emigrant Gap, I'm Ryan Yamamoto. Back to you.
HARRIS: I'm glad you mentioned that fact about them possibly getting a chance to go home, Ryan, because I was going to ask you, we know that fires in Arizona are coming under control there -- I'm sorry, Nevada, are coming under control there, and they're talking about maybe redeploying some of those men out further west, maybe out to your location. So you don't need any extra manpower up there?
YAMAMOTO: Well, that's what the indication that we're getting this morning. But, of course, a lot of it will depend on later on this afternoon. Every morning it seems like we keep talking about the optimism of the morning. But then in the afternoon hours it seems like this fire tends to blow up. But so far hoping, they're hoping that will not happen this morning.
HARRIS: All right, good deal. Wish you guys luck out there.
Ryan Yamamoto, thank you very much. We'll talk with you later on -- Daryn.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now the federal plan that is coming under fire of its own. President Bush traveled to Colorado's high country to help thin out a fire prone forest and show his support for a controversial policy initiative. The administration is supporting a 10 year plan that allows states to more swiftly remove brush and low lying limbs that can fuel a fire.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to emphasize the fact that through good forest management we can do a better job of containing fire. And I know there are some in our country that want to just, you know, let the forests fall apart. We're not going to let that happen in this administration. We're going to maintain them and we're going to make sure that if there is a fire, it does as little damage as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: His plan, though, is not without its detractors, who feel the new approach inches dangerously close to mismanagement. We get that part of the story from reporter Tom Hudachko of our CNN Boise, Idaho affiliate, KTVB.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM HUDACHKO, KTVB CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's scenes like these from fires last summer that have federal officials scratching their heads, trying to figure out a way to prevent similar scenes in the future. At the National Interagency Fire Center, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman and Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth think they have the answer and they call it a 10 year strategy.
DALE BOSWORTH, U.S. FOREST SERVICE CHIEF: It's more of a, it's a strategy that works on fuels and tries to get fire back into the fire dependent ecosystems. HUDACHKO: The plan calls for a better balance between firefighting and fire prevention and that means more forest thinning along with more proscribed burns.
BOSWORTH: In a lot of cases, we're going to have to do some thinning in the fire to try and to put fire back in.
JOHN MCCARTHY, IDAHO CONSERVATION LEAGUE: Politics is thick in fires.
HUDACHKO: The Idaho Conservation League agrees with the fire management approach and says thinning doesn't always work in places where fire often thrives.
MCCARTHY: Whenever we hear about thinning, we're concerned that it's specific for the right area where it's really designed to do what's needed. Thinning as an overall cure all just doesn't work.
HUDACHKO: Essential to the plan's success, Secretary Veneman says, is greater cooperation between federal, state and local governments.
ANN VENEMAN, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: In order to have effective forest management and forest health and fire management practices, these kind of partnerships are extremely important.
MCCARTHY: When the secretary of agriculture and the chief of the Forest Service are talking about greater coordination, that's a very good thing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: That story comes to us from Tom Hudachko of our affiliate in Boise, Idaho, KTVB.
So now we go from fire to ice in another example of the fury of nature. On Washington State's Mount Rainier, a melting glacier has unleashed a torrent of water and a river of mud.
With more on that story and the explanation behind it, we bring in our environmental correspondent Natalie Pawelski -- Natalie, hello.
NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Daryn.
KAGAN: Well, what is going on?
PAWELSKI: Well, last night there was a flood of water rushing down the side of Mount Rainier. That is a volcanic peak in Washington State that's covered with glaciers. Officials say it was a glacial outburst flood. This happens in certain weather conditions, when a glacier will release a pocket of water, melt water or rain water.
Now, it can be very dangerous. It can cause flash floods and carry rocks and trees rocketing down into valleys. Officials say so far the Nisqually River is doing a good job of containing the water that is coming down. It's swollen but so far it seems to be handling the job pretty well. They evacuated a couple of campgrounds but don't expect to have to evacuate any more and they say so far, Daryn, there aren't any injuries reported here.
KAGAN: That's the good news. The question out there that is still there is why is this happening?
PAWELSKI: Yes, a lot of people think that maybe this is a sign that the volcano is going to blow again. But officials say that's not the case. They say this is a fairly regular occurrence. There's another glacier on Mount Rainier that had 15 of these floods over a span of seven years back in the '80s and '90s. So it happens in certain weather conditions, very hot summers, very heavy rains and that kind of thing. This is not a sign of eruptions to come.
KAGAN: Not yet. OK. Natalie Pawelski, thank you so much.
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