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American Morning

From the Fire Camps

Aired August 17, 2001 - 10:06   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now the latest on the wild fires in Oregon. We turn again to CNN's Gina London. She's still in Ruch. She's standing by at a fire base camp. Are they getting ready to go, Gina?

GINA LONDON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they've been going all night, Kyra. This is a 24-hour-a-day operation, as you can imagine. Now, this is one of those small towns that spring up right near a fire because there are about 2,100 firefighters and staff members that live and work at a base camp. Now, if you go behind me you can see one of the elements of a base camp. That is the central office for the distribution for the supplies, everything you need to fight a fire.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LONDON (voice-over): Combating fatigue as much as fire, the battle goes on today through much of the West. Reinforcements are on the way for some exhausted firefighters. Military battalions from North Carolina and Washington state of at least 800 soldiers on alert to be sent in within a week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This front that's coming through, although it's going to be cooler, is going to bring wind with it. And then we expect more dry lightning strikes this weekend. So at this point we're OK, but it could get out of control.

LONDON: Of the 10 states now waging wildfire wars, Oregon is hardest hit. Eleven major fires there have scorched nearly 300,000 acres, hot winds blowing at least one within just a few miles of a city limit.

National guard members from around the state have been trained, hundreds joining the fight in earnest today.

UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: It's an excellent thing to do, to help out the people who are in strife and to help the brave souls who have been out there for three and a half months already fighting the fires, to maybe get a chance to get out there and give them some relief.

LONDON: And across the rest of the fire-torn states, crews struggle to continue their grueling pace. Work goes around the clock, many on 14 to 16-hour shifts, in efforts to contain each raging blaze.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LONDON: And we've got a shift change coming here as this base camp at Quartz fire, Kyra and Leon, in just a few moments. We're supposed to be getting about 200 more fighters from the National Guard coming here to help.

And now coming here to help me educate folks a little more about the base camp itself is Bob Golden. He's from the Bureau of Land Management. Thanks, Bob, for joining us.

Now, he's also with one of the agencies -- many of the agencies that were here at this base camp. There are several different agencies being represented. But I understand, Bob, you're kind of in charge of the distribution area here. Tell me a little bit more about that.

BOB GOLDEN, OREGON BUREAU OF LAND MGMT.: Yes. I'm working with -- right now with the supply here, fire cache. And that's basically like a Home Depot, for people that aren't familiar with fires. We have everything, and if we don't have it, usually what we'll do is we'll send out and order stuff so that the crews on line that are fighting the fire have everything that they need to be able to maximize and get the fire out in as quick as possible time.

LONDON: Now, if they come, actually to the van, to the truck, what is it that you give them? You've got some things right here, as a matter of fact.

GOLDEN: Shovels, Pulaskis, hoes -- all of this stuff. Some of the crews come with their tools. We have chain saws, Mark-3 pumps, we have a variety of things that we come -- that people come to the fire. We got some crews in yesterday, came in from back East, New Hampshire and Vermont, and a lot of time when they're traveling they don't have a lot of equipment that they come with, so basically we have to kind of stock them up with water, fire shelters.

LONDON: Here we go.

GOLDEN: Like this here. Everybody is required to go out on a fire line with a fire shelter, and water is a necessity out there, especially the temperatures are getting so hot out here today.

But the supply is ongoing thing, 24 hours a day. We have shifts changes, like you mentioned earlier. And there's a lot of people that come in here, you know, that need a lot of supplies...

LONDON: And in addition -- you were going to say, in addition to supplies, there's also ground transport. Tell me some of the other -- real quickly -- things that are going on here as well.

GOLDEN: Yes, it's like a little city we have here. And basically, you have enforcement, you have security. You have people here in ground force where they do transportation, getting stuff up to line, all the stuff that's ordered. You have a first aid area, where people -- they take people in that are having problems on the line, first aid is handled there. Logistics, they have at the main fire camp, time recorders. There's a variety of people at base camp that are supporting all the people out on the line.

LONDON: And it's interesting too, as we were talking earlier before, that there are not just people that are officials from the Bureau of Land Management, the Oregon Department of Forestry. There are also volunteers and staffers, just from civilians, that have come here as well.

Kyra and Leon?

PHILLIPS: All right, Gina London, thanks so much.

HARRIS: All right. We should mention that we're going to try to get a live report from the fire lines themselves in Oregon in just a minute, so stick around for that, folks.

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