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American Morning
Wildfires Still Raging in the West
Aired August 17, 2001 - 11:07 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: All right, Chad, and stick around. We're going to come back to you in just a minute and talk about the weather with regard to the wildfires in the West.
Now, the Army and Marines are being called up to help fight the wildfires out West. Forty-two major wildfires are burning today across parts of several states in the West and South. Washington State firefighters are facing some of the worst conditions and a front is bringing cooler temperatures but it's also ushering high winds. Crews on the front lines say they're bracing for gusts up to 40 miles an hour. Around a hundred homes are now threatened in the eastern part of the state along with Washington State. Oregon is facing the worst of this fire season.
CNN's Gina London joins us now from Ruch, Oregon. She's right there at the camp where all the firefighters come in and out.
Hi, Gina.
GINA LONDON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra, that's right. A bustle of activity 24/7 here because, of course, the fire fighting goes on throughout the evening.
Now this base camp for the Quartz fire, which is one of 11 fires going on in Oregon right now, is used almost as a city that supports and has an objective of fighting the fire. There are 2,300 firefighters that operate out of here, along with the support staff.
And to tell us a little bit more about that, now joining me is Malcolm Hiatt. He's with the Oregon Department of Forestry, but you're also one of the directors of this camp. Tell me a little bit about what happens here.
MALCOLM HIATT, OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY: Well, what we have to do is we have to set up telephone lines so we get started with our ordering, then we have kitchens and showers and sleeping areas. This camp is so spread out, we even have our own bus system to shuttle crews between their sleeping areas, the kitchen and showers and things like that. We have, like you said, 2,300 people here today and we're still going today so we're stretching out and getting more fields in the area that we're creating suburban-like areas with more kitchens, more showers.
LONDON: I think it's incredible to imagine that there are these camps all over the different fire sites around the West. And that you were saying to me yesterday, when we were talking, that there's just almost as much water being moved here as there is up on the line.
HIATT: It certainly seems like it. Of course with all the kitchens and showers, we're not plumbed into anything. They're all field units and so we have to bring in the fresh water to those units and we have to take the gray water out.
LONDON: How many different divisions or agencies are operating this? I mean this is really an intense systematic kind of approach to all of this?
HIATT: Yes, we have representatives here from the BLM, the U.S. Forest Service. We also have Oregon State Police. We're working with the local county sheriff's office, emergency management.
LONDON: Of course that BLM is the Bureau of Land Management.
Thank you very much, Mr. Hiatt.
HIATT: Thank you.
LONDON: Malcolm Hiatt, again, from the Oregon Department of Forestry, Kyra. And I want to let you know, too, that in addition to the existing crews that are already here, we understand that there are going to be throughout the day some 300 members of the National Guard coming here to also give their assistance.
Reporting live in Ruch, Oregon, I'm Gina London. Back now to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Gina, thanks so much.
Well, let's check back in with Chad to find out if it's going to get any easier weather wise for those firefighters out there fighting the fires - Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Easier after it gets harder, unfortunately, because there's a cold front coming through. In fact, you can find it right here on the weather map and not a drop of rain. I'll switch you back to the other map. Here's the radar. And if there was any rain coming down at all, you would see it on this map because obviously you see it down here across the southeast. Dallas all the way over to Texarkana heavy rainfall.
But it's not coming down with this cold front because it's just so dry. It's so hot and dry and even with the moisture coming off the Pacific, it wasn't enough to kick off any significant thunderstorms and so there you have it. Even by Saturday afternoon, the cold front moves to the east, absolutely dry. No rainfall in the forecast there for at least another three to four days, but it is on the way after that. More on that a little bit later.
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