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American Morning

Control Center in Charge of Fighting Fires

Aired August 20, 2001 - 10:01   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: We're going to begin this hour though, with a story that creeps one hour and then it leaps the next. It is the steady march of wildfires across the western United States.

This hour, there are more than three dozen wildfires still burning beyond the control of fire crews in 10 states, that's from Washington to Texas. Ten large fires burst to life overnight.

In Oregon, eight major fires are uncontrolled, and more than 100,000 acres are reported on fire. Cooler weather, though, has helped firefighters dig a fire line around the Monument complex fire. That's now about 15 percent contained

Inch-by-inch, crews are reigning-in wildfires in California, where more than 100,000 acres have burned over the past week.

And optimism climbs as temperatures drop. Forecasts are calling for cooler weather and the promise of rain in coming days.

A fire on Utah's Dry mountain drove some 400 campers from the area, 60 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. The fire has crept within an eighth of a mile of some homes, but more manpower is due on the fire lines today.

Far from the flames, the heat of battle reaches all the way to Boise, Idaho. That's where we find our Jeff Flock. He is at the National Interagency Fire Center, where the fire fighting efforts are being coordinated.

Jeff, good morning again.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Daryn. Indeed, this is where they send the men, the women, the firefighters as well as all of the equipment that they need. Throughout this day on CNN, we're going to be showing you their effort, But I want to get the very latest. To do that, I want to show you this area.

These are several different pods that coordinate all of the movement of those various pieces of equipment, people and that sort of thing, I want to tap on the shoulder of Dennis Pendleton, fire service director, to give me the very latest.

You are talking about some good weather perhaps giving you some -- good weather, I guess which means bad weather, being a help to you. Is that what's happening?

DENNIS PENDLETON, FIRE SERVICE DIRECTOR: That's true. Our focus is on the west right now, the Pacific Northwest, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana. Tremendous amount of wind problems that we're looking at, and so holdover lightning strikes it will turn up.

FLOCK: OK. But you want some water too, if you can get it out of there.

PENDLETON: We would love some rainfall.

FLOCK: This lady I just started talking to, you were talking to her before we went on here, what is she doing right now?

PENDLETON: Well, she's sitting at the intelligence desk. Right now she's tracking some overhead equipment that she needs to keep track on.

FLOCK: This is a heck of an effort, and then you have to put all of this together. I mean everything from shovels, to pick, to fire hoses, to pumps, and people as well.

PENDLETON: It's everything. We support many large cities of people out in the wild lands. We've got 40 large fires going, so it's a tremendous job to support them.

FLOCK: Have we done, looking at the big picture now, too good a job of fire suppression in the past? Some people allege that perhaps doing too good a job in the past, there's too much out there to burn, and that that's why we've got problems?

PENDLETON: Well, we've done a great job in the past, but we're doing some shifting in our policies and how we think about fire out on the landscape, and how we do deal with the timbers and brush problems that we have out there.

FLOCK: Because fire is an inevitability, right?

PENDLETON: Yes, fire is an inevitability, as is lightning.

FLOCK: Last thing I want to ask you, and that's about priorities, because you've got many more fires and problems than you've got people and material to deal with them. How do you make the hard decisions?

PENDLETON: Well we put together what we call the National Multiagency Coordinating Group, and that's five federal agencies and the National Association of State Foresters. And we set the priorities and make the decisions where all of this equipment, supplies go on these fires.

FLOCK: So, where when you've got a situation where multiple people need things that you have a very finite supply of, what do you use as your priority? PENDLETON: We use the inherent need and what kind of fire problems are going on right now, and what it's looking like in the future. So, some problem is a little less than another problem. We make the decision based on what -- where we can make the most bang for our bucks.

FLOCK: Not an easy job, Dennis Pendleton. I appreciate you letting us poke our head into the operation here today. Thanks very much.

That is the latest from here, National Interagency Fire Center. There are briefings coming up in just a little bit, their inside staff briefing, which they're going to allow us to poke our head in on and put our cameras in on this morning. So that should be an interesting behind the scenes look.

That's the latest from here, back to you.

KAGAN: Very good, Jeff.

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