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American Morning
Firefighting Efforts Continue In Washington
Aired August 20, 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, let's go over to Washington state, where fire experts are saying that cooler temperatures may bring some relief to the so-called Icicle fire.
CNN's Lilian Kim is in Leavenworth, Washington. She joins us now with more. Lilian?
LILIAN KIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leon, here in Leavenworth, Washington, smoke continues to hover over this tourist town. But while crews are -- there's a lot of work to be done for crews, but they are still making progress.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): They've come from all over the U.S. to fight flames that have blackened much of the west. Days are long, the labor intense, but firefighters are ready for more.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ready for a good hike.
KIM: So far, 6900 acres have burned near Leavenworth, Washington. Flames have yet to reach any homes, but a burned out vehicle and melted metal stand as a reminder of the fire's wrath.
With cooler temperatures and higher humidity, firefighters are gaining ground. Crews are busy constructing a containment line and dousing remaining hot spots.
ANTHONY MARTINEZ, FIREFIGHTER: I'm not too worried about it. The fire's calmed way down. The more scary part is when it crowns over the trees. Right now, it's settled down quite a bit since yesterday.
KIM: This is just one of 35 fires burning throughout the west, 800,000 acres total. In California, flames are erupting in the northern part of the state. Fire is kicking up in Utah as well. And in Oregon, the battle continues.
While the situation is improving in Washington state, firefighters know conditions can change at any time. What they're worried about most: Gusty winds that could quickly flare up a smoldering fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know as it's been, it's been really erratic. And we've been doing what we can with what we have.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(on camera): There is possibly some good news, rain is in the forecast. The wet weather could come as early as tomorrow. And joining us now is Art Wirtz with the U.S. Forest Service. Thank you for joining us.
Can you tell us how much of a help that will be for firefighters fighting this blaze?
ART WIRTZ, INFORMATION OFC., ICICLE FIRE: Weather outlook looks very good, particularly in the next 24-36 hours. There's moisture that could come into the area, and that will help us to even get more line put in than we already have. And we've gotten a lot in, in the last couple of days.
KIM: What is the status of this fire right now?
WIRTZ: The status of the fire is there is still -- it's not contained. There is no containment listed on there, but they made very good progress yesterday, they made very good progress through the night. So, midday today, around 11:00, 12:00, they are going to be doing some additional burning out, as far as reinforcing some of the lines. We think that will make a big difference in moving towards some kind of containment.
KIM: More than 800 firefighters are here, and more on their way?
WIRTZ: More than 800, and we have about 240 that are on the way. They could be here just at any time now. They will be distributed out over the fire in some of those areas to start really reinforcing some of the major line out there.
KIM: And this is considered one of the higher priority fires that have been burning across the west. Can you tell us why?
WIRTZ: Because when they got here we had almost 20 fire, and the strategy could not be -- we didn't have enough resources where we could go and fight all 20 fires. So the team that was brought in decided that we need to handle it as one large fire, and they started creating line around a very, very large perimeter to try to -- for lack of a better term -- herd up these fires so they couldn't spread as much.
Now we're making good progress with that line, we're starting to get more resources in and we're going to start focusing on individual fires and particularly the large fire, the large 6800-acre fire.
KIM: OK. Art Wirtz with the U.S. Forest Service, thank you for joining us this morning. That is the latest here from Leavenworth. It looks like the situation is looking pretty good.
Back to you, Leon.
HARRIS: All right, good deal. Thanks, Lilian. Lilian Kim reporting for us live from Leavenworth, Washington.
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