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American Morning

Firefighters May Need 90 Days to Stop Colorado Wildfires

Aired June 13, 2002 - 07:42   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the "Denver Post" in Colorado calling fighting wildfires in that state an all-out war. Check out the numbers too. It backs up that description. At least 90,000 acres burned in the Hayman fire, 3,000 homes have been threatened, more than 5,000 people evacuated and 40,000 more have been told to get ready to possibly get out.

John Zarrella this morning live in Castle Rock, Colorado, who is tracking it from there for us -- John, good morning.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, they are hoping against hope that perhaps today they can at least start to make a little bit of headway against this fire, the Hayman fire. They have lower temperatures expected here, perhaps in the mid to high 70s, but not in the 80s. The wind, which had shifted direction, continues to blow the fire more to the south as opposed as back to the north, which again remains good news for the subdivisions, the residents outside of the Denver area.

On the flip side, on the bad news side, the officials are saying it could take up to 90 days to get control of this fire. They may be fighting the Hayman fire for the next three months, and it could, if the wind shifts again, end up to be a 200,000 acre fire. Already at 90,000 acres, it is the largest ever in Colorado.

Now, 400 more firefighters have arrived on the scene already to start digging in. They expect a total of 1,800 firefighters additional when all is said and done. And the problem is that they just can't get close enough to the fire to determine what has been lost, what hasn't been lost; 22 confirmed houses lost so far. Some reports in Turkey Rock (ph) of houses lost, but they can't confirm it. Again, smoke and haze too thick to get there.

That is a concern of evacuees, some 5,000 evacuees. And about 400 of them went to a meeting in Lake George yesterday just because they wanted answers. They want to know what's going on with their houses, were their houses lost, can they get in there to see what's left of their houses. And they are saying they are frustrated, tired and not getting any answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He can help anybody (ph), but when their own citizens need help, when will we get help? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I applaud everything you are doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we use air tankers on the long (ph) line fires, we can only put one in there at a time. If we put 15 air tankers in there, we would have air tankers running into each other, crashing and causing more fires and deaths. And we are not going to do that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't have to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't have to, and we will not do that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, I'm not going to take any more questions from you, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: The frustration is really beginning to set in here. In fact, the government here saying, the folks here, officials saying that before all is said and done, they could have to call in military battalions, firefighting battalions, to help with the fight.

This is John Zarrella reporting live from Castle Rock, Colorado -- Bill.

HEMMER: John, quickly here, the key in this appears to be the wind, and you say if it starts to come from the south, there could be big-time trouble. Is that right?

ZARRELLA: That's exactly right. If it should shift directions again back towards the north, then the homes in the southern areas outside of Denver could once again face evacuation and could end up right in the path of this very, very intense and dangerous fire -- Bill.

HEMMER: Staggering. John, thanks -- John Zarrella live at Castle Rock this morning.

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