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American Morning
Western Fires May Join Forces
Aired June 21, 2002 - 12:18 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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In the wildlands of east central Arizona, two raging fires are moving dangerously close to each other. Firefighters are concerned if the blazes merge, it could be the start of a 300,000-acre inferno.
Our Bill Delaney is in Show Low, Arizona, with the very latest on fire fighting efforts from there.
Hi there -- Bill.
BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Fredricka.
Well, as you say, what we've got here is a situation that one fire official describes as a recipe for disaster. The temperatures are about 90 degrees out here. Most importantly, the winds are picking up, as fire officials have predicted all day they will. Forty-degree gusts expected, and that will drive this enormous Rodeo fire further and further east, the Rodeo fire having already consumed 90,000 acres of Arizona. That's the largest fire in this state's history.
And as you said, Fredricka, the concern now is a kind of nightmare scenario, that the Rodeo fire will merge with another smaller fire to the west of us here, and that that could eventually consume as many as 350,000 acres of Arizona. Now if you will follow with me, Fredricka, if we look over the Show Low High School, which is the command center for fighting this enormous fire, you'll see in the distance now the first plumes from this fire. Now they look like clouds, but they are actually plumes from the fire, probably several miles away from us, and probably about 30,000 feet into the air. Now we expect our horizon to fill as the day goes on, with more and more of those plumes from this fire, as it moves east.
Four thousand people already evacuated in regions around here, and in Show Low itself, most people have packed up their homes, and gassed up their cars. They are on high alert. They've been told they may have to leave in as short a short period as one hour. They may just get a phone call and be told to get out of town.
And another thing everybody is concerned about out here: simply having enough people to fight this tremendous fire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LARRY HUMPHREY, FIRE COMMANDER: We have about, roughly, 660 right now on this fire. It will go up. Probably the projected size on this fire, we will probably be in the neighborhood of 1,000 to 1,500, if we can get the resources that we need -- and we're not getting a lot of resources right now.
DELANEY: Why's that?
HUMPHREY: Well, there's so many fires and not enough firefighters is what it amounts to. The Hayman fire in Colorado is extremely large; it's taking on a lot of homes, and it's just become a resource sink, you know. It takes a lot of people to do that. There's three national teams on that fire; there's only one here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DELANEY: And as for what started all this, well, no one's really sure, but fire officials do tell us they think that this fire, one way or another, was set -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: So, I've got a question for you: These two massive fires that are taking place right now, the concern that they would merge, what's the distance between these two fires? How much time might firefighters have to keep these two wildfires separate?
DELANEY: Well, they are only several miles apart in some places, and fire officials are now telling us that they say there's about an 80 percent chance that they will merge. Now, the two fires together won't make 300,000 acres of burn, but once they join up, they will create a fire that then can spread out from the two different regions these fires were in and could, as I say, become the biggest fire, by far, that this state has ever seen: 350,000 acres potentially could burn, with no rain in sight, by the way, for about two weeks.
WHITFIELD: Oh, boy. What a terrible situation.
All right. Thank you very much, Bill Delaney, from Show Low, Arizona.
Now, on to that other Western state where the fires are still burning. In Colorado, the woman accused of setting Colorado's largest wildfire could get a trial date today. Terry Barton is being held on $600,000 bond. A judge set bail for the forest service technician yesterday. Barton has pleaded not guilty to deliberately setting the fire just south of Denver. The Hayman fire has blackened 136,000 acres. Another blaze just north of Durango, Colorado, has also burned some 58,000 acres.
And reporter Keely Chalmers from affiliate KOAT has more on that fire.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEELY CHALMERS, KOAT REPORTER (voice-over): Midday on the fire line. The heat, dryness, and wind make for a dangerous combination.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is happening is that the fire is moving very fast. It's crowding out, and it's building a lot of heat.
CHALMERS: Firefighters spray down homes with fire-retardant foam as the planes swoop closer. But just as the crews start to make progress, a sudden shift in the wind causes the fire to explode.
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Whoa! Whoa!
CHALMERS: The wall of flames races down the slope, swallowing up trees, threatening homes and forcing everyone, including firefighters, off the mountain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As the day heated up, it just took off. The fire, the trees, everything out there heated up. It got ugly quick.
CHALMERS: As thousands of evacuees hit the road, helicopters and air tankers take to the sky, dropping water and slurry on the growing flames. The firefighters who worked so marched to protect this area can now only sit, watch, and wait.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most frustrating part is knowing that you put in a whole day's work, of impressive work, the crew as a total, and it may just be wiped out. All of the hose, all the tools, equipment, all the stuff that was left up there. That's the frustrating part.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: That was Keely Chalmers of affiliate KOAT.
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