Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

California Wildfires: State of Destruction

Aired October 28, 2003 - 07:04   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Firefighters in San Diego County say the nightmare scenario that they fear would be if the three wildfires that are burning in that county were to merge into one giant fire. Overall, 10 major fires are burning in the region and, all told, more than 450,000 acres have burned. Officials are calling this the most expensive fire in state history. More than 1,100 homes have already been destroyed. Fifteen people now have been killed.
An army of firefighters has been called in -- more than 8,000 of them in all. Help is also coming from nearby states. The governors of Nevada and Arizona are sending in 75 extra fire trucks to help out.

We've got two reports this morning. Miguel Marquez is in Rim Forest in San Bernardino County, which is east of Los Angeles. Brian Cabell is Simi Valley, north of Los Angeles, for us this morning.

Good morning to both of you.

Miguel -- let's begin with you with the latest from where you are.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

We are in a windy place in the San Bernardino National Forest. And below us, about a thousand feet below us -- we're about 4,000 feet here -- the entire forest is on fire. We are experiencing northwesterly winds now, winds coming from the northwest, blowing this fire downhill. That helps firefighters, where we are right now, because that fire cannot climb uphill so quickly. It hurts firefighters down below, who are trying to protect homes.

There are several communities up in this area, and I can tell you that we just crossed a road here. And I don't know if you can see in the distance, there is a small plume there. That's an area where we just were. It crossed a road coming up to this area, and it may cut off our south exit at some point, and we may have to go north out of here. This fire is moving incredibly quick.

What firefighters expect to happen today is in the afternoon an ocean breeze to blow in here, which will bring wind up this canyon and will bring those fires down below here up on top of our position here fairly quickly. We are in a position, however, where we have a large open space behind us, so that we would have some safe area if necessary -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, give me a sense, then, if the firefighters have made any progress, because from what we can see behind you -- and obviously it's still dark where you are out in California -- but it just looks like it continues to spread and to grow without being abated at all.

MARQUEZ: Well, progress is hard to measure in this particular fire. This is part of the Old Fire. It's considered an arson fire. And there are about 500,000 acres of trees up here that have been affected by the Bark Beetle. A lot of them are just fir wood, completely dead, and that's what firefighters are concerned about now. As that fire gets moving up this hill, it's going to start tearing through a lot of that old timber, and you're going to see some very big fire lanes, flame lanes, this afternoon -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: It sounds terrible. Miguel Marquez for us at the San Bernardino National Forest. Thanks, Miguel. We'll continue to check in with you throughout the morning.

Let's turn now to Brian Cabell who, as we mentioned, is in Simi Valley this morning.

Brian, the pictures we saw yesterday, absolutely horrific as the fire was sweeping through residential areas. What's it like today?

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not as bad today, as a matter of fact -- 92,000 acres burned so far in the Simi Valley Fire. We're at the southeastern section. They're telling us it's 5-percent contained in just the last 15-20 minutes. We can see the winds have kind of picked up slightly to the south and to the east, but again not all that bad.

But take a look down here on the ground, right here at our feet, just in the last 15 minutes or so, what they call a "cat eye," just flames -- little embers blowing over from a ways away and conceivably could start another fire. Obviously, we're going to put this out.

With us right now is -- let's bring in fire Captain Mark Kyllingstad.

Where we're standing at right now, we're safe.

MARK KYLLINGSTAD, L.A. COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Yes, sir, absolutely.

CABELL: What did you do here? We're next to an apartment complex. What did you do yesterday?

KYLLINGSTAD: We came in about 3:00 yesterday afternoon, set up a structure protection group, laid our hoses out, got everybody ready to go, watched the fire come down the hill and conducted a firing operation and saved all of these apartments behind us.

CABELL: They were evacuated yesterday afternoon?

KYLLINGSTAD: Yes, sir, about 5:30-6:00, we got everybody out.

CABELL: When do you bring them back?

KYLLINGSTAD: Hopefully, they'll be able to come back to their homes this morning.

CABELL: And your men have slept here all night.

KYLLINGSTAD: We've been sleeping in shifts. We can't let our guard down.

CABELL: If the winds pick up, any major problems you would see here?

KYLLINGSTAD: Not here. Not here. The major problems are going to be to the south and to the east.

CABELL: Thank you very much.

KYLLINGSTAD: Yes, sir.

CABELL: Once again, 92,000 acres burned so far, but as we can see right now at this point, it is blowing over toward the east, toward the south. At this point, we are safe right here. We'll probably be moving on a little later this morning.

O'BRIEN: Yes, right. Stay safe then, Brian. Thanks for that update. We'll continue to check in with you throughout the morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired October 28, 2003 - 07:04   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Firefighters in San Diego County say the nightmare scenario that they fear would be if the three wildfires that are burning in that county were to merge into one giant fire. Overall, 10 major fires are burning in the region and, all told, more than 450,000 acres have burned. Officials are calling this the most expensive fire in state history. More than 1,100 homes have already been destroyed. Fifteen people now have been killed.
An army of firefighters has been called in -- more than 8,000 of them in all. Help is also coming from nearby states. The governors of Nevada and Arizona are sending in 75 extra fire trucks to help out.

We've got two reports this morning. Miguel Marquez is in Rim Forest in San Bernardino County, which is east of Los Angeles. Brian Cabell is Simi Valley, north of Los Angeles, for us this morning.

Good morning to both of you.

Miguel -- let's begin with you with the latest from where you are.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

We are in a windy place in the San Bernardino National Forest. And below us, about a thousand feet below us -- we're about 4,000 feet here -- the entire forest is on fire. We are experiencing northwesterly winds now, winds coming from the northwest, blowing this fire downhill. That helps firefighters, where we are right now, because that fire cannot climb uphill so quickly. It hurts firefighters down below, who are trying to protect homes.

There are several communities up in this area, and I can tell you that we just crossed a road here. And I don't know if you can see in the distance, there is a small plume there. That's an area where we just were. It crossed a road coming up to this area, and it may cut off our south exit at some point, and we may have to go north out of here. This fire is moving incredibly quick.

What firefighters expect to happen today is in the afternoon an ocean breeze to blow in here, which will bring wind up this canyon and will bring those fires down below here up on top of our position here fairly quickly. We are in a position, however, where we have a large open space behind us, so that we would have some safe area if necessary -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, give me a sense, then, if the firefighters have made any progress, because from what we can see behind you -- and obviously it's still dark where you are out in California -- but it just looks like it continues to spread and to grow without being abated at all.

MARQUEZ: Well, progress is hard to measure in this particular fire. This is part of the Old Fire. It's considered an arson fire. And there are about 500,000 acres of trees up here that have been affected by the Bark Beetle. A lot of them are just fir wood, completely dead, and that's what firefighters are concerned about now. As that fire gets moving up this hill, it's going to start tearing through a lot of that old timber, and you're going to see some very big fire lanes, flame lanes, this afternoon -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: It sounds terrible. Miguel Marquez for us at the San Bernardino National Forest. Thanks, Miguel. We'll continue to check in with you throughout the morning.

Let's turn now to Brian Cabell who, as we mentioned, is in Simi Valley this morning.

Brian, the pictures we saw yesterday, absolutely horrific as the fire was sweeping through residential areas. What's it like today?

BRIAN CABELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not as bad today, as a matter of fact -- 92,000 acres burned so far in the Simi Valley Fire. We're at the southeastern section. They're telling us it's 5-percent contained in just the last 15-20 minutes. We can see the winds have kind of picked up slightly to the south and to the east, but again not all that bad.

But take a look down here on the ground, right here at our feet, just in the last 15 minutes or so, what they call a "cat eye," just flames -- little embers blowing over from a ways away and conceivably could start another fire. Obviously, we're going to put this out.

With us right now is -- let's bring in fire Captain Mark Kyllingstad.

Where we're standing at right now, we're safe.

MARK KYLLINGSTAD, L.A. COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Yes, sir, absolutely.

CABELL: What did you do here? We're next to an apartment complex. What did you do yesterday?

KYLLINGSTAD: We came in about 3:00 yesterday afternoon, set up a structure protection group, laid our hoses out, got everybody ready to go, watched the fire come down the hill and conducted a firing operation and saved all of these apartments behind us.

CABELL: They were evacuated yesterday afternoon?

KYLLINGSTAD: Yes, sir, about 5:30-6:00, we got everybody out.

CABELL: When do you bring them back?

KYLLINGSTAD: Hopefully, they'll be able to come back to their homes this morning.

CABELL: And your men have slept here all night.

KYLLINGSTAD: We've been sleeping in shifts. We can't let our guard down.

CABELL: If the winds pick up, any major problems you would see here?

KYLLINGSTAD: Not here. Not here. The major problems are going to be to the south and to the east.

CABELL: Thank you very much.

KYLLINGSTAD: Yes, sir.

CABELL: Once again, 92,000 acres burned so far, but as we can see right now at this point, it is blowing over toward the east, toward the south. At this point, we are safe right here. We'll probably be moving on a little later this morning.

O'BRIEN: Yes, right. Stay safe then, Brian. Thanks for that update. We'll continue to check in with you throughout the morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.