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American Morning

Interview With Battalion Chief George Corley

Aired October 30, 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: In southern California, they're hoping for cooler temperatures. Maybe even some fog will help slow the progress of those raging wildfires that we just heard Chad talk about.
The weather yesterday helped teams make some progress fighting the Cedar Fire, which is near San Diego, as well as the blaze in Simi Valley. However, winds caused problems in the Stevenson Ranch community in Los Angeles County.

So far, 20 people have been killed, including one firefighter. More than 649,000 acres have burned. More than 2,400 homes have been destroyed.

Almost 14,000 firefighters are now working on this blaze. It's still not enough. Governor Gray Davis says that more help is needed in both people and equipment.

We go now to Lakewood. A 30-year veteran, who's dealt extensively with fire crew safety, Battalion Chief George Corley of the San Bernardino County Fire Department, joins us this morning.

It's nice to see you, Mr. Corley. Thanks so much for joining us.

BATTALION CHIEF GEORGE CORLEY, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY F.D.: Thank you for having me.

O'BRIEN: Now, I understand you're in the Lake Arrowhead area. Give me a sense of the biggest challenges facing that area, and what the plan of attack is for today.

CORLEY: You're going to have to speak again. I could hardly hear what you were saying.

O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of the outlook for today where you are.

CORLEY: It's going to be real windy today. The fire -- I heard the folks on the radio this morning, the fire is still blowing around. They're still having problems. Even though it's real foggy right here, it's clear down -- you know, a few miles away on the other side of town it's still clear. And the fire is moving around among the buildings, and it's still a real big problem.

O'BRIEN: You seem pretty exhausted. How are you holding up? How is the crew holding up?

CORLEY: We're hanging in there. Everybody's tired, obviously. We've, you know, been at this a pretty long time now, and there's still a long time to go in the next few days.

O'BRIEN: There was word of a fatality. A firefighter died in Julian, an area that they had been hoping to really get in there and try to save that town. That must be incredibly hard to hear, especially for the folks who then have to turn around and go right back out to that fire line. How is everybody dealing with that information today?

CORLEY: Well, they're very sad, of course. It doesn't make a difference if you're a firefighter in a high-rise in New York or a wild land firefighter out here in California, you feel that loss. But you've got to go on. I mean we've got to keep going and we've got to keep doing what we've got to do to try to get these fires contained and life back to normal for all of our people that live out here.

O'BRIEN: I understand that your family has been evacuated from the area; other firefighters' families, as well. How hard has that been to really be fighting to save your own homes at this point?

CORLEY: That's exactly, for a lot of us, what we're doing. These are our communities. We're fighting -- the wind's just picking up a little bit. We're fighting the fires, you know, for our communities, especially those that live here. But, you know, the people that are coming in are fighting just as hard as we are, and we appreciate the aid a whole lot as well.

As far as my family, I'm kind of glad that they're away from here, and they went off probably someplace that they can get their mind off the fire.

O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of what the strategy will be today.

CORLEY: We'll, we're going to try to keep the structures from burning, like we have for the last several days. The other thing that we're going to do is actually try to build some areas to catch the fire so it doesn't spread into other areas. They've got a contingency with some bulldozer lines kind of in the southeast portion of the fire that they'll try to put some line in. And then burn off that line and try to get an anchor point to stop the fire from going any farther off towards the east.

O'BRIEN: Well, best of luck in all of your efforts today. Thanks for joining us this morning. That's Battalion Chief George Corley. I know how exhausted you are, and we really appreciate it. Thank you.

CORLEY: Thank you.

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 30, 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: In southern California, they're hoping for cooler temperatures. Maybe even some fog will help slow the progress of those raging wildfires that we just heard Chad talk about.
The weather yesterday helped teams make some progress fighting the Cedar Fire, which is near San Diego, as well as the blaze in Simi Valley. However, winds caused problems in the Stevenson Ranch community in Los Angeles County.

So far, 20 people have been killed, including one firefighter. More than 649,000 acres have burned. More than 2,400 homes have been destroyed.

Almost 14,000 firefighters are now working on this blaze. It's still not enough. Governor Gray Davis says that more help is needed in both people and equipment.

We go now to Lakewood. A 30-year veteran, who's dealt extensively with fire crew safety, Battalion Chief George Corley of the San Bernardino County Fire Department, joins us this morning.

It's nice to see you, Mr. Corley. Thanks so much for joining us.

BATTALION CHIEF GEORGE CORLEY, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY F.D.: Thank you for having me.

O'BRIEN: Now, I understand you're in the Lake Arrowhead area. Give me a sense of the biggest challenges facing that area, and what the plan of attack is for today.

CORLEY: You're going to have to speak again. I could hardly hear what you were saying.

O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of the outlook for today where you are.

CORLEY: It's going to be real windy today. The fire -- I heard the folks on the radio this morning, the fire is still blowing around. They're still having problems. Even though it's real foggy right here, it's clear down -- you know, a few miles away on the other side of town it's still clear. And the fire is moving around among the buildings, and it's still a real big problem.

O'BRIEN: You seem pretty exhausted. How are you holding up? How is the crew holding up?

CORLEY: We're hanging in there. Everybody's tired, obviously. We've, you know, been at this a pretty long time now, and there's still a long time to go in the next few days.

O'BRIEN: There was word of a fatality. A firefighter died in Julian, an area that they had been hoping to really get in there and try to save that town. That must be incredibly hard to hear, especially for the folks who then have to turn around and go right back out to that fire line. How is everybody dealing with that information today?

CORLEY: Well, they're very sad, of course. It doesn't make a difference if you're a firefighter in a high-rise in New York or a wild land firefighter out here in California, you feel that loss. But you've got to go on. I mean we've got to keep going and we've got to keep doing what we've got to do to try to get these fires contained and life back to normal for all of our people that live out here.

O'BRIEN: I understand that your family has been evacuated from the area; other firefighters' families, as well. How hard has that been to really be fighting to save your own homes at this point?

CORLEY: That's exactly, for a lot of us, what we're doing. These are our communities. We're fighting -- the wind's just picking up a little bit. We're fighting the fires, you know, for our communities, especially those that live here. But, you know, the people that are coming in are fighting just as hard as we are, and we appreciate the aid a whole lot as well.

As far as my family, I'm kind of glad that they're away from here, and they went off probably someplace that they can get their mind off the fire.

O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of what the strategy will be today.

CORLEY: We'll, we're going to try to keep the structures from burning, like we have for the last several days. The other thing that we're going to do is actually try to build some areas to catch the fire so it doesn't spread into other areas. They've got a contingency with some bulldozer lines kind of in the southeast portion of the fire that they'll try to put some line in. And then burn off that line and try to get an anchor point to stop the fire from going any farther off towards the east.

O'BRIEN: Well, best of luck in all of your efforts today. Thanks for joining us this morning. That's Battalion Chief George Corley. I know how exhausted you are, and we really appreciate it. Thank you.

CORLEY: Thank you.

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