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CNN Sunday Morning

Wildfires Devastate Oregon

Aired July 21, 2002 - 10:02   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take another look at those raging Oregon wildfires. As we reported, the state's two largest fires have combined into a single mega blaze in southcentral Oregon. The flames have threatened dozens of homes near the communities of Summer Lake and Silver Lake. Ryan Deal of our affiliate station KPTV picks up our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN DEAL, KPTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amazingly, this spreading fire in the high desert hasn't come into homes. But for dozens, it has come knocking at the back door.

CAROLYN WISDOM, FOREST RANGER: When my husband was here, defending the space, he saw the fire come over the rim, up there and he said it sounded like a thousand commercial jetliners.

DEAL: Carolyn Wisdom, a forest ranger, had already been called into duty the night the lightning came down.

WISDOM: It was stressful. At the same time, I knew there were so many other people who were in the same boat.

DEAL: The blue dots on this computer at the Lakeview command center show each lightning strike last week. There were 65 fires here, but four now burn beyond control.

WISDOM: Fifty- to 60-foot tall ponderosa pines whirling around in that flame like toothpicks. It was very intense fire behavior.

DEAL: And the fires are still spreading, consuming more land and creating the need for more firefighting resources.

BRAD WINTERS, LAKE COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Why has this become a catastrophic fire instead of just an average fire? We all know that fuel storage out here is way too high.

DEAL: He and other Lake County commissioners now blame the fires in part on bureaucratic red tape; red tape, they say, causing a two- year delay in thinning these forests.

JANE O'KEEFFE, LAKE COUNTY COMMISSIONER: I can take you over to a fire out at Lakeview, and you can see where the area that was thinned versus the area that wasn't. Made a huge difference. DEAL: The clearing of brush and the thinning of trees worked for this couple. They've got their house, just not very much around it.

MAX LINN, HOME OWNER: This is sort of the worst case scenario. The damage behind me on the hill is sort of what I imagined is worst case and always hoped it wouldn't happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That report from KPTV in Oregon. Ryan Deal, the reporter. All told, residents in about 60 homes near Summer Lake are being urged to evacuate now.

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