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CNN Sunday Morning
Firefighters Close to Containing Cedar Fire
Aired November 02, 2003 - 08:16 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Firefighters out in California got a helping hand the past couple of days. Cold, wet weather aided their efforts, and now the fires have been largely contained. Oh, that's good news. But the rain mixed with the loss of trees and vegetation, bring a new fear: mudslides.
It has been a terrible week, as you know, for southern Californians, especially those in San Diego County. Today, firefighters are close to completely containing the Cedar fire, which was the biggest. It destroyed more than 250,000 acres.
Bob Franken standing by live in San Diego with more for us. Good morning, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. There is some interesting terminology they use. Contained means that the fires have been surrounded. That, in effect, they have dug out a fire line around the fires.
Now, that is going to be accomplished in the Cedar fire, which is the largest wildfire in California history. The prediction is that, weather permitting, they will have 100 percent containment here by 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time tomorrow.
The word "controlled" means the fires are suppressed. They're able to just shut down shop. The suppressed fires will not really be accomplished for another two weeks or so. And that gives you some idea of just how treacherous the situation is.
The Santa Ana winds could return. The dry heat could also return. The fires could rekindle. And that is a problem that was pointed out very, very bluntly last night by outgoing Governor Gray Davis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GRAY DAVIS (D), CALIFORNIA: Many of those diseased trees are still there. I toured with a number of legislators from the area on Thursday. And you can see these orange, brown colored trees, which stick out like a sore thumb from the normal green color. And I would say one out of five trees are damaged.
So they still present a fire hazard. They'll still go up like a roman candle.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FRANKEN: So many people started returning to their homes in areas like this, the Scripps Ranch area of San Diego, homes that were devastated by the fire. So the immediate problem, of course, is containing those fires. The longer-term problem for these people, the thousands who were displaced, is rebuilding their homes, rebuilding their lives -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Oh, but now, Bob, with the fires somewhat contained, the blame game will begin in earnest. Who is winning it right now?
FRANKEN: Well, just about everybody's losing it. Fingers are being pointed all over the place. Some of the people are complaining that the Davis officials did not respond quickly enough. There are others who are saying that state and federal officials could not allow adequate use of helicopters and planes that might have been able to drop suppressants on some of these fires and contain them. But they're saying that it would have been too dangerous to send the aircraft out.
And there are complaints that the federal government did not, in fact, provide the money that was needed to clear away some of this underbrush. So what you've had so far has been a story of human tragedy and some story of triumph. And inevitably, that's going to be followed by the story of official accountability.
COSTELLO: Bob Franken reporting live from San Diego this 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 November 2, 2003 - 08:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Firefighters out in California got a helping hand the past couple of days. Cold, wet weather aided their efforts, and now the fires have been largely contained. Oh, that's good news. But the rain mixed with the loss of trees and vegetation, bring a new fear: mudslides.
It has been a terrible week, as you know, for southern Californians, especially those in San Diego County. Today, firefighters are close to completely containing the Cedar fire, which was the biggest. It destroyed more than 250,000 acres.
Bob Franken standing by live in San Diego with more for us. Good morning, Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. There is some interesting terminology they use. Contained means that the fires have been surrounded. That, in effect, they have dug out a fire line around the fires.
Now, that is going to be accomplished in the Cedar fire, which is the largest wildfire in California history. The prediction is that, weather permitting, they will have 100 percent containment here by 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time tomorrow.
The word "controlled" means the fires are suppressed. They're able to just shut down shop. The suppressed fires will not really be accomplished for another two weeks or so. And that gives you some idea of just how treacherous the situation is.
The Santa Ana winds could return. The dry heat could also return. The fires could rekindle. And that is a problem that was pointed out very, very bluntly last night by outgoing Governor Gray Davis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GRAY DAVIS (D), CALIFORNIA: Many of those diseased trees are still there. I toured with a number of legislators from the area on Thursday. And you can see these orange, brown colored trees, which stick out like a sore thumb from the normal green color. And I would say one out of five trees are damaged.
So they still present a fire hazard. They'll still go up like a roman candle.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FRANKEN: So many people started returning to their homes in areas like this, the Scripps Ranch area of San Diego, homes that were devastated by the fire. So the immediate problem, of course, is containing those fires. The longer-term problem for these people, the thousands who were displaced, is rebuilding their homes, rebuilding their lives -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Oh, but now, Bob, with the fires somewhat contained, the blame game will begin in earnest. Who is winning it right now?
FRANKEN: Well, just about everybody's losing it. Fingers are being pointed all over the place. Some of the people are complaining that the Davis officials did not respond quickly enough. There are others who are saying that state and federal officials could not allow adequate use of helicopters and planes that might have been able to drop suppressants on some of these fires and contain them. But they're saying that it would have been too dangerous to send the aircraft out.
And there are complaints that the federal government did not, in fact, provide the money that was needed to clear away some of this underbrush. So what you've had so far has been a story of human tragedy and some story of triumph. And inevitably, that's going to be followed by the story of official accountability.
COSTELLO: Bob Franken reporting live from San Diego this 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
