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CNN Saturday Morning News

Colorado Firefighters Get Help From Weather

Aired June 15, 2002 - 08:03   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Elsewhere out West, firefighters have been getting a little help from the weather in the battling those huge wildfires in Colorado. CNN's Rusty Dornin is with us now from Castle Rock with the latest.

Rusty, good to see you.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Kyra, when there's a little break in the weather, and winds are a bit calmer and the humidity rises, well the "Rock Mountain News" headline for today sort of says it all. Firefighters were able to make some huge strides yesterday, going from 5 percent containment to 30 percent.

Now, the sun has just come up over the horizon here at Castle Rock at the Northern Interagency fire camp. You can see a few of the firefighters weary from battling those blazes along a 90-mile fire line here, and they are just getting up now and packing up and getting ready to go back out on the fire lines.

Now, there are more than 1,700 firefighters here from all over the country, and what they're hoping for today is some calmer winds again, although it's suspected that they'll be some 40 mile-an-hour winds that will come up later this afternoon that could cause some real problems. But the humidity will be higher, and that's always good. Also, they're expecting some thunderstorm activity.

Now yesterday there were some thunderstorms here, where it was pouring rain in some areas, which is obviously very good for firefighters, but there is also the possibility that the lightening strikes could start a new fire.

Now, they're able to get the air tankers up. There's 19 air tankers -- yesterday a C-130, two C-130's out of Colorado Springs were able to fly along the fire lines, dropping flurry, and that's one of the reason the were able to make such strides on this fire. They're hoping to do the same thing today -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Rusty Dornin, thank you.

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