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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Jim Paxson of U.S. Forest Service
Aired June 22, 2002 - 07:10 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: An accident in western Colorado has killed four firefighters. A convoy of eight vehicles was heading to the Hayman fire southwest of Denver. Police say a van carrying 11 firefighters went out of control and rolled three times. At least two others were critically injured.
Overnight, the Hayman fire has remained at about 137,000 acres. The blaze has claimed nearly 100 structures, including 79 homes. In southwest Colorado, the Missionary Ridge fire north of Durango has grown to about 60,000 acres. Up to 2,100 residents have been told to evacuate there, 47 homes lost in that fire.
Firefighters in eastern Arizona may catch a break from the weather today. The Rodeo fire, burning out of control, had threatened to draw in a smaller blaze and turn even bigger.
CNN's Charles Molineaux joins me now from the scene in Show Low, Arizona. Good morning, Charles.
CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
Yes, Show Low's one of those communities that may have to be evacuated depending upon what the Rodeo fire does. We've been watching this dramatic wall of smoke to the west of us pretty much covering up the entire horizon. This fire has now expanded to 130 acres. A lot of concern is, yes, it may combine with the now 20,000- acre Chediski fire just to the west. Thousands of people have been evacuated in the path of both fires, and right now this area is on standby for evacuation.
Jim Paxson is with the Forest Service, and he has been keeping an eye on things over the course of the night, putting in some long days.
Now, we've seen this fire actually not necessarily slow down but stay in more or less a straight line, hasn't it? That sounds like something of a break. Has it been?
JIM PAXSON, U.S. FOREST SERVICE: It's been a fortunate break for us, Charles.
MOLINEAUX: Now, explain why that is, because you've got it moving right up, it moved right over Pinedale yesterday, but you've got towns on either side which are still at the moment safe? PAXSON: Well, they're not safe, they're at risk, but the fire's not moving into them. And our fear yesterday was that fire would move east into Show Low. If it had of, we would have had to evacuate another 15,000 to 20,000 people.
MOLINEAUX: What about Pinedale? We understand that you put in a ferocious effort to protect the town. It rolled right over it. But you may actually have pulled off some real miracles out there.
PAXSON: We know we lost at least 15 homes and another 20 outbuildings. But on the other hand, we saved 80, 85, 90 homes. We're still doing our damage assessment in there.
MOLINEAUX: How do you tell people if their homes have been damaged or destroyed? What do you do?
PAXSON: We're going to get the Red Cross to help us with that. They have a disaster relief and disaster counseling people that are specialists. We're working in the damage assessment. Once we get that done, we'll start telling folks whether their home is lost or not.
There's so much fire in there, we can't let them back in yet. It's not safe.
MOLINEAUX: Now, what about the prospect of these two fires combining? That sounds pretty daunting (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Rodeo fire's nine miles wide already.
PAXSON: Yes, it is, and our fire behavior analysts, the fire sometimes on our team, says there's an 80 percent chance the two will merge. If so, we'll have a 20-, 25-mile front, and that's -- that is daunting, because it's just that much bigger to burn forward.
MOLINEAUX: OK, thank you very much, Jim Paxson with the Forest Service.
One thing about this Rodeo fire is that unlike a lot of fires, it has been behaving very aggressively, even at night. Its own conditions generate weather that keep the fire burning. And actually Jim told me a little bit earlier on, this is a fire that keeps burning in the middle of the night the same way a lesser fire might be burning right in the middle of the day under the sun and the warmer temperatures. So it is a very ferocious fire.
At the moment, though, pursuing a narrow course, relatively speaking, and the towns on either side are standing by, but at the moment, at least, it seems to be behaving. It is bracketed by two canyons, and those are their big trigger points to see if they have to clear up to 15,000 more people out, standing by for that.
A second type one incident management team is due to look at the Chediski fire a little bit later on today, Miles.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Charles Molineaux in Show Low. We'll check in with you a little bit later. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
