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CNN Live Sunday

Wildfires Shut Down Florida Interstates

Aired May 27, 2001 - 16:01   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: A case of bad timing in the Sunshine State. Wildfires are making the holiday weekend difficult for travelers in Florida. Instead of sandy beaches and roller coaster rides, many are getting stuck with smoky highways and road blocks and for several hours, authorities did shut down parts of Interstate 4, which funneled travelers into Orlando, right around Orlando. That's, of course, the home of Disney World and other hot attractions, and it's also the main route that goes down to the beaches of South Florida.

We want to take a look now at Exit 24, which takes you to the Universal Studios Theme Park. The smoke you see is not part of the park's special effects show. Poor visibility led to a pile-up of more than a dozen car about one mile south of U.S. 441. Even so, authorities say that they have been lucky, with few accidents and only minor injuries.

Earlier today, we heard from one driver about how tough the driving conditions were just moments before the accident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About the time I looked up, there was a vehicle in the middle of the road stopped, dead stopped, and I hit my brakes to avoid hitting him head-on and swerved and caught it on the driver's side. And then it was just a chain reaction from there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLEY: For the latest on Florida's wildfires, we're now joined on the phone outside Perry, Florida by Greg Dunn of the Florida Division of Forestry. Greg, can you tell us what the visibility is right now and the situation on the fires.

GREG DUNN, FLORIDA DIVISION OF FORESTRY: As for the Orlando fire, I-4 had been closed, I-92 had been closed down, John Young Parkway (UNINTELLIGIBLE) closed down. That's from a fire that's in Lake County that's growing at about 800 -- and still growing in acreage.

KELLEY: Now, are these closed currently that you just gave us?

DUNN: This was as 11:00 this morning.

KELLEY: OK, so, now is everything open now though or are those still closed?

DUNN: I couldn't tell you right now.

KELLEY: Well, we'll try to find out a little more information on that. Earlier we had heard that everything was back open and that those were earlier closures. How about the visibility for drivers right now? Can you tell us? Earlier, we had smoke and fog.

DUNN: I'm on the Mallory Swamp fire in Perry, Florida. That fire -- I could tell you more about that than I know about the Orlando fires.

KELLEY: OK, well, let's go ahead and talk about that then. What's situation where you are?

DUNN: As of right now, we're up to 60, 000 acres. The containment on it is at 15 percent. We're getting a good handle on the fire right now. The weather has actually been in our favor. The fire has been baking up to our lines, so it's looking pretty good right now.

KELLEY: We want to show folks, you're updated weekly on -- what we found on a Web site with you folks. Let me just find around Perry and put that up. You're the Mallory Swamp fire, right Greg?

DUNN: Yes, we are.

KELLEY: If you punch on the red buttons, for our viewers at home, that will pull up specific fires that are happening in those regions and as Greg was just telling us, the Mallory Swamp fire and what country it's in, what caused it. It says lightning here, and the acres burned. What are the acres burned that you have right now, Greg?

DUNN: 60,732 acres.

KELLEY: As you can see, as we mentioned, this is updated weekly. This says 20,000 right now, but we do get extra updates weekly. OK, Greg Dunn, who's with the Division of Forestry, we thank you very much for the new information that you have for us. Thank you very much.

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