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CNN Live Sunday

Forest Service Gives Promising Prognosis for Hayman Fire

Aired June 16, 2002 - 17:02   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In Colorado, progress is being made on two fronts today. The first concerns the wildfire that's burned thousands of acres. The other pertains to the criminal investigation into the fire's cause. CNN's Charles Molineaux is in Castle Rock, Colorado, with the latest on both fronts. Hi there, Charles.

CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. Yeah, we are standing by just a few minutes away from what is apparently going to be the major announcement on the criminal investigation into the Hayman fire. This is of course the biggest fire in Colorado history. It has burned 103,000 acres. The theory has been that it was started with an illegal campfire a little over a week ago.

Now we're not hearing a whole lot of specifics, except apparently this does involve some sort of breakthrough or information on the criminal investigation into the cause of this fire. Within just a few minutes, we're expecting to hear from Governor Bill Owens, as well as the first assistant U.S. district attorney from the area and sheriffs from a whole series of counties affected by these -- Douglas, Jefferson, Teller, El Paso, Park Counties are all going to have representatives here. A very major announcement is expected in just a couple of minutes.

Of course, the Hayman fire has burned some 103,000 acres so far, but this news comes on a day when the Forest Service is sounding extremely hopeful about the prognosis out there. They say they're on the verge of moving into what they're calling heavy mop-up -- meaning they feel like they do have very progress in controlling this fire.

The official word we are getting is that this fire is now 35 percent contained. That's the official word, and that was really what we were hearing last night. The unofficial word is that we are going to be hearing probably some time this evening is that it's more along the lines of 45 to 50 percent containment on this fire, that there have been extensive buildings of fire lines along the north and eastern sides of the fire. Those are the areas where it appears to be threatening populated areas, and of course, the extreme northern end of this fire is licking at the edges of the extreme southwestern suburbs of the city of Denver, areas that are tucked into the foothills and surrounded by a lot of fire-prone trees, ponderosa pines, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) pines and the like.

Now, we're standing by in just a couple of minutes for this press conference to get under way. But just to give you an idea of what's going on out in the fire lines -- the Forest Service is hitting on all cylinders right now. They have got just under 2,200 firefighters working this fire. They have also got six planes, including Air Force C-130 tanker planes going in and dropping slurry on the fire lines. There was a little rough weather that kept them a little bit clear of the fire lines, but they did manage to get in and dump most of their loads. Those C-130s are huge planes. They can actually dump some 3,000 gallons of slurry in one swoop. So a very major development there, that they have got them all online.

They have also got nine bulldozers, actually, out in the fire lines. That's not very many. There would be a lot more, except the terrain is so rough that actually getting a bulldozer into some of those is very important. Of course, cutting the fire lines with bulldozers and (UNINTELLIGIBLE), firefighters with shovels, is basically where most of the firefighting takes place.

They are trying to construct fire lines, taking advantage of natural barriers, or man-made barriers, like roads or rivers and the like. There's some area just south of Denver where there's at one point, the extreme northern end of this fire is one that's been of extreme concern over the past couple of days. There have been some flare-ups, but at the moment we're not hearing about any problems. And in fact, over the past couple of days, the total acreage of this fire has remained constant, at 103,000 acres. So firefighters say that things have been going very well, and that the weather has been very cooperative.

One major cloud on the horizon, or perhaps I should say wind gust on the horizon, is coming up on Tuesday. There's concern that there will be a front moving and a high pressure system moving in over the city of Denver, and the possibility of winds blowing out of the southwest. The southwest, of course, being where we have Arizona and New Mexico. Warmer, dryer air. That could be a big problem for firefighters, except that the Forest Service now says that they're actually expecting to make enough progress between now and then that that should not be a significant problem.

They say they have a lot of containment, they are feeling very comfortable. And the term heavy mop-up is a very important one, because what that really means is it's not just a matter of laying down fire lines, digging trenches or doing backburns to create a barrier around the existing fire, but rather going into the fire area and creating -- and putting out existing fires where they are burning. So that is a very promising sign.

Of course, some 5,000 people have been evacuated in the face of this fire. And the Forest Service is talking about possibly seeing about over the next few days, talking about letting some of them get back in.

As you can see, this announcement is about to get under way, the officials are assembling just shy of the podium here. We're at the northern command center for the firefighting efforts battling the Hayman fire. Of course, we've got two type one teams battling it. Let's listen in, as this press conference gets under way. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com