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CNN Live Sunday

Interview With Phil Street

Aired July 27, 2003 - 16:36   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.


ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: There had been five deaths fighting western fire fires in just the last week, and this year's fire season is still in the early stages. Two helicopter crashes claimed three lives, and two firefighters were killed when a fast-moving fire overran their position in a remote canyon in Idaho.
Joining us by phone from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, is Phil Street. He is the fire director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the center. Mr. Street, thank you for joining us.

PHIL STREET, U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE: My pleasure.

KOPPEL: Is this an unusual number of deaths? I recognize that you've been fighting fire, it seems, almost every year that there are some major fires. But how bad was it this year so far?

STREET: Well, it's an unusual number of fatalities. We don't normally have that many fatalities in our air operations. Last year was particularly bad. We had quite a few more accidents last year. But in helicopter operations I would say that this is -- this has been a bad year for the number of fatalities that have occurred so far.

KOPPEL: So what, if anything, are you able to do to try to ensure the safety of your firefighters who are involved in aerial operations?

STREET: We do an awful lot of training with our helicopter operations people. We have annual refresher trainings every year where we stress safety and go over all the different safety aspects of our operations. We also have biannual workshops where all the helicopter leadership and management go and refresh on training. So we take great lengths to, you know, ensure safety of our helicopter operations. When something like this happens we do gather our helicopter and aviation people and really talk, you know, to them and make sure that they feel good about the operations and that we can continue on. So it's a very serious thing to us, and we're very concerned about it.

KOPPEL: Well, there are -- while there are obviously aerial attempts in trying to fight these blazes, you've also got any number of firefighters who are on the ground really manning the front line in these blazes. What about trying to beef up security or some kind of safety measures on their behalf?

STREET: Well, anytime we have these kind of fatality accidents we -- at every briefing that these firefighters get daily, we go over safety and we try to pass on information and lessons learned and those kind of things so that the people understand, you know, what took place and that they can, you know, be assured as we can make them about their activities daily.

KOPPEL: What is it, do you think, sir, about this year's fires? And we know that there are several of them burning in West Glacier (ph), Montana, alone that have made the situation so particularly dangerous for firefighters?

STREET: Well, Andrea, what we're faced with is, you know, many years of fuels or vegetation accumulation in the West. And that's a pretty well-known fact. So when we have fires under really dry, droughty conditions and, you know, we have serious and very difficult to control fire, so that's happened over a number of the last years, and we're just continuing to see that, that same thing occur. So we're just -- you know, we're doing the best that we can in trying to bring as many resources to bear on the problem as we possibly can.

KOPPEL: What is behind, what was the source of these fire -- of these wildfires? Was it purely the weather, or were there other factors involved?

STREET: Well, there is a number of factors involved in any fire. You know, drought certainly in the West is a factor. You know, the weather conditions at the time are a very significant factor. And lately we've had a lot of hot temperatures and a lot of windy days. And those kind of conditions create very difficult to control fires.

KOPPEL: All right. I'd like to thank you for joining us. Phil Street, who is with the National Interagency Fire Center joining us live on the phone there from Boise, Idaho.

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 July 27, 2003 - 16:36   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: There had been five deaths fighting western fire fires in just the last week, and this year's fire season is still in the early stages. Two helicopter crashes claimed three lives, and two firefighters were killed when a fast-moving fire overran their position in a remote canyon in Idaho.
Joining us by phone from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, is Phil Street. He is the fire director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the center. Mr. Street, thank you for joining us.

PHIL STREET, U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE: My pleasure.

KOPPEL: Is this an unusual number of deaths? I recognize that you've been fighting fire, it seems, almost every year that there are some major fires. But how bad was it this year so far?

STREET: Well, it's an unusual number of fatalities. We don't normally have that many fatalities in our air operations. Last year was particularly bad. We had quite a few more accidents last year. But in helicopter operations I would say that this is -- this has been a bad year for the number of fatalities that have occurred so far.

KOPPEL: So what, if anything, are you able to do to try to ensure the safety of your firefighters who are involved in aerial operations?

STREET: We do an awful lot of training with our helicopter operations people. We have annual refresher trainings every year where we stress safety and go over all the different safety aspects of our operations. We also have biannual workshops where all the helicopter leadership and management go and refresh on training. So we take great lengths to, you know, ensure safety of our helicopter operations. When something like this happens we do gather our helicopter and aviation people and really talk, you know, to them and make sure that they feel good about the operations and that we can continue on. So it's a very serious thing to us, and we're very concerned about it.

KOPPEL: Well, there are -- while there are obviously aerial attempts in trying to fight these blazes, you've also got any number of firefighters who are on the ground really manning the front line in these blazes. What about trying to beef up security or some kind of safety measures on their behalf?

STREET: Well, anytime we have these kind of fatality accidents we -- at every briefing that these firefighters get daily, we go over safety and we try to pass on information and lessons learned and those kind of things so that the people understand, you know, what took place and that they can, you know, be assured as we can make them about their activities daily.

KOPPEL: What is it, do you think, sir, about this year's fires? And we know that there are several of them burning in West Glacier (ph), Montana, alone that have made the situation so particularly dangerous for firefighters?

STREET: Well, Andrea, what we're faced with is, you know, many years of fuels or vegetation accumulation in the West. And that's a pretty well-known fact. So when we have fires under really dry, droughty conditions and, you know, we have serious and very difficult to control fire, so that's happened over a number of the last years, and we're just continuing to see that, that same thing occur. So we're just -- you know, we're doing the best that we can in trying to bring as many resources to bear on the problem as we possibly can.

KOPPEL: What is behind, what was the source of these fire -- of these wildfires? Was it purely the weather, or were there other factors involved?

STREET: Well, there is a number of factors involved in any fire. You know, drought certainly in the West is a factor. You know, the weather conditions at the time are a very significant factor. And lately we've had a lot of hot temperatures and a lot of windy days. And those kind of conditions create very difficult to control fires.

KOPPEL: All right. I'd like to thank you for joining us. Phil Street, who is with the National Interagency Fire Center joining us live on the phone there from Boise, Idaho.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com