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Saturday Morning News

Dry, Hot and Windy Weather Keeping Western Wildfires Blazing

Aired August 26, 2000 - 9:39 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: This week, wildfires are burning in Texas, Florida, and across the West. It's time now to go back out to the firelines out West, where our Greg Lefevre has been following the massive fight against these wildfires. He's ready to take your questions by phone. Once again, that number is 404-221-1855. And as we always say, operators are standing by.

Mr. Lefevre, good to see you, sir.

Dawn has broken, and it's a smoky dawn indeed, isn't it?

GREG LEFEVRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is indeed, and that's good and bad. The smoke, the inversion layer, cools the fire down and slows it down. But it also obscures the vision, which means the helicopters can't get up and spot and figure out where exactly the fire is this morning.

So a little good and bad. It's very cool this morning, it's going to be very hot this afternoon.

Miles?

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's go to the e-mails right now, Greg, and we got quite a few along these lines. This one is sort of representative, this comes from Mr. T. Baxter. "Why hasn't the Clinton-Gore administration sent out all available Army and Marine helicopters and tens of thousands of troops to fight these fires weeks ago? They send the armed forces all around the world to do nonmilitary functions, why not in their own country?"

LEFEVRE: Part of the problem is that while you have a lot of manpower, you probably don't have a lot of training. The biggest issue here has been fire management, the number of people to supervise these fires. We do have soldiers and Marines coming in, but it takes training, usually about 32 hours' worth of training, before these people are qualified to be anywhere near the firelines.

It's hazardous duty out there, not like warfare, but it is different, and it is hazardous. And it takes time to get these people fixed and ready to go.

Miles?

O'BRIEN: All right, back to the e-mail. This one comes from Lorne Schinbein of Dunedin, Florida. "What is the greatest hurdle they," referring to the firefighters, "are facing in attempts to respond early to any new fires? Is it the sheer volume, the remoteness, the dry conditions, lack of resources? And what measures can be taken before the next fire season next year to lessen the risk of a similar situation?"

Why don't you take the first one first, what's the biggest challenge, just the volume?

LEFEVRE: The answer is, all of the above. The biggest problem very early on was the massive number of fires. We talk about the Skalkaho, complex, for example, as the Skalkaho complex. Complex is the word. That fire is a jillion little tiny fires. We were up on the lines yesterday. Some of those fires are 200 feet across, some of those fires are 500 feet across. And you can't go through this one and this one and this one and fight them all individually.

So the first problem is the huge number of fires. The second problem is, you only have so many people to fight these fires, so you have to get them out there, logistics. You have to find a way to get a number of people out to a number of fires at the same time. The winds picked up and blew a lot of them out of control very early.

And that second question was...

O'BRIEN: The second question, "What measures can be taken before the next fire season next year to lessen the risk of a similar situation?"

LEFEVRE: Well, you can work on the Almighty, as we were told here this morning, and see if we can avoid another dry season like we had today.

A lot of this is taking care of itself, areas that burned this year will not burn again next year. Areas prone to burning this year will not burn next year. Also, there's a renewed effort in Congress to free up some of the resources during the winter to conduct more controlled burns in some certain areas to keep these fires from spotting over and getting out of control next year, limiting some of the, if you will, fuel in the forest will help.

O'BRIEN: All right. So the sad fact is, the fires tend to prevent additional fires in those same places, at least.

Let's go to our phone calls, this one comes from Dave in Phoenix. Good morning, Dave.

CALLER: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: You have a question, sir?

CALLER: Yes, I do. Question is, with all the personnel that are needed and resources that are needed to fight these fires, there's hundreds and hundreds of very trained people and resources in the Southwest, particularly in Arizona and New Mexico, that are not being utilized. O'BRIEN: And the question is...

LEFEVRE: There is concern in -- And I heard the question, and we were hearing that in the camp here just the other day. There is a concern about pulling resources from other areas that may be fire prone. Currently in the Southwest, we're in the monsoon season, going through Arizona and New Mexico, and it's fairly wet down there.

But for example, in California, where the Pumus (ph) fire is now burning fiercely, there were a number of firefighting resources that were kept in place there, pretty much sitting on their hands, but the firefighters knew that they could not come up here if fire broke out there. And of course they were needed there.

So you have to keep a certain number of people in place around the country. It may look like it's a waste of resources, but if fire breaks out there, it's a good two, maybe three days before you can move resources in from another part of the country.

O'BRIEN: All right, back to the e-mail, Greg. This one comes from Gordon Foster, who says he's waiting for an answer. "Has there been any conversation about the errors of past in conservation? The tree-huggers gained control of the forests, and this is the result. Back in the '30s in New York state, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the CCC, plowed and dragged fire lanes in all our upstate forests to prevent this sort of thing. But like everything else, we seem to be dumbing down," says Gordon.

LEFEVRE: I heard that conversation just yesterday. I was talking to a forester who said, "The best thing that could happen to this forest is that it could be logged or burned." And he wasn't talking about clearing out the forest, he was talking about thinning the forest.

When it -- when we're up in the Skalkaho complex -- I'm pointing this way because it's right over the -- well, it's right through the smoke over there -- when you look at the forest floor, it is thick with dead trees, fall -- dead fall trees, if you will, fuel ready to burn.

And the foresters' argument is -- and it's a controversial one in some quarters -- that some of those logs need to be taken out, so -- as used as a resource, building homes or whatever. And if this forest floor is cleared a little bit, you will have less of this raging fire, you won't have as much fuel to go through.

The question about using the Civilian Conservation Corps or other corps like that to do the work is a matter of political diversion. Some of these are -- organizations are being assigned to city duty, urban duty, suburban duty, and not forest duty. So it depends on your political priorities. Talk to Congress, see what they say.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's go back to the phone lines. Greg is in New York City. Good morning, Greg.

CALLER: Good morning, Greg, hi, Greg. My question was... LEFEVRE: You got a great name.

CALLER: Yes, I love it too, yes. My question was about tourism, the effect of tourism, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) people moving into Montana area, if you know any statistics about that.

LEFEVRE: The statistics are a bit slow in coming, because it will be months before the losses are tallied. The losses are huge. Just west of town here, a beautiful trout stream, and it's rich with trout, is going unfished because the public lands have been -- most of the public lands here in western Montana have been closed, either by the federal government or by Governor Mark Racicot.

The reason is, it's just too dangerous to be there, one the fire hazard, and two the danger to people that they're caught behind fire lines if a fire happens to come through.

Tourism is very big this time of year. There's hunting, there's hiking, there's camping, bed and breakfast. A lot of people come to western Montana this time of year, and most of them are just deciding to stay away. A few private resorts are still in place, but the losses will be huge, and we really won't know until sometime this winter.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Greg Lefevre is on the firelines. Thanks, Greg, for taking time out to answer some questions. Thanks to all of you for some good questions. And by all means, Greg, you and your crew be safe out there.

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