ad info

 
CNN.comTranscripts
 
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback  

 

  Search
 
 

 

TOP STORIES

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

Rescues continue 4 days after devastating India earthquake

DaimlerChrysler employees join rapidly swelling ranks of laid-off U.S. workers

Disney's GO.com is a goner

(MORE)

MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 4/16
144.70
8257.60
3.71
1394.72
10.90
879.91
 


WORLD

U.S.

POLITICS

LAW

TECHNOLOGY

ENTERTAINMENT

 
TRAVEL

ARTS & STYLE



(MORE HEADLINES)
 
CNN Websites
Networks image


Saturday Morning News

Government Gives Firefighters 'Blank Check' to Stop Western Blazes

Aired August 19, 2000 - 8:11 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: Turning now to some domestic news. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt says firefighters have a blank check to battle the huge wildfires in the west. Meanwhile, the Army is sending some famous reinforcements into that battle and the Forest Service is asking recent retirees to come back to work.

CNN's Charles Zewe is on the fire lines in Montana.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLES ZEWE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fires burning wildly out of control across a quarter million acres of Montana's rugged Bitterroot Valley have fire crews stretched thin. More than 2,000 U.S. and Canadian firefighters are battling what is the nation's single biggest blaze. Fire officials say, however, they have only a third of the manpower needed to contain such an inferno.

MATT REIDY, FIRE CREW SUPERVISOR: Don't get it too hot underneath that Doug fir.

ZEWE: Firefighters set so-called back fires to herd the flames across slopes thick with tinder dry fir trees and decaying mistletoe.

REIDY: It's kind of guerrilla warfare. We're just digging in where we can and getting our licks in and holding it and moving on.

ZEWE: Smoke so thick it blocks out the sun is making that tough to do. An increasing number of firefighters report breathing trouble. Millions of angry bees are also a problem.

ROB GILL, FIREFIGHTER: The bees are kind of aggravated. We've been putting plow lines in and the fire, of course, is burning up their homes, as well, so they get all swarmed up.

ZEWE: In an attempt to protect hundreds of mountain cabins, fire crews have cut down scores of trees near the structures. And in some areas in the fire's path installed elaborate sprinkler systems to wet down threatened trees and houses. Sprinklers were placed around retirees Tom and Vivian Hattaway's (ph) log home but seeing 60 trees chopped down around their house to create a fire break was tough to take.

VIVIAN HATTAWAY: It's just, it's all we've got. We've got to fight.

ZEWE: Unlike their neighbors, they did not evacuate and say they have no plans to leave.

(on camera): And what's the point at which you say we've got to go?

TOM HATTAWAY: When my heels are burning.

ZEWE (voice-over): Firefighters say a simple wind shift could make that happen within minutes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZEWE: Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt saying that the federal government will write a blank check for overtime and lodging and transportation costs, but they simply don't have enough people to fight the fires. They're asking retirees to come back to work on the fire lines, mostly as supervisors and fire crew bosses -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, Charles, give us an idea of the kind of numbers they need right now to fight these blazes?

ZEWE: Well, you heard one of the firefighters in our piece say they only have one third of the number that they really need to fight a big fire like the Bitterroot Valley fire. But there is help on the way. Five hundred soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, along was another battalion, which is about 500 troops, U.S. Marines from Camp LeJeune, North Carolina, will be in Montana next week.

We're going into the most intense part of the fire season and even though the number of people coming into the fire zone keeps going up, the number of fires keeps going up. Ninety-two fires as of right now are burning across the west, covering more than 1.1 million acres -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Charles Zewe on the fire lines, thanks much.

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

 Search   


Back to the top  © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.