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Morning News

New Mexico Fires: Preliminary Government Report Expected Today; Blaze 60 Percent Contained

Aired May 18, 2000 - 10:07 a.m. ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get the latest on the firefighting efforts.

For that, we go to Jim Hill who is in Los Alamos with more.

Jim, good morning again.

JIM HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

The Cerro Grande Fire, as its called, is now just under 48,000 acres. It is burning toward the north away from populated areas, so fire officials say this is a good scenario. In other words, they want this fire as far from populated areas as it can be, and that's pretty much what the fire is doing.

At this point, the U.S. Forest Service says the fire is 60 percent contained. Think of containment as a ring around the fire to encircle it with the fire line that the fire can't go beyond. That circle is now about 60 percent complete.

Now, the weather conditions are favorable so far. The wind is calm this morning, the temperatures relatively cool. The humidity is still quite low, but, overall, firefighters believe the conditions are quite good, very much in their favor, and they are anticipating full containment within the next couple of days.

As far as controlling this fire, having it fully under control in all the hot spots out, so to speak, that we're not sure of yet. But, overall, the U.S. Forest Service says this has really been a very, very bad fire season in New Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM PAXON, U.S. FOREST SERVICE: Driest winter in recorded history that goes back to about 1700; from Los Angeles to Waco, Texas, the entire Southwest. That sets the stage for many large, climaxed and replacing fires. So all of the forests in the Southwest are tinder dry. All we need is an ignition, and that can be person-caused or lightning. When we see clouds on the horizon, it's going to cause us some concern because the forests are just so dry, that any fire we get has the potential to grow extremely big really quick.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HILL: Although this was a large fire and a fast-moving fire, the largest fire in recorded history here in New Mexico, it did not claim any lives and there were only three relatively minor injuries. So the property damage notwithstanding, officials say they got off relatively easy for the size of this fire.

I'm Jim Hill, reporting live from Los Alamos, New Mexico.

KAGAN: Stay with CNN for live coverage of Bruce Babbitt's release of that preliminary report. Right now, that is now scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Eastern, 12:30 Pacific.

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

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