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Morning News

Crews Continue to Battle Major Colorado Blazes; Fire Behavior Analyst Sees Today as 'Critical'

Aired June 15, 2000 - 9:01 a.m. ET

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

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: We start this morning out West again, that dry and hot and dangerous weather that's helping to destroy crops in the south and fueling wildfires out West. In Colorado, crews battling two major blazes bracing for a day of strong and gusty winds.

CNN's Rusty Dornin in Park County, Colorado near the town of Bailey. That's southwest of Denver.

Rusty, good morning to you. How are conditions thus far?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Bill.

The feeling of the camp here at Hi Meadows is one of almost a military encampment. These guys are ready to go out and do battle today. What they're expecting are very high winds. It's a red-flag warning: very low humidity, high, gusty winds, maybe gusting up to 40, 50 miles an hour, which creates very dangerous conditions.

Now, these firefighters are mobilizing, getting ready to go out on the lines. And they did not stay on the fire lines last night. There have been a shortage of firefighters on this fire, and they actually brought them back in so they could rest and prepare for the worst.

Now, they will be going out in a little while. And before they went, they had a briefing with a gentleman who is going to tell us a little about what the fire behavior is today: Shane Delgrasso, a fire behavior expert.

Shane, tell us a little bit. You were giving some pretty serious advice about what those guys could be seeing out there today. Talk to us about that.

SHANE DELGRASSO, FIRE BEHAVIOR ANALYST: Well, today, like you said, we have red-flag conditions, and we're going to see -- well, we're expecting blowup-like conditions. And what that means is we're going to see high rates of spread, we're going to see possibilities of torching and crowning. Spot fires will be a problem.

DORNIN: And that's possibility of it spreading, then, right?

DELGRASSO: Correct. The fuels are extremely dry, the topography is rough in these creek bottoms, and those are going to hamper firefighting efforts.

DORNIN: Yes, and hampering the efforts, are you able to get aircraft, can you get hand crews in? What can you...?

DELGRASSO: With the fire intensities, the flame lengths will probably exceed the capabilities of engines and hand crews directly along the fire line. The high winds will also adversely affect the effectiveness of air operations and bucket drops. So there -- we may get shut down due to high winds.

DORNIN: So you've got an almost 10-percent containment line, but that could be -- go out the window, then, today, really.

DELGRASSO: Yes, today is going to be a critical day on this fire.

DORNIN: OK, good. Thank you very much, Shane Delgrasso, a fire behavior analyst here.

One piece of good news, or a couple pieces of good news: 400 firefighters are arriving from other states that are going to be helping out here today on this fire. Also, the weather will be changing. One of the reasons the wind gusts are coming up today is there is a cold front that's expected to come in overnight and bring moisture. So that could -- there could be a respite from the fire, although they're going to have to keep a sharp eye on it today in hopes that it won't get out of hand.

Rusty Dornin, reporting live near Bailey, Colorado.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Rusty, thank you.

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