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Morning News

Missoula Area Gets Some Rain Help Against Fires

Aired August 11, 2000 - 9:15 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 want to shift our attention now to that devastating wildfires still blazing in the west. So it looks, though, like Mother Nature, giving firefighters a bit of a helping hand in some areas, this in the form of rain and cooler temperatures. However, crews, not out of the woods by a longshot.

CNN's Don Knapp live in Hamilton, Montana, this morning, site of one of the worst blazes just yet.

Missoula, is that your location, Don?

DON KNAPP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Missoula, Bill, yes, and as you can see, we're getting a little bit of rain here. We've had a little bit of wind, a little bit of lightning this morning. That is a significant change in the weather. It's bound to have an effect on the firefighting. But just how much effect is just too soon to tell whether it will help or hinder the firefighting effort.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON KNAPP, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fires deliberately set during an evening calm helped crews clear some space in front of a huge tract of smoldering forest. But the still air has also filled the Bitterroot Valley with heavy smoke, making breathing difficult for residents, grounding firefighting helicopters and air tankers, but giving ground crews a break, as they work through the smoldering remains of 185,000 acres of forest that have burned here since July 31.

But what had begun to look like a standoff between firefighters and the fires over the past few days, may suddenly be turning against the firefighters.

BOB SANDMAN, ACTING INCIDENT COMMANDER: We've got some thunderstorms that are moving in from the West and from the South. And if they move in to our area, the winds from those thunderstorms could blow the smoke out of here. And if that happens, it's going to have the effect of opening a damper on a stove, and we're going to see a dramatic increase in the fire behavior.

KNAPP: These crews have been working in areas already burned over to prevent them from flaring up again. Meanwhile, several hundred families wait to see if houses they evacuated will escape the flames. JOAN PERRY, EVACUEE: You know, there's that sense of fear that comes and goes when you're in a situation like that. We could lose our whole valley. I mean, we don't know. I don't want to go there with my thinking. We can only do one day at a time.

KNAPP: About 500 more crewmen are headed here to help out. But the real shortage may be in management. There are only 16 top-level fire management teams for all the U.S.

BOB SUMMERFIELD, FIRE MANAGEMENT TEAM: I don't see funding as the issue in being able to staff for these fires; I see it being more an issue of just not having the expertise within the agencies any longer, and the expertise that we do have is stretched so thin because people have other jobs that they have to do, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KNAPP: Summerfield and all the other firefighters we talked with about this subject say they're concerned that retirements and government downsizing is cutting the pool of experience. And they wonder where the next generation of leaders of these elite firefighting teams is coming from.

Reporting live, Don Knapp, CNN, Missoula, Montana.

HEMMER: All right, Don, thank you.

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