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Morning News

Western Wildfires: Incident Commander Discusses Concerns of Firefighters

Aired August 15, 2000 - 10:46 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: Wildfires snaking across the Western United States, breeding now as the hot, dry summer incubates nearly a million acres of woodland. Firefighters, both civilian and military, battling 82 different blazes in 13 different states from California, through to Texas.

Nature is not helping out either. Lightning strikes kindle fresh fires, as fast as crews can corner them.

Nearly a third of the fires are scorching Idaho. The biggest in the nation, at Clear Creek, was more than 40 percent contained.

Two dozen more fires blazing east of Idaho, in Montana, but there's better news for folks living in the Bitterroot Valley. Improved conditions allowing hundreds of evacuees to return to their homes there.

Rusty Dornin in Darby, which is also in Western Montana, near the Bitterroot, now joins us live with more -- Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, about 200 evacuees got the green light to go home yesterday, are returning yesterday and through this morning, but that, by no means, should give a false impression that this fire is winding down.

Here to tell us little bit more about the concerns of firefighters is Steve Frye. He is the incident commander on the valley fire.

Steve, what are the concerns today, weatherwise? and also for other evacuees and the structures?

STEVE FRYE, INCIDENT COMMANDER: Today we are providing structure protection for over 600 structures. We have a weather forecast for higher winds, lower relative humidity, and high temperatures. Those conditions will move this fire very quickly in many different directions.

DORNIN: Does it also make it difficult for firefighters to get close to the fires when the winds are erratic, that sort of thing, what do they do in that kind of a situation? what do they concentrate on? FRYE: Every day we have had to pull firefighters back from the line because of erratic winds and intense fire activity. We expect that that could happen again today, given our weather forecast.

DORNIN: You were talking earlier about how big -- give people an idea how big and how long the fire lines are in this that firefighters are trying to get a handle on.

FRYE: The valley complex is over 170,000 acres, with roughly 800 miles of fire line, most of that uncontained.

DORNIN: So that today they are going to be concentrating on protective structures closer to the highways, those areas.

FRYE: We are actually protecting structures in a variety of area, some of them quite a ways from highways. Our primary focus is firefighter and public safety, and then the protection of private property and structures.

DORNIN: Are you still feeling like this is something that is going to be going on for another few weeks at this point?

FRYE: Without any break in the weather, this fire is going to continue for some time.

DORNIN: OK, Steven Frye, thank you very much, the incident commander here in the valley fire.

Also, today, the smoke is still very thick,. which means the fixed-wing aircraft can't get up in the air. They are hoping to get some helicopters up so they can do some aerial attacks later in the day.

Rusty Dornin, reporting live near Darby, Montana.

HEMMER: All right, Rusty, we will keep our fingers crossed for folks there. Rusty, thank you.

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