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Morning News

California Wildfire Still Out of Control

Aired January 4, 2001 - 9:01 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: Incredible pictures to show you from southern California. The fire that we showed you on our watch yesterday morning burning near Alpine, California, continues to burn out of control.

Yesterday what was just a couple of hundred acres is now over 8,000 acres. A number of homes have burned, there have been some injuries.

Let's go ahead and check in with our Jim Hill, who is standing by about 30 miles east of San Diego, in Alpine.

Jim, good morning.

JIM HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

This fire is now just over 24 hours old, burning southwest of Alpine, California, as you say, about 30 miles east of San Diego.

We have some shots: You can look over my shoulder and see one of the flare-ups that is occurring along a ridge line here. This is rather typical of the scenes that people throughout this area might be waking up to this morning, some 24 hours after that fire started right along Interstate Highway 8, just after 4:00 yesterday morning.

We also have some videotape shot by our affiliate in San Diego, KGTV, overnight. Burning conditions continued rather precarious overnight. The winds were still a factor. This tinder dry brush land -- chaparral, they call it in this area -- was consumed by the fire overnight. The winds, however, died down during the early morning hours, and the fire didn't spread quite as quickly.

The worst part of this fire really was during the daylight hours Wednesday after it broke out, in the early morning. This was when those hot, dry Santa Ana winds fanned the fire, winds blowing 30, 40 miles an hour in some cases through this tinder-dry territory.

At that point, some 300 people were evacuated from their homes. At least six homes were burned, as well a number of trailers. In some cases, they're not sure if those trailers were residences or not. They'll have to go in today and kind of check that out.

As for what today holds, well, 1,500 firefighters are on the lines, ready to do their hand work, as they call it, trying to dig lines and control this fire.

The big wildcard continues to be the Santa Ana winds. Once the sun comes up, it's possible they might kick up once again. If that happens, firefighters will not be able to do their hand work quite as easily. They'll have to withdraw in some cases, be pulled out for safety, and then firefighters will rely on the five air tankers and five water-dropping helicopters they have in this area to do most of the work. That was the case yesterday.

But they're hoping they can get those hand crews, some 1,500 of them, on the lines here and try to contain this fire. But as yet, no estimate of containment, no estimate of control. The only good part of this is that, so far, no major injuries have been reported -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jim Hill, in Alpine, California, we'll be checking in with you throughout the morning, thank you very much.

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