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Wednesday, June 5, 2002
Chance of rain brings hope
to Colorado firefighters
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CANON CITY, Colo. (AP)
L_ A chance of more rain
Accompanying cooler weather
brought hope Tuesday to fire
fighters battling a 4,400-acre
blaze that has destroyed at
least 85 homes in south-cen-
Itral Colorado.
Hundreds of firefighters
worked to extend a containment
line around the fire burning
through parched trees and brush
in mountains south of Canon
City, about 100 miles southwest
of Denver.
A strong cold front moved
through the area overnight,
bringing higher humidity, lower
temperatures and a chance of
afternoon thunderstorms.
Bureau of Land Management
spokeswoman Barb Masinton
said Tuesday.
There’s still a risk to
homes,” she said. “But this
weather certainly is making a
big difference.”
The fire was just 10 percent
to 20 percent surrounded
Tuesday. Authorities had said
Monday that it was up to 40 per
cent contained, but they said
Tuesday that the number had
been recalculated.
One of several burning
throughout the West, the fire
forced hundreds of people out of
their homes and closed Royal
Gorge Park, west of Canon City.
A general store, up to 100
homes and several other build
ings were destroyed, and up to
700 more homes were at risk,
fire officials said.
Fremont County Sheriff Ivan
Middlemiss said the fire may
have been started by an outdoor
barbecue grill.
Four air tankers dropped fire
retardant on the blaze Monday.
Fire commander Kim Martin
said there is stiff competition for
use of the planes because of the
umber of fires burning in the
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Drought provides fuel for the fires
Wildfire activity continues across the country with over 1.2 million acres burned already this year, nearly
twice the 10-year average. The majority of active wildfires are in the Southwest, where persistent drought
conditions have made firefighting difficult.
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Wildfire acreage* ^
4 1,000 or less
* 1,001 to 10,000
dllfe Over 10,000
Areas of extreme drought*
* Wildfires as of June 4.
** Drought areas as of May 28.
SOURCES: National Interagency Fire Center; GeoMac Web site; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
remains a top priority.
“As long as houses are
threatened, we’re competitive,”
Martin said.
Torched-out areas resembled
a moonscape, Middlemiss said.
He said charred trees and black
ened houses were next to other
houses with no damage.
In Las Animas County, bor
dering New Mexico, a 4,800-
acre Tire damaged at least one
home and forced the evacuation
of l l ranches and three other
homes near Trinidad.
A separate fire of about
15,000 acres in the same area
threatened three communities
and had burned across some
methane-gas fields, fire infor
mation officer Alan Hoffmeister
said. The gas wells were shut
down and the pipelines were
drained, he said.
In California, flames crack
led across more than 9,000 acres
of timber and brush as firefight
ers continued to wage an all-out
assault on five wildfires. Unlike
in Colorado, the weather fore
cast was not improving.
Several structures and a
trailer were destroyed, but no
homes were lost or threatened in
blazes raging in Los Padres, San
Bernardino, Sequoia and
Angeles national forests. Three
minor injuries to firefighters
were reported.
The largest fire, north of Ojai
in Ventura County, burned
across 6,200 acres by early
Tuesday. It was being fought by
21 helicopters and air tankers
that dumped water and retardant
on fiames in support of 1,234
firefighters working to surround
the flames.
“The weather isn’t looking
good for the next couple of
days,” said Joe Pasinato of the
U.S. Forest Service. “We have 8
percent humidity, 25 mph wind
and 85 degree temperatures.”
In New Mexico, six light
ning-sparked fires have
charred more than 18,500
acres of bone-dry forest. That
includes the northern fire that
burned into Colorado’s Las
Animas County.
A 4,440-acre fire in north
ern New Mexico’s Mora
County prompted evacuations
of seven to eight homes in the
Naranjo area, while a 500-acre
fire on the Vermejo Ranch in
Cimarron Canyon led the state
Forestry Division to recom
mend that residents of
Cimarron leave the area.
Fire crews in southern
Arizona were mopping up areas
burned by a 30,000-acre wildfire
in the Coronado National
Forest. The fire was burning in
an unoccupied area and no
structures were threatened.
page 3
NEWS IN BRIEF
ACLU files lawsuit against
airlines for discrimination
NEW YORK (AP) — The American Civil
Liberties Union filed five lawsuits Tuesday accus
ing airlines of illegally removing passengers who
looked Middle Eastern.
The lawsuits, filed in California, Maryland and
New Jersey, said five men were removed from
flights last year because of their skin color. Four
of the passengers are U.S. citizens and the fifth
is a permanent legal resident. Two of the five are
of Arab descent.
ACLU attorney Reginald Shuford blamed
poor airline policies drawn up to respond to the
threat of terrorism since Sept. 11.
Children of Sept. 11 victims
will be tracked for two years
NEW YORK (AP) - A group of children who
lost parents in the Sept. 11 attack on the World
Trade Center will be tracked for two years by
psychiatrists studying grief and its effect on child
development.
Seven children — whose parents were fire
fighters, police officers and office workers killed
in the twin towers — so far are participating in
the study, which began last month at Weill
Medical College of Cornell University's
Childhood Bereavement Program.
Researchers hope to attract about 50 fami
lies, according to Dr. Cynthia Pfeffer, a professor
of psychiatry who has extensively studied child
hood bereavement.
"We're going to be evaluating them at six-
month intervals on their emotional, physical and
social development," Pfeffer said. "There is very
little information about child bereavement, and
the loss of a parent is one of the most major
stresses a child can experience."
Research contends biases
present in medical journals
CHICAGO (AP) — One of the world’s
leading medical journals has put itself and
its competitors under the microscope with
research showing that published studies
are sometimes misleading and frequently
fail to mention weaknesses.
Some problems can be traced to bias
es and conflicts of interest among peer
reviewers, who are outside scientists
tapped by journal editors to help decide
whether a research paper should be pub
lished, according to several articles in
this week’s Journal of the
American Medical
Association (JAMA).
Other problems originate
in news releases some jour
nals prepare to call attention
to what they believe are
newsworthy studies. The
releases do not routinely
mention study limitations or
industry funding and may
exaggerate the importance
of findings, according to
one JAMA study.
Wednesday’s JAMA, devoted entire
ly to such issues, “is our attempt to
police ourselves, to question ourselves
and to look at better ways to make sure
that we’re honest and straightforward
and maintain the integrity of the jour
nals,” said Dr. Catherine DeAngelis,
JAMA’s editor.
The articles “underscore that the find
ings presented in the press and medical
journals are not always facts or as certain
as they seem,” said Rob Logan, director
of the Science Journalism Center at the
I imagine that
from time to time we
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screw up.
— Dr. jeffrey Drazen
editor of the New England
Journal of Medicine
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DeAngelis said problems are most
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Journal editors are concerned that
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