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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 26, 2002)
Wednesday, June 26, 2002 NAW the BATT4U Bush consoles evacuees, promises aid SHOW LOW, Ariz. (AP) - As one of the worst wildfires in the history of the West devoured more ground Tuesday, President Bush declared the charred region a disaster area and consoled evacuees at a school that has become a mass shelter, telling them: “Hang in there. You’re brave and great people.” The president toured the area by air and saw a string of devastated mountain com munities that have lost at least 390 homes and dozens of businesses to flames feeding on paper-dry underbrush and stands of ponderosa pine. Some 30,000 people have fled their homes, and some will be helped by funds made available under the disaster declaration. “We’re kind of used to big fires out West,” Bush said, “but this is the biggest of big fires.” The blaze has blackened 375,00 acres or 586 square miles, an area larger than Los Angeles, with no containment in sight. Smoke has spread across the Southwest and was seen as far south as Las Cruces, N.M. It is by far the biggest and most damaging fire of what is still a very young fire season. A blackened buffer zone carved overnight kept the fire on the outskirts of the mountain town of Show Low, the region’s abandoned economic hub. But the blaze roared on its western flank, where 15 more homes burned. “It’s like a tidal wave, it’s just amazing,” fire spokesman Ed Perault said. “It’s fire like a lot of folks have never seen.” With his shirt sleeves rolled up. Bush told about 300 evacuees at a high school cafeteria in nearby Eagar that “a lot of peo ple in our country are pulling for you.” “They understand that a lot of you are liv ing in tents when you'd rather be in your own bed,” Bush said. “They cry for you and they hurt with you and I’m here to say on behalf of the American people, God bless you.” He shook hands with firefighters and evacuees, and heard a grim assessment from Larry Humphrey, a fire commander with the Bureau of Land Management. “With the fuel built up and the dryness of the conditions there’s not a heck of a lot we can do,” Humphrey said. On the western edge of Show Low, bulldozers dug a 60-foot-wide scar in the ground and crews set fires to burn their way back to the larger blaze, depriving it of new fuel. Less than a half-mile from Show Low’s homes, gray smoke turned to black as flames shot through the tops of trees along the fire line. “It’s really starting to cook,” said Don Butty an, who works for the fire department in the town of 7,700. The fire was wreaking its worst damage Tuesday on its western flank: In the Heber-Overgaard area, about 35 miles west of Show Low, at least 238 homes and six businesses have been destroyed. A fish hatchery, ranch and hundreds of homes could be in danger depending on what the fire does next. “We know about our place. It’s burned down,” said Jerry Roeller, 68. “We saw it on TV about a hundred times.” Roeller and his wife, Martha, lived in the Pinecrest Lakes RV Park in Overgaard. Videotape of the park showed burned-out metal shells and charred foundation where homes once stood. The Roellers were stay ing at a motel until they could return to see if there is anything to salvage. “I want to stand on the ashes if I have to,” Roeller said. “But I want to see the place.” The wildfire, formed by two smaller blazes that merged Sunday, is the largest in Arizona history. A lost hiker started one fire trying to signal for help. The other fire is believed to be human-caused, but the exact origin has not been determined. With the number of homes lost, the fire has done more damage than the Los Alamos, N.M., blaze that destroyed about 220 homes and businesses two years ago. “I’ve been doing this 29 years. This is the worst fire I’ve been on and our team was the first on the scene at Los Alamos,” Humphrey said. In Colorado, hot weather and shifting wind made it another miserable day for fire fighters near Durango. A fire there has burned nearly 67,000 acres, at least 45 homes and damaged hundreds of power poles, cutting off electricity to more than 500 abandoned homes. “Durango is just full of smoke,” added David Waller, spokesman for the La Plata County Electric Association. “Every morn ing we wake up to thick smoke.” Southwest of Denver, crews had 70 per cent containment of a 137,000-acre fire. The 2,500 evacuees still waiting to return home. They worried their community near Deckers, about 40 miles southwest of Denver, would never be the same. “All of a sudden, I find myself tongue- tied,’ said Ruth Johnson, 79. Confidence in June, home sales sag in May NEW YORK (AP) fy 0 | u Consumer confidence w * to a four-month low inJm dragged down in part anxiety over the cop accounting scandals. The Conference Boards; its Consumer Confide- Index fell to 106.4 f month from a revised i|[S in May, the second-, drop since the Sept. 11° rorist attacks. Analysts w r ; x v Ray V expecting a reading of lot A separate report sbM.^ *' that sales of previa; ; owned homes also dip;. l | "" ' in May, though the was still the fourth-higi monthly level on rea, thanks largely to lowr gage rates. President George W. Bush looks out the window of Air Force One during an aerial tour of the forest fires over Springerville, Arizona on Tuesday. Judge enters innocent pleafo Moussaoui Disaster area declared President Bush visited the area burned by \ the Rodeo Fire and declared it a disaster area) Tuesday, making available federal funds for j those in need. ^Flagstaff O^lfcO mi oTfo km \ H ARIZ. COLO N.M. \ MEXICO Detail Bel exas- Bo\ Larry school about i A Show Low Rodeo Fire 375,000 acres burned SOURCES: Associated Press; National Forest Service; ESRI; GDT AP ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP)- federal judge refus; Tuesday to change the sfe Zacarias Moussaoui’s and entered a plea of ii cent on his behalf durinp volatile hearing for the man charged in conn with the Sept. 11 attacks. Throughout his arras ment a short distance the Pentagon, Moussi clashed with U.S. Di Judge Leonie Brinkemaot- his legal rights. "I have no plea. 1 will pit no contest. I have nothim say to the United Sta! That's all," he declared. Brinkema interrup Moussaoui, who flanked by U.S. marsha; he stood before the d and told him a plea contest — nolo conte w 1 s',' ? n. Zac fessor June 2 I compl j Cystic “In accorr more during ■ year 1 Laurei friend I since Ac< | ated fr dictori Presid to stuc Wi major jfe high!) ■ woven I tllC B ■ award 313 S. 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