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
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\ 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.
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