[Holmes:] Well, could this be the break firefighters have been hoping for, those erratic winds that have been spreading the flames from that massive fire dying down now? They are expected to be fairly calm for a while. Is that right, Chad Myers?
[Chad Myers, Ams Meteorologist:] That is true, sir.
[Holmes:] So this is the break they have been waiting a little while on. How much will this help?
[Myers:] Well, even if you have 24 to 48 hours, the fire line is so large, the miles of fire that you have burning so large, they are up to 5 percent containment now out of 100 percent
[Holmes:] Yes.
[Myers:] that was uncontained yesterday.
[Holmes:] Right.
[Myers:] So, they have a long way to go. And even if a day like today and a morning like today, the problem with this morning, it was so thick, it was and fires were still burning, but the winds weren't blowing at all. You could not get planes in there at all, because the smoke was right over the fire line, so planes were just basically sitting on the tarmac, going, yes, we can't fly in this. We can't even see the fire.
[Holmes:] Wow.
[Myers:] We can't see the smoke. This is in very tough terrain. We need to be able to see where every mountaintop is. So the planes actually like to have a little bit of flame little bit of wind to blow the smoke away. Obviously, firefighters on the ground don't want any wind at all, because the wind is just oxygen blowing like a big billow.
[Holmes:] OK. Have they essentially not been getting anywhere? With the winds the way they have been over the past several days, have they essentially been out there just trying to contain the damage vs. actually trying to, I don't know, get somewhere and contain the actual fire?
[Myers:] They have been trying to stop structures from burning in Eagar, Springerville, and places around there. And they have been doing a fantastic job. They have been able to stop homes from burning. They have been able to stop this in a fire line into not getting into towns so far. But trees this is a national forest. This is going to burn for a very long time. We may be sitting here a month from now still talking about maybe 65 percent, 75 percent containment by then.
[Holmes:] Wow.
[Myers:] The fire you have well over 300 miles of fire. And I don't care how many men and women you have on the line, but 300 miles of fire, you can't just put that out with a shovel.
[Holmes:] How big is this window right now to have for the
[Myers:] It's 36 hours.
[Holmes:] About 36 hours. Chad, we appreciate you now. And like Chad just said, it is 5 percent contained, but in addition to fighting the flames now, fire officials are handling another difficult task, telling some evacuated residents if their homes survived or not. They're telling us that it doesn't matter whether the home is a mansion or a modest home. The shock and pain people are dealing with is just the same. Jim Spellman in Apache County for us today. Jim, we were listening. I don't know if you were able to hear Chad Myers here talking about they have a window to try to get something done here. What are you seeing?
[Jim Spellman, Cnn Producer:] Yes. They are taking full advantage of it, too, T.J. They're out there with all the heavy equipment they can, bulldozers. They're setting these what they call backfires to try to starve the fire of fuel, so that, when it approaches these towns, it doesn't have anything to burn, and have a buffer zone. Yesterday, the lower winds allowed them to use a DC-10 supertanker to drop three loads of retardant on the fire. Today, they're kind of doing a 180 on it. The lower winds today and some of the backfires they have created are allowing them to do aerial ignitions, which is fascinating. They have a helicopter packed with things about the size of a ping pong ball full of chemicals that will burn and swoop into a valley and drop a whole load of these things and create a fire there that will go back away from the towns and not towards the towns so that when mother nature brings the head of the fire towards the town, there is nothing there. So they can use the tools with winds lower and plus less things to feed the fire.
[Holmes:] That is interesting they are using everything at their disposal and give me the update on evacuations, and structures they are trying to save and the update there.
[Spellman:] Sure. The two main towns here Springerville, and eager are still evacuated and Greer, Arizona, two days ago the worst day for the fire and the fire got behind the firefighters and 22 homes there destroyed. It is a beautiful part of the country. Those people are being notified today, and it is off the job for any of the fire folks to have to go tell people their homes are lost, but right now. We have a status update an hour ago and they are not going to let anybody back into the towns even though the lines are holding until they feel it is safe for them to come back in, because it will be through the weekend,
[T.j. Holmes:] Jim Spellman, thank you so much. And Chad Myers, they are not expecting rain out there for
[Myers:] A month.
[Holmes:] Thank you, Chad, and thank you to Jim Spellman as well. And a woman caught in the crossfire with two siblings dead and she needs help with a new leg. We will introduce you to a feisty five-year-old.