Wildfires Consuming Los Alamos, N.M. House by House
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: The city that built the atomic bomb is under attack by a much older force of destruction. A fire that started last week in the Bandelier National Monument continues to consume homes today in Las Alamos, New Mexico. The city sprang up in the 1940s as the base of operations for the Manhattan Project. Now it is covered by a cloud of smoke, and it is disappearing, house by house. The fire is one of several fires in New Mexico, pushed by winds over 50 miles an hour, too dangerous, say firefighters, to battle head-on. Ironically, the Los Alamos fire was started deliberately by the National Park Service, which was trying to clear some brush. It has grown to consume 18,000 acres. It has destroyed at least 100 homes in Los Alamos so far, and firefighters say, continued high winds and warm temperatures will continue to feed the flames today. Some fires are said to be burning on the 43 square mile Los Alamos National Laboratory. But structures there are built to withstand severe fires. At least 18,000 people have been evacuated from Los Alamos and surrounding communities, including Espanola and White Rock. The Red Cross says, doctors and mental health workers are on duty at shelters.</s>LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: President Clinton has issued declarations of disaster for three New Mexico counties, Los Alamos, Sandoval and Santa Fe. This morning, the president talked about the fire.</s>WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have been briefed on the situation. The fire is continuing to blaze. The residents have been evacuated. We have taken steps to protect our lab, and the assets there. And most important, I just want to give my sympathies to the people who have lost their homes.</s>WATERS: The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, James Lee Witt, will be in New Mexico today, assessing the situation.</s>ALLEN: CNN national correspondent Tony Clark is in Los Alamos. He joins us now -- Tony.</s>TONY CLARK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Natalie, we're in an area that is kind of high ground of Los Alamos and can kind of look around and it gives us a good vantage point to see how the firefighting effort is going, and it is not going well because you can tell by all of the smoke that really surrounds this whole area from the west side of Los Alamos, the fire moving north, and moving south as well. In fact, if you look off to my side, you can see the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and you can see how close the fire is to various areas as it comes down closer and closer to the laboratory. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, in this area today, will go over to the laboratory area today, officials saying that everything there is safe, but the fire is moving further to the south, forcing further evacuations in the White Rock area. This -- the biggest fear today was that the winds would get up with gusts of over 60 miles an hour, and that would keep the firefighters from using helicopters to battle the fire. It hasn't gotten that bad yet. So we have seen throughout the morning helicopters carrying large buckets, dousing the area with water. They go make trips back and forth to a reservoir, picking up water to try and stop what is quickly being decimation of house after house. There are areas of Los Alamos on the west and north where whole neighborhoods are wiped out. Also, ironically places where houses are burned to the ground and another is still standing. There are some 800 firefighters battling this blaze today. The temperature is expected to get up to 90 degrees, making conditions even worse. As I say, if the wind gets up to the gusts of 60 miles an hour, it will make it even worse. At this point, there is some hope weather conditions may improve tomorrow, improving the chances for firefighting, but right now everything is on the side of the fires. Tony Clark, CNN, Los Alamos, New Mexico.