Moira Fire, Germany, France to Take Hundreds of Refugee Children; Huge Fire Erupts in Beirut Port, Weeks After Deadly Explosion; Portland Declares State of Emergency Due to Fires; Oregon Officials Say 500,000 People Forced to Leave Homes; WWF Living Planet Reports On Its Findings
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom, live from Atlanta, I'm Natalie Allen. Germany and France have agreed to take in some 400, unaccompanied refugee children, after a devastating fire at a refugee camp in Greece. The fire destroyed the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos, the largest camp in that country, leaving thousands of refugees without any shelter. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, says she hopes other European countries also will take in refugees. Let's talk about it with CNN's Melissa Bell. She is live for us, on Lesbos there. And hello to you, Melissa. I know that you have been talking with some of the people who have been affected by this, and I can't imagine what they are going through.</s>MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It has been a difficult few days for so many of them, Natalie, 13,000 people who live here and what was Europe's largest migrant camp. Let me just show you what's left of it after that first devastating fire on Tuesday. Then, other fires on Wednesday and by Thursday, just outside. Now, as we came in here this morning, Natalie, we saw the migrants who had been gathered around the camp, on its outskirts since the fires, making their way down towards the sea. They had heard, they told us, that the ship was arriving to house them temporarily, at least. Now, authorities have confirmed to CNN that the ship has now docked. But on the western side of the island, still, for the migrants we spoke to this morning, and had been speaking to these last few days, any hope is better than none.</s>BELL: By Thursday night, fires were still being lit and put out. But on the outskirts of Moria, the only emergency that now matters is the humanitarian one. Thousands of refugees still surrounded by police, but now without any refuge at all. It is miles and miles of human misery stretched out along these roads, around what was the Moria migrant camp. Have a look over here, you can see families doing what they can to try and find shelter, and keep themselves warm because the evenings get quite cool here, even though the days are pretty hot. You can see that people here, these women were told to queue because food would be brought. A truck then arrives and everyone rushed down trying to get at something. For many, this was the first sign of help they have had since the fire on Tuesday night deprive them of what little they owned. As they fled, major videos as their shelters went up in smoke. These images were shot by two teenage sisters, Mariam and Mahtab, who with their family are now living among the dead.</s>MAHTAB, AFGHAN MIGRANT: We lost everything, like clothes and medicine, my medicine's mother.</s>BELL: Like the others here, they tell us that they do not believe that the migrants were responsible for the fire, even as Greek authorities say it was lit my migrants angry with the COVID-19 related restrictions.</s>MARIAM, AFGHAN MIGRANT: I know it was the (inaudible), because the second time I saw that, the Greek people on the motorcycle, that they are coming and they are around the camp and they do that, they said the refugee do that, but it is not true because refugee cannot do this.</s>BELL: An estimated 13,000 people had been living in Moria. Those who knew the camp say conditions inside were appalling.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was here in 2018 as well 2019, and I thought at that time that it couldn't really get much worse, and here, now in 2020, I was wrong. It's worse and the children, as well, we are talking about children who potentially have never known anything but war, and now their futures are once again, being ripped away from them.</s>BELL: For now, it is their very immediate future that is of most concern. In Moria, they had food and water. Here in the cemetery, they have nothing at all.</s>BELL: Now we do have more information this morning, Natalie, about the faith of some of those migrants. Those 406 unaccompanied children that we knew had already left Lesbos to be taken to (inaudible). They will be rehoused, they will be brought to France and Germany. This has been announced by the French and German governments. But let's be clear, they are the very lucky few. The remaining, more than 12,000 migrants who lived here in Moira, will be staying on Lesbos. That has been confirmed to CNN by the Director of the migration minister's office, who said that the Greek government simply wouldn't be blackmailed by what he called, a burn and go attempt. It gives you an idea of the tone here in Greece with regards to these migrants. So, the rest of those, more than 12,000 migrants will be staying on this island, and that is something they were extremely worried about, that they simply be rehoused on this island, but in another camp. Something also the locals will be extremely angry about, Natalie.</s>ALLEN: What a terrible, terrible situation. That backdrop behind you, well, it says a lot. It's just terrible. All right. Thank you so much for your reporting, Melissa, we appreciate it. A huge fire broke out in Beirut's port on Thursday, creating a massive plume of smoke, and waves and waves of panic. Because it was just last month, an explosion in the same port killed almost 200 people. Now, anger is growing as many ask how this could happen again. CNN's Arwa Damon reports.</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No one knew what was happening, as the smoke darkened the skies. And the fire burned through what was left of Beirut's port. Just a few days ago, four tons of ammonium nitrate were found in the port. All they could think was, another blast is coming. Flee. I live some 500 meters from this fire (inaudible) says. I had to take my wife and children out of Beirut because of this. Since they are still living in fear after what happened before. It's been barely a month since the 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut's port. Ripping through swaths of the city, taking lives, and shredding homes. We saw the same thing happening again, Andre Murabes (ph) says. We are definitely scared, and people are freaking out. The trauma from that is still all too fresh. The anger at the government's incompetence too raw.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a disaster. It is our</s>DAMON: This area, just a short distance from the site of the deadly explosion in August, should have been secured. This should not be happening. How did cooking oil and tires go up in flames? We don't know what caused this fire. Just like we don't know what caused the initial fire that led to the ammonium nitrate's detonation back in August. And this, this just adds to the deep despair among the population here. A choking reminder of all they have suffered. Still, so incomprehensible. Arwa Damon, CNN, Istanbul.</s>ALLEN: A firestorm of flames is sweeping across millions of acres on America's West Coast in an unprecedented outbreak of wildfires. Oregon's largest city, Portland is under a state of emergency at this hour. The city's mayor says fires are raging across more than 36,000 square kilometers of the state and Portland is under an extreme threat. The order closes all the city's parks and enable workers to move homeless residents to safer locations. Dozens of fires continue to rage out of control across the western U.S., and firefighters from across the U.S. are on the lines, setting backfires, and dropping retardant. As of Thursday, these fires have blackened more than 18,000 square kilometers, and killed at least 15 people in California, Oregon, and Washington. A filmmaker, who witnessed California's largest fire told CNN that it was terrifying. The thing is a beast. And consider for a moment what this actually means. As the fires advance, more than 10 percent of Oregon's population, a half million people, are fleeing their homes right now. CNN's Lucy Kafanov is on the front lines in Clackamas County to update us on the desperate firefight.</s>LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is an incredibly dangerous situation across the state of Oregon, we are in Clackamas County right now, Oregon's third most populous county. Where a lot of the area has been affected by the fires. This specific location is sort of this safety staging areas for the fire crews to be able to stay safe as they figure out the plan for where to go next, which area to target next. But I can tell you that the residential areas around here are under a mandatory level three evacuation order. That means get out, don't risk your life. This is a very agriculture area. There's a lot of farms with animals, so some folks are choosing to say back, to try protect their homes and save their animals. But again, officials are warning people not to take any chances, and to get out while they can. Now we heard from the Governor, Kate Brown, she said that 900,000 acres have burned so far in the past 72 hours. That number likely to rise. Just to give you some context, 500,000 acres burned on average in an entire year. So, this is a historic, unprecedented fire event. The Governor predicting loss of life, loss of structures. The weather conditions that we've had so far with various heavy winds and incredibly dry conditions have made it difficult to begin to contain the fires. Up until now, the focus has been on evacuating people and trying to protect structures, but officials are hoping for the weather conditions to change over the next few days, so that they will be able to begin to start the process of containing the fires. This is devastating to the state of Oregon. The resources here spreading incredibly thin. The governor requesting help from the defense department as well as the army corps of engineers, the National Guard has been activated as well. We know that a team is flying from Utah to help the firefighters here, because not only this state, but neighboring Washington, as well as California, battling its own fires as well. Lucy Kafanov, CNN, Clackamas County, Oregon.</s>ALLEN: Yes. Let's talk about California now. Because my next guest have some strong opinions on how this can be turned around. Joining me from California, Craig Thomas, is the Director of the fire restoration group. I really appreciate your time, thanks for coming on.</s>CRAIG THOMAS, DIRECTOR, FIRE RESTORATION GROUP: Thank you Natalie.</s>ALLEN: First step, well, there's been tremendous loss of property as we just heard, tragic loss of life in these massive fires, now extending beyond California. You're group, and you're certainly not alone in your belief, is that the fire policy in California is causing this problem. That it is misguided. Talk about that.</s>THOMAS: Well, it is a national problem. And you know, our culture has either adjusted or ignored fires were all in this ecosystem to our peril. And in California, you know, we live in one of five or six of the most naturally fire prone landscapes on earth. And yet, we have been waging war against fire for almost a century and a half. And you know, I spent, in my career of 30 years, reading a lot of fire science and trying to take that information and help educate people and policy makers, about what these experts are saying. And they're basically saying, we have to restore good fire at large landscape scales. And the tragic thing is they've been saying that for 30 years. Now, we are seeing the results of that now of really not taking us anywhere near as seriously as we should have.</s>ALLEN: So, talk about what they need to do. So, fires, for California, as you say, is a natural process. It is going to happen. I think you said fire in California is like rain. It's kind of the same thing, it happens so often. But there needs to be fire suppression. How, and when, did the policy begin in the state? To see what we are seeing now, where there is just so much fire, it is beyond comprehension?</s>THOMAS: It is an annual fortune is spend in the billions, with a b, fighting the process. And yet, we are still dropping pennies in a tin can when it comes to actually doing the pre-suppression work, the restoration work, to help prevent these events from happening. And you know pretty much, you know, in the world that I work in, everybody knows this. And we are still, you know, really in this conundrum of 150 years, really, when the European Americans arrived into California. They came across the culture that had been living here for thousands of years, in a much more nurturing attitude, in terms of what their culture was. How they applied, and worked, and lived with fire, and dependent on fire. And the Europeans showed up with a very different mindset. So, this is an old story that goes way back in terms of the attitudes we've showed up with. And that's been changing over the last 30 to 50 years, as more and more research has being focusing on fire as a natural process, and it is like rainfall. We are absolutely dependent on it. When you see anywhere in the west and you look at these landscapes the vegetation and the things we appreciate, the beauty we see are strongly tied to fire regimes. And that means, fire burning in certain intensities, certain times of the year, at certain scales. That generally isn't equilibrium with the landscape that it is burning in. and what we see here is a very uncharacteristic fire intensities. Because we have removed fire from the system, for so long, and basically thought it like a war. And now we have 40 million people living here. So, when I talk about we need to restore fire, I'm not suggesting we let towns burned down. We are going to need suppression, because of the landscape slam ability and the number of people who live here and the amount of fire that humans start, besides the lightning burst that we are living with this year. You know, so that -- it's a complicated thing. But the focus needs to shift and so protect people, protect homes, but we need a stand-alone fire restoration workforce and the funding and staffing and capacity to work on these landscapes, to apply a fire back in and maintain the resilience that we can build back.</s>ALLEN: yes, I want to ask you about that. And is there a chance for change, we only have a little bit time left. My last question for you, the Governor and the U.S. Foreign Service chief signed a memorandum saying that the state needs to burn more, that they need to stand with restoring resilient and diverse ecosystem. Is that a signal that the policy can change?</s>THOMAS: It is a signal that policy can change. We need to see the workforce and the logistical support for those people, and the respect for what they do, and the education and training they need. That all has to show up, along with the words.</s>ALLEN: All right. We appreciate your time and you're helping us understand it. Craig Thomas, thank you so much.</s>THOMAS: Thank you for having me on.</s>ALLEN: The West Coast weather is playing a big role in these fires, meteorologist Derek Van Dam, joins us now with perspective on that. Derek, we certainly know the heat has a lot to do with this.</s>DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and the dry conditions, lack of rain fall, low relative humidity, all factors here, of course the wind as well. But we want to talk about the air quality that is happening over the western U.S. We know about fires, we know they are extensive, we will get to the details on that in just a moment. But look at the satellite imagery. We broaden out, there is the Pacific Northwest, here is California. Almost that milky looking cloud cover that is all smoke. Most of it is drifted along the coast or just off of the coast into the Pacific Ocean. And guess what, the winds are now going to move from offshore to onshore. So, that's going to bring in a component of that cloud or that blob of smoke, for a lack of a better term, inland. Once again, in my entire career, I've never seen entire states with a poor air quality index. So, Washington and Oregon, look out you have got a difficult next 48 hours. And let me explain why this is so challenging. Because the size of smoke particles, we are talking about less than a micron in size. So, significantly smaller than a size of the diameter of a human hair, which is about 60 microns. It can penetrate deep within into our lungs. So, people with upper respiratory problems, the elderly, people with heart conditions, even the extremely young had the potential to experience very hazardous air quality. In fact we've plotted a couple of the quality of the air at specific location, up and down the entire West Coast. It is ranging from very unhealthy to hazardous over the next day or so. The wind component again shifting from offshore to onshore, so, it's going to long for that smoke that's drifted across the Pacific Ocean to move back in those specifically into the Pacific Northwest. A lot of the smoke is going to get lofted high into the upper levels of the atmosphere, you picked up by the jet stream and move eastward. So, we are going to see some of those milky hazy sunsets perhaps across the Great Lakes and into the East Coast by the end of this week. We have a hundred active large fires over the western U.S., the majority of them in the state of California, Oregon and Washington. By the way, in California we have our largest, our third largest and our fourth largest in terms of acreage ever recorded in the entire state of California's history burning right now. Now on Oregon. We also have two larger fires that of course had prompted over 500,000 evacuations. People fleeing from their homes and fear that at any moment in time these flames could wipeout their home. Now, I want to end a little bit of bright note, because Natalie, there is a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel that is an atmospheric river, we like to see those pointed at the northwest. The potential for rain exists, but we have to wait until Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.</s>ALLEN: OK. Can't come soon enough. Derek, thank you, I appreciate it.</s>VAN DAM: Right.</s>ALLEN: It's amazing what people are going through their. The rode to Brexit, well, it's always been a bumpy one but has the British government just hit another road block? I will speak with Max Foster in London about the next.