Colorado Fires Continue to Rage
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Remember how bad those fires were in Colorado last year? Well, this year's are even worse. I'm Jake Tapper and this is THE LEAD. We're tracking two breaking in the national lead. There's a widespread severe weather alert for the Washington, D.C. area. Damaging wind gusts of more than 70 miles an hour are expected. We're watching the skies. Also in national news, a mandatory evacuation order has just been issued for Colorado Springs, as a wildfire turns the state into Hades, 360 homes destroyed, thousands evacuated. We will talk to one man who lost everything. In other national news, former presidential candidate and House Speaker Newt Gingrich joins us to weigh in on the NSA. The head of the agency today promised more transparency to the public after a briefing closed to the public. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Jake Tapper. Welcome to THE LEAD. We will begin with the national lead. We're watching severe weather warnings over much of the Mid-Atlantic right now, including tornado warnings in Virginia.</s>TAPPER: Also in national news, people in a large section of Colorado Springs must get out now. A mandatory evacuation order has just been issued as a wildfire brings flames near the community's doorsteps. Officials estimate the ominous-sounding Black Forest fire in Central Colorado has scorched about 15,000 acres of land so far. It's now considered the most destructive wildfire in the history of the state of Colorado. At least 360 homes are now just gone; 9,000 people have already been forced to evacuate the area. Many only had time to leave their homes with the clothes on their backs. The fire is expected to keep spreading thanks to dry, windy conditions. I want to now bring in Dave Rose on the phone. He is the public information officer for El Paso County, Colorado, where this is burning out of control. Mr. Rose, thanks for joining us. Tell us about the effort to contain this fire. Have you been able to make any progress?</s>DAVE ROSE, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, EL PASO COUNTY, COLORADO: Well, there is zero percent containment on the fire itself, Jake. We do have a perimeter That we have been able to defend, but we have very high wind conditions. Red flag warning went into effect at 11:00 this morning our time. Winds are in the 20- to 30 mile-an-hour range, the temperatures once again today above 90 degrees. And, as a result, the fire is very, very active within the containment area. And we don't have a high level of confidence at all that we will be able to hold all of these lines around this fire.</s>TAPPER: And, Dave, 360 homes have been reportedly destroyed, more than 9,000 people evacuated. How many more homes and structures do you believe are in danger at this point?</s>ROSE: You know, that's very difficult to tell. And, Jake, I want to make it clear that is a very preliminary count. Obviously, with the fire continuing to be active, it's not possible to get deputies into the areas and make a very accurate count, but we're making every effort to let people who have lost their homes know that, have that information as soon as possible. But there are areas of the Black Forest that we have not been able to get into at all to make any sort of assessment. So it's almost impossible to come up with another number. But it is safe to assume that that number will in fact rise.</s>TAPPER: All right, Dave Rose, public information for El Paso County, Colorado, thank you so much. I want to now bring in one man who lost his home and everything he owned in this wildfire. Mike and Caml Schultz join us now live from Black Forest, Colorado. First off, how are you two doing?</s>MIKE SCHULTZ, LOST HOME: We're doing pretty good. We're hanging in there. We're making the best of it. You submitted some pictures to CNN iReport of the fire damage. I would imagine these pictures hardly capture the scope of the devastation you're dealing with. But tell us, what about the rest of your neighborhood? Did anything escape the fire's wrath?</s>M. SCHULTZ: We were able to see there were eight homes down our cul- de-sac and all had burned down except for two, down to the ground.</s>TAPPER: Mrs. Schultz, what are you holding right now?</s>CAML SCHULTZ, LOST HOME: I have a photo album that my son and I were able to save, and it's just a baby photo album of our daughter whenever she was little. And that's the things that we chose first. We took paperwork and then we grabbed all the pictures that we could. And my son ran around the house trying to pull pictures of the walls and to think about our family as a whole and the things that we were going to want when we rebuild in our next home, and the things that we're going to need to be able to move on, and those things that are special. And so that's about all that we were able to save was pictures and paperwork and a few items of clothing. But we have each other. And we're blessed. And so many people have suffered loss. And so we're just thankful that we're here safe and that we're loved and that we -- that we're loved and that we have so many people that are willing to help take care of us.</s>M. SCHULTZ: We have had a lot of support.</s>TAPPER: How old are your children?</s>M. SCHULTZ: My son is 16, and my daughter's 20. And I also have another son that lives in Phoenix that doesn't live with us. He's 30. But my son basically spent his time -- we had about an hour to pack everything up. And he spent his time packing up all our photos and everything and wasn't able to get any of -- basically any of his stuff out. And he had probably over $5,000 worth of LEGOs that are gone. He didn't take one with him. So we're going to buy some LEGOs today.</s>TAPPER: Well, we're glad that you have those photographs. They are more irreplaceable than LEGOs. That's for sure. God bless both of you and good luck to both of you and your family.</s>C. SCHULTZ: Thank you so much.</s>M. SCHULTZ: Thank you.</s>TAPPER: There's going to be much more as we get more reports from the tornado that touched down north of Washington, D.C. We expect video. We expect photographs. We expect many more reports. More than two million people are in the paths of these storms. And we will have the latest when we come back on all of this horrific weather, plus the very latest on the manhunt for Edward Snowden and politicians defending the Obama administration's massive domestic surveillance programs. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says it's amazing, with all this data, the U.S. government couldn't stop the Boston Marathon bombers. And he will join me next.