California Wildfires Blazing; Kidnapped for 18 years; South Georgia Killings
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Fredricka Whitfield and you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Southern Californians are being urged to stay inside because smoke from the wildfires is making the air very unhealthy. Bordering on hazardous. The biggest fire, the station fire in Los Angeles County, has burned about 35,000 acres so far and forced the evacuations of 6,600 homes. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger held a news conference a short time ago.</s>GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: There's no wind. It's very challenging for aerial firefighting because the smoke clouds stay above the wind, above the fire and then the helicopters don't see where to drop the fire retardant. What makes this fire also very challenging is that there's a very thick brush. This brush has not experienced any fire for 60 years. So there's a lot of brush that burns and therefore it burns very, very quickly. The other thing that makes it very challenging is the terrain. The firefighters cannot get to these places as quickly. That's why helicopters are being used and aircraft are being used to dump fire retardant.</s>WHITFIELD: CNN's Kara Finnstrom is in La Canada Flintridge, California, where many homes have been threatened. Kara, does it look like those homes can be saved at all?</s>KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, this is certainly one of the neighborhoods that has been certainly on edge. If you take a look at the hillside just behind me here, you can see some of the smoke rising from an active fire fight. During the last 24 hours, this fire more than quadrupled in size consuming some 35,000 acres with 1,000 homes - 10,000 homes rather threatened. So a lot of neighbors very nervous particularly in this neighborhood because along that ridge what the fire did last night is it came down all the way up to homes, but it didn't burn any. So also some feelings of relief here. But these neighbors continuing to watch. If we pan around here, this is an area that's not under a mandatory evacuation, the top of the hill is, and a lot of these folks that you're looking at, they have been evacuated from their homes, but they're down here watching as this fire fight goes on. Mary Kohn is one of them. You were up you said all last night. Tell me what this has been like for you since this fire broke out on Wednesday.</s>MARY KOHN, RESIDENT: It's up and down. You think that, oh, I'm looking at the hill that's right across the street from my house and you think oh, it's calm. There's just smoke. It's no big deal and then you see a big flare and it's scary. I'm calm and now I've got like shakes. I mean, it's unnerving, scary.</s>FINNSTROM: Fredricka, it has been a very slow-moving fire and that in part because there haven't been winds. So this community has continued to watch, and I'm going to move around here so you can see some of the fire that's actively burning behind me here and you can hear the air drops, but firefighters saying that they have been very fortunate that they haven't had to deal with winds here that could have picked up these embers, spread them, and made this fire erratic and had to spread more rapidly into neighborhoods. So they will be continuing to fight it today. While they have the good news as far as the wind goes, Fredricka, they still got very hot conditions out here, very dry embers and trees, eucalyptus trees and oak trees up in the hillsides. And this fire is continuing to burn in all directions although mainly to the north and they're hoping to keep it that way.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Kara Finnstrom, thanks so much. Momentarily we're going to check in with Jacqui Jeras on the weather conditions and how that's making for very difficult conditions for the firefighting teams there. All right. So that mandatory evacuations are in effect in many parts of Southern California including neighborhoods in Pasadena. You can see the flames in the mountains above the Rose Bowl in this photo snapped by i-reporter Tammy Alstorlind. She says she was just amazed by the orange glow in the sky. And take a look at this. These photos from another i-reporter Trisha Mass showing why officials are so concerned about the air quality. They also show planes and helicopters dropping chemicals, flame retardants on the flames. Trisha says sometimes the planes flew so low that they appeared to be under the tree lines. All right. So let's check in with Jacqui Jeras in the severe weather center. It's very hot, low humidity, and what about those winds?</s>JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, the winds overall haven't been terrible, at least not the sustained winds. You know, it's like the three minute average of what the wind blows. It's been light. It's been, you know, less than 10 miles per hour, but today is a little bit different from yesterday in that we're getting these offshore winds and they're starting to gust a little bit. So the relative humidity, five percent to 10 percent. And just to put it in perspective for you, less than 30 percent is what we would consider critical. So this is beyond that. This is way, way low. Temperatures into the upper 90s to lower triple digits. Winds about 10 miles per hour, but we're getting gusts around 35 or so, and what can those winds do? We've got a fire animation to give you an idea as to how some of these fires can behave, especially when you have the winds blowing these things upslope. And that's what's been going on today. When the fire line gets pushed upslope, it kind of gets choked a little bit - it chokes off the oxygen, so it can burn a little bit faster and accelerate and look at those flame heights. We've been getting reports of flame lengths up to 80 feet. Now, in addition to that, you can also get some spot fires as the winds blow embers as much as a quarter of a mile up ahead of the main fire line. So then you have all these new fires that you're having to try to deal with and put out. This is a live picture right now, a tower cam. This refreshes about every two minutes. This is from the Mt. Wilson Observatory at UCLA there, and this is being threatened by the fire at this time. You can see how smoky and how hazy it is, and that smoke also kind of hoovers in the valley areas. And that's why they're advising people not to go outside today. Because the air quality is so poor. There's also been a lot of reports of ash fall. A little bit of cooling in the forecast, Fredricka but not a whole heck of a lot. Maybe about five to 10 degrees by the end of the week.</s>WHITFIELD: Wow, it's going to be slow going for the firefighting teams out there. Thanks so much, Jacqui. Appreciate that. And this new information coming in this hour in the case of a couple charged with kidnapping a little girl and holding her in a compound for 18 years. Dan Simon is in Antioch, California, where the girl, who is now 29 years old, was discovered last week. Dan, what's happening right now?</s>DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Fred. I just got off the phone a few minutes ago with Carl Probyn. He's the stepfather of the victim in this case. One of the things he told me and this is one of the more disturbing details of this case, it's become increasingly clear that over time Jaycee Dugard developed some sort of bond with the suspect, Phillip Garrido. And that can explain at least in part why Jaycee at least in recent years never attempted to escape this property. We told you a short time ago that Jaycee was heavily involved in the printing business that was operated out of this home. She regularly communicated with customers. She was the graphic designer. She had access to a phone and a computer. I spoke to one of the customers of that printing business, Ben Daughdrill. Here is what he had to say. Take a look.</s>SIMON (on camera): In your dealings with her through e-mail and talking to her on the phone, what was she like?</s>BEN DAUGHDRILL, MET DUGARD DURING HER CAPTIVITY: Very professional, very nice. You know, she spoke well, didn't seem to be - pretty good at art work because obviously we used the business for six years. I get the impression that it was always her just because she was the one that knew how to do the artwork, how to do the proofs, how to give us what we wanted.</s>SIMON: So while authorities are still trying to sort out the living conditions here at this house, it is clear that given the fact that she worked for this business and was heavily involved with it, that Jaycee at least in recent years did have an opportunity to escape. Psychological experts no doubt will be discussing this in great detail but it's just one more fascinating component to this case. Fred, behind me you can see that somebody jus approached the microphone here. There's going to be a press conference in just a little bit. As we've been telling you, this home has been searched heavily over the last couple of days. One of the things authorities are doing now is trying to see if Phillip Garrido may have links to some other crimes in this area, including some murders that took place in the '90s and we are hoping to glean some more details when the speaker takes the mike in just a few minutes, Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: Dan Simon, thanks so much in Antioch, California. And these new developments in a mass killing in South Georgia. Police were alerted to a mobile home near Brunswick, Georgia, by a 911 call yesterday. Inside were seven dead people, another two critically wounded. Police aren't saying how the victims died. Autopsies are being conducted. And here is the latest from a news conference just this past hour.</s>CHIEF MATT DOERING, GLYNN COUNTY POLICE: I am absolutely certain, 100 percent, what happened. I'm absolutely certain how it happened. Now the question is who is responsible, and, of course, part of that is the motive. And of course, part of that is the motive. And a motive, you know, what would motivate someone to do this?</s>WHITFIELD: Glenn County authorities have released this picture of 22- year-old Guy Heinze, Jr.. Police aren't saying whether Heinze is a suspect but say he is the one who called 911 to report the killings. Police say he's being charged with illegal drug possession, tampering with evidence, and making false statements to police. All right. Kennedy and Hyannis Port is hard to separate one from the other. The compound on Cape Cod is about as famous as the family. Lots of history there. Well, now there are questions about the future of this very place.