President consoles evacuees, vows aid

Posted: Wednesday, June 26, 2002

SHOW LOW, Ariz. (AP) - As one of the worst wildfires in the history of the West devoured more ground Tuesday, President Bush declared the charred region a disaster area and consoled evacuees at a school that has become a mass shelter, telling them: "Hang in there. You're brave and great people."

The president toured the area by air and saw a string of devastated mountain communities that have lost at least 390 homes and dozens of businesses to flames feeding on paper-dry underbrush and stands of ponderosa pine. Some 30,000 people have fled their homes, and some will be helped by funds made available under the disaster declaration.

"We're kind of used to big fires out West," Bush said, "but this is the biggest of big fires."

The blaze has blackened 375,000 acres or 586 square miles - an area larger than Los Angeles - with no containment in sight. Smoke has spread across the Southwest and was seen as far south as Las Cruces, N.M.


The Missionary Ridge fire glows in the distance as it approches the town of Durango, Colo. early Tuesday, June 25, 2002. Several subdivisions south of the fire were evacuated Monday as the fire continues to burn.

AP Photo

It is by far the biggest and most damaging fire of what is still a very young fire season.

A blackened buffer zone carved overnight kept the fire on the outskirts of the mountain town of Show Low, the region's abandoned economic hub. But the blaze roared on its western flank, where 15 more homes burned.

On The Net:

National Interagency Fire Center:

Apache-Sitgreaves forest:

"It's like a tidal wave; it's just amazing," fire spokesman Ed Perault said. "It's fire like a lot of folks have never seen."

With his shirt sleeves rolled up, Bush told about 300 evacuees at a high school cafeteria in nearby Eagar that "a lot of people in our country are pulling for you."

"They understand that a lot of you are living in tents when you'd rather be in your own bed," Bush said.