Setting Backfires News Today

And abc says its a light temperature thing. >> bingo. >> shepard: wild fire alert. its horrible in southern california. five major wild fires there overtaking neighborhoods and forcing 200,000 people to leave their homes today. emergency crews had to shut down a major highway as flames jumped the lanes. this is the 101 ventura county 60 miles north and west of los angeles. teams closed a dozen miles of the 101 and have since reopened it. jonathan hunt was in the area earlier. >> were in the hill...

>> its a pretty rare opportunity to get right onto the front lines, sandra. it is in part terrifying and in part inspiring as you watch the heroic efforts of firefighters. here is what it looked like. were in the hills in ventura county what firefighters are doing is trying to prevent the flames that are burning here from jumping these roads so theyve been setting backfires. the intensity of the flame quite extraordinary at this point. the firefighters are backing away from it. it is an intense ...

Because these flames are burning in steep rugged terrain, this has become an all-out air assault. fixed wing air tankers are making drops of water. ground crews not on the front lines are setting backfires and more. >> theyre cutting line, theyre using bulldozers, theyre putting a barrier between the fire and any structures or infrastructure that may be threatened. >> the smoke cloud and even some of the flames visible from space. this is now the biggest wildfire on record in californias sierra ...

Beetles, its basically stands of trees that are dead creating lots of fuel, thats the big concern now. so they are setting backfires in that area, and that is also the area, thats the way the wind is blowing, so hopefully theyll increase their containment later on. they have 1200 firefighters now working 24-hour shifts on this. the fire was started saturday by a lightning strike, it did kill a 62-year-old woman over the weekend. there were over 100 buildings that have been destroyed, the cost so...

Letting everyone know as soon as possible to get them out of the way of this fire. 8,000 firefighters are battling this fire. theyre trying to do a consistent effort to knock down flames. we were with the crew of 100 firefighters as they were setting backfires and knocking down the brush in the mountain line, thats what makes fighting this fire so difficult. up there, you see its a mountain, on tough of this, the fact that youre dealing with the terrain, sometimes the fires above your head and i...