PBS高端访谈:为什么美国要向加拿大和澳大利亚寻求消防帮助?

 　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For more on how fire officials are coping with these many fires, we turn to Ron Dunton. He's with the Bureau of Land Management. And he is helping¹ coordinate² fire response at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

　　Ron Dunton, thanks for being here.

　　That math that we showed before is pretty staggering. There are so many fires burning out West. How do you compare this to prior fire seasons?

　　RON DUNTON, Assistant Director for Fire and Aviation, Bureau of Land Management: This is a big year.

　　As mentioned, we haven't deployed³ military since 2008, and that's a good sign that our internal system is being overwhelmed. We're essentially⁴ out of federal firefighting resources. We are having to tap in with regular troops from the United States Army. We're also bring in Canadian resources and we're just now reaching out to Australia and New Zealand to bring in fire personnel from those two countries.

　　So it's a very big year. We're at our — what we refer to as preparedness level five, which is our highest level of national preparedness.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Is that just a function of you have got so many fires burning and you don't have enough bodies to put on those fires?

　　RON DUNTON: That's pretty much it.

　　We're having to reprioritize working at protecting communities, protecting the public, so that — letting some fires — I won't say just letting them do go, but less priority on fires that aren't threatening anything in terms of firefighter or public safety.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: How much of this is because we have more and more people living in more remote areas? I mean, is that a concern for people who have to manage this vast wilderness⁵?

　　RON DUNTON: Absolutely.

　　A lot of the fires would be much simpler to deal with, other than the fact that people have moved in into what we refer to as the wildland-urban interface⁶. It causes significant difficulties. Again, as I stated earlier, you know, our first priority is our firefighter and the public safety.

　　So we have to expend⁷ resources helping to evacuate⁸ people when we should be fighting the fire, or, in some cases, fires that could be left to burn naturally, we can't allow that because the communities have spread out.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You mentioned that some of these fires might be left to burn. Is that because you don't have enough personnel or is that because, as some people have argued, it's a good idea to burn out this underbrush, to clear out some of that tinder for these fires for the future?

　　RON DUNTON: So, there's no question that fire is beneficial in some ecosystems⁹.

　　And where possible, we will allow a fire to run its natural course. But if you have communities and/or houses in the way that have built up, then that becomes impossible. We can also then deal with what we refer to as prescribed fire, where, under certain conditions, we will go light a fire and carefully manage it.

　　But in terms of utilizing¹⁰ natural fire, we have to be very careful because of the spread of communities.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, obviously, this drought has caused enormous problems for firefighters like yourself. It obviously makes everything very, very dry out there. But does it cause a problem for you as far as access to water? Do you have enough water that you need to fight the fires with?

　　RON DUNTON: Yes, I wouldn't say water is the issue.

　　Drought is certainly a big issue. We have had lots of engines that carry their own water. We have water sources that we can access. So I probably wouldn't go to water as being a limiting factor to us. But drought stress fuel certainly is causing extreme fire behavior. Extreme fire behavior is becoming the norm.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I understand the forecast doesn't look great over the next couple of days. Is there any relief in sight as far as you can see?

　　RON DUNTON: No. And that's kind of the bad news that we have.

　　We have a wind event coming across the Northwest on Friday, it looks like. We have a lot of fire in the Northwest. So the wind will just continue to push those fires. We see nothing in the way of season-ending event in terms of large-scale moisture moving into the Western United States, more dry weather then the possibility of lightning midweek next week.

　　WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Ron Dunton from the Bureau of Land Management, thank you very much. And good luck out there.

　　RON DUNTON: Thank you.

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

3 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

4 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

5 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

6 interface   

n.接合部位，分界面；v.(使)互相联系

参考例句：

• My computer has a network interface,which allows me to get to other computers.我的计算机有网络接口可以与其它计算机连在一起。
• This program has perspicuous interface and extensive application. 该程序界面明了，适用范围广。

7 expend   

vt.花费，消费，消耗

参考例句：

• Don't expend all your time on such a useless job.不要把时间消耗在这种无用的工作上。
• They expend all their strength in trying to climb out.他们费尽全力想爬出来。

8 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

9 ecosystems   

n.生态系统( ecosystem的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There are highly sensitive and delicately balanced ecosystems in the forest. 森林里有高度敏感、灵敏平衡的各种生态系统。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Madagascar's ecosystems range from rainforest to semi-desert. 马达加斯加生态系统类型多样，从雨林到半荒漠等不一而足。 来自辞典例句

10 utilizing   

v.利用，使用( utilize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Utilizing an assembler to produce a machine-language program. 用汇编程序产生机器语言的过程。 来自辞典例句
• The study and use of devices utilizing properties of materials near absolute zero in temperature. 对材料在接近绝对零度时的特性进行研究和利用的学科。 来自辞典例句