NBC晚间新闻 灭火高手闪击大火（在线收听）

Hotshot crew’s blitz to battle the blaze

灭火高手闪击大火

Nearly 2000 firefighters are tackling the blaze inIdaho, which is threatening thousands of homes. NBC News embedded with the Pike Hot Shot crewfrom Monument, Colo., to get a rare look at howthey’re making progress. NBC’s Miguel Almaguerreports.

将近2000个灭火队员在与爱达荷州的大火斗争，大火威胁到数千栋房子。NBC的团队与派克灭火队一起从科罗拉多州的Monument出发，近距离看一下灭火队的进展。NBC的Miguel Almaguer报道。

Tonight, there are more than 50 massive fires burning out of control across the country, including this new fire getting dangerously close to Yosemite National Park, closing roads andforcing evacuations. Tonight NBC News has been granted rare access to the fight against theworst fire of them all, the one burning in Idaho. NBC's Miguel Almaguer has our report.

reporter: All right. Here we go. After a safety briefing, we were airborne. NBC News given arare look over the burn zone, 106,000 acres, an area the size of denver. Our pilot, MichaelLeary, a veteran flying this cascade range. The pilots are well trained, but they have tocontend with blinding smoke and shifting winds. Even at 8,000 feet above the Beaver Creekfire, you can feel the heat, smell the smoke, but it's the size of this fire. It's endless.

That's the toughest part for pilots. The toughest part is just the visible, seeing where you'regoing and avoiding other aircraft.

reporter: The firefight from above is an aerial ballet of helicopters and big-swing plane, crisscrossing the skies, shoveling loads of water and retardant. They're making progress. Thechief of operations.

The aircraft is really excellent to slow down fire bands, but the ultimate goal is we have to getboots on the ground, firefighters there to secure the fire line.

reporter: Nearly 2,000 firefighters are battling this blaze. Our NBC News team embeddedwith the Pike Hot Shot crew from Monument Colorado. The elite unit of 22 will sleep, eat, andbreathe fire for two weeks as they carve containment lines around the blaze in concert withhelicopters dropping 2,000 gallons of water.

Going to keep dropping water on us so we get it knocked down. Once he gets it knocked down, we'll get down there and start to anchor the flight attendant.

reporter: From above you can see the blaze still making runs. There's plenty of dry fuel tofeed it.

How much longer do you think a fire like this can burn?

This could go uh...for weeks.

reporter: But progress is being made every day. A firefight like we rarely have seen it before. Miguel Almaguer, NBC News, over the Beaver Creek fire.