美国国家公共电台 NPR--The largest wildfire in the U.S. has burned an area bigger than New York City

The largest wildfire in the U.S. has burned an area bigger than New York City

Transcript¹

The wildfire in New Mexico is growing rapidly. After weeks of relentless² winds, firefighters are hoping for some relief soon. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed and thousands of people evacuated³.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Record dry conditions have made it very hard for firefighters to contain a giant wildfire in New Mexico. Todd Abel is a federal operations chief for southwestern fires.

TODD ABEL: That fire had a lot of energy. And what I mean by that - it throws spots in front of it and moves extremely fast. There's no way to get people in front of it to do anything with it. We couldn't even get aircraft to drop retardant in front of it.

INSKEEP: This fire started as two smaller fires. And as we're going to hear, there's a lot of talk about where one of them came from. This giant fire is now reaching as many as 30 square miles per day. East of Santa Fe, it's destroyed hundreds of homes as thousands evacuate⁴. NPR's Eric Westervelt is in Las Vegas, N.M. Mexico. And we asked what he's seeing.

ERIC WESTERVELT, BYLINE⁵: Well, we've got these unusually high winds. And many meteorologists and firefighters online are calling these winds, you know, unprecedented⁶. They just haven't seen them before. I mean, it's called the Calf⁷ Canyon⁸/Hermits Peak Fire, and the wind just doesn't seem to let up, Steve. I mean, it's yet another example of sort of extreme weather we keep seeing in this era of climate change. I mean, they've had more than 20 days of these red-flag warnings. That's extreme wind - 40 to 70 miles per hour - during this fire, just over a month old. That includes six straight days of red-flag warnings, Steve. And today and tomorrow are again red flag days. And everyone you talk to says, look, we just haven't seen this many dangerously high-wind days in a row. Dave Bales is the fire incident commander here.

DAVE BALES: Man, I tell you, it is - that's been a huge challenge for us. And I've been doing this for, oh, just about 3 1/2 decades, and I have not seen that many red-flag events in a row. Specifically, this last event we just went through was up to five days straight of a red flag, you know, day and night.

WESTERVELT: And, Steve, that last point is key - day and night. They're lasting⁹ longer. Usually, red-flag days - you know, the wind sort of dies down at night. That's the pattern. But not on this fire. On several days, these howling winds have lasted throughout the night, and that's created really dangerous conditions, as we heard from Todd Abel at the top there - you know, tossing embers one, even two miles from the main fire, where crews have built containment¹⁰ lines.

INSKEEP: How are the evacuations going?

WESTERVELT: The people in the path for the most part have evacuated if they're in the direct path of the fire. Some 300 structures, including dozens of homes, have been destroyed. And as, you know, the intense winds continue and the fire spreads, the shelters are filling up. But not everyone in the fire's path has left their homes. So police continue to, you know, encourage locals to heed¹¹ the evacuation orders in their area when they're given.

INSKEEP: OK. You got to tell us about how this fire started. I gather that one portion of it - one of the two fires that combined into one - started intentionally¹³. What happened?

WESTERVELT: Yeah. This was an intentional¹² or prescribed burn set by the U.S. Forest Service in the Santa Fe National Forest. The wind picked up, and the blaze just took off. The fire then merged¹⁴ with a separate, smaller wildfire a few weeks later. And it's become this big blaze known as Calf Canyon. And people are frustrated¹⁵ and angry that, you know, this big disruption was caused in part, it looks like, by, you know, an intentional blaze that got out of control.

Members of New Mexico's congressional delegation¹⁶ and others have called for a full investigation¹⁷. The Forest Service says it's doing its own internal investigation. And New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham yesterday said the federal government should accept significant liability and pay for much of the wildfire recovery.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM: For me, it's negligent¹⁸ to consider a prescribed burn in a windy season in a state that's under an extreme drought warning statewide. So I think that it is likely - likely - that Congress and most of our federal partners accept that there is significant federal liability.

WESTERVELT: Steve, I would add, I spoke¹⁹ with an official at the Santa Fe National Forest, which did this burn. She told me they've been doing prescribed burning in that part of the forest for over 10 years, with many successful burns. And they had a strict burn plan for this one as well. They looked at weather, wind and moisture, as they do, in all of these prescribed burns. And the officials said, look, the weather forecasted - you know, that it was - conditions were within the parameters²⁰ for a safe burn. But again, this has been an unprecedented wind event, and that controlled burn quickly got out of control.

INSKEEP: NPR's Eric Westervelt in Las Vegas, N.M. Eric, thanks.

WESTERVELT: You're welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF B'SIDE'S "JUST DON'T CARE")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 relentless   

adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的

参考例句：

• The traffic noise is relentless.交通车辆的噪音一刻也不停止。
• Their training has to be relentless.他们的训练必须是无情的。

3 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

4 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。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

7 calf   

n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮

参考例句：

• The cow slinked its calf.那头母牛早产了一头小牛犊。
• The calf blared for its mother.牛犊哞哞地高声叫喊找妈妈。

8 canyon   

n.峡谷，溪谷

参考例句：

• The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
• The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。

9 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

10 containment   

n.阻止，遏制；容量

参考例句：

• Your list might include such things as cost containment,quality,or customer satisfaction.你的清单上应列有诸如成本控制、产品质量、客户满意程度等内容。
• Insularity and self-containment,it is argued,go hand in hand.他们争论说，心胸狭窄和自我封闭是并存的。

11 heed   

v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心

参考例句：

• You must take heed of what he has told.你要注意他所告诉的事。
• For the first time he had to pay heed to his appearance.这是他第一次非得注意自己的外表不可了。

12 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。

13 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

14 merged   

（使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中

参考例句：

• Turf wars are inevitable when two departments are merged. 两个部门合并时总免不了争争权限。
• The small shops were merged into a large market. 那些小商店合并成为一个大商场。

15 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

17 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

18 negligent   

adj.疏忽的；玩忽的；粗心大意的

参考例句：

• The committee heard that he had been negligent in his duty.委员会听说他玩忽职守。
• If the government is proved negligent,compensation will be payable.如果证明是政府的疏忽，就应支付赔偿。

19 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

20 parameters   

因素，特征； 界限； （限定性的）因素( parameter的名词复数 )； 参量； 参项； 决定因素

参考例句：

• We have to work within the parameters of time. 我们的工作受时间所限。
• See parameters.cpp for a compilable example. This is part of the Spirit distribution. 可编译例子见parameters.cpp.这是Spirit分发包的组成部分。