1.
AERIAL V Smoke rising from forest
0.06

2.
SV & GV Burning trees (3 shots)
0.19

3.
LV Smoke in distance
0.21

4.
GV Man removing possessions into truck
0.35

5.
GV & LV Fire-fighting equipment and men
0.35

6.
GV PAN Plane drops fire-retardant chemical
0.40

7.
GV & SV Trees on fire (2 shots)
0.50

8.
GV Deer running from fire
0.57

9.
GV Trees on fire and smoke.
0.58



Initials BB/0200 GR/TB/BB/0215



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Several homes were destroyed and three hundred more evacuated as a forest fire swept through the Prescott National Forest in Central Arizona, last week.

The fire--the biggest in Arizona this year--has been raging since Sunday 14th May. By Wednesday 17th May it had already consumed more than 25-thousand acres of brushwood and pine and was expected to burn for several more days, aided by 35 mile per hour (56 km.) winds and a five-month drought.

One-thousand three hundred firefighters from five neighbouring states used aircraft, helicopters, bulldozers and water-carriers to try and quell the blaze, but despite their efforts, latest reports (20th May) say that the fire continues to burn fiercely.