Update: Lt. Greg Goettsch Interview
By: Mark Moseley
Updated: January 22, 2009
Lt. Greg Goettsch of the Abilene Fire Department returned to the KTAB studio with an update on the Hawley fire. Here is an excerpt from his interview: Bob: Tell us what you saw when you got to the scene, after the fire had been going for a while.
Lt. Goettsch: There's a good amnt. of destruction. Several thousand acres reported already. It's quite hard to see where any structures were from where the command post is and areas we can access.
Bob: Of course, the volunteer firefighters are out there doing most of the work. Abilene Fire Department is there too with several units, but you were talking about how hard it is to get in there. And we heard about road graters and plows that were in there cutting roads.
Lt. Goettsch: Right, that's really the only way we can get to this fire. There's such heavy brush. We can't just drive to it, we can't walk through it to drag hoses in there. We have to follow road graters with dozers and whatever we can find to get back into some of these areas. Basically what we're trying to do is contain the fire by building a perimeter around it. Of course we're worried about homes and other structures from the start, but once we get that perimeter established, it will stop that loss from spreading.
