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Ben Nandy

WC1115lisa8_2024-11-14-08-12-15

Orange County is now under a state of emergency. Hi, everyone. I'm Tara Joyce and I'm Lisa Salvadori. We begin our team 12 coverage this morning with Lisa Lara. She is in Greenwood Lake with everything you need to know about the current conditions, Lisa. Right. Listen, Terry, and you just mentioned state of emergency. We have Orange County Executive Steve Newhouse here. Just talk if you would a little bit about that. You, you decided on that yesterday and that's more about it enables you guys to do stuff quicker. Cut through the red tape. Right. Yeah, absolutely. I hate using that word because it just scares people, but it allows me to, we have to do a lot of work in some of these areas right now. I did an aerial assessment yesterday. Um and there's a lot of areas that haven't been burnt at all. So there's a lot, there's a big spot on fire mostly in that Ehore area, but there's a tremendous amount of the forest that hasn't been touched yet. So, what we're doing is we're just trying to protect the ones that are abutting where residences are, you know. So we're trying to tell residents move out of the way school district close for the next two days because the air is pretty much stagnant right now. So it gives us a tremendous opportunity to really hit this fire hard. You see the resources coming in from all over the place. We have big heavy lift helicopters coming in today with 2000 capacity drops. So it it is gonna be a full on assault against the fire today. And so with the finally the wind dying down, I guess. So you guys are just going to take full advantage of that before it comes back. Absolutely. And we have all these resources from all over the place. You see all out of state license plates, New Jersey heavily here all over New York State. I have county execs from all over the state calling me setting in resources. So it is a tremendous response. So today and we've been talking about this all morning with the mayor earlier, people can expect to see a lot of smoke, more flames, but that's all done by design. Absolutely. Absolutely. In order to fight fire, you have to fight it with, with itself. And that's what we're doing today. And we, you're gonna see some major operations here. We have three Chinooks coming in 40 sevens. We have two Black Hawks on stand by, we have the UE. So you're going to see a big air assault as well as a ground assault against this fire. So it sounds like finally getting a handle on it. Yeah, I'm definitely like me. I've been calm cool since the beginning with this, but uh it's getting better, believe me. Thanks so much for joining us. So uh gonna be a busy day here in the area. So just be aware of that. Let's go back to the studio.

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WC1115lisa6_2024-11-14-06-38-06

For all conditions for fighting the fire today. More favorable with a light breeze. We'll talk about an increase in the wind into the weekend. Coming up. Orange County is now under a state of emergency. Hi, everyone. I'm Tara Joyce and I'm Lisa Salvadori. The Greenwood Lake school district is also closed for the rest of the week because of this fire. We do begin our team 12 coverage this morning. Getting right to news twelve's Lisa Lara live in Greenwood Lake this morning with an update from local officials, Lisa. Yeah, you know, the good news is is that the wind has really died down. And so uh all the folks who are working so hard on this and really wanna take advantage uh of that while that's happening. So, uh with me now is uh Greenwood Lakes, Mayor Tom Halley, thanks so much for getting up and coming out. You said you just kind of took a, a little ride around just to see where are we at right now. Well, uh it kind of maintained over the evening. Um last night at our briefing, the fire officials were relatively happy with the production of yesterday. Um and today is gonna be a full blown all hands on deck. They're bringing in extra resources because they really want to take advantage of today's. And tomorrow's good weather when I say good weather clear and very low winds. So that's important and, you know, making progress. I mean, yesterday at this time, the fire we were seeing was 20% contained. Now we're up to 41%. So, you know, everything that's being done, it's a good thing. That's amazing. Um Again, a lot has to do with the lack of wind. The wind can really, really make this thing move, obviously. Um So we have 22 good days in front of us and I believe the wind is supposed to start picking up Saturday. So we have to really take a good bite out of this today and tomorrow. So let's talk a little bit about what's happening today because, you know, you've been saying people shouldn't panic, they're gonna see a lot more smoke. They're going to see a lot more flames, but that's being done by the firefighters and the best way to kind of describe it, fighting fire with fire. I always thought that was just a cli cliche term, but now it's, that's how that's their tactic. Um And that's gonna happen today, beginning probably in the neighborhood at 10 o'clock, you're gonna see a lot of smoke. They're go, they're gonna be many more crews out there today because they brought in extra resources to take advantage of the good weather. So, if you live in, live in or around Greenwood Lake, while there are no evacuations necessary, no evacuations are planned. It wouldn't be a bad time, you know, to go visit relatives somewhere, especially if you have any kind of respiratory illnesses, asthma, there's gonna be a lot of smoke, but please don't panic. It's on purpose and we'll have crews out there. We have, uh, almost 2.5 miles of charged water line up in the trail because it is a fire and, and anything could happen. But we're very optimistic that we're gonna control, control it as best we can today. All right, mayor. Thank you so much for stopping by and if you're around we can have you back and chat a little bit more. We know how busy you are. But thank you so much. So, again, you heard, don't panic. You're seeing more smoke, you're seeing more flames, but that is the firefighters doing what they do. So, we want to hear more about what's going on today. Cat is in the alert center cat. What do you have for us?

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WC1115lisa730_2024-11-14-07-35-31

Right now on 12 more smoke and flames expected from the wildfire in Greenwood Lake. We are tracking power outages and the status of school this week. Also, funeral services are now set for the young man killed while fighting those flames. And today the conditions for fighting the fire a little bit better, but things will change into the weekend. We'll talk about why coming up. Orange County is under a state of emergency this Thursday morning, I'm Tara Joyce and I'm Lisa Salvatori in the Greenwood Lake School District also closed for the rest of the week because of the fire. We begin our team 12 coverage this morning with Lisa Loroco with the very latest from Greenwood Lake, Lisa. Right? And we have Greenwood Lake's mayor here with us again. Thanks again for giving us all your time. You know how busy, but, uh, you said you were just inside packed in there. They're ready to go out and do battle, correct. They are right now. Everyone's getting fed and they're, they'll have an eight o'clock briefing and, uh, and get their assignments for the day. So, what can we expect? I mean, we've been talking a little bit about this. People should not panic. They're gonna see a lot more smoke and fire today, but that's by design. Correct. Uh, that's how you fight a fire with fire, as I said earlier. And that's gonna happen all over the mountain today to contain it. It's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a firefighting tool and sometimes water isn't needed. You have, you have to deprive the fire of, of its source and, you know, they're building lines up there. We do have water 2.5 miles of water ready to go if needed. And then we, I believe they're gonna have six helicopters here today, which is a little increase from the last few days. The weather is on our side today. Uh Winds are at about three miles an hour, which is, which is fine and tomorrow is gonna be some somewhat similar. So we're really looking to make a dent in it today and tomorrow and, you know, everybody needs to understand this is completely different from when you're fighting a fire in a building. I mean, there's a lot more to it with turning the earth over. I mean, the water certainly helps. And I know you're getting the Chinooks how the Chinook helicopters are coming and that can drop a lot of, I believe two Chinooks are coming. They have two Apache, apaches and uh two state police Hueys. So that's a lot of, that's a lot of air time and, uh, they'll be working together throughout the day and you have to be careful. You, you don't want to drop water on firefighters. So, it's, it's truly a coordinate effort. And just quickly we're, we were talking about schools are closed today and tomorrow that goes under the state of emergency. But people need to understand again. Don't worry when they hear that that's done. So you can cut through red tape and just get things done. Exactly. Uh, when the county Steve Newhouse and, uh, Jesse Dwyer, the town supervisor, they jointly called, called the state of emergency. This area and that gives us the ability, like you said, to cut red tape to make decisions quickly and we don't have to get other people involved. Uh, school, uh, the school superintendent Sarah hadn't took advantage of that canceled schools and again, it's just out of why have school buses traveling around when you have fire trucks and hoses across the road. It, it didn't make sense to, to open them. And, uh, so the kids take advantage of that if you can. Absolutely. All right, mayor. Thank you so much. Uh, you talked about the winds dying down. So we want to check in with Matt Hammer Matt. That's a good thing. But you said, unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's gonna last all that long. Yeah, I mean, today into tomorrow morning, especially Lisa, really important time frame for these firefight will be battling this fire because of the very very light wind, which as you heard from the mayor, it's around five MPH at worst right now. And what that also does though is allows for more stagnant air. So the more smoky conditions by design today will kind of just stay put and drift right around the location of the fire. So what that does do is actually allow for more reduced air quality and smoky conditions towards the surface than recent days. And so that's why they've also suggested if you live in and around these areas to try and find friends or family to stay with for these next couple of days, I mean, the the wind light is great for fighting the fire but does have some uh other impacts in terms of that reduced air quality. So you can see that wind in Greenwood Lake, very light, even through the afternoon and evening, we'll talk about the impacts into the weekend coming up in a few minutes.

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News 12's Ben Nandy reports that residents who voluntarily evacuated earlier may need to leave again, but officials reassure that no homes are in danger and that firefighting operations are progressing well.

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'Please do not panic.' Greenwood Lake officials warn of heavy smoke from controlled burns

News 12's Ben Nandy reports that residents who voluntarily evacuated earlier may need to leave again, but officials reassure that no homes are in danger and that firefighting operations are progressing well.

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