can get water or retardant, and dump that specifically on spots throughout the fire zone. caught up with one of the pilots of one of those air cranes, and he described for me some of the challenges he s facing with this fire. what s the most challenging thing about this fire? about losing a house. we don t like that. we take that kind of personal. the challenging part is being up 10,000 foot with the winds. you can see how the clouds or the fog, or the smoke is standing up today, but you get up in there, get the wind swirling over top, and even though this machine s got a lot of horsepower, it takes a lot to fly in the wind. reporter: fixed-wing aircraft also helping out, unprecedented move by the u.s. military. their entire fleet of c-140s modified to fight fires are in here. also getting federal attention from the president. president obama here yesterday doing a tour, showing his support for the firefighting effort as well. colorado springs, as you know, randi, is the
verdict to their advantage. good morning, everyone. i m randi kaye. it is 10:00 on the east coast, 7:00 a.m. on the west. we start in colorado, where daylight brings new dangers along the fire lines. the waldo canyon fire has destroyed nearly 350 homes so far, and thousands more are threatened. firefighters have been working around the clock to protect those homes. cnn s rob marciano has been in colorado springs all week for us. rob, the firefighters get a bit of a break overnight with some cooler temperatures, but what s happening now? reporter: well, this time of day is when the personnel for air support begins to filter in and other support crews. they work the ground through the overnight, but this is when things really ramp up. you can see behind me, there s not a lot of smoke. at night, temperatures are cooler, the fire tends to lay down, but certainly, there are some homes and communities that they ve managed to save there. a little bit further to the south, that s