up in the last just couple of hours. a fire official told me less than an hour ago if he told me an acreage amount, it would be wrong in ten minutes. this fire is advancing at least at 2,000 feet every hour. the last four days this has been burning, they counted on the wind to at least burn it in towards the interior of the forest and away from populated areas. just within the last half hour, that has completely changed. the smoke is now coming towards us, towards the city of colorado springs. now, it doesn't seem at this moment there's any real danger to the city itself. but so far as of a couple hours ago, they miraculously i think not lost a single structure. i was in the interior of this fire and they had fire lines around individual houses and every single one them had held. this is going to make it a lot more difficult with this change in the wind direction. that's what prompted that additional evacuation of 7,000 people, soledad. >> plus, you now know several thousand more people have been evacuated, right? >> reporter: yeah, exactly, and there are already almost 5,000 people evacuated. now it's about a total of 12,000 people. this wind has become so erratic and the weather so extreme. 101 degrees here. that is an all-time record since they've been keeping records in colorado springs. this is the hottest day ever here. and with these high winds picking up, it's too dangerous to have people in the path of the fire, soledad. >> it's erratic, it's hot, and as you say hardly contained. what's the strategy on the part of fire fighters? >> well, they're trying to create fire lines. they feel good about it in the back of the fire. the way the downwind direction of the fire. but it's heading north towards where the u.s. air force academy is and towards more communities. so they're trying to create a fire line. they're using roads and an additional bulldozer lines and even hand dug lines to create a barrier between active fire and the fuel on the other side of it. that's their real trick, is to create that gap. when the fire gets to the fire line, it doesn't have any more fuel to propel itself forward, and they hope to hold it there. when the winds change directions, they have to change their plans and try to create new lines in those new directions. it's not easy. it takes a long time, and it's brutal work in these conditions. >> i was going to say, it looks from the pictures we're running side by side with you, jim, it looks like brutal work. thanks, appreciate it. as jim reported, the size of the fire has forced thousands of people to flee to safety, including becky schormann and her husband who evacuated their home on sunday morning. becky joins us now by phone. becky, thanks for being with us. we appreciate it. i know this is a really tough time for you. your daughter is a volunteer fire fighter, an i believe that she's told you that the flames are now only about 20 feet away from your home. that's got to be just brutal to hear. >> yeah, that was -- that was this afternoon. since then, they've doused whatever came across the highway. i've got to say that our volunteer fire department has just been awesome. >> you still there? >> oh, yeah, yeah. >> okay, so they've been doing a good job for you. what's the latest update then? if the last one was 20 feet away, they've been able to hold off on the flames. how close is it getting to your home? >> well, right now, they've retarded what came across the highway. >> oh, good. >> where highway 24 split kind of cascade in half, and the side that we're on is the one that we hope doesn't, you know, ever jump the highway, but embers have, and they've just done a marvelous job of taking care of it. >> thank goodness. tell me about sunday morning. your husband woke up, woke you up, too, and said, listen, we got to go. walk me through what happened. >> well, he said, get up, we've got to go. and it was my one morning to sleep in. anyway, first thing i did was just started grabbing things that i knew i had to get out of the bedroom. i started making a pile at the front door. we had neighbors and friends that came and helped us get, you know, things loaded up. and i believe you have pictures of my husband and my son-in-law and my daughter trying to get our little animals into the back of our trailer. >> yeah, not so little animals in some cases. i saw i think a pony and a donkey. where are you now? and where are you keeping your animals? >> actually, my daughter, bless her heart, we did a makeshift fence job, and they're living in her backyard. the -- the one -- my one donkey started to chew on their wagon out back, so we're gonna have to go find some more hay for him i think. and we -- we have a motor home, so we brought our motor home. and we're kind of living out of that at my daughter's house, and we brought our neighbors and i have a cousin and we all came up caravanning and parked ourselves here. i think -- i think my daughter said we finally got out at about 11:30. >> wow. wow. we have another photo i want to show everybody. it's a photo of your daughter and your son-in-law. and they're standing on the roof of your home right before you evacuated on sunday. >> right. >> i know you've been in colorado for 35 years. is this a first for you? have you ever seen anything like this before? >> well, other than the experience of the hamon fire. we did, you know, we did go through that. that was pretty awesome. and i guess saturday was the tenth anniversary of the hamon fire, and that's kind of when this fire started. >> what, becky, were you able to grab, and what did you have to leave behind? >> i left a lot behind. we had a fishing boat. it's still under my deck. and we had a couple of atvs. had to leave them behind. and i had antique dishes that came from my grandparents and my parents and -- same with my husband. basically, my china cabinet. and that's all still there. i had quite an antique doll collection, and most of that's still there. i think i retrieved one doll. and that was because she was the oldest. and we did -- we do have our two dogs with us. my son-in-law is actually a firefighter. he's at work now, taking care of fires. my daughter will be leaving to take care of cascade. >> when you look at some of these pictures, are you feeling hopeful you'll be able to return to a home intact, with all those things inside? >> i hope so. i keep telling myself it's going to be okay. like i said, our volunteer fire department is just awesome. and they've been there from the onset, from the get-go. periodically, they change shifts, and some people get to take a nap, but otherwise, they're scattered all over town, with apparatuses and stuff to, you know, protect people's homes. >> and really a massive job in front of them. becky schormann, thank you for talking with us. i know it is a really tough time for you. we certainly appreciate it. >> oh, sure, any time. >> let's get right to chad myers. he's got more on the weather conditions these firefighters are facing right now. >> believe it or not, yesterday the firefighters saw relative humidities right over the fire of 3%. three. the number three. that takes all the humidity out of any timber that's there. especially any dead timber. there's a lot of dead timber here. if you haven't been to utah, colorado, new mexico, arizona, in the past couple of years, you don't know about these rocky mountain pine beetles that have killed a lot of trees. so, therefore, you not only have live trees standing that are on fire, you have dead trees that are just waiting to go, and so all around this area today, where temperatures approached 98 degrees, relative humidity 3%. all of this was just an impossible fire to fight. hot all the way from canada all the way down to texas. the area around wichita even saw temperatures around 115 today. and that's in the shade. well, there's no shade in these fires. there's no shade around the heat and the flames that these fire fighters are seeing. the work that these men and women are doing is literally -- it's yeoman's work, it's tremendous work, and it's very, very dangerous. the winds weren't too bad today. only about 8 to 10 miles per hour. but it was the heat and the very low humidity. and later on tonight, we could even see a few dry thunderstorms. can you say -- what do you mean dry thunderstorms? thunderstorms have rain. not all thunderstorms have rain. especially in the mountains where the air is so dry, 3%. you can get a cloud to go up. a lightning strike to come down. but yet no rain falling out of the sky. those are called dry thunderstorms. that's how the first fire we talked about, the high park fire started, but now the high park fire, we lose some intensity on that because that started 15 miles west in the mountains west of ft. collins. this fire we're talking about right now did not start that far to the west. it started very, very close. within a few miles there of colorado springs, of the air force academy, of garden of the gods, of some very beautiful -- these are my memories of going into canyon city and floating down these streams in rubber rafts, doing class 4 rapids. these are beautiful places. now, soledad, they are on fire. >> looks absolutely brutal from these pictures, chad. thank you for the update. appreciate that. for everybody else, let us know what you think. we're on facebook. you can follow the program on twitter, @ac360. i'm also tweeting @soledad underscore o'brien. coming up next, is mitt romney allergic to specifics? we'll show you the latest example of the campaign dodging questions, even as fellow republicans are urging him to come up with some better answers. we're keeping them honest. stay with us. >> announcer: you never know when, but thieves can steal your identity, turning your life upside down in a matter of seconds. >> hi. >> hi. you know, i can save you 15% today if you open up a charge card account with us. >> you just read my mind. >> announcer: just one little piece of information and they can open bogus accounts, stealing your credit, your money and ruining your reputation. that's why you need lifelock. lifelock is the leader in identity theft protection, relentlessly protecting your personal information to help stop the crooks in their tracks before your identity is attacked, protecting your social security number, your bank accounts, even the equity in your home. >> i didn't know how serious identity theft was... until i lost my credit and eventually i lost my home. >> announcer: credit monitoring alone is not enough to protect your identity, and only tells you after the fact, sometimes as much as 60 days later. with lifelock, as soon as we spot a threat to your identity within our network, our advanced lifelock i.d. alert system directly notifies you, protecting your identity before you become a victim. >> identity theft was a huge, huge problem for me and it's gone away because of lifelock. >> announcer: while no one can stop all identity theft, if the criminals do manage to steal your information, lifelock is there to help fix it, with our $1 million service guarantee. that's right, a $1 million service guarantee. don't wait until you become the next victim. call now to try lifelock risk-free for two full months. that's right, 60 days risk-free. use promo code: norisk. if you're not completely satisfied, notify lifelock and you won't pay a cent. order now and also get this document shredder to keep your personal documents out of the wrong hands-- a $29 dollar value, free. get the protection you need right now. call or go to lifelock.com to try lifelock risk-free for a full 60 days. use promo code: norisk. plus get this document shredder free, but only if you act right now. call now! lifelock service guarantee cannot be offered to residents of new york. so try this on for size. when you're electing a president, it helps to know specifically what the candidate would do as president. it almost sounds too simple. after all, broadly speaking, most people know what mr. obama and mr. romney stand for. big picture, they pretty much know what they're getting. nobody is exactly clamoring for white papers and 15 point plans. but details do matter. specifics do count. if you want to hear whether that big picture the candidate's selling actually adds up. keeping them honest tonight, is the romney campaign being too vague on the details? even some republicans say yes. >> it ain't easy. you know, i've been at it now for a while, and that's it for me. i want to hear him say some specifics. it's very difficult to put a positive spin when he's not addressing some of the key questions. >> that's gop strategist ana navarro on the program last night talking about the romney's campaign refusal to get specific about immigration. in this case, whether the candidate supports the part of arizona's immigration law that survived a supreme court challenge yesterday. you'll remember a spokesman was asked that question 16 times on board the romney campaign plane yesterday. 16 times he dodged the answer, instead, reciting a generic statement not quite referring to the law. the campaign took a lot of heat for not answering but not enough to change its tune as i found out this morning on "starting point." i was speaking with carlos gutierrez. he's the honorary co-chair of the romney campaign's hispanic steering committee. listen. let's talk about governor romney specifically. what exactly is his position on sb-1070? does he support the one provision that now stands? >> well, let me say this, soledad, and i -- look, i have been for immigration reform as long as i can remember. i have the battle scars to prove it. but i believe that, as the governor does, that every country in the world has the right and the obligation to secure its borders, to know who's coming in, to know who's leaving. it's a right. it's an obligation. every country does it. what is alarming here is that there appears to be a need to convince the president that part of his job is to secure the borders and part of his job is to ensure that we know who's coming in and who's going out. we shouldn't be arguing about this. >> but my question, sir, was not about president obama. my question was about mitt romney and specifically this one provision of sb-1070. does he support it as it now stands? >> as i mentioned, the governor supports the right of border states and the country at large to protect its border, to protect its integrity. it's not an anti-immigration issue. >> but, sir, i -- that is not the question -- >> it kind of went on like that and on and on. mr. gutierrez never answered a very specific yes or no question, nor did he say whether mr. romney would reverse president obama's executive action that would allow certain children of illegal immigrants to stay in the country. here's what happened when cbs' bob schieffer asked the candidate. >> would you repeal this order if you became president? >> well, let's step back and look at the issue. >> well, what would you do about it? >> well, as you know, he was president for the last 3 1/2 years, did nothing on immigration. >> but would you repeal this? >> didn't answer. as we mentioned, even some republicans are unhappy. congressman ben quayle says he wants mr. romney to be more aggressive on the issue. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell says discussions are under way with the romney campaign about how to handle immigration. it's not just immigration where the campaign is vague. it's also equal pay for women. listen. >> does governor romney support the lilly ledbetter act? >> we'll get back to you on that. >> yeah, well, they didn't, ever. >> mr. romney later said he had no intention of changing the law if elected, but still wouldn't say whether he supported the legislation himself or not. then there's the tax cut plan which calls for big tax cuts offset by closing certain loopholes. mr. romney won't say which loopholes he would close. when asked again this month he would only say, quote, we'll go through that process with congress. i should mention that no candidate for any office, republican or democrat, ever wants to go into too much detail about anything. but it's a matter of degree and how much each campaign compares with past campaigns. we're grading on a constantly changing curve here. given that, where does mitt romney fall on the curve? does he fall short when it comes to giving voters what they need to decide? ana navarro is back tonight. she was national chairman for jon huntsman's 2012 campaign and fellow gop strategist mary matalin is with us tonight and so is chief national correspondent john king. nice to see all of you. ana, let's start with you. you sounded kind of frustrated last night about this very topic. do you think the governor is not being clear enough or just not taking a position you'd like to hear? >> i don't think he's -- i think i'm frustrated because of both things. i haven't heard a position from him. and he hasn't been clear enough. i would rather disagree with him than not know where he is standing. i think it's also -- the reason i'm so frustrated, soledad, because it's a lost opportunity. had you asked me six months ago, i would have told you immigration was going to be barack obama's biggest liability, not mitt romney. but mitt romney, unless he engages, unless he stops tiptoeing around this and walking on eggshells and confronting this head on, he's not going to be able to exploit what is, what should be obama's biggest liability with latinos. >> mary, the governor was specific in the primary. he was specific, you know, when he said i will veto the d.r.e.a.m. act. he talked about self-deportation. i know in these private meetings he has been specific and laid out some details. those are private. with people who have paid money to come see him. why the big resistance to laying it out very clearly with detail? >> i'm going to have to beg to differ with my friend ana, with you, soledad. he just gave a very extensive and specific speech to a latino community. of course, we think immigration issues and immigration problems are problems for all americans, not just the hispanic community. mitt romney early on was criticized for having a 59-point economic plan. now he does have a specific -- the broad sweep and specific instances in a white paper, which people don't want to read white papers, but it's right here. he has been specific privately and publicly on this, on regulatory reform, any number of issues. can i just go back to lily ledbetter? that's not an equal pay for women act. that's a super pay for trial lawyers act. i hope he comes out against it. but the bigger thing is he has been the nominee here for six weeks, eight weeks. we spoke of any number in specificity issues over the weekend. this is going to be a campaign or an organization ready to govern on day one in great depth. >> john, mitt romney could have a reason for vagueness, obviously, but i have to imagine that as a member of the press the press is just going to push harder and harder. mary talks about a white paper. where we really see i think a conflict is the right way to put if is when a specific question is asked, it's very clearly dodged. why? >> well, there's no question. president obama will find himself in the same box. every candidate does. there's no question, candidates sometimes don't want to talk about what we in the news media talk about. don't want to talk about what the other campaign wants them to talk about. this all reminds me, soledad, back in the 1992 campaign when a woman named gennifer flowers came forward to challenge then governor clinton, to raise questions about governor bill clinton. a guy name george stephanopoulos who worked for governor clinton at the time said specificity is the character issue in this campaign. bill clinton was saying he had the more detailed plan on the economy. if you go to romney's website