thank you so much for what you and your entire team have been doing through the days and nights. update us at this point on where things stand when it comes to containment and what the biggest threats are still today. on the northeastern part, you re looking at a little over 150,000 acres burned to date as well as 65% containment, which is good news, actually. they re starting to get a handle on it. they re having to fight the fire in mountainous areas, ravines, canyons, very steep, rugged terrain. unfortunately, believe it or not, yes, unfortunately, we will be having rain come in. it may be a significant amount. it s hard to tell until it gets here. as far as helping with the firefig firefight, yes, it will help diminish the flames that are taking place right now. however, it will pose a hazard to the firefighters. they re back there on dirt roads, dirt trails trying to
this is the norm rather than the the exception. the fact that it went up to the s secretary of defense indicates it was an exceptional circumstance, and normally these decisions would be made at a much lower level. if they are out assisting in a mission, and they get into some fight i fighting, that is one thing, but this is an actual operation that the u.s. was involved in from takeoff to return. quickly we have to be very careful with that. and jim, what are they saying at the pentagon about the fears of mission creep? well, they are saying it is not mission creep, but it is part of the mission. it does show you that on missions like this, that involve assist, if a commander on the ground, and i m told those are the circumstance, a commander on the ground made the decision when his partners came under fire to go in to enter that firefig firefight, the rules of engagement allow that in certain circumstances, so if the that is the case, a you have other train and assist missi