ABC Nightline, Monday: Fires in SoCal and Baghdad

after Monday Night Football:


Nightline Daily E-Mail
October 27, 2003


TONIGHT'S FOCUS: Fires are raging throughout Southern California, and it was also one of the most violent days in Baghdad in months. We'll cover both stories tonight.

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It's always a little strange when something bad happens in a place you know. If there is a disaster in a city you've never visited, it's somehow easier to keep at a distance. As regular readers of the email know, I grew up in Southern California. Fires were a part of every summer as long as I can remember. But the fires this weekend are different. Hundreds of thousands of acres have burned, and hundreds of homes. The ash and smoke are so thick that airports have been closed and flights cancelled or delayed. The death toll is very high. The Monday Night Football game was scheduled to be played in San Diego tonight. But the stadium is being used as an emergency center, and with the smoke and ash and all, the decision was made to move the game to Phoenix.

ABC News has correspondents out on the fires, an assignment that is both exhausting and challenging. Seeing fires like these up close is an awe-inspiring experience. We forget sometimes how little of nature we actually can control, until we get an ugly reminder like this. We'll have reports from the various fires tonight. I can't be more specific because it is a fluid situation and I'm not sure exactly where we'll be at the end of the day.

It was also a day of deadly bombings in Baghdad. The headquarters of the International Red Cross was attacked by a suicide bomber apparently driving a vehicle somehow disguised as an ambulance or Red Cross vehicle. There were three other bomb attacks, all at roughly the same time. More than thirty people have been killed and more than two hundred wounded. Overnight, three U.S. soldiers were killed and yesterday a hotel used as a headquarters by the U.S. occupation was hit by several rockets. By all accounts, this seems to be a major escalation of both the level of violence and the sophistication of the attacks. All of this comes on the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. We'll have a report from Baghdad as well tonight.

It just seems like it's that kind of day.

Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
ABCNEWS Washington bureau