JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Call it backdraft from the Los Alamos fire. Questions about the blaze set by the government in hopes of avoiding just such a disaster are expected to flare today in a congressional hearing room. CNN national correspondent Bob Franken is on the story for us. Bob, what's going on?</s>BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, angry questions, Jeanne, from Republicans on the subcommittee that will be questioning members of the administration, the head of the Park Service and others: How could they have ignored the warnings and started a fire that the warnings suggested might have waited? That's of course going to occupy quite a bit of the time, but there's also going to be a real fundamental debate about what to do about dangerous fire conditions -- controlled burns one of the tried- and-true methods -- but there has been a longtime controversy over what's called mechanical means. In other words, can they use machinery to get rid of some of the trees? can they use the machinery to get rid of some of the underbrush? This has been a longtime debate. That approach is something that is opposed by environmentalists who say that that's just really giving an entree to the logging interests, who will come in and destroy the ecosystems and perhaps destroy many species of animals. That's the debate we're going to have today. The conservatives favor allowing some of that mechanical removal. Those who are environmentally inclined say that they do not want to allow that procedure to get into place. We're going to hear of a draft report from the U.S. Forest Service, never released, that suggests a combined effort that way, that would cost when it was finished about $825 million a year. But the Forest Service draft said that that would be much less than the damage that is done by the raging fires -- Jeanne.</s>MESERVE: Bob Franken, on Capitol Hill, thank you.
Congress Applies the Heat to Los Alamos Fire Officials