CNN Report Interrupted By Woman Screaming At Reporter To Get Off Her Property

CNN weather anchor Derek Van Dam’s reporting on damage caused by wildfires sweeping through Georgia was interrupted Friday by a woman upset that the reporter was on her property.

The angry woman was heard yelling, “I don’t want nobody near my house! My dogs are out there. Get away, get away!” as Van Dam attempted to show the damage caused by the combination of drought conditions and high winds.

“You got it, you got it. We are — okay,” Van Dam said to the woman as he began walking off the property. “Yeah, we’re going to leave it here. Okay? You got it.”

“Let’s hope Derek gets to safety there,” said co-anchor Pamela Brown.

Earlier in his report, Van Dam said that mandatory evacuations were underway and a new curfew was put in place as the fire continued to burn.

More than 34,000 acres have already been scorched, and some 87 homes destroyed.

“As we were setting up for this live shot, the winds shifted and changed. We put on a mask because there’s this absolutely putrid chemical burning type smell from something that is smoldering in the distance over my left shoulder,” Van Dam said.

“We didn’t have that that smell just moments ago. But the wind shifts brought that back into it, and it started to make us feel a little bit nauseous, and lightheaded, so we put on the mask for that particular reason. But I think it really illustrates the point that the shifting winds are what’s making this firefighting effort so challenging on the ground for the firefighters,” Van Dam said.

“Look at these scorched vehicles,” he continued. “Again, we’re in Brantley County. This is southeastern Georgia, on the scarred area from the Highway 82 fire. I mean, I’m going to have my photojournalist just kind of look inside of this vehicle, look at the destruction that something of this magnitude can do. But this was absolutely astounding — the windshield, the back windshield of this vehicle? Yeah, that glass melted. You need temperatures over 2,500°F in order to melt glass. So, that just gives you an idea of how hot it was.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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