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Keith McCord Reporting To mark the beginning of the Olympics in Torino, and to remember the Salt Lake games, the cauldron at Rice-Eccles Stadium is burning again. It will burn during the evening hours until Sunday night, just a three-day burn this year.
Olympic cities can re-light their cauldrons whenever Olympics are held and on the anniversaries of their own games. There wasn't an official ceremony today to re-light ours, but about 200 people showed up to watch anyway. Many were volunteers in 2002.
There were lots of photographs and cheering when the flame came to life. They lit our cauldron at the same time that the Torino cauldron came to life. With the time difference, that's about 2:35. Of course, you'll see the Torino lighting on NBC tonight.
Relighting our cauldron takes a bit of preparation. The technicians had to replace one of the glass panels and do a lot of cleaning!
Jim Doyle, WET Design: "Clean the pigeons out of it, clean the pigeon "debris" out of it. Make sure all the pipes are clear, run it. Run the water, clean the glass, make sure the water completely coats it, otherwise you have to clean it again because it's a cooling system. Blow the gas out, get the mice out. Takes about a day.
Our cauldron is burning at about a quarter the intensity that it burned in 2002, but at night it'll still look good. So come on down and bring your camera.
Again, the flame will be lit until midnight tonight, and during the evening hours Saturday and Sunday until 11pm.
