US President Barack Obama defended his administration's response to the economic crisis over the last six months, declaring: "The fire is now out." "I think that we have stepped back from the abyss. I think we've put out the fire," he said in an interview with PBS, according to a transcript released by the TV station. But Obama, who is facing declining popularity ratings for the first time in his presidency, said a lot remains to be done to fix the recession-mired US economy. "The analogy I use sometimes is, we had this beautiful house. And there was a fire....