US President Donald Trump expressed sadness on Saturday at the devastation caused by fires in a California town, but persisted in his controversial claim that forest mismanagement is responsible for the tragedy which has left 76 dead and nearly 1,300 listed as missing.
“This is very sad,” Trump said after surveying the remains of Paradise, where nearly the only people out on the road were emergency services workers, surrounded by the twisted remains of a community incinerated by the flames.
“They’re telling me this is not as bad as some areas; some areas are even beyond this, they’re just charred,” he added after looking at a street lined with melted cars, tree stumps and the foundations of wrecked houses.
Photo: Reuters
The deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, the Camp Fire, has now claimed 76 lives after authorities on Saturday confirmed five more victims.
In Chico, near Paradise, Trump met with firefighters and other first responders at makeshift headquarters for emergency services.
High-ranking fire officials recounted how quickly the fire spread, complicating evacuation efforts, as Trump studied a huge map spread across a table showing where fires continue to burn.
Trump repeated his claim that California had mismanaged its forests and was largely to blame for the fires.
“I’m committed to make sure that we get all of this cleaned out and protected, [we’ve] got to take care of the forest, it’s very important,” Trump said in Paradise.
Trump last week threatened to cut federal funding to California over its alleged “gross mismanagement” of forests.
Asked if he believed climate change had played any role in the fires, Trump again pointed to the forest “management factor” and insisted that his “strong opinion” remained unchanged.
Roslyn Roberts, 73, who fled from her home in Paradise, said she voted for Trump, but disagrees with his views about forest management.
“I would tell him that this fire has nothing to do with forest mismanagement. Thousands and thousands of homes got destroyed with no trees around,” she said at a shelter set up by the American Red Cross in a church.
The Camp Fire has burned 60,000 hectares and was 55 percent contained late on Saturday, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
Authorities said that 47,200 people had been evacuated because of the Camp Fire and nearly 1,200 were living in shelters.
Three other people have died in southern California in a blaze dubbed the Woolsey Fire, which engulfed parts of Malibu.
That inferno was 84 percent contained on Saturday as Trump surveyed the damage at well-to-do homes there.
However, residents and firefighters received some good news yesterday as the US National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center said rain was on the way for northern California,
Up to 10cm of rain is expected to fall from late tomorrow through Friday in the Sierra foothills, the center said, including in Paradise.
However, Patrick Burke, a lead forecaster with the center in College Park, Maryland, said the rain will be a “one-two-punch.”
“It’ll bring much needed relief to the firefighters and to the air quality, but there’s a potential for dangerous mudslides wherever vegetation is burned away on slopes and hills,” he said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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