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PORTLAND: Senior officials in West Coast states where record fires have killed 33 people accused President Donald Trump of denying climate change on Sunday as he prepared to meet with emergency services workers in California.
“This is climate change, and this is an administration that has put its head in the sand,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Trump plans to meet with the chiefs of California’s emergency services on Monday, battling historic hells that have now burned nearly five million acres, an area roughly the size of the state of New Jersey and an annual record, with nearly four months of duration. fire season is yet to come.
Authorities warned of more deaths with swaths of land in California, Oregon and Washington still isolated by flames fueled by dry tinder conditions of the kind that cause climate change.
Of the at least 33 people killed by the fires since early summer, 25 died this week alone. Dozens were still missing Sunday.
Trump has made few comments about the fires in recent weeks, but at a campaign event in Nevada on Saturday he acknowledged the extent of the disaster.
“They never had anything like this,” said Trump, who consistently downplays global warming. “Please remember the words, very simple, forest management.”
Garcetti responded by saying that “anyone who lives in California feels insulted by that.”
“Talk to a firefighter if you think climate change is not real,” he said.
“We need real action. We need to reduce the carbon emissions that we have. And we have to make sure that we can manage this water. It’s not about forest management or raking. “
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Saturday that it was “undeniable” that “climate change poses an imminent existential threat to our way of life.”
His running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, backed him up on Twitter Sunday, saying Trump “denies the evidence.”
To compound the sense of doom, five of the 10 most air-polluted cities in the world were on the West Coast on Sunday, according to IQAir, with dense fog and ash lining the atmosphere from Los Angeles to Vancouver in Canada.
“It’s apocalyptic,” Washington State Governor Jay Inslee told ABC’s “This Week.”
“It’s maddening right now we have this cosmic challenge to our communities, the entire west coast of the United States on fire, to have a president who denies that these are not just wildfires, these are weather fires,” he said.
In shock
More than 20,000 firefighters are battling the flames, and officials warn that cooler weather could end Monday as warmer and drier conditions return.
Most of the deaths occurred in California and Oregon, and emergency services in the two states recorded 32 deaths.
Near the Beachie Creek fire, east of Salem, the Oregon state capital, police had set up multiple roadblocks Sunday. Long lines of cars stretched out in front of them, waiting in the thick fog to pass.
Many were farmers trying to go home and feed their livestock.
“We returned to Mill City this morning, but the police warned us not to do it because it is dangerous,” Elaina Early, a resident, told AFP. “The house is fine, but we are leaving now because conditions are not good.
“My son is six years old and he is in a state of shock, it is difficult for him,” added the 36-year-old. “He keeps saying, ‘Now we live in a hotel?’
Preparations have been hampered by claims online that “extremists” are intentionally setting fires in Oregon, rumors debunked by the FBI.
Facebook said Saturday it was removing the posts.
In Estacada, a rural Oregon town a few miles from a wildfire, which became deserted earlier this week, some residents returned from evacuation on Saturday and patrolled the streets with weapons for fear of looting, according to an AFP reporter.
Police in Multnomah County, where Portland is located, issued a notice threatening to arrest armed residents who had set up barricades near their communities.
Nearly a million acres of land have been burned in Oregon, twice the normal annual amount, Gov. Kate Brown said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday.
Approximately 500,000 residents are in some level of evacuation status and 40,000 people have been evacuated.
“This is a wake-up call for all of us that we have to do everything in our power to tackle climate change,” Brown said.
In California, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said additional officials had been brought in to check for human remains, but it was too hot to search.
In a rare piece of good news, a Butte County fire victim is believed to have turned out to be a burned anatomical skeleton from a local classroom.
