Wildfires in California, Trump blames "forest mismanagement"



[ad_1]

PARADISE, Calif .: Two monster wildfires burned out of control on Saturday in northern and southern California, having already killed at least nine people and forced to flee their homes.

President Donald Trump blamed the fires on forest mismanagement and threatened to withdraw federal funding.

In Los Angeles County, the 35,000-acre (14,164-hectare) Woolsey Fire was threatening 75,000 homes and more than 200,000 people were under mandatory evacuation early on Saturday.

Some of the evacuation orders were for residents in the City of Los Angeles in the West Hills area. It was unclear how many homes were evacuated within the City of Los Angeles.

About 500 miles to the north, nine people were found dead in the Northern California town of Paradise, where more than 6,700 homes and businesses were burned down by the Camp Fire. That made it one of the most destructive blazes in state history, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Data.

"Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said at a Friday evening press conference. "Regrettably, not everybody made it out."

Trump early on Saturday tweeted that "gross mismanagement of forests" was to blame for the two unchecked wildfires.

"There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forests in California except that forest management is so poor," he wrote in a Twitter post.

"Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests," he added.

The remains of five of the victims in Northern California were found in Butte County's Honea said.

Another 35 people had been reported missing and three firefighters had been injured.

The flames descended on Paradise so quickly that many people were forced to abandon their lives.

The Camp Fire, which broke out on Thursday at the edge of the Plumas National Forest northeast of Sacramento, has since blackened over 90,000 acres and was only 5 percent.

FIRE BURNS TOWARD MALIBU

The Woolsey Fire broke out on the 101 Freeway, a major north-south artery, in several places. On Friday, it moved over the Santa Monica Mountains towards Malibu, where Santa Ana-driven flames blazed up to 50 miles per hour (80 kph) down hillsides and through canyons toward multi-million dollar homes.

Thousands of Residents took to the Pacific Coast Highway, or took refuge on beaches, along with their horses and other pets.

Among those forced to flee were Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian, who said on Twitter that flames had damaged the home of Calabasas with Kanye West.

"Fire is now burning out of control and heading into populated areas of Malibu," the city said in a statement online. "All residents must evacuate immediately."

Some 95,000 residents have been evacuated in Ventura County alone, the county's fire department said on Twitter on Friday night.

Thousand Oaks, where a gunman killed 12 people in this shooting rampage.

Elsewhere, the Fire Hill in Ventura County's Santa Rosa Valley had charred about 6,000 acres as of Friday evening, according to Cal Fire.

In Los Angeles, another, smaller fire in Griffith Park forced the Los Angeles Zoo to evacuate a number of show birds and some small primates on Friday as flames came within 2 miles (3 km) of the facility, zoo officials said in a statement.

(Reporting by Stephen Lam, Andrew Hay, Bernie Woodall and Gina Cherelus, Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan Whitcomb, Writing by Dan Whitcomb, Nick Macfie Editing and Hugh Lawson)

[ad_2]
Source link