California wildfire: evacuation orders lifted as Trump blasts Newsom
As authorities lifted all evacuation orders imposed by a wildfire that caused thousands to flee their homes north-west of Los Angeles, Donald Trump threatened to cut federal funding for aid during the kind of blazes that have hit California hard this fall.
Governor Gavin Newsom has done a “terrible job of forest management”, Trump tweeted. “When fires rage, the governor comes to the federal government for help. No more.”
Neither of the two major fires presently burning in California are on forest land.
California controls a small percentage of forest land. The federal government manages most of it.
Last year Trump made a similar threat as wildfires devastated Malibu and Paradise, California, accusing the state of “gross mismanagement” of forests.
At the time Newsom defended
California’s wildfire prevention efforts while criticizing the federal government for not doing enough to help protect the state.
He replied on Sunday with a tweet of his own: “You don’t believe in climate change. You are excused from this conversation.”
On Friday, the governor said the state might take over Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility whose equipment has been linked to the start of several fires and which has overseen power shutoffs to hundreds of thousands as a result.
The cause of the Maria fire near Los Angeles was under investigation but there was a possibility an electrical line was involved. The fire began on Thursday as dry winds fanned fires across the state. Southern California Edison said it re-energized a 16,000-volt power line 13 minutes before the fire erupted in the same area. SCE said it would cooperate with investigators.
On Sunday morning near Los Angeles, Ventura county fire captain Steve Kaufmann said crews were battling hotspots around the Maria fire and keeping an eye on lingering winds. Officials were “cautiously optimistic”, he said.
Firefighters working in steep conditions had contained 50% of the blaze, which has burned nearly 15sq miles of dry brush and timber.
In Northern California, a 121-sq-mile fire in Sonoma county wine country was 76% contained by Sunday.
Newsom is a Democrat. His ex-wife, Kimberly Guilfoyle, now dates the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr.