thick Smoke, houses in ruins, cars charred: Donald Trump has witnessed a spectacle of desolation to Paradise, a small town almost totally destroyed by fire on the most deadly in the history of California.
face serious under his hat “USA”, the us president, who was not wearing a mask despite the thick smoke that envelops always the region, has realized the extent of the damage to the sides of the mayor of Paradise, Jody Jones.
“It is very sad to see,” he said after spending twenty minutes in a camp of mobile homes, where only an american flag brought a touch of color in the middle of the ashes. “In terms of the number of dead, no one truly knows at this point. There are a lot of missing persons”, he added.
Donald Trump came to see the damage to the sides of the mayor of Paradise, Jody Jones. Paul Kitagaki Jr./AP
The “Camp Fire” destroyed nearly 60,000 acres in northern California. Five deaths were recorded on Saturday night, bringing the balance sheet to the 76 people killed in the fire, according to authorities. More than 1,000 people are still missing.
The fire, which began ten days ago and is now controlled about 55% of its surface, has destroyed nearly 10,000 homes and more than 2,500 other buildings.
” READ ALSO – California decision-in the hell of fire
Asked about the fact whether this visit had shifted its position on climate change, the us president replied: “No, no, I have an open mind. I want an excellent climate and we will have it”. The 45th president of the United States has several times openly questioned, in defiance of scientific consensus, the impact of human activities on the climate change in progress.
The passage of the presidential motorcade, several signs thank Donald Trump for coming but one of them called it “remained”.
The “Camp Fire” destroyed nearly 60,000 acres in northern California. LEAH MILLIS/REUTERS
from the first days of the fire murderer, Donald Trump has denounced the bad management of the forests by the authorities of the “Golden State”, forgetting that they are in the majority under the control of the federal State. The us president has also threatened to cut off federal funds allocated to the fight against fire.
The global warming “may be a little contributed to the meteoric rise of the flames, but “the biggest problem is the management” of forests, he had explained the day before on Fox News.
An explanation that does not convince Roslyn Roberts, 73 years of age, an elector of Trump who has had to flee his home. “This fire has nothing to do with poor management of the forest. Thousands and thousands of homes have been destroyed, so that there were no trees around,” says this lady taken refuge in a center of the red Cross installed in a church.
Saturday, just before his departure, he again pressed the nail: “we will need different management, I say this for a long time”.
The fire, which began ten days ago and is now controlled about 55% of its surface, has destroyed nearly 10,000 homes and more than 2,500 other buildings. SAUL LOEB/AFP
In the south of the State, near Los Angeles, the “Woolsey Fire” has burned nearly 40,000 hectares, including part of the famous beach resort of Malibu, the playground of the stars. He has made at least three people dead.
Nearly 9,000 firefighters are deployed on the two blazes, which have forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, many of which have not yet been allowed to return to their homes.
The bulk of operations to search for missing persons took place in Paradise, which are home to many retirees who have not managed to flee in time. Rescuers go house to house with sniffer dogs, to search for persons reported missing.
“I’m going to continue to look and hope that it will go”, said to AFP, Jonathan Clark, in search of his brother, his sister-in-law and their son.
Paradise, the rescue workers go from house to house with sniffer dogs, to search for persons reported missing. LEAH MILLIS/REUTERS
The impact of the “Camp Fire” is visible to more than 200 km south of Paradise, to San Francisco, where the authorities have launched Friday an alert to the pollution. The public schools were closed Friday, and the Golden Gate bridge was enveloped in a thick fog.
“This is very bad,” says an inhabitant of the city, Melvin Karsenti. “There is a cloud, standing on the city. The air seems thicker. I’ve never seen so many people wearing masks”.
farther south, the “Woolsey Fire” was, for its part, content to nearly 80%, and firefighters hoped to extinguish it by Monday.
The investigation is continuing to determine the origin of the two fires. A complaint has been filed against the local electricity supplier Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), which referred to an incident on a high voltage line just before the start of the inferno to Paradise.
in California, a victim of chronic drought for several years, has experienced several major fires for the past year, which have left over 100 people dead and burned hundreds of thousands of hectares.
” READ ALSO – Fires in California: why the balance sheet is also a murderer
The passage of the presidential motorcade, several signs thank Donald Trump for coming but one of them called it “remained”. LEAH MILLIS/REUTERS
