American President Donald Trump has blamed Californian officials over the raging fire that has killed 11 persons and displaced 200,000 others in California.
The growing wildfire ravaging Northern and Southern California over the past three days is responsible as tens of thousands have fled their homes.
The fire has also turned a retirement community called Paradise into acres of ash.
According to reports, the massive fire north of Sacramento had destroyed some 6,700 structures, becoming the most destructive inferno in a state with a long and calamitous history of fires.
Since Thursday, more than 200,000 Californians have been displaced — greater than the population of Florida’s Orlando. In addition to the dead, dozens have been reported missing, a report says.
Authorities warned that the property losses would also be staggering. A pair of fires near Los Angeles threatened Malibu mansions and destroyed Paramount Ranch, the filming location of the HBO series “Westworld.”
President Trump earlier on Saturday had fanned an ongoing dispute with California leaders, blaming mismanagement of state resources for the destruction and death.
“There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor,” Trump tweeted Saturday morning.
“Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!” The President said in a tweet.
Saturday morning was the first time the President has spoken publicly about the recent California blazes, but he has loudly and consistently blamed intensifying wildfires on poor resource management by California officials. Twice in October, Trump made similar threats because of what he alleged was poor forest management policy, The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake wrote.
California officials have countered Trump’s claims in the past, saying that ever-intense fires are the result of climate change, which dries up vegetation and turns fire-prone areas of the state into a tinderbox.
The President of the California Professional Firefighters Association chided the President, calling Trump’s words “ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines.”
In Northern California’s Butte County, about 90 miles north of state capital Sacramento, residents described fleeing a catastrophic fire that began Thursday. The inferno grew with incredible speed, claimed nine lives and turned a sunny day into an end-of-days scene of flames, smoke, sparks and wide destruction.
The wildfire had burned at least 90,000 acres, more than 140 square miles, and was only 20 percent contained by Saturday, causing officials to declare a state of emergency for a fire likely to worsen over the weekend.
Officials warned that “red flag” conditions would persist on and off through Monday — hot, dry and windy weather that makes the land ripe for a fire’s spread.
Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea told reporters at a news conference Friday evening that officials had found nine people who had been killed by the fire: Four were found dead in their cars in Paradise, down from the five officials had spoken about earlier; three outside of houses; and two others, one inside a home and another near a car.
The fire had injured an undisclosed number of residents as well as three firefighters. And Honea’s deputies were still looking into some 35 reports of missing people.
In Southern California’s Ventura County, still reeling from a mass shooting that left 12 people dead, more wildfires had broken out, forcing 100,000 people in Thousand Oaks, Malibu and other areas to flee their homes. The Woolsey Fire had burned some 35,000 acres, officials said, while the nearby Hill Fire had burned through 6,000.
