President Trump blamed the catastrophic fires in Northern California on “bad” environmental regulations that reduce the amount of water available to fight the blazes.
“California wildfires are being magnified & made so much worse by the bad environmental laws which aren’t allowing massive amount of readily available water to be properly utilized. It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean. Must also tree clear to stop fire spreading!,” Trump wrote on his Twitter account Sunday.
Crews continued to battle multiple fires in California on Sunday that have killed eight people, destroyed hundreds of homes and structures, and caused thousands of people to evacuate as high temps and strong winds have been fueling the flames for the past two weeks.
The combination is creating “firenadoes” – twisting plumes of fire and ash that shoot into the sky.
Trump’s claims about the lack of water apparently come from a 2015 proposal floated by the Tree People, an environmental nonprofit, that Californians should capture rainwater draining from roofs and streets instead of allowing it to continue into the ocean.
And last September Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ordered land managers at federal parks to begin aggressively clearing small trees and underbrush to prevent wildfires from spreading.
California officials have blamed dry brush and trees with helping to spread the fires.
The president has signed a disaster declaration for Shasta County as it battles the Carr Fire that has torched more than 150,000 acres.
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