The leader of the California Professional Firefighters is fighting mad over remarks made by President Trump via Twitter regarding state forest management in light of the Camp Fire burning in Butte County and the Woolsey Fire burning in Los Angeles County and Ventura County.
CPF President Brian K. Rice in an interview with KFBK said, "with what's going on in the state of California I have to respond." Rice believes that President Trump is speaking out of ignorance and should be showing more compassion for the people of California. "To have the president of the United States make such an ill-informed, dumbass statement like that is beyond me," added an angry Rice.
Rice also issued the following written statement Saturday afternoon:
"The president’s message attacking California and threatening to withhold aid to the victims of the cataclysmic fires is Ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines.
"At a time when our every effort should be focused on vanquishing the destructive fires and helping the victims, the president has chosen instead to issue an uninformed political threat aimed squarely at the innocent victims of these cataclysmic fires.
"At this moment, thousands of our brother and sister firefighters are putting their lives on the line to protect the lives and property of thousands. Some of them are doing so even as their own homes lay in ruins. In my view, this shameful attack on California is an attack on all our courageous men and women on the front lines.
"The president’s assertion that California’s forest management policies are to blame for catastrophic wildfire is dangerously wrong. Wildfires are sparked and spread not only in forested areas but in populated areas and open fields fueled by parched vegetation, high winds, low humidity and geography. Moreover, nearly 60 percent of California forests are under federal management, and another two-thirds under private control. It is the federal government that has chosen to divert resources away from forest management, not California.
"Natural disasters are not “red” or “blue” – they destroy regardless of party. Right now, families are in mourning, thousands have lost homes, and a quarter-million Americans have been forced to flee. At this desperate time, we would encourage the president to offer support in word and deed, instead of recrimination and blame."
The full KFBK interview with Brian Rice is available below.