Wildfires

The Trump administration is pushing back against decades of pressure from environmental zealots to block access and management of America’s vast forests.

U.S. Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture toured the devastating sites of California fires and vowed to manage federal forests better.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) said President Donald Trump “is absolutely right” to criticize California’s management of its water and forest resources in relation to the Golden State’s ongoing wildfires. He spoke with Breitbart News Senior Editors-at-Large Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak during Monday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight.

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said during a visit to fire-ravaged regions of California this weekend that the Trump administration would seek changes in forestry management policies to reduce the severity of wildfires.

U.S. Department of Interior Secretary (DOI) Ryan Zinke told Breitbart News Saturday that “environmental terrorist groups” are, in part, responsible for the deadly wildfires in the Western United States.

Firefighters expect big gains toward containing Southern California’s Holy Fire in the coming days, as AccuWeather predicts high temperatures will fall by 19 degrees from earlier this week.

The Trump administration will propose dumping the Clinton and Obama administrations’ “Roadless Rule” to open logging in the Los Padres National Forest to prevent big wildfires.

“We’re deeply grateful to our incredible firefighters and first responders,” Trump said. “They’re really brave people, I’ve been watching them go to areas where very few people would go and some of them don’t come out alive.”

“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,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “It is being diverted into the Pacific Ocean.”

President Trump signed a ‘Major Disaster’ declaration on Saturday paving the way for California to receive fire mitigation funds and recovery grants and low-cost loans for Shasta County individuals and business owners.

Data suggest that the number of U.S. wildfires has diminished, and the size of fires has increased, partly due to the federal government slashing the number of air tankers, and changing the way fires are fought — not just because of “climate change.”

The U.S. National Preparedness Center issued its highest Level 5 alert on Tuesday as 63 of the 177 large wildfires burning across America are rated “uncontained.”

RAFINA, Greece (AP) — The death toll from twin wildfires that raged through Greek seaside areas looked set to increase to around 50 Tuesday after rescue crews reported finding the bodies of more than 20 people huddled closely together near a beach northeast of the capital, Athens.

CalFire reported 18 major wildfires as of noon on July 3, including the “County Fire,” which, in total, had already burned 72,500 acres and were less than 15 percent contained as of Tuesday.

A fire brigade spokesman spoke of his disbelief after a police helicopter assisting in the operation to extinguish a number of major wildfires in the north of England spotted arsonists deliberately setting new fires in the tinder-dry grassland nearby.

Authorities in Colorado arrested an illegal alien Saturday who they accuse of starting a series of wildfires that destroyed over 38,000 acres of land.

A man in the state of Washington who burned an American flag blanket over the Memorial Day weekend ended up starting a five-acre wildfire, according to local authorities.

In the introductory portion of his speech, Trump addressed the recent emergencies and natural disasters that had struck California and the rest of the nation, sounding a unifying theme right from the outset.

The Thomas fire, which has scorched more that 270,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in Southern California, is set to become the largest in the Golden State’s history, according to predictions by AccuWeather.com.

Downtown Santa Barbara, normally a vibrant holiday destination, is virtually empty as residents have evacuated the area ahead of the advancing Thomas fire, which continues to spread west, though firefighters are making progress.

Firefighter Cory Iverson, 32 died Thursday while fighting the deadly Thomas fire, which is raging across Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in Southern California.

Firefighters in Santa Barbara County are racing to finish containment lines to restrain the Thomas fire before high winds arrive on Friday evening that could push the blaze further west and threaten the city of Santa Barbara itself.

Southern California Edison has been informed by authorities that its equipment is being investigated as a possible cause of some of the fires that have raged across the region for the past week.

Officials said Tuesday afternoon that the Skirball fire was likely caused by homeless people cooking in an encampment near the 405 Freeway, which was shut down by the blaze last Wednesday.

The Thomas fire in Ventura County and Santa Barbara County was still blazing strong as of Tuesday morning, while Southern California’s other wildfires were largely contained.

The California fire known as the Thomas fire, which has scorched Ventura County and now Santa Barbara County, is now the fifth-largest in the history of the state, reaching an extent of 230,000 acres on Sunday with only 10% containment.

New fires continued to spread throughout Southern California from Thursday into Friday as firefighters battled to contain those fires that have already been burning throughout the week, and dangerous weather persisted.

A new fire broke out early Wednesday morning near the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles, shutting down the busiest road in the United States in the midst of the early commute.

Several wildfires in Southern California continued to blaze out of control into Wednesday morning, as firefighters reported “zero containment” on the Thomas fire near Ventura and the Creek fire near Sylmar in Los Angeles.

A masive wildfire that erupted overnight and burned over 30,000 acres has forced 27,000 people in Ventura County to evacuate their homes as 150 structures were destroyed, according to reports from local news and wire services.

President Donald Trump delivered a Thanksgiving message video to the American people, praising the new economic spirit filling the nation.

Some veterans spent this past summer back on the battlefield fighting wildfires in the western United States.

Recent wildfires in Northern California have once again sparked multiple posts on Facebook by people desperately trying to find family members in the affected areas who they haven’t been able to contact.

Cooler weather brought on by onshore winds helped more than 1600 firefighters knock down the “Canyon Fire 2” that ravaged the Orange County hillsides around Anaheim, Tustin, and Orange Monday and Tuesday.

California fire authorities listed 82 active fires burning across the state, with the worst devastation in the Wine Country, where nine major fires have burnt over 84,000 acres, causing at least 15 deaths and leaving 240 residents missing.