President Donald Trump on Saturday toured the wreckage of the Camp fire in Butte County, Calif. and said he’ll work with the state to recover from the catastrophe and help prevent future wildfires.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Trump viewed the remains of the town of Paradise, population 27,000, which was completely destroyed in the Camp fire, with Governor Jerry Brown and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom.
“Hopefully, this will be the last of these, because it was a really, really bad one,” the president said. “People have to see this to really understand it.”
Trump continued his recent policy of refraining from criticizing California after an early tweet in response to the fires prompted backlash for threatening to cut off funding to the Golden State.
“We do have to do management, maintenance. We’ll be working also with environmental groups,” Trump said. “I think everybody’s seen the light.”
“We’re all on the same page now. Everybody’s looking at that. It’s going to work out well,” he added.
Trump is expected to land in Southern California later on Saturday to view damage from the Woolsey and Hill fires in Ventura County. Combined, the Camp and Woolsey fires have burned more than 250,000 acres and razed more than 10,000 structures.
As of early Saturday morning, the Camp fire is at 55% containment with 71 dead and 148,000 acres burned. The Woolsey fire is 82% contained with 98,362 acres burned.