Two monster wildfires burned out of control in northern and southern California on Nov. 10, 2018, having already killed at least nine people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.
In Los Angeles County, the 35,000-acre Woolsey Fire was threatening 75,000 homes and more than 200,000 people were under mandatory evacuation early on Saturday.
Some of the evacuation orders were for residents within the City of Los Angeles in the West Hills area. It was unclear how many homes have been evacuated within the City of Los Angeles.
Trump early on Saturday tweeted that “gross mismanagement of forests” was to blame for the two unchecked wildfires.
“There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor,” he wrote in a Twitter post.
“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!” he added.
The Woolsey Fire broke out on Thursday and quickly jumped the 101 Freeway, a major north-south artery, in several places. On Friday, it moved over the Santa Monica Mountains toward Malibu, where flames driven by hot Santa Ana winds gusting up to 50 mph raced down hillsides and through canyons toward multi-million dollar homes.
Early on Saturday, the fire was nearing Pepperdine University, a private residential college with 7,700 students, where students remained sheltered on the school’s main campus in Malibu.
Among those forced to flee were celebrities including Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian, who said on Twitter that flames had damaged the home she shares in nearby Calabasas with Kanye West.
Some 95,000 residents have been evacuated in Ventura County alone, the county’s fire department said on Twitter on Friday night.
The blaze also threatened parts of the nearby town of Thousand Oaks, where a gunman killed 12 people earlier this week in a shooting rampage.
Nine people were found dead in and around the Northern California town of Paradise, where more than 6,700 homes and businesses were burned down by the Camp Fire, making it the most destructive blaze in California history, according to state’s department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
