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The California wildfires could be the costliest disaster in US history, the state’s governor said, as heavy winds predicted fears the catastrophic blazes would spread further.
In remarks on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Gavin Newsom said the fire, which has burned at least 22,000 acres, will be the nation’s worst “in terms of the costs associated with it, [and] in terms of scale and scope”.
He added that “many more” deaths were likely to be confirmed. The death toll rose to 16 Saturday evening, according to Los Angeles authorities.
The possibility of a pick-up in the Santa Ana winds Sunday that spread the fire left thousands of residents under evacuation orders. The wildfire threatened homes in upper Mandeville Canyon and the Brentwood neighborhood late Saturday, though officials said they had made progress there to contain its spread.
The National Weather Service predicted gusts between 50 and 70 mph.
Newsom, a Democrat, responded to the barrage of attacks from President-elect Donald Trump, who accused the governor of depleting water supplies to protect endangered fish species and refusing to sign a “water restoration proclamation” that would have allowed “millions of gallons of water . . . .will flow daily in many parts of California.Newsom’s office said there is no such announcement.
Trump, who has a long-standing feud with Newsom and refers to him as a “newscom,” has called for the Californian to resign, accusing him of “gross incompetence.”
“The reservoirs are completely full, the state reservoirs here in Southern California,” Newsom said.
“That mis- and misleading information I don’t think benefits or helps any of us,” he added. “We will spend another month responding to Donald Trump’s insults. I am very familiar with them. Every elected official he disagrees with is very familiar with them.”
Newsom also said he invited the president-elect to visit the affected areas, but has yet to hear back from Trump’s transition team.
The governor said on social media platform X that the Palisades and Eaton fires were 11 percent and 27 percent contained, and the Hearst blaze was 89 percent contained. He issued an executive order that he said would prevent those who lost their homes from getting “entangled in bureaucratic red tape” so they could rebuild quickly.
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sunday raised the possibility of sending US troops to Los Angeles to help control the wildfires.
“There are active duty military personnel who are preparing to deploy to order, who are prepared to support the firefighting effort and are prepared to continue the firefighting effort,” Deanne Criswell told ABC’s This Week program. Speaking on CNN, he warned that strong winds expected in the coming days could spread the fire further.
No official estimate of the damage has yet been released, but analysts at Accuweather last week calculated the economic damage at between $135bn and $150bn – less than the $250bn cost associated with last year’s Hurricane Helen.
President Biden pledged Thursday that the U.S. government would pay “100 percent of all costs” caused by the disaster and asked Congress for more financial assistance.
Trump, who threatened to cut off disaster funding from California on the campaign trail last year, has so far remained silent on whether he would provide similar aid. On Sunday, he launched a fresh attack on state officials.
“Incompetent pols have no idea how to keep up [the fires] Out,” he wrote. “Death everywhere. This is one of the worst disasters in our country’s history. They just can’t put out the fire. What’s wrong with them?”
