Political rivals drawn to the flames as US fires ignite climate brawl

Donald Trump was due on Tuesday to visit California for a briefing on record wildfires that have killed 35 people.

Homes lie in ruins in the burnt-out town of Talent, Oregon. Picture: AFP

resident Donald Trump was due on Monday (Tuesday AEST) to visit California for a briefing on record wildfires that have killed 35 people, as local officials and political rivals accused him of being in denial about climate change.

The blazes have now burned through more than two million hectares across the US west, with fears the death toll may rise.

Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate who tweeted that Mr Trump ­“denied evidence” the flames were “intensified by the climate crisis”, is also to tour the damage, as the infernos ignite a political conflagration.

“This is climate change, and this is an administration that’s put its head in the sand,” Eric Garcetti, the Democrat mayor of Los Angeles, told CNN.

Of at least 35 people killed by the blazes since the beginning of the northern summer, 27 died last week. Dozens are missing.

Mr Trump has made little comment about the blazes in recent weeks, but at a Nevada campaign event on Saturday he acknowledged the scope of the disaster.

“They never had anything like this,” he said. “Please remember the words, very simple, forest management.”

He planned to meet on Monday with the heads of California’s emergency services.

Mr Garcetti hit back at the President’s earlier remarks, saying “anybody that lives in California is insulted by that”. “Talk to a firefighter if you think that climate change isn’t real … This isn’t about forest management.”

With battle lines drawn ahead of November’s election, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is also due to address the wildfires and their cause on Monday. At the weekend he called the threat of climate change “undeniable” and “existential”.

Much of the west coast ­remained coated in dense smog on Sunday, with Portland by far the world’s most air-polluted city, according to IQAir.

“It’s apocalyptic,” Washington state Governor Jay Inslee told ABC. “It’s maddening right now — we have this cosmic challenge to our communities, the entire west coast of the United States on fire — to have a president to deny that these are not just wildfires, these are climate fires.”

Most of the fatalities have ­occurred in California and Oregon, with emergency services in the two states recording 34 deaths.

More than 30,000 firefighters are battling the blazes, with officials warning that improved weather could end on Monday as windy conditions return. Residents of Arcadia, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, were ordered to evacuate on Sunday as the Bobcat Fire spread south through forests towards the city.

Two new deaths were confirmed from the North Complex Fire, which have swept at unprecedented speed into areas already ravaged less than two years ago by the Camp Fire — California’s deadliest blaze.

“There are still active fires, power lines are down, trees are down, there are roads that are ­impassable,” said Sheriff Kory Honea, warning evacuees it could take “weeks and weeks” to return to their homes.

Paul Clement described how he fled his home in Berry Creek. “When I came around the bend, everything was on fire — an entire hillside. So I ended up driving through and you couldn’t see 50 feet. It was worse than the Camp Fire, which I didn’t think was possible.”

AFP