It is not a good time to be a California official. The public is dissatisfied with how officials are currently dealing with a raging wildfire in Pacific Palisades.
Firefighters have expressed concern that they are running out of water and that fire hydrants have gone dry. President-elect Donald Trump accused Governor Gavin Newsom of mismanaging California’s water supply.
In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Newsom avoided the issue, blaming local officials for figuring out what was going on as the wildfire burned.
“Look, the locals are trying to figure that out,” he informed Cooper. “I mean when you have a system — but it’s not dissimilar from what we’ve seen in other extraordinarily large-scale fires, whether it be pipe, electricity, or whether it just be the complete overwhelm of the system.”
He kept going: “I mean those hydrants are typical for two or three fires — maybe one fire and you have something of this scale, but again that’s gonna be determined by the local.”
Gavin Newsom Talks Fire Hydrnats
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced that all three 1 million-gallon tanks ran dry on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Trump blasted Newsom on social media, claiming that the governor prioritizes protecting endangered fish over people’s lives. He claimed that Newsom blocked a federal order to divert water to Southern California.
“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt… but didn’t care about the people of California,” Trump said in an interview with Truth Social. “Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, and fresh water to flow into California! He is to blame for this.
Newsom rejected Trump’s criticism.
“One can’t even respond to it,” Newsom explained. “People are literally fleeing; people have died, children have lost their schools, families have been torn apart, and churches have burned down. This individual wanted to politicize it. I have a lot of thoughts and know what I want to say, but I won’t.
Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency earlier this week.
He stated, “This is a highly dangerous windstorm that is posing an extreme fire risk, and we are not out of the woods. We’re already seeing the destructive effects of this fire in Pacific Palisades, which spread quickly in a matter of minutes.
Our heartfelt gratitude goes to our expert firefighters and first responders, who jumped right into fighting this dangerous fire. If you are in Southern California, please pay attention to weather reports and follow any instructions from emergency personnel.”
