California firefighters are slamming President Donald Trump for a tweet Saturday in which he incorrectly asserted that this week's devastating fires were the result of poor forest management.
"There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor," Trump wrote. "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!"
California Professional Firefighters President Brian Rice said Trump was out of line.
"The president's message attacking California and threatening to withhold aid to the victims of the cataclysmic fires is ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines," Rice said in a statement.
"At this moment, thousands of our brother and sister firefighters are putting their lives on the line to protect the lives and property of thousands. Some of them are doing so even as their own homes lay in ruins. In my view, this shameful attack on California is an attack on all our courageous men and women on the front lines."
The Woolsey fire started near Simi Valley in a hillside area next to the old Santa Susana Field Lab and quickly spread into nearby suburban communities.
Some firefighters took to social media to point out the distinction.
"Mr. President, with all due respect, you are wrong. The fires in So. Cal are urban interface fires and have NOTHING to do with forest management. Come to SoCal and learn the facts & help the victims," the Pasadena Firefighters Association said on Twitter.
Experts have also said forest management was not a factor in California's two most destructive fires: the Camp fire, which has burned more than 6,000 structures this week in Paradise, and the Tubbs fire last year in wine country.
Forest thinning would not have stopped the Camp fire or Tubbs fire. Fueled by dry grass growing amid scattered pine and oak trees, the Camp fire tore across land thinned by flames just 10 years ago. The Tubbs fire burned grassy oak woodlands, not timberland.
