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      Trump Resisted Sending Aid After California Wildfires, Aides Say

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      As California battled the deadliest wildfire in its history in 2018, Donald J. Trump, then the president, initially opposed unlocking federal funding for the state, according to two former Trump administration officials.But Mr. Trump shifted his position after his advisers found data showing that large numbers of his supporters were being affected by the infernos, said the officials, who have both endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in this year’s presidential election.Olivia Troye, who was Vice President Mike Pence’s homeland security adviser, said that Mr. Trump had initially instructed Brock Long, then the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, not to send “any money” to California, a state that Mr. Trump lost decisively in the 2016 election.Mark Harvey, the senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council in the Trump administration, also recalled Mr. Trump delivering that message in a meeting with Mr. Long. (Mr. Long did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did John R. Bolton, who was the national security adviser at the time.)Ms. Troye said the episode, which was previously reported by E&E News, was not the only time Mr. Trump resisted providing disaster aid to Democratic-leaning regions. She mentioned his response to sending aid to Puerto Rico after it was hit by hurricanes.“We saw numerous instances — this was just one — where it was politicized,” Ms. Troye said in an interview regarding the California episode, adding, “It was red states vs. blue states.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Lahaina Inferno Emerged From Smoldering Remnants of Quelled Fire

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      Federal investigators have concluded that hidden embers remained from a morning fire in the Hawaii town of Lahaina. They reignited later into a fire that destroyed much of the town.The inferno that consumed the Hawaii town of Lahaina last year emerged from the remnants of a brush fire that firefighters had believed they had contained and extinguished, federal investigators concluded in a report released Wednesday.That determination confirms what has long been suspected about the fire that killed more than 100 people on the island of Maui. Residents have previously described how the flames emerged in the same area where firefighters had spent the morning battling a blaze triggered by downed power lines. Heavy winds rapidly stoked the renewed flames into residential streets, leaving many with little chance to escape.But until now, local authorities had left open the possibility that there could have been something else that triggered the blaze that swept through Lahaina. Now, in a report released jointly with the Maui County Department of Fire and Public Safety, investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives concluded along with local investigators that the initial fire had never been fully extinguished — and was able to reignite and spread.Brad Ventura, Maui’s fire chief, said at a news conference on Wednesday that a rekindled fire is something that nobody wants to see happen. But he said the department was confident in the actions of the firefighters who were on scene that day and had made the decision to depart.“We stand behind them on their decision,” he said. “It is hard. We will be working with them, but we will be standing by them.”More than a year after the fire, Maui officials are still formulating a plan for rebuilding.Philip Cheung for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      As California Fires Burn, Some Residents Begin to Mourn Lost Homes

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      Firefighters are making progress against the Bridge, Line and Airport fires to prevent more destruction, but for some, the damage is done.Mazen Sheikhly’s heart was pounding on Thursday as he drove up a winding road to his one-bedroom home of nearly two decades outside the community of El Cariso Village in the Santa Ana Mountains in California. He could feel his blood pressure rising because of the uncertainty of what he and a friend would find.The Airport fire southeast of Los Angeles had exploded in the canyons of Orange County earlier in the week before crossing the mountains into Riverside County, forcing Mr. Sheikhly and thousands of others in the area to evacuate.Now, on his return, he opened the gates to the long driveway of his 20-acre property known for its glittering views of Lake Elsinore below. Then he saw the emptiness.There was “nothing left of the house,” Mr. Sheikhly said. “Completely gone.”A 2000 Indian motorcycle that he treated as his baby was now a gutted hunk of metal. Pictures of his mother and the designer clothes and jewelry that he had from his years working at Neiman Marcus were turned to ash. “It’s like a loss in your family and you can’t get it back. It’s death,” he said.Three major wildfires in Southern California — the Bridge fire, the Line fire and the Airport fire — have destroyed dozens of homes, scorched over 110,000 acres and displaced tens of thousands of people. Cooler, more humid weather has helped slow the fires’ spread and enabled firefighters to make progress trying to contain the blazes, allowing some evacuation alerts to be lifted or downgraded on Friday.But even as crews gain more ground, many residents must deal with the shock of seeing a lifetime of memories reduced to ashes, or the stress of not knowing what they will find, or when they will be able to go back.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      No Criminal Charges Expected in Aftermath of Maui Wildfire

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      Hawaii’s attorney general released the latest findings on the 2023 fire that destroyed much of the town of Lahaina, finding a range of shortcomings in the response.Investigators in Hawaii have found a series of failures that contributed to last year’s deadly wildfire in the town of Lahaina, but the state attorney general’s office said on Friday that it did not expect to file criminal charges against anyone involved in the response.The attorney general, Anne Lopez, released a report identifying a range of problems in the response to the fire, including a statewide culture of minimizing the risks posed by wildfires, a lack of preparedness on the island of Maui even when conditions were forecast to be dangerous, and a series of flawed decisions during the fire that delayed evacuating people who were in danger. The fire ultimately left more than 100 people dead.But a spokeswoman for the attorney general said that based on the information gathered thus far, no criminal charges would be filed. “This report makes it clear that no one event, person or action caused the result or outcomes of this fire,” Ms. Lopez said at a news conference in Honolulu.Several agencies have now released a series of lengthy reports about the inferno — Friday’s was more than 500 pages — but none of them have answered some of the key remaining questions, including the reason for delays in sending evacuation alerts to cellphones and a conclusive determination of how the fire started and spread.Residents on the hillside more than a mile above the town’s waterfront reported seeing fire emerge next to a downed power line in the morning and start to spread in the same area in the afternoon, but the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has yet to release a final determination.From wherever it started, the fire raced rapidly through town. Evacuation routes were blocked, cell towers went down, and fire hydrants ran dry.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump Threatens to Cut California Wildfire Aid Unless Newsom Delivers More Water

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      Donald J. Trump on Friday threatened to withhold federal wildfire aid from California, if elected as president, unless Gov. Gavin Newsom agrees to divert more water to farmers rather than allowing it to flow to the ocean.Mr. Trump, during a news conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., claimed that the state’s devastating wildfires could be prevented by shifts in how California manages its limited water supply. “If he doesn’t sign those papers, we won’t give him money to put out all his fires,” Mr. Trump said, referring to Mr. Newsom authorizing water diversions to farmers. “And if we don’t give him all the money to put out the fires, he’s got problems.” In his remarks, Mr. Trump, the former Republican president, repeatedly called the Democratic governor “Newscum.”Soon after, Governor Newsom posted a clip of Trump’s comments on X and said that every American voter should pay attention.Mr. Trump “just admitted he will block emergency disaster funds to settle political vendettas,” Governor Newsom said. “Today it’s California’s wildfires. Tomorrow it could be hurricane funding for North Carolina or flooding assistance for homeowners in Pennsylvania. Donald Trump doesn’t care about America — he only cares about himself.” We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Wildfire Erupts in Orange County, Forcing Evacuations

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      A small brush fire in Southern California quickly grew into a nearly 2,000-acre blaze, threatening nearby suburban neighborhoods.A brush fire that erupted on Monday afternoon in the hills of Orange County in Southern California exploded to nearly 2,000 acres within a few hours, prompting evacuation orders for nearby communities as the blaze burned uncontrolled.Known as the Airport fire, it began just before 1:30 p.m. about 15 miles east of Irvine, Calif., near an airport for remote-controlled model airplanes. Officials have ordered evacuations in parts of Trabuco Canyon, a community in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains, and have recommended evacuations for surrounding neighborhoods as well.The fire broke out during a prolonged heat wave that has pushed temperatures in many parts of Southern California into the triple digits in recent days. A fire in the San Bernardino Mountains that began on Thursday, about 55 miles northeast of Trabuco Canyon, has swelled to threaten more than 33,000 structures and is only 5 percent contained.In Trabuco Canyon, temperatures reached about 98 degrees on Monday, above normal for early September, said Samantha Zuber, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego. Wind speeds were about 15 miles per hour, she said.The winds are expected to slow into the evening, but overnight temperatures will remain unusually high, unlikely to drop below 70 degrees, she said. Similar conditions have been fueling wildfires in the state all summer. “Unfortunately, temperatures won’t cool that much,” Ms. Zuber said.She said that temperatures in the fire zone would begin to drop on Tuesday — a high of 95 is expected — before a significant cool down, which is forecast to start on Wednesday and continue for the rest of the week.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How Wildfire Smoke Threatens Human Health

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      The mucus and hairs in your nose can trap larger particles, and the mucus and cilia in your upper airway can catch some as well, said Luke Montrose, an environmental toxicologist at Colorado State University. But some PM2.5 or smaller particles can bypass these defenses and penetrate the deepest parts of your lungs. Dr. Montrose […] More

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      Man Charged With Arson in California’s Thompson Fire

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      The Thompson fire also burned over 3,700 acres and forced the evacuation of 26,000 residents.A 26-year-old California man was arrested last week on arson charges in connection with the Thompson fire in July, which destroyed 13 homes, burned over 3,700 acres and forced the evacuation of 26,000 people, according to the law enforcement agencies.The man, Spencer Grant Anderson, who was taken into custody on Aug. 22, was arraigned on Monday and is being held without bail in Butte County Jail.The Thompson fire began on July 2 when Mr. Anderson threw a “flaming object” out the window of a car he was driving just north of Oroville, where he lives, according to a news release issued Monday by the Butte County District Attorney’s Office.On the day the fire began, investigators with Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency, pinpointed where the fire had originated and learned from 911 callers and witnesses that a Toyota sedan had been spotted there at the time, the prosecutor’s office said.The next day, they found the Toyota and identified Mr. Anderson as the driver and potential arsonist, according to the release.Investigators monitored and investigated Mr. Anderson for 50 days before arresting him, prosecutors said.After his arrest, Mr. Anderson admitted that he had purchased fireworks from a stand in Oroville and tested one by throwing it out of his car window, according to the release.District Attorney Mike Ramsey did not immediately return a phone message on Monday seeking comment.Mr. Anderson is charged with arson of an inhabited structure, arson of forest land, and arson causing multiple structures to burn.“It was a long investigation, there was a lot moving parts to it,” Larry Pilgrim, Mr. Anderson’s attorney, said to The New York Times on Monday. “He is just being accused at this point.”He added that “it’s too early to pass judgment.”If convicted on all charges, Mr. Anderson could face more than 21 years in prison, prosecutors said. He has a previous felony conviction related to domestic violence, according to the news release from the Butte County District Attorney’s Office, which it said could double the punishment of any possible arson conviction. More