Remarks by President Bush and Governor Schwarzenegger after Aerial Tour of California Wildfires
FAIRFIELD, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
Northern Operations Command Center
Redding, California
4:00 P.M. PDT
THE PRESIDENT: It's been my honor to travel with the Governor and
the Senator and Forest Service folks and fire folks here in California
to see the fires. Couple of things I'd like to reflect on and then
I'll ask the Governor to say a couple of words.
One, I always come to make sure that the federal government is
coordinating closely with the state government. I know Governor
Schwarzenegger well enough to tell you that if we weren't, he'd let me
know. And I want to thank those who work for the federal government
for their hard work and willingness to respond quickly and their
service to our country.
Secondly I want to say something to the firefighters -- we had the
privilege of going and meeting some of the smoke jumpers. These are
unusual people who are very courageous, determined and dedicated. And
I had this special sense when I was with them, the espirit de corps
and I want to thank them for their courage.
I want to thank all those who are helping making the effort work
here -- people are working long hours and the citizens of this part of
the world really, really thank you for it.
I want to thank the Boy Scouts -- we've got three Scouts here who
are representative of a bunch of Scouts who are working on the Healthy
Forest Initiative and are helping make sure these firefighters don't
have to deal with some of these hot blazes the way they have in the
past.
And finally I'd like to just let the people out here know that
we're paying attention in Washington, D.C., we care about you, and
that we'll respond as best as we possibly can.
GOVERNOR SCHWARZENNEGER: Thank you very much, Mr. President, for
coming out here and taking this aerial tour and getting a briefing
here. And I just would like to thank, also, Senator Feinstein for
coming out here also and for the great coordination and always working
with us very closely.
And I just was saying to the President how much we appreciate and
how much we wanted to thank him for the great assistance that we have
gotten these last few weeks -- and also last year, with the last
fires. There was immediate action. We make it very clear that we are
very good at fighting fires. We can fight 20, 30 fires at the same
time because we have the best firefighters, the bravest, the best
experienced firefighters in the world, without any doubt.
But when you hear that there are 2,000 fires at one given time,
that's a little bit too much for us and for all the great
firefighters. So we need then the assistance and the help. And the
federal government came in very quickly; there was quick reaction. All
the departments and the various different Secretaries have called us
-- U.S. Forest Service, Homeland Security -- everyone was on the phone
and we had our briefings, we coordinated. And what made us successful
in fighting these fires was this extraordinary coordination between
the locals, the state and the federal government.
And without the federal government you wouldn't be able to do it.
You have right now 20,000 firefighters out there fighting these fires.
We have 1,500 fire trucks. Just if you think about those numbers --
and 80 percent of the U.S. resources in firefighting are right now in
California. So this is an extraordinary kind of growth in the federal
government and I just want to say thank you, because each and every
one of those Secretaries kept saying to me: President told us to do
everything that we can to help California. And that's great, great
news.
So I wanted to also say thank you very much to Senator Feinstein,
because she was on those conference calls and she called and made sure
that everyone is coming to together and all this. So again I want to
thank also the Homeland Security Office, the OES and everyone that has
worked so hard -- the volunteers that came in and helped the -- you
know, helped the victims and the people that had to be evacuated. So
thank you very much for your great help.
END 4:04 P.M. PDT
White House Press Office
1-202-456-2580
Copyright Business Wire 2008
