Leaders of local and international firefighter unions Wednesday lashed out at President Donald Trump's threat to stop sending federal funding to the Golden State to fight forest fires.
In a statement, Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, called Trump's warning "another unimaginable attack on the dedicated professionals who put everything on the line, including their own homes, to protect their neighborhoods."
"While our president is tweeting on the sidelines in D.C., our fellow Americans 3,000 miles to the west are mourning loved ones, entire communities have been wiped off the map and thousands of people are still trying to figure out where they are going to call home" his statement read.
The blast came hours after Trump tweeted California's deadly, devastating forest fires would "never happen" if forests were better managed.
"Unless [California gets its] act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money," he said. "It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!"
"The president's tweet is disgraceful at a time when the government is under a self-imposed shutdown and the citizens of Paradise haven't even been at their home sites in 30 days," Brian Rice, the president of the California Professional Firefighters, said in the statement. "This important funding would go toward literally helping this city rise from the ashes. To withhold it in a game of politics is insulting to the people of Paradise."
Wildfires devastated California last year, with the Camp Fire in the northern part of the state killing at least 85 people and destroying thousands of homes. It was the deadliest wildfire in the state's history.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also blasted Trump's threat, saying it "insults" the memory of "scores of Americans who perished in wildfires last year & thousands more who lost their homes," The Hill reported.
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