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President Donald Trump is scheduled on Monday to be briefed on wildfires raging in the West as he visits the Sacramento, Calif., area.
At least 33 people had been declared dead as of late Sunday as nearly 100 wildfires blazed in the West over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported.
More than 3.3 million acres have burned in California so far this year, and, since mid-August, 4,000 structures have been destroyed, the Journal reported, citing Cal Fire.
The fires will be key parts of both Trump’s and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s days. Biden will deliver remarks in Delaware on the wildfires and the “urgent need to address the climate crisis,” according to his campaign.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said Sunday that more than 40,000 residents of her state had evacuated as dozens of fires have burned more than 1 million acres. “This is truly the bellwether for climate change on the West Coast, and this is a wake-up call for all of us,” she said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
The Democratic governors of California, Oregon and Washington say the fires are a consequence of climate change, while the Trump administration has blamed poor forest management for the flames that have raced through the region and made the air in places like Portland, Oregon, Seattle and San Francisco some of the worst in the world.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
