U.S. President Joe Biden will be greeted with the anger and frustration of New Mexico wildfire survivors on Saturday when he visits the state to review efforts to fight its biggest blaze in recorded history that was started by federal officials.
SANTA FE, N.M. -The U.S. government will fund New Mexico's full wildfire response, President Joe Biden said on Saturday, speaking from Santa Fe amid anger from survivors over the blaze that was started by federal officials.
"We will be here for you in response and recovery as long as it takes," he said, adding that he saw an "astounding" amount of the perimeter of the territory that had burned while flying to Santa Fe.Driven by drought and wind, the fire has destroyed hundreds of homes in mountains northeast of Santa Fe since two prescribed burns by the U.S. Forest Service went out of control in April.
Biden told staff at an emergency operations center shortly before he was expected to meet families who had lost homes to the fire that he would support any congressional bill to allow people to completely rebuild. "This is not a natural disaster, this was man-made by a government entity," said Ella Arellano, whose family lost hundreds of acres of forest around the village of Holman. "It's a mess, just a big mess that will take generations to recover from."
The blaze is burning along with another in southwestern New Mexico that is the second largest in state history, underlining concerns that climate change is intensifying fires that overwhelm firefighters and threaten to eventually destroy most forests in the U.S. Southwest.
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