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President Bush Participates in Tour of California Wildfires
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary July 17, 2008

President Bush Participates in Tour of California Wildfires Northern
Operations Command Center Redding, California

ÿÿWhite House News
ÿÿPhotos


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

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