    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [October 30, 1993]
    [Pages 1864-1866]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Teleconference Remarks on the California Fires
    October 30, 1993

        The President. Hello?
        James Lee Witt. Good morning, Mr. President.
        The President. Have we got James Lee?
        Mr. Witt. Yes, sir. I have Roger Johnson with me, the Administrator
    of GSA, at the disaster field office here in Pasadena. Secretary Espy is
    also on, who is at the Oak Grove fire camp in southern California.
        Secretary Espy. Hello, Mr. President.
        The President. Hello, Secretary Espy. How are you?
        Secretary Espy. How are you doing, sir? I'm at the Oak Grove fire
    camp near Altadena, California.
        Mr. Witt. Also, Mr. President, we have Senator Feinstein and Senator
    Boxer on, and Dick Andrews, the California director of emergency service
    is here in the disaster field office with Roger and I.

    [[Page 1865]]

    [At this point, Mr. Witt, Director of the Federal Emergency Management
    Agency, reported on conditions in California and discussed Federal,
    State, and private efforts to deal with the disaster.]

        The President. That's good. That's very good.

    [Mr. Andrews discussed the improvement in weather conditions, the number
    of fires still burning, and deployment of State and Federal resources to
    fight the fires. Mr. Witt then asked if the President had any
    questions.]

        The President. No. I want to say before I go on to Secretary Espy
    that I have just been terribly impressed by the work of the people who
    have been out there fighting the fires. I know that we have provided
    from the Federal Government a lot of the firefighters. And of course,
    there have been the folks here at the local level. But it's been really
    amazing to me just to watch and see how hard they've worked.
        As you know, Mack McLarty, who is here with me now, has been
    coordinating this from our end, so I've been pretty well briefed all
    along. I also want to say I'm very pleased that the Insurance
    Association is going to have people in the disaster assistance area.
    That's something, as you well know, James Lee, all of us could have used
    for years. And that's a very, very good sign, and I thank them.
        Maybe I should hear from Secretary Espy and Roger Johnson and
    Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein, and maybe then I'll see if we've
    got any questions.

    [Secretary Espy reported to the President on the Kinneloa fire, the
    highest priority fire at that time, and the efforts of firefighters.]

        The President. How much Federal land have we lost out there?
        Secretary Espy. Oh, gosh. We've got 150,000 or so acres already
    burned.
        The President. But a lot of it belongs to the Federal Government,
    doesn't it?
        Secretary Espy. Yes, sir.
        The President. Twenty thousand or thirty thousand acres, something
    like that?
        Secretary Espy. We've got two major national forests out here, and
    it's under pretty good attack here. The problem in the future, of
    course, once the fires have receded, is revegetating and reseeding,
    making sure that in the Forest Service area, we can do a lot of
    rehabilitation. And so that's what we've got to turn our attention once
    the immediate situation abates.
        The President. Well, we should be able to help California with that.
        Secretary Espy. Yes, sir.
        The President. We know how to do that.
        Secretary Espy. We are. The Soil Conservation Service will be taking
    the lead in the rehabilitation exercises out here.
        The President. Is Jim Lyons out there with you?
        Secretary Espy. Jim Lyons is here. He's been here for a couple of
    days. Now, he's a little bleary-eyed, he had to get up this morning to
    do a bunch of things, but----
        The President. He used to be a firefighter, didn't he?
        Secretary Espy. Yes, he said he did. We're in a place that looks
    like a----
        The President. We just thought he ought to have a little continuing
    education. [Laughter]
        Secretary Espy. That's right. We need those pale guys to get their
    hands dirty every now and then.
        The President. I really appreciate you, Mike. Thank you.
        Secretary Espy. Well, thank you. Thank you. I just can't say enough
    about the good work. It's very prompt, very vigorous, effective. And you
    know, they've been out here from day one, many without sleep, without
    rest, and it's just incredible to be here. It's great.
        The President. Is Roger Johnson on?
        Roger Johnson. He's here, Mr. President. Good morning.
        The President. You saved your home, didn't you?
        Mr. Johnson. Yes, sir. They saved it.
        The President. Congratulations.

    [Mr. Johnson gave a brief description of the General Services
    Administration's disaster response and a personal view of the losses and
    firefighting efforts.]

        The President. That's great. How many homes were lost, 350 in Laguna
    alone?
        Mr. Johnson. Yes. About 700 overall, I think. Jumped into an area,
    Emerald Bay, where we used to live. So there were a lot of our friends
    there, and I think the home we used to live in is gone as well.

    [Mr. Witt reported on plans for Federal and State authorities to meet
    with California insurance associations to provide for special needs in
    the application centers.]

    [[Page 1866]]

        The President. Thank you very much.
        Senator Feinstein, Senator Boxer?
        Senator Feinstein. Good morning, Mr. President. How are you?
        The President. I'm fine.

    [Senator Feinstein described the mobilization and organization of State
    firefighting strike teams and Firescope, a unified command of Federal,
    State, and local authorities to deal with the disaster.]

        The President. Thank you. Thank you, Senator.
        James Lee, I think you and Mike----
        Senator Boxer. Do you have room for one more Senator?
        The President. Yes. I'm going to call in just a minute. I just
    wanted to say to James Lee and Mike Espy, I think you ought to make a
    recommendation to me on what we should do on this unified command issue
    after you get back.
        Senator Boxer, the floor is yours.

    [Senator Boxer described the devastation, commended FEMA for its
    response to the disaster, and expressed her thanks to the President.]

        The President. Thank you, Senator. I want to thank both the
    Senators. And, Dick Andrews, I thank you, and through you Governor
    Wilson, you tell him that if there's anything else we can do, you just
    pick up the phone and call.
        And, to Roger Johnson and Secretary Espy and to James Lee Witt, I
    thank you all for your quick response, and I can't wait to talk to you
    some more in person after the fire dies down some more and we make sure
    that we don't forget them when the fire's gone. We'll be there for the
    followup.
        I thank you all, and I hope you have a good day and keep those winds
    away out there. Thank you. Goodbye.

    [At this point, the teleconference ended.]

        Q. Are you going to California?
        The President. I don't know that yet. We're going to monitor the
    winds today. That's the big issue. I don't want to be in the way out
    there. They've got a lot of work to do. The thing, I think, is pretty
    well in hand now if they don't have a resurgence of the winds. So we're
    all basically going to--it's quite early there, it's still 7 a.m. in the
    morning. And we're just going to spend the next 4 or 5 hours waiting for
    the weather reports.
        I've got to do the radio address, folks.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:45 a.m. from the Oval Office at the White
    House. A portion of this item could not be verified because the tape was
    incomplete.