[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book II)]
[November 4, 2003]
[Pages 1464-1466]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to Off-Duty Firefighters and Volunteers in El Cajon, California
November 4, 2003

    The President. Thank you all. Thanks for such a warm greeting. I 
want to say a couple of things. First, I want to say it's a great 
pleasure to be in the presence of people who have dedicated their lives 
to saving life, people who have heard a call, and the call is to serve 
something greater than yourself.
    And I saw firsthand the--Governor Davis and 
Governor-elect Schwarzenegger and I 
saw firsthand what it means for people to draw a line in the sand and 
say, ``This fire is not getting any farther.'' We saw devastation on one 
side--and for those victims, we send our prayers and our love--but we 
saw what heroic efforts meant, for people who said, ``We're not going to 
yield.'' And we're here, first and foremost, to thank you all for 
setting such a great example and for serving your community and for 
saving lives. There's no better calling, is there? God bless you for 
that. Thank you.
    I want to thank all the State officials who are working hard. See, 
one of the things I'm looking for is to make sure that there's good 
cooperation between the Federal Government and the State government and 
the local firefighters. I want to make sure FEMA is doing its job. 
Sometimes the President gets the Cook's tour, if you know what I mean. 
[Laughter] I'm interested in hearing the truth, and I believe I've been 
told the truth and that there has

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been good coordination. And if we need to learn any lessons, we'll learn 
the lessons.
    But I want to thank you all for not only fighting the fires, but I 
want to thank those who are now responsible for helping rebuild lives, 
for the quick response--to answer people's questions and to make those 
State and Federal loans and grants available quickly to the communities 
that have been hurt. I want to thank all the local officials who are 
here, the mayors and the supervisors, the fire chiefs, everybody who is 
serving their community. Thanks for coming. Thanks for giving us a 
chance to praise your efforts.
    As well I want to thank the leaders of the tribal nations who are 
here, the Members of the United States Congress. I suspected that they 
might be here because they want a nice ride back to Washington. 
[Laughter] But then I realized that they care deeply about the people 
whose lives have been upset. After all, Duncan 
Hunter--Congressman Hunter lost his own home in the fire.
    He reflected the spirit, by the way, of 
the people who we've met. He said, ``Don't worry about me. I'm going to 
rebuild. You don't have to worry about me, Mr. President. I'm going to 
rally. I'm going to pick up my life and move it on.'' And those are the 
citizens I met today, up in this valley where this fire just came 
roaring through like a chimney. All their possessions were gone, but to 
the person, their spirit was strong and able. They said, ``God is on my 
side,'' one family said. I said, ``We heard.''
    I want to thank Bill Clayton. Mike Simpson----
    Audience member. Woo-hoo!
    The President. Yes. Mike, I'm glad your 
sister came. [Laughter] I want to thank Chief Jeff Bowman, Bill McCammon, Chief 
Bill McCammon, and Chief Ernie Mitchell for 
the briefing we had today, to see the scope and the size of this massive 
amount of destruction that took place. I think when people realize the 
scope of the fires, the historic nature of these fires, they'll realize 
what a superhuman effort you all put in to save lives. This is, to me, 
an ultimate act of sacrifice.
    I do want to pay tribute and homage to Steve Rucker. Steve's fire chief said he wasn't sent there; he asked to 
go. And that's the spirit of a lot of the people here we're looking at. 
You weren't sent there; you asked to go. You've heard a call, and you've 
responded, and you put your life at risk. To Steve's family, we send our 
deepest condolences and prayers to his comrades. We thank you for 
honoring his fallen memory. May God bless him, and may God bless his 
loved ones as well.
    When I landed at Miramar--and by the way, the fire was right up 
there to the runway--I met a lady named Sue Mayberry. She's a Red Cross volunteer. This week, she 
volunteered 100 hours of her time to help people who hurt. She set up an 
emergency shelter at a high school or a school in Ramona. And then the 
fires came roaring toward Ramona. So she and others moved 550 families 
safely to Julian.
    The reason I bring up Sue is there are 
a lot of people who are deeply concerned about the 27,000 displaced 
persons. There are people in your communities, when they hear that over 
3,300 homes have been destroyed, they want to do something about it. 
They want to help a neighbor in need.
    And so for all the great citizens of this wonderful State who have 
heard the call to love a neighbor just like you would like to be loved 
yourself, who, when they see somebody who hurts, are willing to put 
their arm around a neighbor in need, I want to thank you from the bottom 
of our collective hearts.
    There are a lot of citizens who wonder what tomorrow is going to be 
like. And when a citizen provides a ray of hope, just a little bit of 
love, it brightens that person's future. It's amazing what nature has--
we've seen the worst of nature. But when you go to these communities and 
you realize

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what's taken place, you see the absolute best of mankind.
    For Californians who want to help, please do. Please know that some 
of your citizens hurt. Please help them any way you can. The Federal 
Government's response is needed and necessary. I brought officials with 
me just to make sure it's active and vibrant. The State's response is 
needed and necessary. But the truth of the matter is, the best response 
is the response you hear from the citizens whose lives have been 
affected, the response--the refusal to give up, the notion that tomorrow 
can be a better day, the refusal to be defeated. And after all, that is 
the spirit of America, isn't it? It's a fabulous country because of the 
people who make up this country. And it's my honor to represent this 
country.
    May God bless you all, and may God bless California, and may God 
bless America. Thank you all very much.

Note: The President spoke at 11:09 a.m. at Gillespie Field. In his 
remarks, he referred to Governor Gray Davis and Governor-elect Arnold 
Schwarzenegger of California; Bill Clayton, division chief, California 
Department of Forestry; Mike Simpson, captain, San Diego County Rural 
Fire District; Jeff Bowman, fire chief, San Diego Fire-Rescue 
Department; William J. McCammon, chief, Alameda County Fire Department; 
Ernest Mitchell, chief, Pasadena Fire Department; and Steven L. Rucker, 
engineer, Novato Fire Protection District, who died on October 29 in San 
Diego County.