Firefighter Ryan Spencer battles a wildfire as it burns along a hillside toward homes in La Conchita, Calif., on Thursday. The wind-swept blazes have forced tens of thousands of evacuations and destroyed dozens of homes. | Jae C. Hong/AP Photo Trump approves emergency declaration for California to help combat wildfires

President Donald Trump on Friday approved an emergency declaration in California, where wildfires have blazed for much of the week.

Trump’s declaration orders federal assistance — the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency — to aid state and local response efforts.


“This action will help alleviate the hardship and suffering that the emergency may inflict on the local population, and provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures … to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the counties of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura,” the White House said in a statement. “Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide, at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, limited to direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.”

The California wildfires are in in their fifth day. Fires have burned across the southern region, displacing people from their homes and tearing through buildings. Authorities issued evacuation orders for more than 100,000 people.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Thursday that White House and FEMA officials were “speaking regularly to state and local authorities and making sure that we’re ready and able to help when needed and when requested by those authorities.”