US senators push for more funding for California fire recovery

By Mary Milliken

ALTADENA, California (Reuters) - Two Democratic U.S. senators on Friday visited the charred ruins of Altadena nearly three months after a devastating fire and made a case for more funding to rebuild the California community.

With burned residences and businesses in the background, senators Alex Padilla of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey said there were bright spots in the recovery. This included faster removal of toxic debris, initially expected to take 18 months and now projected to finish in less than a year.

But they made the case for a steady stream of funding to help disaster-struck communities recover. They did not name a figure, but California Governor Gavin Newsom in February requested nearly $40 billion in wildfire aid from Congress.

"This is a regional disaster but it is also a national disaster and in the United States we must take care of our own," Booker said.

Wildfires ripped through Southern California in January. At least 29 people died in the fires. Altadena, a community east of Los Angeles, was among the worst hit with an estimated 6,000 homes burned and 17 people killed.

Padilla said he voted this month against a measure to fund the federal government through September. One reason "was that it did not include supplemental disaster funding, not for Los Angeles, not for the Carolinas, or other regions of the country that have been impacted by disasters."

Booker, whose family has ties to Los Angeles, said he came to Altadena because "I want to send a message to this community that you do not stand alone."

The senators' Democratic Party controls neither chamber in Congress. But Booker said there are "a lot of Republican senators who are just as committed to making sure that these funding demands are met."

"So yes, there are funding challenges right now," Booker said, but added he was "confident that we have a very good chance of meeting those funding needs."

Booker said they are also talking to the White House about funding.

Padilla said the January fires' impact on Altadena and Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades were unprecedented, destroying an area about four times the size of Manhattan.

"A community like Altadena, very diverse, a lot of multi-generational family home ownership and a lot of wealth that was built into these homes, we will go parcel by parcel if we have to, not just on the clean-up but on the rebuilding," Padilla said.

"We are doing well thus far, but there is a lot of work ahead of us," Padilla added.

(Reporting by Mary Milliken; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)