Chuck Todd to Reporter in Isolated, Recently Burned Part of Calif.: ‘Please Put Your Mask Back On’

TODD: “This is Greenville, California. This is a small mountain town that was in the path of this fire. As we showed you yesterday on the show the fire ripped through everything, reducing parts of the town to debris. Now the good news is people did evacuate. But Guad Venegas in on the ground. He’s been reporting on the devastation there in Greenville. And Guad, the first answer is is this over for Greenville? What do the residents do? I mean, they’ve obviously evacuated but what now?”
VENEGAS: “Chuck, the residents were evacuated and they haven’t returned. Let me start by saying that this entire town is still under a cloud of ash. This is why we’ve been wearing a mask of the time. I’m going to lower my mask so that you can hear me better here. So there is ash everywhere. Just so you get an idea. You see it on my finger, that’s the ash falling and continues to fall on the town. Here is one of the few remaining walls. This used to be the post office Greenville, California. You take a few steps in this direction, complete devastation. The entire post office burned. Further down you have a neighborhood, you have vehicles, everything that people left behind. The only thing that stands in some of these homes are the chimneys. But this devastation continues all throughout the main street. There is very few buildings on the outside of town or closer to the outside that did survive this fire. Now, you mentioned it is the third largest recorded in California history, but now this is also the largest burning fire in the country. So that’s how bad the fire is and let’s remember that all of the west right now is experiencing a drought; 85 percent of California under extreme —“
TODD: “Yeah.”
VENEGAS: “— drought conditions. This of course has made the firefighters job more difficult. In just moments ago we’ve got another notification for more evacuations. The last number we received from authorities here said that 1,400 structures remain threatened by the fire.”
TODD: “Guad, nobody’s going to be upset if you put your mask on. I don’t think anyone has any issues there. And I would understand it. But let me ask you this question and please put your mask back on. And that is, what — where — where are we on the containment issue. I think yesterday it was only 35 percent contained. What — what do officials say today?”
VENEGAS: “So 35 percent containment was the last number that we did get on this fire, but one of the things we have to sort of look at, you know, and a lot of us that cover these fires on the west coast to understand how they are being dealt with, containment just means that they’re building a line around it. And this is where they are going to keep the fire. But — so they try to contain the fire but at the same time they’re also fighting the fires. So two things happening at the same time. Right now firefighters tell us that they are fighting to protect the remaining structures in this valley. There is a lot of small towns in this valley. The fire now is in the Butte County and it’s also in Plumas County. So they are focusing on protecting those structures, those 13,000 structures that remain threatened while they fight the fire. And they’re also trying to contain it, which it was at 35 percent the last time we received an update.”
TODD: “Guad on the ground for us in what was Greenville, California. And Guad appreciate it. Please stay safe and healthy out there as best as you can.”