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Governor Brown Tours Camp Fire, Issues Executive Order

PARADISE (CBS13) — In an effort to help speed up the recovery process, Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order Wednesday as he surveyed the damage in Butte County. US Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke joined him on the tour.

"This is the worst fire I've seen," Zinke said.

That's why the focus now is on how to help survivors of the Camp Fire move forward.

"Now is time to look at the infrastructure, make sure we have accountability of who's out that are unaccounted for," he said.

FEMA, in conjunction with the state, is looking at ways to house survivors.

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"The first thing we got to do is with transitional shelter is getting people out of shelters or providing enough mass care space," said FEMA administrator, Brock Long.

That's where hotels and rental properties come into play.

"The reality is there are only limited numbers of rental properties so we may have to go out of the county or a little further out," said Mark Ghilarducci, Director of Cal OES.

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Still, they are reaching out to organizations such as Airbnb for housing options.

"We also know that this is where families reside, and people go to church, and other kinds of things so we want to try to keep them as local as possible," he said.

Another option is to bring in travel trailers or mobile homes to house people, but officials say that part of the plan will take some time.

By Mugo Odigwe 

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