REDDING, California: President George W. Bush visited on Thursday areas of California scorched by the biggest wildfires in the state in decades.

Bush, his sleeves rolled up, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met with firefighters shortly after the US president arrived in the northern California city of Redding to survey the latest natural disaster to strike the country.

Bush was to then fly with Schwarzenegger and local officials by helicopter over a national forest struck by the fires.

Nearly 2,000 fires were raging at one point in California after lightning ignited decades-old brush and parkland throughout the state on June 20. At least one person died and about 100 homes were destroyed.

About 3,500 square kilometres of land were burned, according to Mark Rey, the agriculture department's under secretary for natural resources, who accompanied Bush.

The wildfires are the largest single fire event in California since the state began recording statistics in 1936, according to the governor's office.

In terms of loss of life and property, however, the crisis is substantially smaller than the wildfires in California last October which left eight people dead, destroyed 2,000 homes and caused US$2 billion damage.

- AFP/yb