Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not want to hear any more about the Californian fires

367 replies

Viviennemary · 10/01/2025 22:18

For a start I do feel a lot of sympathy for folk who have lost everything in those fires. But what is the point of telling us night after night about the devastation these fires are causing, we can't do anything about it nobody can. And America is a rich country and can afford to rebuild. Unlike Gaza where folk have been left with nothing, and hardly had much in the first place.

OP posts:
CliantheLang · 10/01/2025 23:11

Itsallgonesideways · 10/01/2025 22:43

The Americans are going to have to get used to it unfortunately as there'll be more fires going forward. They've just voted in a president who doesn't believe in climate change. ......

Trump doesn't believe that the stuff every living thing on Earth is made of is a pollutant.
Because he's, ya' know... sane.

EasterIssland · 10/01/2025 23:10

NeedANapAgain · 10/01/2025 23:06

I’m not rich. I live in a mortgaged house (two years left). We’ve received notice to be prepared to evacuate, should the winds change. We have insurance, but if we lost our home and probably had to fight the insurance company to get the fair payment due us, it’s too late at our age to start over. So no, it’s not just rich celebrities affected by this.

I understand not wanting to see US news on UK television every night, but please remember, it’s also affecting normal people, working 9 to 5 jobs, hoping their homes and their families and their friends make it through this okay.

Edited

Hope it’s not the case and you don’t lose your house @NeedANapAgain

many insurances have cancelled in the last few months their contracts. Which means many people , rich or not, will have lost a house and probably not have the money to rebuild it again to the same spec.

Coldanddamp · 10/01/2025 23:09

@NeedANapAgain I hope you will be ok.

Iwiicit · 10/01/2025 23:08

Viviennemary
It's of interest to me as my brother, his wife and kids live here and they are on tenterhooks a few miles from the Palisades fire. It's pretty devastating stuff and it would surely be a cold-hearted and bitter individual who would think it apposite to damn people standing in the burnt out remains of their home because, well they deserve it, they're rich?
I am also deeply concerned about the terrible situation in Gaza. The two are not mutually exclusive and you comments are as pointless as they are boring.

ticktickticktickBOOM · 10/01/2025 23:08

ticktickticktickBOOM · 10/01/2025 22:48

It must be devastating and terrifying but the newsclip that pissed me off the most today was that woman going on and on and on at the poor mayor (?) who was trying to phone the president and she was yelling, 'I wanna hear the call, when's someone gonna do something, I wanna hear the call!' Poor guy stayed really calm.

Considering we've had multiple catastrophic natural events all over the world in the last few weeks - why do Californians think the president can do something about wildfire?

It's just bonkers.

Climate change is here.

. . . and she was yelling 'my friend has lost two houses! TWO HOUSES! one she lived in and one she was building - she's lost both!'

Poor soul.

ParsnipPuree · 10/01/2025 23:08

WomensRightsRenegade · 10/01/2025 22:25

Why is Gaza more important than Syria, the Uyghars or anything else? The worst fires in history in a country that is our closest ally is
pretty important news to most right-thinking people. Makes more sense than fretting about Gaza - a place that we share no cultural ties with. If anything our values are antithetical.

Free the hostages.

Absolutely- free those hostages now.

Coldanddamp · 10/01/2025 23:08

Why I compared it with Gaza is because the fires are a natural disaster but the devastation in Gaza and is inflicted by fellow human beings and something can and should be done about it.

Well many believe climate change is impacted by humans and something should be done about it…

FoxInTheForest · 10/01/2025 23:08

A natural disaster linked to climate change is far more relevant to the UK than middle Eastern conflict that's been going on almost as long as living memory.
Why are you even bringing up 2 completely unrelated things in the same post?

AllPlayedOut · 10/01/2025 23:08

Heard much about Cyclone Chido?

Mayotte and the cyclone was on the front page of the BBC news site for at least several days so yes.

Totallymessed · 10/01/2025 23:07

LostBrainCell · 10/01/2025 23:03

Literally said this today. Nobody seems to care about Gaza and that is likely to affect our society more in the future if history is anything to go by.

Do you care about what's happening in Sudan?

ticktickticktickBOOM · 10/01/2025 23:07

ticktickticktickBOOM · 10/01/2025 23:02

Disasters only get this much reporting if they affect white people.

Heard much about Cyclone Chido?

No, of course not.

wrong quote . .

Coldanddamp · 10/01/2025 23:07

People will have insurance.

Thousands do not have insurance.

SabreIsMyFave · 10/01/2025 23:07

ticktickticktickBOOM · 10/01/2025 23:02

Disasters only get this much reporting if they affect white people.

Heard much about Cyclone Chido?

No, of course not.

You think LA is all white people?

What a breathtakingly ludicrous, ignorant, and ill informed comment.

Educate yourself! Only around 37% of L.A. is white!

Why let facts get in the way of a bit of race baiting though eh?! Hmm

Original poster
Viviennemary · 10/01/2025 23:06

Why I compared it with Gaza is because the fires are a natural disaster but the devastation in Gaza and is inflicted by fellow human beings and something can and should be done about it. It's nothing to do with being anti Semetic which I am not in any case.

OP posts:
NeedANapAgain · 10/01/2025 23:06

I’m not rich. I live in a mortgaged house (two years left). We’ve received notice to be prepared to evacuate, should the winds change. We have insurance, but if we lost our home and probably had to fight the insurance company to get the fair payment due us, it’s too late at our age to start over. So no, it’s not just rich celebrities affected by this.

I understand not wanting to see US news on UK television every night, but please remember, it’s also affecting normal people, working 9 to 5 jobs, hoping their homes and their families and their friends make it through this okay.

babyproblems · 10/01/2025 23:06

BabyShock879 · 10/01/2025 22:23

Yeah I'm bored of it too. Rich people have their houses burned down. OK, really sad. Some of the scenes are apocalyptic. Yes, it is newsworthy. But does it have to be on ALL the fucking time? Surely other stuff is going on they could report on.

We all said this earlier. It is sad but these are the lucky people in life! They have the resources to survive and even thrive following this unfortunate event.

SemperIdem · 10/01/2025 23:06

LostBrainCell · 10/01/2025 23:03

Literally said this today. Nobody seems to care about Gaza and that is likely to affect our society more in the future if history is anything to go by.

I think what these fires are telling us about climate change is very worrying indeed for our future, actually.

What is happening in Gaza is not more or less important, they are different issues entirely. Gaza is a humanitarian issue, the California wildfires a climate issue.

Coldanddamp · 10/01/2025 23:06

Nobody seems to care about Gaza

its not either or

BeardofHagrid · 10/01/2025 23:06

I’m more frustrated that they aren’t addressing the cause of the fires. Just endless euphemistic talk about “climate change” and weather events 🤨

Snapncrackle · 10/01/2025 23:05

Did you read about the father who refused to leave his house until the ambulance arrived for his disabled son

ambulance couldn’t get there so both father and son died

but yeah let’s talk about celebrities losing their homes

it’s all pretty bad for anyone there rich or poor they

Mustard3 · 10/01/2025 23:05

YANBU

I can’t bring myself to care about it at all, unfortunately. I know that’s mean.

People will have insurance. These celebrities and rich people know how prone this area is to wildfire, but chose to live there anyway because they want to be in a high-status area.

I’m sure they’ll all move straight back there into even bigger mansions when
they’re rebuilt.

AlpineMuesli · 10/01/2025 23:04

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

SabreIsMyFave · 10/01/2025 23:04

SemperIdem · 10/01/2025 22:59

There is an underlying issue with these fires beyond the devastation they are causing to both people and wildlife - the consistent defunding of the fire services, the water being privately owned by a married couple, fire hydrants not being filled and so on has enabled this situation.

Nor is it just “rich people” who are suffering. Pacific Palisades, which appears to have been completely destroyed by the fires, has a population of around 25,000 I believe. That is effectively a whole town, turned to ash. Not everyone who lives there will be rich and able to just start again.

This exactly. Horrible, ill-informed thread. Just hideous! Hmm

Coldanddamp · 10/01/2025 23:03

As far as TV coverage is concerned, it looks very dramatic, like a disaster film without the CGI

Defo this is a part of it.

LostBrainCell · 10/01/2025 23:03

Literally said this today. Nobody seems to care about Gaza and that is likely to affect our society more in the future if history is anything to go by.