The Camp fire in California, which killed 85 people and destroyed over 13,900 homes, has been the latest focus of conspiracy theories spread by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Greene posited that destructive wildfires on the West Coast in 2020 were caused by direct energy weapons. A state fire planning document warned in 2005 that Paradise risked an ember firestorm similar to the one that ripped through Berkeley. California fire conspiracy theories have been around since 2018, including the ideas that the fires were not a natural disaster but were caused by a “directed energy weapon”, a “laser beam” or explosion.
Conspiration theorists have posited outlandish theories about the origin of the Paradise and Woolsey wildfires in California. Videos and images claiming that the wildfires were not a natural disaster but were instead caused by a “directed energy weapon”, a “laser beam” or explosion have been viewed millions of times. In May, with 12 active fires already burning in Quebec, Paré, a conspiracy theorist, began setting his own fires with the intention of finding out “whether the forest was deliberately started”.
Frontline’s documentary Fire in Paradise examines who’s to blame and what made the fire so catastrophic. Conspiracy videos suggesting that the California wildfires were lit by government laser beams have clocked up millions of views on YouTube.
📹 The Deadliest Wildfire In California History
California’s largest utility company, Pacific Gas & Electric, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday after facing mounting scrutiny for its role …
📹 The Game Thinks California Wildfires Are A Conspiracy
As the Northern California wildfires continue to burn, The Game has come up with his own theory as to why they started in the first …
“We know, as a matter of fire science, that high winds and dry weather are some of the most dangerous conditions,” said John Fiske, a lawyer representing residents, cities, and counties against PG&E in multiple wildfires, including the Camp Fire. WATCH NEXT: The Last Days of Death Row Inmate Scott Dozier – bit.ly/2FASiJb
My good buddy works for pg&e doing gas lines and he told me that they have tons and tons of faulty shit and when its brought to their attention they tell the workers it’s not in the budget and they will do it later. He said some of the lines are from the 1930s and they simply refuse to fix it until it’s to late.
A friend I worked with in CalFire a few years ago worked for the ambulance company there and she almost got burned over. She posted on Instagram that it could be her last moments alive while she was at the hospital there trying to get patients out. The fear in her voice was haunting but luckily she got out alive.
Rest In Peace Paradise. I feel blessed to have spent my childhood here, met my first love, experienced my first heart break here..to graduate high school and have my son here.. I feel blessed to have known it and remember it as what it was..Paradise. My mom, my uncle and so many of my friends lost absolutely everything.. but I’m blessed to have their lives intact…So many are stuck in this illusion of rebuilding.. which may happen. But the devastation and the losses are so great; I feel as if it’s one giant graveyard full of souls that were not ready and died a horrific death.. may those souls rest peacefully in their own Paradise.
We lost our home and everything we owned. We were homeless for 6 months with our 5 year old then we woke up yesterday morning in our recently new apartment to a small smoldering fire on our front lawn from the neighbor not properly putting out their cigarette. All the emotions from the campfire came flooding back. It was hard and it still is. PTSD is no joke.
A Canadian company has been selected to help rebuild Paradise, the northern California community that was almost entirely destroyed by a raging wildfire in November. Calgary-based Black Diamond Group Ltd. says its U.S. business unit has won a $20-million rental contract to supply portable housing units with 1,584 beds to support reconstruction. It says the initial term of the contract is for nine months, with an option to extend, and includes transportation costs.
I live in the town 15 miles away that most people evacuated to. My roommate woke me up to tell me there was a big fire in Paradise and I was kinda like “yeah whatever fires happen”. Got up a bit later and it looked like it was 9pm outside. Dark hellfire skies and ash raining down on everything. There’s something very surreal about seeing people going about their everyday business in full respirators while it’s almost pitch dark and sirens are constantly blaring in the distance. Our population increased by 26% after the fire
So glad I left California. During the fires my family kept me updated and thankfully no one died but even after some had to evacuate due to fire, many of them had to evacuate due to smoke and there were people going door to door passing out masks, air filters, and various kits in areas that weren’t even close to the fire but were being hit massively with the smoke
My boyfriend is a wildland firefighter and we can attest these fires aren’t by poor management from the forest service, I’ve seen him come home from being out on a fire for 21 days take his mandatory 2 days off and then head right back out, these men and women bust there butts and try to save what land they can 😔 this is the most devastating fire we have seen in the years he’s been a firefighter
The guy from 14.15 + broke my heart when he started to breakdown about his childhood at this house 😭😭😭 I’m in New Zealand and in Napier a fire just started and then another 3 happen the world is telling us to be prepared if you don’t change the way, and save the world RIP California my prayers will go out for all of you
I remember clinicals got cancelled that morning. I took a few things and went back to sac. The freeway 99south was stopped, dark, and fire and everyone going code 3. I have 3 classmates that lost their homes…. it was intense. I went back to Chico and donated as much as I could and tried to do my part. All I know Is when we came back to school at butte… it was rough seeing my classmates that lost all. The nursing staff, program, and classmates all held together and strong. We all supported each other.
I lived in Paradise from 1981 until Thursday, November 8, 2018. Basically,my entire adult life. I go into town just about every day. And every day I end up angry when I drive down the hill. Frustration, loss, disorientation….tears every day. Yes,living in a 5th wheel is better than living outside, but not much better. It sucks. No rentals. The occupation rate for Butte county before the fire was 98%. Now? Good luck finding a place to rent. And the rents have gone through the roof. After all, if you can’t make money after a catastrophe, when can you?
I dont understan why people in the US dont just bury the cables like most developed countrys do. In germany most powerlines are in the ground and just a few big powerlines are still above the ground to carry a huge amount of energy, but those lines run are completely secured and trees are beeing removed around them. If you would build stone houses like we do, burry cables like we do, then you would be more safe. Its sad that the US economy pushes you to get cheaper stuff for your money while putting you at risk. Thats not the way it should be. Wish you the best.
We need a better alert system. Half the time you don’t have cable, electricity, your phone doesn’t work, the news doesn’t give updates until things have already happened, you don’t know until the police are driving down your road with a megaphone telling you to get out. When you do get out, the shelters are either evacuated and moved (before you even arrive and can even find that out), or you can’t take your animals (like when the downs burned down, lots of those horses were evacuated horses being held there). So many people down here have farm animals etc, too, it’s difficult to explain until you’ve experienced it. Horrific. We need a better way.
In Oregon (state above Cali) there was so much smoke fire coming into the Valley that they even told us “Don go outside unless you absolutely need to if you suffer from breathing problems, asthma, allergies, etc.” and I was living only 300 miles away. It was so bad I couldn’t tell if it was a cloudy day or if it was smoke. I could only imagine being down there and having to deal with this.
Terry woolcox actually recorded a article immediately after the fire went through his neighborhood and its horrifyingly real. He found the scorched bodies of his neighbors that didn’t make it and you can see what they were doing their very last moments before their death. Highly recommend anyone watch if you can stomach it.
This fire got my little cat very ill and some other health problems sprang up on him and I had to put him down during the fires, it was really bad smoke in the air in San Francisco for a long week or more, I hope all effected are slowly gathering themselves,step by step. That cat helped me through a lot. I can’t imagine some people don’t even have anything left at all. Atlease I had closure.
This work would break me. Firefighters are heroes. I wonder when we’re going to learn… I grew up on the border of CA and NV and have lived through fires every year of my life. I now live in Europe where the steps taken towards environmental protection are leaps and bounds different from home…but it’s even getting worse here. This year Portugal, Italy, Greece were all on fire all summer. I wish people would wake up to the fact that our lifestyles have to change. My heart breaks every time I hear about these fires. So many people and so many animals and so much of our beautiful forests are lost.
I know a lot of people who work high up at PG&E, the upper management of the company is kind of a good ol boys club you put in years, know the right people and eventually one of your friends gets you in a comfy office job with a fat take home package. From their perspective, they think they will be getting off the hook for nearly nothing in comparison to what they should be facing. It’s insane to hear that. But i have a feeling they’ll be right. Smh. Sad to hear when you see sights like this.
What happened is horrible, people died and lives and houses were destroyed which is horrendous… But frankly this part of the US suffered the consequences of global warming, caused in a large extent by the US and other countries in Europe and in Asia and everything else. It is sad to see that this kind of stuff is needed so that people and government start to realize the problem. People pay the price of capitalism and unregulated economic growth. Our greed and the little demon on our shoulder that tells us to buy buy buy is killing us. I know dry places like California have a tendency to have fires caused by humans and human activity but it is amplified by drought due to global warming. They didn’t turn off the power because of money. Why aren’t dead trees taken care of by the service of national park for example ? Because it costs money. Always money. And I’m extremely sorry for the people who lost their homes and who lost family members (I’m not saying it is their fault, but the fault of a system that encourages people to acquire more and more material stuff, and how your place in the world is determined with what you own). But the view from the drone showing where the houses were shows that some of the houses where very very big. And I doubt each family was a family of 7 in each of the house. Why bigger ? ”go big or go home” is destroying our world. And the lady says it was an ‘oasis’ but was it really or did human wanted so much to invest every each of territory that they build in austere places ?
I’m Native American and I am considering joining a hotshot team . My great grandpa (full Navajo) said in Navajo ” when it used to rain…it would come in quiet and in abundance, now it’s loud and very little comes . Humans have been naughty and doing bad things, now the earth is starting to do the same.
And then… guys like myself come in afterward to clean up PG&E’s mess with power line clearance. I worked in Magalia and Paradise for Mowbrays Tree Service… They only hired the very best tree climbers for power line clearance. If you were there, you were the best of the best. I met fellow climbers from all over the country. You think wow, ill never make this kind of income ever again in my life I have to go. We lived together in hotels for months. We got paid well, but that was absolutely nothing compared to how you feel when you’ first step foot in paradise. The money was NOT worth the carnage we witnessed. We worked 7 days a week, and HATED EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF IT… Many men and women had to re-evaluate their decision to work that place, many went home after the first day. I wanted to go home so bad after just one day. I called my wife and said I dont think I can do this job. She said, you have to, or we will lose it all. Funny she put it like that. But not. You have never in your life witnessed destruction at this level. Nothing was left. Nothing. Its like a nuke was dropped on the place… 4 times. We handled every home owner with kit gloves, these people literally went through hell. And I know guys who developed severe PTSD as a result of all the carnage. We worked the aftermath So i cant imagine what it was like trying to run from it. I can tell you. We were handed these cards, a number to call if we found remains. Ive never seen in my life fire do the things this one did.
Perhaps putting the power lines underground is a clever idea? In the Netherlands most power lines are underground. It is quite rare to see one high in the sky.. this will minimize the risk a wildfire lot. The state of California should prohibit residents to build houses on land with a high risk of wildfire. There’s enough land in the state of California to live on. Especially if you build living spaces on top of each other, instead of next to each other. The United States of America needs to find a way to rejoin the Paris agreement! Trump said that climate change was a Chinese hoax. It has been clearly stated by multiple people that climate change may not be the cause for the extreme wildfires, but it does make them a lot worse than it used to be/needs to be. If we all around the world would find a sollution to our idiotic lifestyle in which we destroy our planet, than wildfires like these would at least lessen or be less severe.
In Idyllwild, California Edison has been checking and working on the town’s utility lines rather hastily this summer. We’ve also gained new fire hydrants throughout town. But the highways are still a mess from February’s torrential rains and boulder/mudslides triggered by the Cranston Fire Of Summer 2018 (which Idyllwild barely escaped) and are not expected to be fixed until next year. So the town is grateful but rather wary because of what happened to Paradise. Of our two highways—the 74 from Hemet and 243 from Banning—the 243 is still closed to traffic, except business traffic at times, and the 74 leading to Hemet is only open (with a Pilot vehicle to follow behind) from 4am-8am and 6pm-midnight Monday thru Friday with extended hours on the weekends/holidays, normal operations not till next year. With that said, if a fire were to threaten us again, we’d only have one way out, the portion of the 74 that leads through Garner Valley and into the Anza area. But if that portion of the 74 is threatened, then we’re just completely screwed up here. We would have to use the non-maintained dirt Control Roads to escape anything serious and that would be no good. Hopefully no fires threaten us up here, at least not until the highways are running again. Peace!
What’s so wrong about it, as well, is the fact that the campfire almost seemed as if it didn’t exist after the Woolsey one. Theories were coming out, people were trying to figure out the safety, everyone was mourning and then the Woolsey fires happened. And everyone’s attention turned to is Kim and Kanye’s houses okay? Are my celebrity idols alright? And god forbid that infamous giraffe be injured! The campfire killed and damaged so much more than the Woolsey fire, but it’s like no-one cared as soon as higher class people were in danger.
Well it started in concow my best friend Lost his house &forty other houses just in his housing development I don’t exact number but know says shit about concow.people died up there first before paradise even had smoke hitting it.im not trying to take away from paradises lost.i live in Butte county since 85 I love this county .
I live in chico and at 730 in the morning from my school u could see it and then at 8 it started to get a little purple and by the time I left it was around 12 the sky was red and very smoky and I think if the fire went any further it would have burned down.My mom had picked up all of my cousins and me we went home and my mom had me and my cousin pack a bag and my mom packed up all of my aunts stuff(they were not home when this was all happening)so we were going to stay at her house but me and my cousin went outside and we could see flames from her house so we grabbed all of our stuff and animals then we went to Redding and then we stayed in dunsmuir for a week when we got back the smoke was still very bad and u had to be wearing a mask.This was one of the most tragic things I’ve ever witnessed.
I live in watts but commute to CSUN and it was devastating seeing the big clouds of smoke coming out of woolsey fire, these fires were taking place at the same time making it harder for officials to battle them. Over the weekend it got really bad that the air quality at my school and home became unbearable, the air was thick. Shit I walked a block before deciding to go back. My condolences to the families who lost a loved one.
I’m in Berkeley, CA about a 160 miles away… schools were closed in Oakland… I spent most of my time indoors using an air purifier*. I began to get nose bleeds and they haven’t stopped. I can’t imagine what the people much closer to the area are going through. _________ *I bought it after the Napa/Sonoma wild fires (much closer), the devastation is more than assessed and as much as I dislike PG&E they don’t bare sole responsibility. The Oakland hills fire of 1991 was miles (minutes) from my home and within a few minutes it turned a small brush fire to a raging disaster. I remember well, I left my home to go to Whole Earth Access to buy a CD player, the fire seemed small. By the time I returned the freeway (as we call them in CA) was crowded with emergency vehicles.
This kills me, I live in the greater Seattle area. Our power company is called pudget sound energy or pse as we call em. Yearly we get one or two bad storms that stir up power outages. But pse is constantly working on our power lines, a lot of areas are under ground wiring now cause of how much wooded land we have. I live on a road that in 2008 the trees that top out well over 100ft were knocked over at the base due to a sudden snow fall fallowed by a sudden freeze and freezing rain fallowed by a overnight wind storm that didnt take a lot to do a hell of a lot damage. All of the Eastside was out of power, where I live you had to travel almost 45 mins out of town to find the nearest gas station which was already shutting down due to running out of gas. Stores were shut down due to no power. Dead of winter, half a week before xmas. It was one of rhe worse storms we had experienced in a lot time. Trees were snapped off about 20 to 50 ft from the top, looked like mother nature took a weed wacker to the top of the tree and mowed them down. Power lines were down everywhere and back in 08, the only preventative pse was doing was trimming branches and ensuring the wires were touching or sagging. Which works 75% of the year. But thay week, every single road had a form of down power lines. Trees planted across the roads 50ft up in the air. You felt like there was no saving the area. My sis who I now live with lost power back then for 2 weeks cause pse didnt know her strip of units was on it’s own transformer.
My hometown was Paradise California, me and my children barely made it out with our lives it was very traumatizing… I was praying once I made it out for all of my community that was still behind me. I had to relocate to Washington State and I want to go home every single day…😭 #Ridgestrong. Also, this is the first year in my recollection we had no rain on Halloween. I still have the text notices on my phone from PG&e telling me there may be an outage days before the fire, I’m saving it just in case I need it. Even if I could rebuild there I wouldn’t, my children are so traumatized they are scared to death we aren’t even going to go back for closure we are to scared.
Fires are extremly dangerous people overestimate fires. Just like in Portugal Pedrogão grande.66 People died and over 200 injured, mostly died on a road trying to flee (Directed by Police officers if im not mistaken) horrific sight to see, tons of cars attempted to get away, and all died on the same spot. Fires are really REALLY fast and dangerous.
I lived in the mountains for 32 years. When homeowners were asked to let PG&E contractors to cut down dead or hazardous trees adjacent to their power lines they were told to keep off adjacent properties. This was a major cause of fires. I was a logging contractor for close to 30 years and witnessed it on sight. On other occasions I was to fall a 5-6 ft diameter tree and PG@E was more than cooperative in dumping power lines, on numinous occasions for the benefit of the forest. Be selfish and reap the consequences!
I live near oroville and it was very terrible, you can’t see anything helicopters, planes, and fire engine’s just going to the fire, and I was at school when I saw the smoke and the schools we closed for about 2-ish weeks due to the smoke and this year we went to paridice and saw all of the homes and businesses in paridice and just all gone.
We had a forest fire in the middle of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan a few years ago. It is surrounded by water and the fire went to the water edge. Lightning stuck a tree during a rainstorm. Explain to me how global warming created a fire in the middle of green trees and green ferns covered in water, with water pouring down on it at the same. time. Also, a hotel, in the middle of the forest, burned to the ground from the fire. It was called Rainbow Lodge.
The only fire I have ever witnessed was here in Tennessee. I wasn’t in it. Nor was I that close to it. But it was about an hour from me (I think). We would be in the yard and ashes would fall in our hair and there was warnings abt the air quality..so we could barely go outside. I was young (at least 10-11 and I’m 13 now) and it was during December. I remember i was omw to practice for the church Christmas play (it was freezing, almost snowing). We looked over at the mountains and saw the fire. I was terrified that it would move over to us..I cried almost all night. It was nowhere near as bad as these fires. And tbh I think it was the only that was in Tennessee. but I cant imagine going through this. I would lose it dude. When I’m older I REFUSE to live in California. Praying for everyone going thru this❤ Edit: there were more fires. I think they were all around Gatlinburg. I was terrified and I wasn’t even close to it..
How about controlled clearing of at risk or mature trees and letting new growth start. Instead of leaving trees which could die and be kindling for a fire or fall on and spark power lines together. Look at North Carolina you cut an area one year and saplings grow from stumps, leave it for 15-20 years the trees are the same size as they were when you cut them and the cycle continues, both environmental friendly and protects from leaving areas from being left to die and become a fire hazard, yet also provides wood for building and paper to write on.
You know, I don’t understand areas that are prone to wild fires, that breaks are not cut in? Deliberately cut paths through and harvest the wood. Use farm/excavating equipment to stir the ground. Wouldn’t multiple wide spots help slow down a fire? Locally that is what we do if a field catches on fire. Go out ahead of where the fire is headed and till up the land as a break. Wouldn’t an exterior sprinkler system help protect structures, at least on new construction. I can see that a single structure wouldn’t do much but a neighborhood and/or whole communities with sprinklers. Breaks could be like 100 or so meters wide at multiple points. Maybe allow strategic lumbering of only mature trees in other areas. Thin out brush as well. Maybe in the breaks put water reserves? Maybe have large agriculture irrigation systems in place. What are some other suggestions to help reduce these wildfires from being so unmanageable?
This wildfire serious looked like Hell On Earth. R.I.P. to those who died & kudos to the brave firefighters who fought the fires. From afar, it seems wildfires are increasing in frequency and magnitude. Yet, more and more people keep moving to California. Yes, California is beautiful and the weather is amazing, but at what cost? There is a lot of desert in California and it’s got a huge car culture. It is not very green and sustainable. People live in the sprawl because of technology. It allows water to be brought in but the water shortage is huge. Cars allow people to commute long distances. So besides earthquakes you have to deal with wildfires and when it does rain, mudslides. It will only get worse which they alluded to in the article as the “new normal.” In New York the 4 seasons suck at times. We’ll have cold days and blizzards. We get jealous of those sunny days, but New York is also blessed with a great water supply, transit system, and besides the occasional residual hurricane we don’t have to deal with salient weather catastrophes as other areas such as California and the Midwest which is suffering from awful tornadoes, hail and flooding. The builders of NY were prescient. People walk and ride bikes. They use the subway. There is steady rainfall which makes for some annoying days but rain is vital as we all know. The mountains north of the city are blessed with rainfall and changing weather but even then there is risk of forest fires too. Luckily upstate NY is blessed with thousands of lakes.
Seeking lower risk areas to live, to go back to urban life, is so incomparable to life in such a setting. But the places in the wild are masking other risks now. What would be better? Lower density? Fewer houses in forests? No houses at all? Or having some kind of on site fire suppression that the home would be protected by? What would that cost? Is it even viable? Or is it the structures and the materials being used? Remember these wood frame houses were essentially perfectly combustible material. Use something else to build with?
Don’t build homes in these dangerous areas, or build fewer homes. Cut down dead trees. If you want to live in a forest then you must protect yourself and home with cleaning up your area, dead trees, brush etc. Most states would not have allowed people to build there and in most states insurance wouldn’t have covered them. This is poor planning.
I ran from Redding, CA, just before the Carr Fire there. I watched the news as the fire ripped throughthe area I use to live. Horrific! Fire ruined Shasta Lake area, Whiskey Town Lake area, West Side Redding, to Chico, down to ruin Paradise, CA. According to the census, still 50,000 are unaccounted for. Where’d they go? Everything wad burnt to powder dust. Not Normal, d.e.w.
If you had a solar panel on the roof and a battery in the garage that would result in a grid shut down having NO EFFECT TO THE CUSTOMER, why do they need the grid? That’s why PG&E would never push that idea. Designing a system based on climate change now instead of where it will be in 20, 30, 100 years in the future is short sighted at best.
I live in Woodland Hills, right next to Calabasas and close to Thousand Oaks. The fires were set within 24 hours of the shooting. They’re typically set by arsonists around this time of year when the wind picks up because it can do the most damage. No natural fires wouldn’t occur during the winter with 60° overnight weather with a daily high of 75°. We experience 115° summers and don’t have any signs of any fires.
How many times have California have had wild fires and how dry the land is but also the timing of the year for California to have a wild fire is strange but I don’t think it was a conspiracy to distract people from the thousand oaks shooting but I do think that human activity is the reason for this wild fire and it was human carelessness that started the fire
Okay instead of blabbering about it for attention like most celebs are doing on their Twitter he could be helping right now distribute goods with the money he has in his “fort” such arrogant idiots these celebrities are starting to look like even when the worse has happened to others like losing there parents or family.
I watched one of those lasers come out of the sky and hit the ground and start start a fire right on top of the ground and underneath the ground at the same time those lasers go right into the ground and they start fires so don’t tell me there’s no lasers coming out of the sky because I watched it happen.