California Wildfires

Overview

Wildfires in California are seasonal fires that typically break out from spring to late fall in the uninhabited forests across the state of California, which can result in destruction of properties and fatalities of varying scales. While seasonal wildfires of varying degrees have been observed for decades, due to the dry, windy and high-temperature weather conditions in the region, the growing scale of its destruction has been also attributed to the increasing construction projects in rural burn areas and worsening signs of climate change.

Background

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Notable Fires

2017 Los Angeles Wildfires

The 2017 season was one of the most destructive wildfire season on record, with a total count of 9,133 fires burning 1.38 million acres (5,590.35 km2) across the state, destroying nearly 10,000 structures and resulting in the deaths of 47 people, including two firefighters. In early December 2017, the wildfires began moving through southern California, some affecting the Bel Air, Brentwood, and Mandeville Canyon neighborhoods of Los Angeles.^[1] There were four separate fires: The Thomas fire, the Creek fire, the Rye fire, and the Skirball fire. The Skirball fire is the one which effected Los Angeles area. The fires contributed to one of the worst fire seasons in California on record. That morning, @WLV_investor tweeted a video of his commute in California showing the fire, gaining over 344,000 retweets and 593,000 likes (shown below).

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti declared a state of emergency for the city, and gave mandatory evacuation orders for over 150,000 residents of the city.^[2] Media mogul Rupert Murdoch's house was damaged in the Skirball fire.^[3] That day, Twitter user @dorseyshaw tweeted a parody of @WLV_investor's video, making the sign on the highway read "Now entering 2018," gaining over 96,000 retweets and 194,000 likes (shown below).

As of December 7th, the fires have destroyed over 300 homes, businesses and other buildings.^[4]

2018 California Wildfires

The wildfires in 2018 has been one of the most destructive seasons in state history. Between January and November, a total of 7,579 fires swept across 1,667,855 acres (6,749.57 km2), the largest number of burned acreage recorded in a California fire season. In August 2018, a series of large-scale wildfires erupted across northern California. In November 2018, another round of massive wildfires erupted across the state (Woolsey Fire, Camp Fire), which has thus far claimed the lives of 42 people and destroyed over 7,000 structures (as of November 13th).

Online Reactions

On November 9th, Redditor 19djafoj02 submitted a photograph titled "This wildfire is raging in California right now" to /r/natureismetal,^[16] where it garnered upwards of 16,300 points (93% upvoted) and 680 comments within four days (shown below).

On November 11th, Redditor bananabrownie uploaded a photograph titled "Firefighter from the Paradise, CA wildfire finds missing dog, helps reunite with family" to /r/aww (shown below). Over the next 48 hours, the post gained over 25,600 points (97% upvoted) and 230 comments.

On November 12th, Redditor Pidiotping posted a photograph of a firefighter standing in front of a wildfire to /r/photoshopbattles,^[17] where several edited variations of the picture were submitted in the comments (shown below).

Paradise Aftermath Video

On November 9th, 2018, YouTuber Matthew Strausbaugh uploaded footage taken by California resident Greg Woodcox, featuring video recordings from the town Paradise after the fire came through (shown below). In the video, Woodcox discovers the charred remains of cars and skeletons of people who died in the fire. The following day, Redditor fishfoot614 posted the video to /r/publicfreakout,^[14] where it accumulated upwards of 11,700 points (97% upvoted) and 1,400 comments within 72 hours.

"Nobody made it. These people all got burned out. I was right down below them here. My friend, you can see he’s dead, and his mother."

On November 13th, The Daily Dot^[15] published an article titled "California man criticized for gruesome YouTube video of wildfire aftermath."

Paradise Escape Video

On November 9th, 2018, The Guardian uploaded footage of a family driving through smoke and flames to escape the fire in Paradise.

Antifa Conspiracy Theory

On November 14th, 2018, radio host Bill Mitchell posted a tweet^[18] asking if Antifa was "setting the California wildfires". Two hours later, Mitchell several follow-up tweets accusing Antifa of being a "domestic terrorist organization" and speculating that the fires were set to put forth new regulations to prevent climate change (shown below).

In response to the tweet, many mocked Mitchell for posing the question without any evidence (shown below). On November 15th, several Newsweek^[19] and The Daily Dot^[20] published articles about Mitchell's tweets.

"Rake News"

On November 18th, 2018, Donald Trump blamed forest mismanagement on the spread of the California wildfires, while praising Finland for the way it handles forest. He stated, "They spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning, they don't have any problems," implying that Finnish people's raking helped prevent forest fire. He said this information was related to him by Finnish president Saul Niinisto the previous week, though Niinisto has no memory of telling Trump about raking.^[21]

Finnish people joked about Trump's comment by showing pictures of themselves raking, sarcastically bragging that they were helping prevent forest fires. These tweets featured hashtags playing with popular Trump phrases like "Rake News" and "Rake America Great Again." For example, a tweet by @TravelWithXtina gained over 2,300 retweets and 9,100 likes (shown below, left). User @pyryluminen posted a tweet that gained over 19,000 retweets and 62,000 likes (shown below, right). Jokes were covered by Daily Dot^[22] and Twitter Moments.^[23]

Search Interest

External References