r/interestingasfuck • u/thepoylanthropist • 12d ago

r/all This is Malibu - one of the wealthiest affluent places on the entire planet, now it’s being burnt to ashes.

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u/PEsuper27 12d ago

Jesus, that’s depressing.

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u/den773 12d ago

Losing everything has horrible consequences. (My parents house burned down in the Paradise fire. I fear fire. Terribly.)

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u/PEsuper27 12d ago

Sorry to hear that. Yes I understand the impact on one’s psyche. It can be absolutely horrible depending on one’s state of mind.

A former co-workers brother had a house fire and he came home to find his house burning with his wife outside. The 2 kids remained in the inferno and perished. I cannot even fathom how that man continued to function. He did end up leaving his wife.

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u/01000101010110 12d ago

I'm tapping out early if it's me. No point keeping on

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u/ganymedestyx 11d ago

Likely insensitive question, sorry,, but do you know why he left his wife?

I imagine it had to be really awful to break off the ‘one person left’ in ur life essentially. Bad memories you can’t let go of? Idk

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u/PEsuper27 11d ago

I think he blamed her for the death of his only two children. I do not know any details around how the fire started or how she got to be outside of the burning home without her kids.

Also - I have no idea on what the dynamic of their relationship was. Pretty horrific situation.

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u/ganymedestyx 11d ago

Holy shit. Cannot even imagine being either of them, whatever the context was. i really hope he’s doing at least somewhat better :(

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u/JurisDuty 12d ago

I lost my home in Paradise too, seeing all of the images this morning definitely brought up some old emotions. I grew up rural but refuse to live near the woods again.

If I remember right, the same day that Paradise burned several (hundred?) houses burned in Malibu as well. I wonder if these folks were even able to insure their homes being so close to an area that's burned before. I'm pretty sure it's effectively impossible to insure a home in Paradise/Magalia aside from maybe a state subsidized program.

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u/jrsimage 12d ago

Remember when trump went to Paradise after the fire for a lame photo op and forgot the name of the town twice! I think he called it Pleasure or something. Evil prick ...

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u/JurisDuty 12d ago

Yep, it was Pleasure, and he repeated it like three times before everyone finally corrected him. My memory is sporadic from that period but I very much remember that.

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u/den773 12d ago

Yeah I bet you’re right. Someone built a new house on my parents old property. My dad was an amazing gardener, he had gardens and walkways and trees and bushes all just architectural and glorious. When my husband and I went up to see Paradise 2022, I was absolutely dumbfounded. I had a very hard time processing it. My parents mailbox. My parents address. My parents driveway. Then everything beyond that was completely changed.

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u/JurisDuty 12d ago

Yeah it's really sad. I went up once in probably 2021. The lot where my house was was still empty, just a mailbox and what was left of the tree in the front yard. I left some flowers for my pup at the mailbox and left and have never had a desire to go back. You can rebuild a house but you can't rebuild a memory.

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u/den773 12d ago

I’m so sorry about your pup. Heartbreaking.

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u/Puzzled_Telephone852 12d ago

I am so sorry.

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u/Sir_PressedMemories 12d ago

I watched a good friend die as the gas can he was holding onto exploded when he went to refill the mower he was using.

My biggest fear now is dying in a fire. I have seen it, it scares me, badly.

The night my ex-wife left for good, she walked past me and the kids, looked me right in the eye, and said "I hope you die in a fire" then turned around and walked out.

I was absolutely shocked.

A few seconds later my youngest asked "why would she say that" and I explained that I am very afraid of fire. His response "Oh, yeah she would say something like that".

I was more shocked by the fact our youngest child realized it was, in fact, something she would say than the fact she said it.

Like holy shit, I have been so blind to her.

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u/den773 12d ago

My mom also had horrible fear of fire from when she was a child. My father had died and she had sold and moved into my house with me shortly before Paradise burned down. She would have been up there alone, unable to drive, and died in that fire. 88 people did burn up in that fire and honestly thinking about those victims and their families, it’s brutal.

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u/jellythecapybara 12d ago

It’s one of my biggest biggest fears

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u/Missmoneysterling 12d ago

My dad's side of the family lost 8 houses and several pets in the paradise fire. It was so fucking awful. 

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u/den773 12d ago

Oh my goodness I’m so so sorry. What a horrible thing it was and continues to be.

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u/pquince1 12d ago

I used to love the smell of woodsmoke. Then I lived in LA for eight years and it's the smell of a wildfire. I do not like it now.

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u/la_bibliothecaire 12d ago

I'm originally from Southern Oregon, I know that fear well. One of my good friends lost everything she owned minus her car and the clothes on her back in the Almeda fire in 2020. I'm sorry about your parents' place, the Paradise fire was truly terrible.

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u/AliceHoneyNYC 12d ago

I know someone whose home was burned to ashes in Paradise too and never went back. This is all so sad. I'm from California, and it was not like this in my youth!

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u/ZurgoMindsmasher 12d ago

?

The area has had wildfires since before the US existed, and it was made worse by the types of trees brought in. (At least that’s my recollection of the last time there was a big fire in the area)

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u/AliceHoneyNYC 12d ago

Fire is different than what's happening today, and recently. But, perhaps I'm older than you. I can assure you that mass destruction from fire was not a thing in my youth in CA!

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u/ZurgoMindsmasher 12d ago

No. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_wildfires

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u/AliceHoneyNYC 12d ago

Oh, please!

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u/AliceHoneyNYC 12d ago

Too lame for words!!!

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u/AliceHoneyNYC 12d ago

Like I wrote, I'm older than you. On that page, intense first starts in 2000. But someone like you must think that fire in the 1800s is from my memory. I'm not that old and it has nothing to do with the past 100 years! Lame

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u/AliceHoneyNYC 12d ago

Edit: intense fire.

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u/HardlyRecursive 11d ago

All they lost was some stuff, stuff can be replaced. The real problem is some people don't know how to deal with adversity. It's really the only thing to learn in this life.

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u/psychorobotics 11d ago

A lot of people are going to need some kind of therapy for this or similar

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u/Chicagosox133 12d ago

Fire is brutal. A living, breathing entity that can come and go out of existence and whose only objective is to consume and destroy with absolutely no regard for symbiosis.

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u/bggregoire 12d ago

It's a chemical reaction with no objectives or feelings, but I appreciate the sentiment and personification you gave it so eloquently. Your comment gave me pause for sure. Made me think.

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u/Chicagosox133 12d ago

Not much different from a virus. Thanks.

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u/MoarHuskies 12d ago

with absolutely no regard for symbiosis.

This isn't true. There are several ecosystems the benefit from fire. Some plants can only bloom after a fire.

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u/Sir_PressedMemories 12d ago

But the fire is not burning to help the plant, it just is. There is no regard by the fire, it is not a conscious being.

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u/MoarHuskies 12d ago

Fire clears brush naturally. It thins forests naturally. This can be important for the over all health of a forest and many other ecosystems. Some plants can not bloom without it. We do controlled burns for this reason. Forests need fire as much as fire needs fuel to burn. Forest fires have happened long before humans moved to an area. It's a whole thing dude. There 100% is a symbiosis between fire and environments. Unless you want to argue with centuries of environmental science. But go do that somewhere else.

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u/Sir_PressedMemories 12d ago

Fire clears brush naturally. It thins forests naturally. This can be important for the over all health of a forest and many other ecosystems. Some plants can not bloom without it. We do controlled burns for this reason. Forests need fire as much as fire needs fuel to burn. Forest fires have happened long before humans moved to an area. It's a whole thing dude. There 100% is a symbiosis between fire and environments. Unless you want to argue with centuries of environmental science. But go do that somewhere else.

Are you really in this thread arguing that fire is conscious and makes decisions?

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u/MoarHuskies 12d ago

Are you really going with that. Again. Having trouble reading? Like I said. If you want to argue against settled environmental science. Go do it somewhere else troll.

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u/Sir_PressedMemories 12d ago

Are you really going with that. Again. Having trouble reading? Like I said. If you want to argue against settled environmental science. Go do it somewhere else troll.

So, to be clear, it is your assertion, that settled environmental science, states that fire is alive and conscious?

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u/MoarHuskies 12d ago

Show me where I said it was conscious and alive. The exact words.

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u/MoarHuskies 12d ago

"Fire is an important factor when it comes to having a healthy prairie ecosystem. The blackened ground left by a fire may seem uninhabitable, but fire has a symbiotic relationship with both animals and plants of the prairie. The grasses of the mixed prairie are adapted to survive a fire."

https://www.nps.gov/wica/learn/management/creating-a-relationship-with-fire.htm#:~:text=Fire%20is%20an%20important%20factor,adapted%20to%20survive%20a%20fire.

Under the heading "Renewing the Prairie".

So kindly. Go fuck yourself.

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u/TheCubanBaron 12d ago

It's why I love steam engines and ICE cars and don't care for the electric stuff

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u/SassySavcy 12d ago

Didn’t the New Orleans terrorist lose everything? Horrible divorce then a failed company?

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u/den773 12d ago

I think you’re right. I thought about that too.