Pacific Palisades burned to the ground, and houses in Malibu, right on the beach, couldn’t be saved despite their proximity to the fucking ocean. Fire tore through The Hollywood Hills and Alta Dena, and before the sun went down on the second day of the SoCal holocaust, a new fire emerged in West Hills.

To read the posts on Nextdoor and Ring’s Neighbors app, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking that Simi Valley had descended into the seventh layer of Hell. It seems everyone in Simi desperately wants to be a part of the chaos and drama unfolding in Los Angeles. One woman asked if we could see the Palisades fire from here. Where the fuck does she think Pacific Palisades is in relation to us. wElL, iTs oNlY tHis fAr aWay oN tHe mAp 🤏.

Of course, the vast majority of posts were complaints, inquiries, and updates about the power outages all over town, but there are quite a few who seem to think that Simi is in grave danger of burning.

This Ain’t Those Fire Snakes From Super Mario Bros 3

Regarding the fire in Sylmar, one man said, “With these winds it can go in any direction!” No, it can’t. It can’t go in any direction. The wind is blowing south, which means the fire will travel south as well. Someone else asked how we’ll know when we need to evacuate. Evacuate from what?

During the Woolsey Fire, my neighbor told me he packed up his RV “just in case.”

“Just in case of what?” I asked.

“The fire.” He said.

The fire burning to the south of us? That’s the fire that you packed up your RV for?

Where There’s No Smoke, There’s No Fire

I don’t know if these people are new to the area, if they’ve never paid attention to the weather here, or if they just don’t understand how fire works. When the Santa Ana winds blow, they blow from the north and northeast. That means if fire is south or west of Simi Valley, Simi isn’t in any danger of burning. If the hills to the north or east of us are burning, then there is a danger to the city. There are no fires to the north of us. A clue is if the sky is blue, the fire ain’t coming toward you. The fact that there hasn’t been any smoke over Simi Valley all week should be reassuring that we’re not in any danger, I would think. I guess not.

I think it’s safe to say that we can expect disasters like this to happen with ever-increasing frequency and devastation in the coming years because we’re never going to get climate change under control. People don’t understand what climate change is or how to stop it because you can’t understand climate if you don’t understand basic weather patterns. Well, at least the rising seas will leave less land to burn. 🤷‍♂️