E-Paper
Whoopi Goldberg urges people to stop ‘pointing fingers’ at others for LA wildfires, ‘It’s nobody’s fault’
“It’s too soon to be saying, ‘Oh it’s [California Governor] Gavin [Newsom]’s fault'," Whoopi Goldberg said.
Whoopi Goldberg suggested that the Los Angeles wildfires were caused by last week’s hurricane-force winds that blew throughout Southern California, and urged people to stop “pointing fingers.” The 69-year-old made the comment on Monday’s episode of The View.
“There was a fire catastrophe in California. It had to do with winds,” Goldberg told the studio audience. “The winds move things and sparks move things.”
“It doesn’t matter how much water you have if 900,000 buildings go up at the same time,” she continued. “Having lived in California, having lost every house save for one that we ever lived in, I take great offense at pointing fingers.”
“You should be pointing fingers about, how can we help?” she added. “It’s too soon to be saying, ‘Oh it’s [California Governor] Gavin [Newsom]’s fault.’ It’s nobody’s fault.”
What caused the wildfires?
Several conspiracy theories are floating on social media about the possible cause of the fires. The Washington Post conducted a forensic analysis of an area in the foothills of the Pacific Palisades where the fire possibly started, and experts believe the fire could have been a “reignition” caused by smoldering embers from another smaller fire that started on New Year’s Eve. Meanwhile, a source told the Los Angeles Times that officials believe the fire, which started on a well-known hiking trail, may have had “human origins.”
Goldberg, meanwhile, continued to say on her show, “It’s like us taking seriously that there are magic lasers in the sky that direct the weather. That doesn’t work, that doesn’t happen.”
“We don’t control Mother Nature. Mother Nature doesn’t give a damn what we want,” she added. “Mother Nature does what she does and if you’re in the way, this is what happens, and California is chock full of people.”
Goldberg continued to talk about the wildfires during Monday’s episode of The View: Behind the Table. “There’s a lot happening. And please don’t blame the people for this. This is Mother Nature, and nobody was prepared for it,” she said during a conversation with podcast co-host and The View executive producer Brian Teta.
“And you couldn’t have been prepared for it because what mind could ever think that 75 hundred-thousand buildings were going to burn at the same time?” Goldberg added.
“My whole neighborhood is gone,” she confessed. “The Palisades is gone. It’s insane. It’s insane. So I’m hoping that people will stop listening to people who are blaming other people and just try to figure ways to help.”
The death toll had risen to at least 24 people as of Monday, January 13. Nearly 200,000 others have been displaced, while the blaze has burned down 39,000 acres of land.
