Caitlyn Jenner blamed "hypocrite" California officials for failing to prevent the devastating wildfires. The Olympic medalist accused the forestry service of requiring citizens to clear underbrush from their properties while failing to do the same on a state level, suggesting this negligence made it easier for the fires to spread.
Highlights
- Caitlyn Jenner accused California officials of negligence amid the devastating wildfires.
- Jenner pointed to poor forest management on state lands as "wildfire fuel."
- The fires have caused at least 25 deaths and destroyed over 12,000 structures.
Jenner shared a photo of her Malibu home, which she said backs onto overgrown public land.
"My 13-acre property in Malibu backs up to CA state land (circled in red). Notice the difference between my grounds keeping and the states?" the reality star wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Caitlyn Jenner accused California officials of failing to prevent the recent wildfires, attributing them to the state's poor forest management
Image credits: Caitlyn_Jenner
"No underbrush or forest management by the state on their lands- providing a plethora of fuel for wildfires. No underbrush on my land.
"The only reason my home survived the last round of fires was because of the ground clearance we are mandated to do."
She added that the forestry service doesn't "follow any standards or provide ground clearance the way they force their over taxed citizens to" and said living next to state land is "dangerous and a major liability."
Image credits: caitlynjenner
The former Republican candidate continued: "We have extremely high property taxes and are held to high standards of ground clearance to prevent fires from spreading. CA=HYPOCRISY.
"The underbrush is fuel for wildfires. This government is absurd!"
The California State Parks Department told The Daily Mail that they are "unable to confirm from the picture whether that land belongs to California State Parks."
The Olympic medalist claimed that the state's forest management "provided a plethora of fuel for the wildfires"
Image credits: Caitlyn_Jenner
California residents are required to keep 100 feet of "defensible space"—the buffer zone between a property and the surrounding wildland area—as a barrier to halt the progress of a wildfire.
The first 30 feet must be totally clear of dead or dry vegetation. As the state has diverse regional climates, some local government agencies have stricter standards. For example, San Diego County requires 50 feet of clearance.
Jenner's post sparked mixed reactions, with some supporting the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star and others arguing that her demands were unrealistic.
"Be realistic. There is no way to clear almost 1 million acres and leave them bare like your grounds," one user wrote, to which she responded, "Respectfully disagree. Yes there is in populated areas - esp Santa Ana wind corridors- where my canyon in Malibu is. They could clear that underbrush in a couple of days."
Image credits: Caitlyn_Jenner
"The leadership in California only has excuses for their criminal negligence," another person commented, while a separate user said, “They don’t want our homes to survive.”
"They could easily clear at least areas near the cities. That might slow things down or at least take out bigger trees. The other thing....buy some planes to drop more water," said someone else.
In California, the federal government owns nearly 58% of the 33 million acres of forest, according to the state governor's office.
The state owns just 3%, with the rest owned by private individuals or companies or Native American groups, as per the BBC.
The devastating fires have killed at least 25 people and destroyed more than 12,000 homes and other structures
Image credits: LACOFD
In a separate post, Jenner blasted what she called a "hypocritical joke of a government," writing, "Everything wrong with LACK OF FOREST MANAGEMENT by the state, on state lands, IN CA. Versus what they make its citizens do for their own land."
Speaking with Fox News, she blamed California officials for the state's "decline" and said the wildfires would "shine a very bright light" on its political weakness.
"Boy, have I seen this state decline over the years. We're not gold, we're not silver, we're not bronze. We don't even make the finals anymore, and that's all because of politicians.
"What I think the fire is going to do is show California's political weaknesses. It's going to shine a very bright light on it. We have so many issues here, mostly with the politicians."
Jenner said that taxpayers are required to clear overgrowth on their properties, but officials have failed to do the same on public land
Image credits: Caitlyn_Jenner
Image credits: Caitlyn_Jenner
The 75-year-old likened the officials' handling of the wildfires to a game of whack-a-mole, where the focus is put on the response once the problem has emerged rather than on prevention.
"You know that game when you play, when you have the mole and you have the board in front of you and the head pops up, you got a hammer, and you bang it down? And then another one comes up over here, and you bang it down.
"That's what they do. As soon as the problem comes up, they try to do what they can to fix it, instead of being on the offensive a year before the fires."
Experts attribute the fires to a combination of drier, hotter and windy conditions
Image credits: jeremykauffman
J. Keith Gilless, Professor of Forest Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, said that blaming poor forest management for the wildfires is a "stunning oversimplification" of a complex issue.
"It is important that everyone manages the vegetation on their own property consistent with local regulations, and doing so will definitely improve the chances of structures surviving wildfires, just as home hardening does," the professor told Bored Panda in an email.
"It is also important that we manage vegetation on public lands, but recognizing that that management must be informed by the need to protect habitats for biodiversity and prevent erosion in ways that reflect our understanding of the fire ecology of different ecosystems."
Some experts have pointed to the practice of total fire suppression, rather than allowing limited fires to burn and create firebreaks, as a factor that makes it easier for fires to spread. The US Forest Service has reportedly been working to rectify this in recent years, but Gilless says that the change will take time and require significant investment.
"California is working to increase the pace and scale of vegetation management, but the effects of years of fire suppression can't be addressed except by significant and sustained investments."
Image credits: libsoftiktok
The gold medalist believes the wildfire crisis will change how Californians perceive the state government.
"I hope the people of California can really change their thinking. And I think what's happening [with] this fire is going to change their thinking. It's things like this that have to happen."
The California wildfires have killed at least 25 people and destroyed more than 12,000 homes and other structures. The total cost, including non-insured damages, could top $40 billion, according to a report by analysts at Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs.
Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Fire Chief Kristin Crowley has been critical of Mayor Karen Bass for cutting funding to the department.
"My message is the fire department needs to be properly funded," she said last Friday (January 10). "It's not. Any budget cut is going to impact our ability to provide service."
"Property taxes keep going up and critical services go down," the 75-year-old wrote
Image credits: Caitlyn_Jenner
Image credits: Caitlyn_Jenner
Jenner claimed that the government could clear the underbrush in a few days but chose not to allocate resources for it
Image credits: Caitlyn_Jenner
Image credits: pohler
In December 2024, Crowley wrote a memo stating that the decision "adversely affected the Department's ability to maintain core operations," including training and fire prevention.
Experts believe that a combination of drier, hotter, and windy conditions explain the California fires.
The National Weather Service in Los Angeles posted Wednesday afternoon that they are expecting a break from the fire weather concerns to close this week but said that next week is a concern.
"While confident that we will NOT see a repeat of last week, dangerous fire weather conditions are expected."
People reacted to Caitlyn Jenner's criticism of California politicians
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