Fox News host Jesse Watters has been criticized for comparing the damage caused by the LA wildfires to what Hiroshima was like after it was hit by the atomic bomb in 1945. Watters said, “Parts of Pacific Palisades look like Hiroshima after the atomic bomb. Entire communities decimated. In Altadena, about a dozen homes are left in a neighborhood of 5,000 people.” Interviewed by CNN, Jay Leno, former host of NBC’s The Tonight Show, also said, “it looks like Hiroshima.”
As of January 13, 2025, the wildfires, which began last Tuesday and have been getting worse due to the near-hurricane-force Santa Ana winds, have killed at least 25 people, forced almost 180,000 to evacuate and destroyed or damaged well over 12,000 structures. According to CNN, the fires “have burned through an area of land bigger than the capital of France.” While there has been a lot of sympathy for the people of LA, who have had a devastating start to the year, many feel the comparison to the bombing of Hiroshima, which occurred almost 80 years ago and killed tens of thousands immediately, is inappropriate.
Hiroshima, 1945
Comparison Between LA Wildfires and Hiroshima Bombing ‘Disrespectful’
“To be honest, as a person who lives in the city, the fires are terrible, but people aren’t suffering from keloid scars like in Hiroshima, so it is a little different, and people in this media don’t understand the severity of Hiroshima,” wrote one X user.
Another added, “Comparing the fire of LA to Hiroshima is just wrong. You’re comparing a fire to a nuke that actually killed many, and also left various effects that lasted for a few decades.”
“This comparison honestly does not feel very good,” tweeted another. “Of course I feel very sorry for the people of LA. In Hiroshima, however, more than 100,000 civilians were burned alive whole. Radiation also killed many. It was a clear massacre, and it is disrespectful to compare the two.”
