Joe Rogan's prediction shared months ago about the dangers Los Angeles could face in a large wildfire have resurfaced as swaths of the city remain engulfed in an inferno.
The Palisades Fire began as a brush fire at around 10:30 a.m. PT on Tuesday, with high winds causing it to quickly expand. On the same day, the Eaton Fire near Altadena and the Hurst Fire in Sylma also broke out.
Two new wildfires erupted on Wednesday in the Hollywood Hills and Studio City, adding to the challenges faced by firefighters already battling blazes that have killed five people so far, forced 130,000 residents to evacuate, and devastated communities from the Pacific Coast to inland Pasadena.
With nearly 2,000 homes, businesses and other structures destroyed, including the properties of several celebrities, the fires have consumed a total of about 42 square miles—nearly the size of the entire city of San Francisco.
A social media user took to X on Wednesday to share comments that Rogan made on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, months ago about the dangers of a widespread fire.
In the clip, which bore a July 19, 2024, timestamp, Rogan said: "I talked to a fireman once—this is one of the reasons it freaked me out—and he was telling me, he goes, 'Dude, one day... it's just going to be the right wind and fire is going to start in the right place, and it's going to burn through L.A. all the way to the ocean, and it's not a f****** thing we can do about it.'
"I go, 'Really?' He goes, 'Yeah, we just get lucky.... We get lucky with the wind... But if the wind hits the wrong way, it's just going to burn straight through L.A., and there's not going to be a thing we could do about it.'"
"These fires are so big," Rogan added. "They're talking about, like, thousands of acres that are burning simultaneously with like, 40-mile-an-hour winds, and the wind's just blowing embers through the air, and those embers are landing on roofs and those houses are going up, and they're landing on bushes, and those bushes are going up, and everything's dry. And once it happens, it happens in a way where it's so spread out that there's nothing they can do."
The X user who uploaded the clip added the caption: "L.A. Fires Predicted with incredible accuracy by Fireman who spoke to Joe Rogan."
The post, which as of press time had garnered more than 4.5 million views, caught the attention of @joeroganhq, the X account for Rogan's podcast.
"Lots of indicators," read a response from @joeroganhq.
Joe Rogan's Previous Comments on Wildfires
Former Fear Factor host Rogan shared similar observations during an episode of his podcast that was released on December 10. At the time, Quentin Tarantino made an appearance alongside fellow filmmaker Roger Avary, with whom he worked on the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction.
They spoke about their time on the set while discussing the various wildfires that have swept through Southern California over the years, including the devastating blaze that affected much of Malibu in 1993.
"We actually set up a TV on the set, because [Pulp Fiction star] Bruce Willis was going to maybe lose his house," Tarantino shared. "So we had a little TV area so in between takes, we [could] watch what's going on with the fire."
Rogan, who now lives in Texas, also spoke about his personal experiences with California's wildfires.
"I was evacuated three times when I lived there," he told Tarantino and Avary. "I used to live in Bell Canyon, and... it was rough."
"I've been really lucky," Tarantino chimed in. "I'm almost afraid to say it, because I've been living in the Hollywood Hills [and] any of the fire stuff happens, it never happened around me."
"I literally am kind of at the top of the hill on a bunch of rock," the Kill Bill director added. "If it turns into an inferno, I'm still f*****."
Rogan then shared: "When I was filming Fear Factor, I talked to this guy [from] the fire department. He said, 'It's just going to be a matter of time. There's going to be one day where a fire hits L.A. and the wind is the right way, and we're not going to be able to stop it. It's just going to burn right through to the ocean... It's just a matter time—we all know it."
Beowulf co-writer Avary surmised that increased construction around the glitzy enclave of Malibu has exacerbated matters over the years.
"I grew up in California, and so when I was young, fires would burn through Malibu constantly," he recalled. "But now they put all those houses there, where there never were houses."
Calling the fires a "natural process," he said: "When you put all that kindling in there, suddenly we end up with these, like, super storms of fire, where everything's just going crazy. I think it's over-development, which is the cause of these insane kind of fires that we're getting."
"Yeah, but it's a cool place to live," Rogan quipped. "You're not going to stop people from developing in Malibu. You know, it's just too nice. You just take your chances, roll your dice."
"You take your chances and you roll your dice no matter where you live," Avary responded.
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