L.A. reporters shut down man blaming fires on 'gay people'

KTTV, a local Fox affiliate, was reporting live from the ground in one of the evacuating neighborhoods Wednesday evening when the reporter was interrupted by a man walking down the street.

"Why is there a fire happening right now?" the man asked.

"There are multiple fires that are taking place," the reporter replied.

"Are you serious, you're the news, though, you're supposed to know," the man said.

When the reporter began to answer, saying, "Well, we don't know how it started, you know, winds…" she was interrupted by the man once again.

"I think it's all the gay people in L.A.," the man said, immediately drawing groans from the reporter as well as the news team in the studio.

"Unacceptable," the reporter said.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, over 29,000 acres have burned in the current wildfires, with the Palisades Fire, on L.A.'s northwestern coast, being the largest, with over 17,000 acres burned, and the Eaton fire, to the east in the San Gabriel Valley burning over 10,000 acres.

On Wednesday night, a fire labeled the Sunset Fire erupted in Runyon Canyon in the Hollywood Hills, directly above Hollywood Boulevard and West Hollywood, which has a large LGBTQ+ population. An evacuation order has since been lifted for the majority of the Sunset Fire area.