Topics: New York, Canada, Social Media, Instagram, Reddit, Los Angeles, California, Wildfires, Climate Change
A content creator and actress has been slammed for making a 'tone deaf' comment about the LA wildfires.
As many as five fires are continuing to devastate California as almost 30,000 acres of land and 9,000 buildings have been destroyed or severely damaged across Los Angeles.
Hundreds of thousands of people have also been forced to flee their homes and the blaze has killed at least 10 people at the time of writing.
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Yet with more high winds forecast to fan the flames, there are no signs of the fire slowing down any time soon and experts predict the death toll could rise.
Residents fleeing to safety have been posting footage of the apocalyptic scenes while dozens of celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt have lost their homes to the blaze.
While celebrities such as Jamie Lee Curtis and Blake Lively have been raising awareness of the catastrophe, one influencer was blasted by her followers for one post about the LA wildfires.
Meg DeAngelis, a 29-year-old Canadian actress and content creator, who boasts millions of social media followers as she posts about her life in New York, shared a picture on Wednesday with the caption: "When I escaped NYC because it was too cold, but now this one is literally burning down."
The Instagram selfie hit a nerve with followers who raced to Reddit to slam her tone deaf comment as 'disgusting' and 'insensitive'.
"The privilege is crazy," one comment read, while another said: "Omg girl read the room."
"Omg that's horrible and stupid. My friend's house literally just burned down! People have died! Not to mention all the pets and wildlife. I wanna punch her," a third penned in the thread.
A fourth chimed: "Oh sorry, should we make LA a little less firey for Megan?"
Others took the post as an example of how harmful influencer culture can be.
"How tired are we of these influencers? Pack it up oh my gosh," one wrote.
When talking more broadly about climate change, another added: "If only influencers used their platforms for advocacy and to raise awareness instead of worshipping at the altar of the greedy one percent who are pretty much singlehandedly ruining our planet for their next billion."
"If you don’t have helpful information for people in this ongoing crisis why are you posting? People are so disgustingly narcissistic they just HAVE to post on Instagram and somehow make this catastrophic situation about themselves," another said.
However, since the backlash, DeAngelis has seemingly had a change of heart.
She shared another Instagram post by the London Economic to her story which showed firefighters stood before a burnt orange landscape with the caption: "Climate change will manifest as a series of disasters viewed through phones with footage that gets closer and closer to where you live until you're the one filming it."
UNILAD has contacted DeAngelis for a comment.
