In January 2025, a statement was widely circulated on the Internet that rescuers were unable to cope with the fires that had struck California - they lacked equipment, since most of the fire-fighting equipment was transferred to Ukraine. We have verified the authenticity of this news.
On January 9, media and Telegram channels began publishing reports that the Los Angeles Fire Department had donated its own equipment to help Ukraine, which is why it is now unable to cope with the fire that has spread across Southern California. The news was published by Telegram channels “Sanya in Florida"(454,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Solovyov"(221,000), "Ukraine.ru" (143,000), "Leprosy"(113,000), Zergulio (140,000), "Bad luck"(131,000) and Win/Win (109,000), as well as the media "Moskovsky Komsomolets", "Komsomolskaya Pravda", "Gazeta.ru", "Arguments and facts"etc.
Effective January 7, 2025 in Los Angeles County are raging wildfires affecting the Pacific Palisades, Eaton, Malibu and Santa Monica areas, among others. By data authorities, by January 13, 24 people were confirmed dead, more than 180,000 residents were evacuated. The fire destroyed more than 12,000 buildings, including the homes of Hollywood stars. US President Joe Biden statedthat the fires in Los Angeles are the largest and most destructive in the history of California, and promised comprehensive federal assistance to combat the disaster and restore the affected areas. Economic damage continues to be calculated, but already evaluate tens of billions of dollars. Despite all the efforts of emergency services, the fight against the fire has been going on for a week.
Most of the resources that published news about the connection between the protracted firefighting in California and the transfer of equipment to Ukraine referred to Donald Trump Jr., the son of the elected US president. This statement he did on his blog on the social network X on January 8 at 20:06 Moscow time, reposting the publication of American entrepreneur John Lefebvre.
It was Lefebvre who first wrote about the transfer of equipment to Ukraine in the context of the current fires in California - about an hour before Trump Jr. On his blog he often calls stop financial support for Kyiv from Washington, calls Ukraine is a corrupt state, and Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States and rival of Trump Sr. in the recent elections, - who provoked Putin to war.
Lefebvre attached screenshots of the headlines of two publications on the websites of Californian television channels to his post. KTLA And KABC, which talked about the transfer of firefighting equipment to Ukraine. However, both materials note that donations were collected back in mid-March 2022, almost three years ago. At the same time, both TV channels published relevant notes on their websites, but Lefebvre ignored this.
March 17, 2022 Los Angeles County Fire Department released press release, which listed the list of things sent to Ukraine: personal protective equipment, hoses, nozzles, helmets, shoes, mittens, medicines and medical equipment. It is separately emphasized that the transfer concerned specifically surplus equipment. The donation was a one-time donation; the department did not report other similar actions. The likelihood that a one-time shipment of surplus equipment to Ukraine could lead to serious problems with firefighting in California almost three years later is extremely small.
The same press release states that Los Angeles firefighters were not the initiators of sending the donation - they only joined the nationwide effort. Shortly after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian-American firefighter Oleg Skachko from New Jersey started collect disused equipment for their Ukrainian colleagues. The initiative received national attention, and donations came not only from California, but also from New Hampshire, Arkansas, Texas and other states. In this context, the accusations against the leadership of the Los Angeles Fire Department that they transferred equipment because of an overly pro-Ukrainian position, which led to problems in fighting the fire, are unfounded.
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marronne did say he was unable to fight fires on his own, but he said the difficulty is due to staff shortages, which forced him to turn to neighboring counties for help. None of the numerous publications in authoritative sources covering the fires contains information about the shortage of precisely the type of equipment that was transferred to Ukraine in 2022.
As natural factors that prevent firefighters from coping with the fire, experts called Extremely strong winds in California's arid climate. In January 2025 in this state recorded The powerful Santa Ana wind is a current of hot, dry air that carries dust from deserts, blowing from highlands to valleys. This phenomenon is often observed in winter and contributes to the spread of fires while complicating their localization. This time the wind speed reached 45 m/s, which corresponds to the second category of hurricanes.
Another problem is water shortage to extinguish the flame. By words Janice Quinones, head of the Los Angeles Department of Water Resources, water pipes and reservoirs could not cope with the unprecedented demand, which was four times higher than normal in 15 hours, and three million-gallon (3.8 million liters) reservoirs quickly emptied, causing pressure to drop. As a result, by the morning of January 8, 20% of the hydrants were without water, which significantly complicated the work of firefighters. Experts interviewed by CNN say that even fully functional hydrants would not cope with fires of this scale.
The claim we are considering is widely dissented among supporters of US President-elect Donald Trump. Besides his son and Lefebvre, a post on a similar topic in X posted owner of the social network and close supporter of the politician Elon Musk. Got millions of views and publications some other users.
Trump himself assigned responsibility for the fires lies with the current American administration and the Governor of California, Democrat Gavin Newsom, accusing them in incompetence and ineffective management. How notes Al Jazeera This is not the first time the US president-elect has used natural disasters to attack political opponents. For example, in 2018, speaking about Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico the year before, a politician groundlessly stated that the estimate of 3,000 deaths was radically inflated by the Democratic Party. In September 2024, Trump, including disseminating false information, accused The White House is not providing enough assistance to states affected by Hurricane Helen.
Thus, there is no evidence that the difficulties in fighting fires in California are caused by sending the necessary equipment to Ukraine. The Los Angeles Fire Department donated surplus equipment to this country nearly three years ago. Also, neither the department itself nor the city leadership in January 2025 announced a shortage of those types of equipment that had previously been transferred to their Ukrainian colleagues. Experts attribute strong winds, arid climate and the lack of sufficient personnel to combat the elements to the reasons that complicate the work of firefighters.
Cover photo: Nejc Soklič / Unsplash
- The New York Times. What We Know About the Wildfires Raging in Southern California
- CNN. No water system in the world could have handled the LA fires. How the region could have minimized the damage
- Al Jazeera. Fact check: LA fires drive falsehoods, including by Trump about water use
- Is it true that the Hollywood sign caught fire due to the fires in Los Angeles?
- Russian trace, flooded Disneyland and cloud-porn actor. Fake stories about Hurricane Milton
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