The Los Angeles Fire Department made a small donation of unusable equipment back in March 2022. It contained helmets, gloves, boots, medicines — not the powerful machinery needed to fight a fire of this scale.
American entrepreneur John LeFevre published an angry post on the social network X (Twitter), in which he implied that the fires in California weren’t being put out because the local fire department gave Ukraine surplus equipment. Social media users were outraged by this: they called aid to Ukraine «money laundering» and wondered why «taxpayers’ money is being spent on this». The post was also shared by Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr., known for their negative attitude towards American support for Ukraine.
However, this post makes false and frankly manipulative conclusions. The Los Angeles Fire Department did indeed transfer some equipment to Ukraine, but this happened back in March 2022, that is, almost three years ago. It is unclear what this one-time donation has to do with fighting fires in California in early 2025. Moreover, the fire cannot be extinguished due to a number of natural factors, such as extreme drought (dry plants catch and spread flames faster) and Santa Ana winds: these are strong seasonal winds whose speed can reach from 95 to 160 kilometers per hour, which spread the flames. Also, many of the fires are burning in the rugged landscape areas, which makes it difficult for firefighters to access the sources of the fire. Of course, the lack of resources also affects the elimination of the disaster. Los Angeles Fire Chief Anthony Marrone admitted at a press conference: «No, L.A. County and all 29 fire departments in our county are not prepared for this kind of widespread disaster. There are not enough firefighters in L.A. County to address four separate fires of this magnitude. The L.A. County fire department was prepared for one or two major brush fires, but not four, especially given these sustained winds and low humidities». Thus, the problem is with the amount of firefighters, not a lack of equipment.
Moreover, the equipment that was transferred to Ukraine more than three years ago would not have helped fight a fire of this magnitude at all. In his post, LeFevre «forgot» to mention that the phrase «surplus» means that the items transferred to Ukrainian firefighters were mostly unsuitable for use in the United States for one reason or another: some models were updated, replaced with more modern ones, or sent «for retirement» due to the expiration of their ten-year service life. However, they can be used quite safely as international aid, especially in crisis situations. In addition, the aid package consisted of helmets, gloves, boots, hoses and nozzles for them, as well as medical equipment — tourniquets, bandages, hygiene products, etc., and not heavy machinery that would now be crucial in the Los Angeles situation. At that time, aid for Ukraine was collected in just three days, so its amount was unlikely to be significant.
As a reminder, due to large-scale forest fires in Los Angeles, a state of emergency was declared in the city. The area of the fire spans through tens of thousands acres. More than 30,000 residents of the city were forced to evacuate, and at least two people died.
Such manipulative rhetoric does not contribute to a constructive solution to the problem of forest fires in California. American populists are simply using a topic that is relevant and emotional for the audience to promote their own narratives and interests. Previously, Russian propagandists manipulated the topic of floods in Poland in a similar way — then we refuted one of their fakes on this topic in the article Fake: Poland Has No Place to House Flood Victims Due to Ukrainian Refugees.
