The claim: Los Angeles Fire Department is using women’s handbags to put out California fires
A Jan. 9 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shared by the conservative account Libs of TikTok shows someone filming their TV screen while footage airs of firefighters filling up small bags with water to put out a fire.
“They don’t, the firemen don’t have hoses so they’re, like, literally using purses?” a woman says in the video. “Women’s handbags?”
Text within the post, which Libs of TikTok previously shared on X and later deleted, reads, “The LAFD are using women’s handbags to hold water to put out fires (sic).”
The Instagram post garnered more than 10,000 likes in a week. Other versions of the claim were shared on Facebook and Instagram. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones shared a version of the claim on X, saying the Los Angeles Fire Department was using handbags because its supplies “were sent to Ukraine over the past two years.”
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Our rating: False
The LAFD said the footage shows its team putting out a fire using small canvas bags, which are part of the department’s standard equipment, not handbags. The canvas bags are more efficient than hoses at putting out small fires, the department said.
Video shows firefighters using standard equipment, not handbags
Margaret Stewart, an LAFD spokesperson, told USA TODAY the claim is false.
“The video shows them using small canvas bags (the) station chooses to carry on their rigs for quickly transporting water for something small,” she said. “It is more efficient than deploying a hose line.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s website also labels the claim a “lie.” The page on Newsom’s website, which is dedicated to debunking false claims about the California wildfires, says, “The LAFD uses canvas bags to fight small trash fires because they are more efficient to put out the fires as opposed to a long hose.”
The clip shown in the post is part of a longer video originally shared on YouTube on Jan. 8 by a news account called ONSCENE TV. Neither the video’s title nor its description mentions women’s handbags.
Fact check: LAPD hasn’t linked LA fires to MAGA, cause of blaze unknown
As Jones referenced in his X post, the LAFD donated supplies to Ukraine back in 2022 to aid with the country’s equipment shortage during its war with Russia. The department said in a 2022 press release the supplies were all surplus, and ABC7 News reported the items were previously “sitting in storage.”
NBC News reported in April 2022 that fire departments across the U.S. were donating equipment to Ukraine as part of a nationwide program called Project Joint Guardian.
“The gear they’re looking for may not be usable in the U.S.,” an NBC correspondent said in the broadcast. “That doesn’t mean it’s not good gear, but it may have expired and federal regulations say they can’t put it on the street.”
A member of the Rockville, Maryland, Volunteer Fire Department explained that the expiration date for most firefighting equipment in the U.S. is 10 years even if the gear is still usable.
USA TODAY reached out to Libs of TikTok and Jones for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
PolitiFact, Snopes and Reuters also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources
- Margaret Stewart, Jan. 15, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- LAFD, accessed Jan. 16, LACoFD Joins National Effort to Help First Responders in Ukraine
- Gavin Newsom, accessed Jan. 15, California Fire Facts
- ONSCENE TV (YouTube), Jan. 8, Structures Burn as Palisades Fire Explodes to 1,200+ Acres
- ABC7 News, March 18, 2022, LA County firefighters send extra equipment to first responders in Ukraine as war drags on
- NBC News, April 4, 2022, Firefighters donate gear to first responders in Ukraine
- NVFC, Aug. 6, 2014, How To Maintain Turnout Gear For Life Safety
- Project Joint Guardian, accessed Jan. 16, Home
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