On Jan. 9, 2025, as wildfires continued to cause devastation in Los Angeles County, a video (archived) circulated on social media alongside claims that firefighters were battling blazes using women's handbags.
In the footage, crew members from the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) could be seen putting out a trash fire using black and tan bags containing water drawn from a fire engine. These objects were identified by social media users as "women's handbags" or "purses" in popular posts (archived).
One X user wrote (archived): "I promise you can't make this up! The Los Angeles Fire Department is using women's handbags to gather water in their fight against the blaze. What is going on?"
However, while the footage authentically shows firefighters in action in Los Angeles, social media users were incorrect to identify the extinguishing equipment being used as handbags or purses. The LAFD confirmed
On the equipment used, the LAFD wrote: "Our firefighters are resilient and will continually adapt to various situations. They are using collapsible water buckets to put out this trash bin fire, not bags."
The footage in question is genuine and appeared in a compilation of firefighter footage published on Facebook by ONSCENE.TV on Jan. 7. That website collates footage from photojournalists in several states, including California, to sell to news outlets. Nathan Holguin, the journalist who recorded the footage, said he was covering one of the major fires — the Palisades Fire west of Los Angeles — near a strip mall on Palisades Drive on Jan. 7 when he saw firefighters putting out the trash fire. Holguin identified the equipment firefighters were using as collapsible buckets.
As of this writing, five fires covering more than 36,000 acres were burning in and around Los Angeles County, with the Palisades and Eaton fires accounting for most of the acreage. Five people have been killed in the fires so far, according to a preliminary Calfire count (archived).