Video of man saving bunny captured seven years before 2025 Los Angeles fires | Fact check
The claim: Video shows man saving bunny during 2025 Los Angeles fires
A Jan. 8 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows a man standing on the side of a road and coaxing a rabbit away from a large fire before picking it up and walking away.
"This is the reality of what's happening in Los Angeles with the fires," text within the post reads. "This man saved a bunny."
The post garnered more than 1 million likes in five days. Other versions of the claim were shared on Instagram, Threads and X.
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Our rating: False
The video wasn't captured during the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles. It dates back to December 2017 when a wildfire spread across Ventura County, California.
Video predates Los Angeles fires by seven years
Los Angeles County is still under a red flag warning as the wildfires that killed 24 people as of Jan. 13 rage on. The fires have also affected pets and wildlife in the area, though humane societies have rushed to rescue hundreds of animals from fire-ravaged zones.
But the video of the man rescuing a bunny wasn't captured during the ongoing Los Angeles fires.
The clip was shared on X by NBC News in December 2017. The video includes text stating it was captured in Ventura County, California, which borders Los Angeles County.
The man in the video told NBC4 Los Angeles he was driving down the freeway when he saw the rabbit amongst the flames and ran after it.
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At the time, the fire in Ventura, called the "Thomas Fire," was the largest in California's history, burning over 280,000 acres and destroying more than 1,000 structures, according to the Ventura County Fire Department. The blaze killed one civilian and one firefighter and took nearly 40 days to contain.
The fire department determined the fire was started when a "high wind event" caused power lines to crash into each other, creating an electrical arc that deposited hot, burning or molten material onto the ground. The fire was declared 100% contained on Jan. 12, 2018.
In comparison, the January wildfires in Los Angeles burned more than 40,000 acres and destroyed more than 12,000 structures as of Jan. 13, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Paste BN reached out to the users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
PolitiFact and AFP also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources
- Paste BN, Dec. 26, 2017, California's largest recorded wildfire winding down as firefighters gain upper hand
- CBS News, Dec. 7, 2017, X post
- NBC4 Los Angeles, Dec. 11, 2017, Man Who Saved Rabbit From Thomas Fire, Captured Hearts Comes Forward
- Ventura County Fire Department, March 13, 2019, VCFD determines cause of the Thomas Fire
- California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, accessed Jan. 13, 2025 Incident Archive
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