Video shows a man saving a bunny during the 2025 Los Angeles fires.
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Video doesn’t show a man saving a bunny from the 2025 California wildfires. It’s from 2017.
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This video was uploaded in 2017 during a wildfire in Ventura County, California.
A man runs along a roadside blazing with fire, frantically jumping before reaching out to grab a bunny, holding it to his torso while walking away from smoky flames.
"This is the reality of what’s happening in Los Angeles with the fires. This man saved a bunny," read the text in a Jan. 9 Facebook reel. Its caption read, "Not all heroes wear capes."
(Screenshot from Facebook)
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)
Featured Fact-check
It’s a heartwarming scene, but it wasn’t taken during the greater Los Angeles wildfires that started Jan. 7. This video was uploaded in 2017, and shows Ventura County, California, during the Thomas Fire. That fire started Dec. 4, 2017, affecting Santa Barbara and Ventura counties in Southern California, and was contained in January 2018. It burned 281,893 acres and killed two people.
The Ventura County Fire Department determined that "power lines coming into contact during high winds" started the fire.
The 2025 fires in the greater Los Angeles area — including six active fires as of Jan. 10 — have not been fully contained. They have burned 36,000 acres and killed at least 10 people.
We rate the claim that this video of a man rescuing a bunny shows "what’s happening in Los Angeles" in 2025 False.
Our Sources
Facebook post (archived), Jan. 9, 2025
Country Living, A Heroic Man Saved a Rabbit From the California Wildfire, Dec. 7, 2017
X post by NBC News, Dec. 7, 2017
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection, Thomas Fire, accessed Jan. 10, 2025
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Los Padres officials declare Thomas Fire out, June 1, 2018
Ventura County Fire Department, VCFD determines cause of the Thomas Fire, March 13, 2019
KABC, Man risks life to save wild rabbit hopping dangerously close to Thomas Fire flames, Dec. 7, 2017
CNN, Deadly Los Angeles wildfires: 100,000 under evacuation orders as crews report progress, Jan. 10, 2025
California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection, accessed Jan. 10, 2025
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Video doesn’t show a man saving a bunny from the 2025 California wildfires. It’s from 2017.
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