Videos on social media show LA firefighters using professional gear, not ‘women’s handbags’

As wildfires continue to burn this week in California, with more strong winds expected, disinformation also continues to spread. 

A Jan. 9 Instagram post said, referring to the Los Angeles Fire Department, "The LAFD are using women’s handbags to hold water to put out fires."

The video shows firefighters wearing yellow jackets and pouring water into what appears to be a plastic bag with two handles before throwing the water into a smoke-filled structure.

Other Instagram posts make similar claims about the fires, which have killed at least 24 people so far. 

"California firefighters are using women’s handbags to fill them with water and pour it over flames in an attempt to extinguish the ongoing wildfires," says a Jan. 10 Instagram post.

But the firefighters are using professional gear — not "women’s handbags."

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California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, recently launched a website to combat disinformation about Southern California’s wildfires.

One of the rumors, described as a "lie" on the site, is that "firefighters are using women’s purses to fight fires." The website says this is false: "The LAFD uses canvas bags to fight small trash fires because they are more efficient for extinguishing fires than a long hose."

According to Snopes, the fire department said in an email that the firefighters are not using handbags: "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."

Los Angeles fire officials also told TMZ that the bags are part of the firefighters' standard equipment. The bags are easy to fill with water  for dousing small fires, and are quicker to use than connecting hoses to hydrants, officials said.

Using a reverse-image search, PolitiFact found that the firefighting clip with the bags is part of a longer video posted Jan. 8 by OnScene.TV, a YouTube channel that describes itself as "photojournalists covering breaking news stories." The original video is 22 minutes long and says it shows the Palisades fire in greater Los Angeles. There is no mention of "women’s handbags."

PolitiFact reached out to the Los Angeles Fire Department but received no response by publication time.

Fact-checkers with Reuters and Snopes rated the same statement as "misleading" and "miscaptioned," respectively.

Because the video shows firefighters using small canvas bags, not women’s handbags, to extinguish a fire, we rate the claim False.