Elon Musk exposed for his own ‘lies' about Los Angeles fires, claims California governor

ISTANBUL

While seeking to blame government officials for seven days of massive wildfires in Los Angeles, billionaire Elon Musk was “exposed by firefighters for his own lies,” California’s governor argued Monday.

In a video posted by Gavin Newsom on X, Musk talks with a fire command team member about the devastating Palisades Fire, asking if the coastal neighborhood actually ran out of water.

“In the Palisades, there was a shortage of water at a certain point, or is that not accurate?” Musk asked.

“There was water, we have water reservoirs,” the firefighter replied, but stressed that too many fires burning at once resulted in low water pressure, with some firefighters unable to battle blazes

“Just an example, if we have one building burning, we can flow 1,000 gallons (3,785 liters) a minute on that one building,” he said. Emphasizing that no water system can sustain that pace, he added: “We were flowing an amount of water that the system could not … it was overbearing, just because of how much water firefighters were utilizing.”

Big trucks with water tanks brought in by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to help the firefighters served as mobile fire hydrants, he added.

After the exchange with the firefighter, and apparently unable to lay the blame where he wanted to, Musk stopped the recording.

Business mogul Musk is a close ally of incoming Republican President Donald Trump, who has also sought to blame Democrat Newsom for the disaster, calling him “Newscum” and saying the governor’s mismanagement fueled the flames.

Local authorities have blamed the massive fires on such factors as dry seasons that were normally wet, hurricane-force Santa Ana winds that quickly spread the fires, and, in a larger sense, the effects of global warming.

More than 40,000 acres have been scorched by the Eaton, Palisades, Kenneth, and Hurst fires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Over 12,000 structures, including homes, businesses, and houses of worship, have been reduced to ashes since the fires began on Jan. 7.

Efforts to contain the fires continue.