No, this video doesn’t show South African firefighters en route to help in greater Los Angeles

A video of a large group wearing black-and-yellow gear and bearing South African flags as they sing, clap and dance has circulated social media as wildfires continue to burn in greater Los Angeles.

“Group of South African firefighters who have landed in Canada to make their way to LA, to help,” a Jan. 10 Instagram post said. 

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.)

This video is authentic, and it shows firefighters from South Africa arriving at the Edmonton International Airport. But they weren’t en route to California, and this video is more than a year old. 

Canada’s CTV News posted the footage on Instagram in June 2023, writing in the caption that “over 200 firefighters from Working on Fire in South Africa have arrived in Edmonton, Alberta to assist local crews in battling ongoing wildfires.”

Working on Fire, a program that trains people in South Africa in fire awareness, education, prevention and suppression skills, posted June 4, 2023, on X the same scene from a different angle.

Canada had an extreme and record-breaking 2023 fire season, with hundreds of “megafires” among the thousands of blazes that burned more than 18 million hectares. 

We rate claims this video shows South African firefighters en route to help combat Los Angeles fires False.