Fact Check: Edmonton Man Did NOT Fight Fires In Ukraine — It’s Ukrainian In Donated Gear
Was a Canadian firefighter spotted putting out a fire in Ukraine during the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict? No, that’s not true: That was a Ukrainian firefighter wearing donated firefighter gear from Edmonton, a city in Alberta, Canada. Kevin Royle, the project director for the aid group Firefighter Aid Ukraine, confirmed that the bunker gear was donated by the group.
The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on March 27, 2022. It opens:
Things are getting so bad in Ukraine that Edmonton firefighters are on the scene.
🤣🤣🤣 CNN you never fail to deliver…comedy that is.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Mar 28 14:10:36 2022 UTC)
Firefighter Aid Ukraine posted about donating the equipment on its Facebook page on March 26, 2022:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Mar 28 18:12 2022 UTC)
Royle was quoted about this in an article in CityNews, a Canadian news website, on March 27, 2022:
The group has been donating equipment and gear to Ukraine for nearly a decade now.
‘It’s unfortunate it’s being used because of the conflict, but it’s impressive to see it there,’ he said.
Other Lead Stories fact checks related to the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict can be found here.
This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Lead Stories can be found here.
