Elon Musk Sends Cybertrucks to Aid L.A. Wildfires After Criticism of Response

Elon Musk has a history of involving himself, often controversially, in crises. In recent years, the billionaire has promised to fund fixes to contaminated water at homes in Flint, Michigan; developed a submarine to rescue trapped children from a submerged cave in Thailand (it wasn’t used); and experimented with building ventilators for Covid patients during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak.

On Sunday, the world’s richest person showed up in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood for his next mission after maligning the emergency response to the wildfires that have devastated the city and its surrounding areas.

Mr. Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, said several of Tesla’s boxy, electric Cybertrucks had been fitted with terminals for SpaceX’s satellite internet service to help maintain internet connectivity in the area. He also received a private briefing on the Palisades fire at the incident’s command center, which he live streamed to his 211 million followers on X, his social media network.

“We are going to position Cybertrucks with Starlinks and free Wi-Fi in a grid pattern in the areas that most need it in the greater LA/Malibu area,” Mr. Musk wrote on X on Sunday.

Since the fires began last Tuesday, Mr. Musk has used his X account to stoke fear and outrage about the fires, spreading misinformation and casting blame on diversity policies, immigrants and Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

On Sunday, Mr. Musk appeared to take a more diplomatic approach, handing out supplies from his companies and meeting with firefighters and other emergency workers.

In a post on X, Tesla said it had deployed eight of its Cybertruck vehicles equipped with the Starlink internet service, mobile electric-vehicle charging stations and portable batteries to power devices and appliances. Mr. Musk said he had taken some of those trucks away from customers who had been expecting their vehicles to be delivered “over the next few days,” and that new trucks would be sent to them by the end of the week.

Mr. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, Mr. Newsom, a one-time friend of Mr. Musk turned political enemy, posted a clip from Mr. Musk’s livestream of his visit with firefighters, in which Mr. Musk asks an official whether there had been a shortage of water to fight the Palisades fire. Mr. Musk has blamed Democratic officials for a lack of water to fight fires. The official in the footage explains to Mr. Musk that the firefighters had just been using so much water that the system could not keep up with demand.

“@ElonMusk exposed by firefighters for his own lies,” Mr. Newsom posted on X, along with a clip of the emergency worker explaining to Mr. Musk how his teams sourced water.