As Los Angeles fights fires, Australian official urges more help from social media platforms [Video]

SYDNEY – The Australian head of the world’s largest volunteer firefighting force on Jan 14 said a refusal by social media firms to give emergency services free access to their data was hindering responders globally, as wildfires continued to rip through Los Angeles.

Mr Rob Rogers, commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (RFS), said companies including Mr Elon Musk’s X and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, could save lives by giving first responders back-end access to data.

The RFS runs a network of some 74,000 volunteer firefighters and full-time staff protecting one of the world’s most fire-prone regions.

Australia suffered a catastrophic series of wildfires in 2019 to 2020 known as “Black Summer”, which destroyed an area the size of Turkey and killed 33 people, the majority in New South Wales.

In response, …