Los Angeles wildfires: Elon Musk personally delivers Starlinks to California first responders

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is donating Starlinks to those in need of Wi-Fi in California amid devastating wildfires that have left residents without internet or cellphone service.

Nonprofit rescue group Grey Bull Rescue met with Musk and first responders over the weekend to help set up the Starlink devices, which connect to satellites, in the Los Angeles area.

“Effective communication is essential in any crisis, war, or disaster—especially in remote and devastated areas where communication infrastructure is destroyed like we see here in California,” Grey Bull Rescue Chair Bryan Stern told Fox News Digital in a Monday statement. “Yesterday, Grey Bull Rescue was honored to assist the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACFD) by securing Starlink mini units to provide them with critical communications in areas devastated by wildfires.”

Stern noted, however, that LACFD and other emergency services agencies in California “have been asking for Starlink for quite some time for expressly this type of scenario,” but red tape got “in the way of this mission-critical need of effective disaster communications for first responders.”