A popular YouTube family was accused by neighbors of faking an evacuation from a California wildfire in order to increase views, after one of their latest videos was posted.
YouTube couple “Cole & Sav” were
exposed for lying/exploiting the holy fire tragedy pic.twitter.com/CtTtaNnBLB— Updates/Drama/Opinion Page (@Stanningteaa) August 18, 2018
The family has a large amount of followers on Instagram, with the father Cole LaBrant, wife Savannah, and daughter Everleigh each having over 3 million followers separately. The family also runs a YouTube channel that has over 6.7 million subscribers.
The family posted a video on YouTube on Aug. 13 called “WE LEFT OUR HOUSE BECAUSE OF FIRES IN CALIFORNIA.” In the video, Cole LaBrant said his wife texted that there was a huge fire near their place and they might have to be evacuated.
The video then showed a number of wildfire clips from different news stations related to the Holy Fire, which blazed through 22,986 acres and was 95% contained as of Aug. 24.
“I think it’s like four miles away,” said Cole LaBrant in the vlog, “and we just got an evacuation thing.”
The video then received some backlash from the family’s neighbors, who told FOX11 that the area they live in, Ladera Ranch, wasn’t issued any evacuation orders.
FOX11 reported that the neighbors are accusing the couple of exploiting the situation. From what the video shows, the family seemed like they were going on vacation, with suitcases packed up and staying in a hotel, instead of an evacuation.
Regarding the accusations, FOX11 contacted the family but received no responses. Some people defended the family, saying the wife was pregnant and the little girl was scared.
