Elon Musk from Tesla offered to help during the California wildfire if possible. On Twitter, he noted that “If Tesla can help people in California wildfire, please let us know. Model S & X have hospital grade HEPA filters. Maybe helpful for transporting people.”
However, it’s led to a big argument on the platform in the comments, as some mocked him for the prior debacle during the Thailand cave rescue. Meanwhile, others are blasting the critics, saying that he is a wealthy man that’s offering to help people in need, so there’s no reason to demean him.
Some may remember that Musk offered his help when a soccer team became trapped in a dangerous cave system in Thailand. He and his team came up with a child-size submarine that could potentially be used to shuttle the players out of the cave. While the actual invention was not used during the successful mission, it’s what happened next that brought on a ton of negative publicity for Elon.
He was criticized by a diver, Vernon Unsworth, who said that Musk’s efforts were merely a “PR stunt” and told him he “can stick his submarine somewhere where it hurts.” Upset by the diver’s words, Elon later tweeted, “Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it,” while saying he never saw Unsworth when he delivered the submarine.
One user has gotten over 1,400 likes for his comment in the hour since Musk tweeted his willingness to help. The user blasted Elon for his prior actions during the Thai rescue.
“Just an idea but maybe you can intrude into this continuing crisis, build an unworkable and ridiculous capsule or something, and call some firefighters pedophiles.”
But that didn’t sit well with others, who couldn’t believe that people were putting Elon down for simply wanting to help.
“Why is it that when Elon Musk wants 2 help people that he has to have ulterior motives? Honestly, just cause he is rich & successful he should be an a**hole?”
Another user simply said, “Elon just wants to help, so let this guy just do it.”
As the argument rages on in the comments, the fallout from the fires are undeniable. So far, nine people have been reported killed as a result of the “Camp Fire” in Paradise, detailed Eyewitness News. The same fire destroyed the entire town of 26,000 people, and so far has burned somewhere near 28,300 hectares of land. Meanwhile, firefighters have not been able to contain the fire.