CCM director apologises after using a 2020 California photo to illustrate Kitka calf rescue

Muhamed Ali, director of the Center for Crisis Management, published a photograph he presented as showing firefighters rescuing a young calf during the large wildfire above the village of Paligrad on Mount Kitka. The image, however, was not taken in North Macedonia but originates from a 2020 wildfire in California.

After outlets flagged the mismatch between the photo and the location, Ali issued an apology. "I apologize for the confusion; the picture is only an illustration of the text, which is a true event," said director Ali.

Earlier, Ali had described the episode at the fireline in emotional terms. He said: "Yesterday, while I was on site at the large fire above the village of Paligrad, on Mount Kitka, alongside the hard fight with the blaze we had one unusual and beautiful event. In the chaos and the flames, firefighters from the Fire Brigade of the City of Skopje managed to rescue a small calf that had been left on the burned terrain. Small, frightened, but alive — a small victory in a difficult day. In moments like this, every saved life matters. And today, amid the fire and ash, we managed to save a small creature."

Photo provenance and verification

The photograph used in Ali's post has been traced to a fire in California in 2020. The discovery prompted questions about the practice of using illustrative images in official social posts without clearly labelling them, and about verification by institutional accounts before publication.

Muhamed Ali maintains that the rescue itself took place near Paligrad and that firefighters did pull a frightened calf out of the danger zone. His apology focused on the image being an illustration and the resulting confusion, while reaffirming that the incident he described was real.

Photo: printscreen / Facebook