LOS ANGELES, Jan 18 (Reuters) - When social media

personality Alex Choi saw the raging wildfire in the Los Angeles

neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, he grabbed his camera and

dirt bike and went to document the devastation.

His video capturing fire-engulfed homes, embers flying

through the air and an elderly man using a garden hose to

protect his home has attracted nearly 673 million views on the

messaging app Snapchat.

"I love documenting situations like this," said the

25-year-old Choi.

Choi gained Internet fame with automotive exploits,

including a YouTube video stunt featuring an airborne helicopter

shooting fireworks at a speeding Lamborghini last year that

landed him in hot water with law enforcement.

Now he says he wants to focus on documenting news events for

those who learn about what is going on in the world through

vertical videos shared on social media.

Social media platforms like Snapchat play a critical role in

how younger adults get information, according to Pew Research.

The organization found that about one-third of U.S. adults

regularly get their news from Facebook and Google

's YouTube, while Instagram, TikTok, X and Snapchat

help fill out the news diet, particularly among younger people.

Snapchat has more than 443 million daily active

users, the vast majority of whom are between the ages of 13 and

24 years old. A number of people used the video-sharing app to

document their experience during the wildfires, including

reality television personalities Paris Hilton, Spencer Pratt and

Heidi Montag.

Choi rode a dirt bike through the fire zones, enabling him

to access difficult-to-reach areas like Will Rogers State Park.

Every home in the neighboring community was ablaze, he said,

except for one, which the elderly man was defending with a hose.

Choi said he stopped to help, and encouraged the man to leave,

but the gentleman declined to evacuate.

"I went back at like 7 a.m. in the morning, several hours

after," said Choi. "And lo and behold, his was the only house

that I saw in Will Rogers."

Choi said he had the age of Snapchat's community in mind as

he set out to capture the images from the wildfires.

"I make sure that all my stuff is not too disturbing to

watch as a 13- or 14-year-old kid," said Choi. "And it still

delivers like eye-opening news to the younger audience that

watches everything on a phone."