More viral videos spewing misinformation on the raging wildfires in Los Angeles (L.A.), California are spreading on social media. This time, a video compilation on the disaster used unrelated clips.
On Jan. 10, a video published by a Filipino Facebook (FB) user bore the following caption:
“Kung Hindi baha Apoy nman. Pray for California. Wild fire January 2025. (If it is not flood, it is fire. Pray for California. Wildfire January 2025).”
The seven-second video featured three short clips showing the following:
- rooftops of buildings seemingly on fire while white smoke spread through the night sky;
- buildings in a neighborhood engulfed in flames; and
- lava flowing out of a fissure.
Using reverse image search and geolocation techniques revealed that at least two of the three clips were taken before the fires even began in L.A. The third showed an impossible scenario.
The first short video was originally published by TikTok user @ramiguerfi41 in 2023. While it has since been taken down, another TikTok user reposted the same video on Oct. 3, 2023 and with credit to @ramiguerfi41.
At first glance, it is not clear why the rooftops in the video appeared to be on fire. Despite this, what is clear is that the video was published more than a year before the January 2025 wildfires in California occurred.
Other videos with frames similar to the short clip show a spectacle of fireworks and lighting of flares in the city of Algiers when football club CR Belouizdad won the Algerian championship in 2020 and 2023.
VERA Files Fact Check geolocated the circulating video using visual landmarks in the video showing it was indeed taken in Algeria.
The second clip in the erroneous compilation was published by TikTok user @kasimofori0 on Jan. 2 – before the fires in California began. It was about a fire outbreak in Kantamanto, a market in the business district of Accra, Ghana.
VERA Files Fact Check could not locate the origin of the lava clip. However, there have been no reports about huge volcanic fissures opening and releasing lava during the L.A. wildfires. The nearest volcanic fields are more than a hundred miles away.
As of publishing, the ongoing wildfires in California have claimed at least 27 lives and destroyed thousands of properties.
The FB user’s video with the false context has garnered over 39,000 reactions, 5,400 comments, 6,600 shares and a whopping 4.8 million views.
