Maui Wildfires

Does a video show fire crawling on cement in Maui during the wildfires of August 2023? No, that's not true: The video appeared online more than a year before the Maui fires. It shows a fire in Cleveland, Ohio, in June 2022 that was reported on local news, footage that was posted on YouTube at the time. The claim appeared…

Does a video show a laser beam from the sky, or a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW), cause an explosion in a city, or spark the wildfires in Maui, Hawaii? No, that's not true: This viral video predates the August 8, 2023, Maui wildfires. It shows an electrical transformer exploding in the Santiago commune of Macul, Chile, which was first posted…

Was the 2023 Hawaii Digital Government Summit scheduled with the purpose of turning Maui into "the first smart island," "governed by AI" and was the August 2023 wildfire started to create a crisis to be solved by AI? No, that's not true: As of this writing, the event's website did not show any Maui-specific sections or outline any plans to…

Does this video of a gas station attacked with a red laser beam show an example of a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW)? No, that's not true: This video has been edited. The original eyewitness video does not feature a laser beam. Filmed in the Russian city of Makhachkala on August 8, 2014, it shows a situation developing at a Exson…

Was the deadly wildfire that began the evening of August 8, 2023, on the Hawaiian island of Maui caused by a "direct energy weapon assault"? No, that's not true: There's no evidence to support that assertion. Instead, natural factors, not a direct energy weapon, are the likely cause of the wildfires. The claim appeared in a post and video on…

Does a widely shared video of still-standing trees prove that the Maui wildfires were false flag operations? No, that's not true: Social media users who reposted the clip pointed out that some plants survived fires, but that does not support the assertion in question -- plants growing in fire-prone ecosystems naturally evolve with features that allow them to withstand fires.…

Did Crip gang members volunteer to fight wildfires because they turn the sky red? No, that's not true: The claim was apparently intended as a joke at a time when serious wildfires were devastating millions of acres, forcing massive evacuations and killing people in western states. It used elements from a real CNN story about Russia to make a meme…