Did the Weather Channel show human remains on live TV reporting on California wildfires in January 2025? No, that's not true: The channel denied this, saying it was debris. In response to Lead Stories, its representative shared an image from the same location that showed nothing that would look like a human skeleton.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on January 8, 2025. It said:
WATCH:
The weather channel unknowingly shows DECEASED REMAINS live on air when showing the devastation from the California Palisades fires!
Do you guys think that is what I think it is?
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Jan 10 20:44:37 2025 UTC)
The video shared in the post on X appeared to be a fragment of a news report, but the people recording the clip were talking, making the reporter's voice-over partly inaudible.
On January 9, 2025, the Weather Channel refuted the claim on X (archived here):
These social media claims are inaccurate and completely false. We have 100% confirmed that the video shows debris from the aftermath of a house fire and nothing else. We ask that everyone please shift their focus to helping the victims of the SoCal wildfires and share factual information that will help them and their families stay safe as this tragic situation continues to develop.
When contacted by Lead Stories, the channel's spokesperson shared the same statement via email on January 10, 2025, also attaching a high-resolution image of the same location:
(Source: The Weather Channel)
Lead Stories verified that the photo did portray the scene in question. More visible in an earlier shot from the video on X, both contain the same unique identifiers: a light-colored house in the background and the same dark column on the right:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Fri Jan 10 21:18:49 2025 UTC)
The clip from the Weather Channel is here. Lead Stories found a report from the same location on the Weather Channel Roku app and independently verified by watching the broadcast that human remains were not shown:
(Source: Weather Channel Roku app screenshot taken on Fri Jan 10 2025)
The report included an exchange between Weather Channel reporter Justin Michaels (archived here) and a resident returning to the ruins of her house:
REPORTER: Did you find anything?
RESIDENT: I found a teacup.
REPORTER: You found a teacup?
RESIDENT: Yeah ...
The footage capturing the scene from a slightly different angle in that report did not show human remains:
(Source: Weather Channel Roku app screenshot Fri Jan 10 19:26:05 2025 UTC)
Read more
Other Lead Stories fact checks about wildfires in California in January 2025 can be found here.
