Was an ICE van deliberately set on fire during operations in Philadelphia? No, that's not true: A Homeland Security/ICE vehicle caught fire on the morning of February 18, 2025 in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Fire Department extinguished the fire. A spokesperson told Lead Stories the fire marshal interviewed the van's driver, determining the fire was accidental.
The video of a burning vehicle was posted on X (archived here) by Libs of TikTok on February 18, 2025. The post was captioned:
BREAKING: An ICE minivan was reportedly set on fire in Philadelphia
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Feb 18 22:11:26 2025 UTC)
Lead Stories reached out by email to the Philadelphia Fire Department for information about the incident and received a response from Philadelphia Fire Department Communications Director Rachel Cunningham on February 18, 2025. She wrote:
At approximately 8:38 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 18, the Philadelphia Fire Dept. was called to a vehicle fire in front of 506 S. Front St. (please note the address is only for location purposes and does not connect to this incident in any way.) Upon arrival, the companies saw a van engulfed in flames. One engine company was able to extinguish the fire. The van was determined to be a Homeland Security/ICE vehicle. Our Fire Marshal's Office was called to the scene as standard operating procedure since it was a government vehicle. Upon speaking with the driver of the vehicle, the Fire Marshal determined that this fire was accidental. Thankfully, no one was injured, and our Fire Marshal found no indication of foul play or suspicious circumstances.
Additional posts on social media had a variety of false alarmist captions. One post on X (archived here) sharing the same Libs of TikTok video was captioned:
🚨 #BREAKING: A minivan being used for deportation efforts by ICE has been SET ON FIRE in Philadelphia
This is literal terrorısm. And Democrats are inciting this.
Lock. Them. Up.
A post on Facebook (archived here) was captioned:
🚨BREAKING NEWS: A minivan used by ICE was reportedly set on fire during operations in Philadelphia.
Left wing terrorism trying to keep us from securing our country.
Lead Stories has also reached out to the Department of Homeland Security/Immigration and Customs Enforcement and will update this article if we receive a reply.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims involving ICE can be found here.
