A baseless conspiracy theory that has spread on Facebook suggests that the California wildfires were started by a “powerful laser.” The post promoting this theory is made up of photos that circulated in 2018, through which a similar claim was attempted to be spread.
An August 25 post shared by 10,000 users is suggesting that the fires were started by a "powerful laser."
The caption of the photo reads, "All of these images were captured during the California wildfires." "Is this evidence that powerful lasers were used to cause these fires?"
The images are actually the same ones that were shared on Twitter in November 2018 by Michael Coudrey, a conservative social media voice.
At the time, a similar conspiracy theory was spreading through YouTube videos, as reported at the time. Daily BeastThe theory claimed that laser-induced fires were paving the way for the construction of a high-speed rail system.
So, for starters, none of the photos depict the actual fires in California.
Coudrey's 2018 Twitter tweet described the photos in question as “[you] posted photos on Facebook of the California wildfires” that “show strange beams of light shooting from the sky causing fires, destruction, and property damage.”
*The first photo, on the left, is from a SpaceX rocket launch, May 2018, Falcon 9.
*The photo in the lower middle is from the U.S. Forest Service's Klamath National Forest and was taken from a fire in northern California in May 2018.
*The fourth image, on the right, has appeared in blog posts suggesting that “direct energy weapons” were behind the Woolsey fire in California in November 2018.
In short, as we said, none of the photos are recent images from the California fires and there is no evidence that any of the fires were caused by "powerful lasers."
Officials have said lightning, plus extreme heat and dry conditions, are to blame for the fires.
According to CAL FIRE, California's fire authority, there have been nearly 14,000 lightning strikes since August 15. Since then, there have been more than 700 new fires, which have collectively burned more than 1.32 million acres.
The National Park Service has estimated that 10% of all fires in the US are caused by lightning strikes.
FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation spread on social media.