Written by: Etrit Rexhepi
A photograph of a property has been claimed to be a madrasa that survived the burning city of Los Angeles in the United States, in early 2025.
"WONDERFUL! It's a madrasa where people were taught religion. Muslims in the burning city of Los Angeles in the United States," is the caption that the "lirija_ka_emer" account on TikTok has put on it. MAILING of January 12th.
But what is the truth?
The claim published on TikTok is false. After verifying the facts, it turns out that the photo is old and has nothing to do with the recent fires that have engulfed Los Angeles.
Hibrid.info through "Google Lens" has found that the photo is from August 2023 and took place in the fire in Hawaii, which is about 4 thousand kilometers from Los Angeles. The photo was found in the photo agency "Getty Images"published on August 10, 2023.
"An aerial photo shows a red-roofed house that survived the fires, surrounded by fire-damaged homes and buildings in historic Lahainan, after fires in West Maui's Lahaina, Hawaii, on August 10, 2023," the photo caption from Getty Images reads.
Credible world media outlets had written about the house in question, which was owned by Trip Millikin and Dora Atwater, in 2023. Among them was BBC.
The publication of "lirija_ka_emer" on TikTok, by the time of its treatment by hibrid.info, had received more than 80 thousand views, more than 2500 likes and 86 comments.
Analyze:
The claim that a photo posted on TikTok depicts a madrasa that survived the fires in Los Angeles in January 2025 is false.
Hibrid.info has verified the facts and found that the property in the photo is a house that had escaped the fires in Hawaii in 2023.
Based on its work methodology, hibrid.info assesses this content as "Fraud".
Reasoning:
The “Deception” rating is given to informational content that is manipulated in terms of visual (deepfake, cheapfake), audio, or textual content to deceive the audience. This form of deception is usually used to produce false and manipulated content.