Headlines have been circulating on social media portals claiming that in Italy and Germany there have been cases of traffic lights melting as a result of the extreme heat that has prevailed in recent days (see here, here, here and here).
It is about a video in which two deformed traffic lights are seen.
The posts have received thousands of reactions across all platforms.
What's wrong with these publications?
The traffic lights in the video are not melted by extreme weather. These are previous cases. The damage was caused by a fire that engulfed a car in Italy and a bar in Germany.
Treatment of the first video – the case of Italy:
A Google search for photos taken from the video leads to articles related to the burning of a car in the province of Verona.
Local media "tgverona.telenuovo.it" wrote about the famous video. According to the article, the publication was originally made by the Instagram account "Johnny Puttini" on June 24. He made the satirical publication with the claim that "it's so hot in Verona that even the traffic lights are melting." His video has received more than 1.5 million views (see here). The 35-year-old joked that he had never had so much media attention before.
To confirm that this is a fire that is not related to extreme weather, another Italian media outlet, “Il Baco da Seta,” has also reported. As this media outlet wrote, on June 23, a car burned on the road in Lugagnano, Verona, and as a result of its burning, the extremely high temperature damaged the traffic light. In the report dated June 23, “The Silkworm"Videos are seen showing the car on fire very close to the traffic light."
The photos and videos published by this media (see below) also coincide with the images of "Google Maps"of the location in question, which testifies to the alleged place of the event.
A search of the published video shows that it is real and not generated with artificial intelligence, according to the assessment of the AI content detection platform "Hivemoderation".
Treatment of the second video – the case of Germany:
As for the second part of the video, a Google search for video sequences led to publications in other languages on social media (see here). There were comments claiming that the video does not show a melted traffic light as a result of the current extreme weather, but that it is about damage from last summer as a result of a fire that damaged a bar in the city of Berlin.
Based on this, Hibrid.info managed to find articles confirming that in June 2025 there was a fire outside the music venue.Wild Renate". The images showed the proximity of traffic lights and the writing "Berliner Morgenpost" dated June 19, 2025, emphasized that there was damage to the traffic lights and that their replacement was mandatory.
Another video from that time published by "rbb24.de" confirmed the fire in this bar. The images used in the material also show the buildings around the bar. Based on them, and finding the location with "Google Maps", it has been confirmed that these are the same traffic lights as in the video that claims that the traffic lights were damaged as a result of the extreme temperatures of recent days. This indicates that the video may have been made at that time.
Images of June 19, 2025:
Images from "Google Maps"show that this is exactly the same place as the claim that the traffic lights melted from the heat (see the surrounding buildings):
The video in question, which shows the white building in the background as in the photos above:
Neither have the images shared from this video been found to be generated with AI.
Hibrid.info has also searched in "Google"for international articles about whether there were melting traffic lights as a result of the heat in Germany and Italy. No publication from any credible media was found. The same videos as those being discussed were found.
In recent days, several European countries have reported record high temperatures (see here).
Analyze:
The claim that the extreme weather that has prevailed in Germany and Italy these days has melted traffic lights is not based on facts.
Verifications show that in Italy the damage was caused by a car fire in Verona, while in Germany by a fire at the "Wild Renate" bar in Berlin last year.
There is no credible media evidence of traffic lights melting as a result of the heat wave.
rationale
The "Unverified" rating is given to those informative contents that do not provide sufficient information to confirm the claims made in the report, and which could not be verified due to certain circumstances (speed, lack of sources) during the publication of the content.