Old photos falsely linked to Thai forest fires in 2023
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on April 7, 2023 at 13:46
- 5 min read
- By AFP Thailand
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"Worried about our friends who are in Chiang Mai. The fire at Sameung in Chiang Mai has now come to Doi Suthep," reads the Thai-language caption of a Facebook post published on April 2, 2023.
The posts show several images of a hill engulfed in flames at night, and a Thai-language graphic saying three areas were declared fire disaster zones in Chiang Mai on April 2, 2023.
The same images have been repeatedly shared on Facebook posts in Thailand here, here and here. The claim has also circulated on the Line chat application here.
In late March, a forest fire broke out on the hills of Nakhon Nayok province, approximately 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the capital in Bangkok. Hundreds of firefighters and soldiers were deployed to control the blaze covering more than 800,000 square metres.
On April 2, local media reported that a separate forest fire broke out in the Doi Suthep area of Chiang Mai province that was put out about six hours later.
Chiang Mai governor Nirat Pongsitthavorn told AFP that forest fires in the province had intensified since the last week of March, resulting in one death and two injuries in the past month.
"I have declared several areas, including Doi Suthep, a forest fire disaster area," he told AFP in a telephone interview on April 4.
But he said some of the images shared on social media predated the forest fires.
Old photos
Reverse image searches on Google followed by a keyword search found two of the same images published in a YouTube video by Thai media outlet TNN Online on March 30, 2021.
The misleading images match the photos in the YouTube video at its one-minute, 56-second mark, while the video credits the images to two Facebook accounts named "Sumit Athiprom" and "Phurinat Singthorat".
A subsequent keyword search found the Facebook user's profile.
"I took these photos almost 40 kilometres from Doi Suthep," Phurinat said in a response to AFP on April 3. "They were taken in 2021 in Samoeng district."
Below is a screenshot comparison of the images in the misleading Facebook posts (left) and the original images from the photographer's Facebook post in 2021 (right):
The misleading posts also shared several other images of a mountain blaze.
A reverse image search found two of the images published in a local report from Khaosod Online on March 29, 2021.
The report's Thai-language headline reads: "Urgent! Wildfire burns hill red in Samoeng District, Chiang Mai".
Using details from the third photograph in the online report, AFP geolocated the image, placing it at Samoeng Tai in Chiang Mai.
Below is a screenshot comparison between the third image from Khaosod Online's report in 2021 (left) and the screenshot from Google Street View (right):
Another reverse image search found an identical image uploaded to the stock photo website iStock here.
The image's description reads, "Forest fire burning, Wildfire at night in Chiangmai, Thailand", and the photo was uploaded on June 7, 2016.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the image from the misleading Facebook post (left) and the iStock image (right):
A different image from the same series was posted here on iStock under the same photographer's account mack2happy, which also appears here on his Facebook account in a post published on May 8, 2016.
The photographer wrote on his Facebook post that he took this photo near the Chiang Mai International Exhibition and Convention Center, looking towards the fire on Doi Suthep.
A reverse image search of the sixth photo in the misleading post found the image in this report by Thai media outlet Khaosod English and in social media posts related to a forest fire in Chiang Mai from May 2016.
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