Controlled burn video falsely linked to Canadian arson claims

"THAT'S HOW YOUR FIRE STARTED," says the text over a TikTok posted June 5, 2023, which was viewed more than 7.6 million times and shared on Facebook.

The same video jumped to Twitter where it received thousands of retweets and likes, was shared as a reel on Instagram and also circulated in French.

The posts were accompanied by unsubstantiated theories pushed by climate skeptics on how the wildfires currently ripping through Canada were started to "manufacture crisis" and "advance the bogus Climate Change Narrative."

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Screenshot of a TikTok video taken June 8, 2023

The posts come as Canada faces an unprecedented early wildfire season, displacing tens of thousands of residents and endangering a vast region of North America with toxic air quality.

But the video is not from the current Canadian wildfire season.

Hyder Bos-Jabbar, director of training and preparedness for Yukon First Nations Wildfire, said the video was taken by its crew members during the 2015 fire season.

A Twitter user located the video posted June 3 on Facebook, two days before it began appearing on TikTok.

Bos-Jabbar said the video shows a helicopter performing a controlled, or prescribed burn, a technique used to contain a wildfire by consuming its fuel in the hope of keeping it from spreading to populated areas.

"In terms of the educational purposes behind this video, it was to show that this is one of our tactics that is used in wildfire suppression," Bos-Jabbar said.

He noted that while much of the country is currently battling wildfires, there were no out-of-control fires in the Yukon at this point in the season.

"This definitely has nothing to do with current fires," Bos-Jabbar said. "This was done in the Yukon in a very secluded area where the operation was completed successfully."

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Screenshot a tweet taken June 8, 2023

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Screenshot taken June 8, 2023 of a video posted on Facebook by Yukon First Nations Wildfire

 

Canadian wildfire conspiracies

The video is shared as purported evidence of intentionally caused wildfires -- part of a growing trend of misinformation about the Canadian fire season. There have also been unproven claims of "ecoterrorists" starting wildfires to advance an environmental platform or that the flames were set by the government to force citizens into climate lockdowns.

AFP previously debunked claims of intentionally started wildfires in Alberta during its provincial election, where wildfire officials said investigations into causes were still underway, but did not appear to show any widespread pattern of arson.

Natural Resources Canada (NRC, archived here) said the country's unprecedented wildfire season is a result of a hot, dry and windy spring, following a winter with lower-than-average snowfall.

Mike Norton, the director general of the Canadian Forest Service, said during a June 5 press conference that these conditions were exacerbated by climate change.

"Wildland fires are inevitable in Canada, but climate change is making the challenge more serious," he said.

Heli-torch videos spread

AFP has previously fact-checked videos of helicopters executing controlled burns that were used to spread misinformation about wildfires in California, China, and Europe.

One video, which AFP found was filmed in British Columbia in 2020, has recirculated in French in early June 2023.

Experts in these cases echoed Bos-Jabbar's comments, that controlled burns are a standard part of fire control.

"A prescribed fire is lit intentionally. It's an effective tool for reducing fire hazards because it helps decrease fuel loads (i.e. combustible material, such as underbrush and dead wood) on the landscape," the Government of British Columbia's website (archived here) says.

Prescribed burns can occasionally escape the control of fire crews, as was the case with one executed during a women's fire fighter conference in Banff, Alberta, earlier this year.

Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.