Outdated magazine illustration misrepresented as Texas wildfire photo

"Friends!! Our TEXAS PANHANDLE is on fire!! They're evacuating parts of it as we speak," the February 27, 2024 post says in part.

Image

Screenshot from Facebook taken March 1, 2024

The post received hundreds of shares as wildfires burned through the flat, northern region of Texas known as the panhandle, fueled by dry conditions, strong winds and unseasonably warm temperatures.

The blazes killed at least two people, with the largest, the Smokehouse Creek Fire, swelling to more than a million acres in size since it started on February 26.

First responders have captured many photos and videos of the flames, smoke and resulting wreckage. But the first picture in the Facebook gallery shared online is unrelated to the inferno sweeping across the state.

A reverse image search revealed the image appeared on the cover of Texas Monthly magazine in August 2017 (archived here).

Labeled an "illustration," the visual accompanied a feature about a wildfire that hit the panhandle region in March of that year. The story was headlined: "Love and Loss on the Great Plains" (archived here).

Emily Kimbro, Texas Monthly's design director, told AFP the image "on our August 2017 cover was indeed an illustration."

"We used a handful of personal photos and wire photos to composite that scene," Kimbro said in a March 1 email.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the wildfires here.