Image shows unscathed house after wildfires in Hawaii, not Los Angeles

"Everything has burnt out in the wildfires in America. But this house did not burn in the fire, do you know the reason? Because this house belongs to a Muslim, the Holy Koran was there in this house," read the Bengali-language caption to an image shared on Facebook on January 12, 2025.

The image, which has been shared more than 1,200 times, shows an unscathed red-roofed house in a neighbourhood that appears to have been destroyed by fire.

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on January 15, 2025

The same image was shared elsewhere in Bengali-language posts on Facebook here and here, as well as in English, Hindi and Thai posts. Philippine posts shared the image alongside a similar claim but said the owner was Christian.

It surfaced as roaring fires spread through several communities in Los Angeles, killing at least 24 people and leaving more than 90,000 people displaced (archived link).

Fire investigation experts are combing the wreckage looking for clues to what caused the blazes, with residents desperate for answers and social media overflowing with unsubstantiated videos showing everything from hikers to power lines seemingly at fault.

While wildfires can be deliberately ignited, they are often natural and a vital part of an environment's life cycle.

Urban sprawl puts people more frequently in harm's way, and the changing climate -- supercharged by humanity's unchecked use of fossil fuels -- is exacerbating the conditions that give rise to destructive blazes.

The image circulating online, however, was not taken during the disaster in America's second biggest city.

Maui wildfires

Reverse image searches on Google led to a similar photo embedded in articles by the New York Post and the BBC (archived here and here).

The photo was distributed by AFP.

Its caption in the AFP archives read in part: "An aerial image shows a red roofed house that survived the fires surrounded by destroyed homes and buildings burned to the ground in the historic Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui in Lahaina, Hawaii on August 10, 2023."

The deadly fires that hit Hawaii in August 2023 were the deadliest to hit the United States in a century, claiming at least 115 lives (archived link).

The tourist town of Lahaina, home to 12,000 people, was all but wiped off the map.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the falsely shared image (left) and the AFP photo (right): 

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Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared image (left) and the AFP photo (right)

The Los Angeles Times newspaper quoted Dora Atwater Millikin, who owns the house with her husband, as saying they had recently renovated the home but not with the goal of fireproofing it (archive link).

They replaced the asphalt roof with heavy-gauge metal and removed foliage that was up against the house. The article said these modifications had the effect of making the house more resilient to the flames.

AFP has debunked other false claims related to the Los Angeles wildfires here and here.