Clip shows smoke from warehouse fire in Iraq, not wildfires in Los Angeles

Published on January 27, 2025 at 10:10
Updated on January 28, 2025 at 03:32
3 min read
By Jan Cuyco, AFP Philippines

As devastating wildfires fanned by powerful winds ravaged Los Angeles in January 2025, a video of a street shrouded in smoke was shared in social media posts with a false claim that it was filmed in the United States' second-biggest city. The footage in fact shows smoke billowing from a warehouse fire in Iraq's capital Baghdad in October 2024.

The video, showing thick, fast-moving smoke over a street, was shared on Facebook on January 11, 2025.

It surfaced as wildfires raged across Los Angeles, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. The wildfires -- fanned by southern California's strong, dry Santa Ana winds -- have claimed at least 27 lives and wreaked billions of dollars of devastation (archived link).

The video's caption included hashtags for "California" and "wildfires".

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on January 23, 2025

The footage was shared alongside similar claims here, here and here.

The clip, however, was not filmed in Los Angeles.

Iraq warehouse fire

Reverse image searches on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to the same footage on TikTok posted on October 28, 2024 (archived link).

The user who uploaded the video commented in Arabic that it shows "Baghdad stores in Al-Dhilal Street".

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and clip posted on TikTok in October 2024 (right)

Elements in the clip match similar videos about the fire published in media reports.

White and yellow shop signs from the falsely shared video can be seen in a report about the fire posted by Iraqi TV channel Al Sharqiya to its YouTube channel on October 28, 2024 (archived link).

Al Sharqiya's video is titled, "Baghdad wakes up to the effects of the cold storage fire. Initial estimates of losses in Al-Dhilal Street are about 30 billion dinars".

Screenshot comparison of shop signs seen in the false video (left) and in Al Sharqiya's report (right), with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP

The same signs can also be seen in a report posted by Iraqi broadcaster Zagros TV on TikTok on October 30, 2024 (archived link).

The report shows a sign for a shop named "Ziggurat" at its 2:42 mark, which AFP geolocated on Google Earth (archived link).

The small tree on the street's median strip and a post in front of the shop correspond to features from the satellite imagery of Al-Dhilal Street.

Screenshot comparison of the Zagros TV report on the fire (left) and the satellite image of Al-Dhilal street (right), with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP

The LA wildfires have spawned a slew of misinformation, some of which AFP has debunked here, here and here.

January 28, 2025Updated metadata

January 28, 2025 Updated metadata

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