Old Philippine fire image falsely shared as recent

"JUST IN: Fire in Araneta," says the Tagalog-language caption of a Facebook post shared February 10, referring to a commercial hub in the Quezon City suburb of Manila. 

The accompanying picture shows a massive plume of black smoke billowing from a blue establishment.

The post's caption also includes hashtags that say "Araneta Cubao" and "Fire 2025."

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Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken February 10, 2025

Other Facebook users also shared the picture with similar claims.  

But police officer Randy Fantilanan from the Cubao Police Station 7 in Quezon City told AFP no fire was reported at the Araneta commercial centre area on February 10.

A reverse image search on Google found the image in the posts corresponds to footage of a fire in the same area that Philippine broadcaster GMA News posted February 9, 2023 on TikTok (archived link). 

"Fire at Araneta Center Cubao, Quezon City, has been elevated to task force bravo; Shopwise and several establishments adjacent to the burning building, temporarily closed," says the Tagalog-language caption. 

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Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and the video published by GMA News

GMA News credited the footage to Madchen Viewleta Salvador, who posted the clip on her Facebook and X accounts earlier that day (archived here and here). 

Salvador confirmed to AFP that she filmed the video on February 9, 2023.

The blue establishment on fire in the video appears on Google Maps Street View imagery from January 2021. Photos taken after the fire show the building was converted into a parking lot (archived here and here).  

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Screenshot comparison of the false post (L) and the corresponding location on Google Maps, with corresponding elements highlighted by AFP

Local media outlets Rappler and Inquirer.net also covered the inferno in February 2023 (archived here and here).