This image shows a fire in Norway in 2006, not a recent blaze at Bamenda Central Prison
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 23, 2019 at 20:05
- 3 min read
- By Tendai DUBE, Monique NGO MAYAG
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
A Facebook post, which we’ve archived here, shares the image along with a caption reading: “Bamenda prison is on fire”.
A reverse image search of the burning building on TinEye found over 580 references to the picture - the oldest being from 2009, which helped narrow down the search for the original.
A second reverse image search on Google, sorted by results “before 2009”, finds a 2006 collection of pictures on image stock collection site Dreamstime.
The image used in the misleading claim and a few more are attributed to a Norwegian based photographer, Harald Tjøstheim.
A couple of Tjøstheim’s pictures related to the fire are labeled “Tjemsland bygget at Bryne,' referring to the A. Tjemsland AS built at Bryne -- a novelty and interior design shop in Norway.
The Tjemsland website and articles online also confirm that a fire took place at its Bryne location in January 2006 -- as seen here and here in Norwegian local reports.
According to the reports, damages related to the fire and water were estimated at between 20 and 25 million Norwegian kroner (approximately $2.1 - 3 million dollars) to the historical plot, with suspicions the fire may have been started by a couple of teenagers playing with fireworks.
Tjemsland corner reopened its doors six years after the fire in March 2012.
Bamenda Central Prison fire?
A close collaborator of Adolphe Lele Lafrique, Governor of the Northwest Region of Cameroon, called the Bamenda Central Prison fire claims “fake news”.
“No that is not true, that information of a prison fire is fake news -- there is no fire in the prison,” he said.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
