Recently an image of a forest wildfire has gone viral in various social media platforms.
Many have claimed that the viral post is the image of the recent wildfire in Canada.
Headline8 did a fact check on the viral image.
Claim –
Facebook page of Farhan Rafid recently uploaded a post claiming that the image is from the Canada wildfire.
A part of description of the viral post stated:
“Severe heat wave breaks old record in Canada! Nearly five hundred people died !
In Canada, wildfires have started in different parts of the British Province of Colombia due to extreme heat. The village of Lytton in the province has been burnt to ashes.
About 250 people would have died in this village if they had not received advance warning. The villagers had moved out before the fire broke out after receiving advance warning from the authorities. The temperature in Lighton village had reached around 50 degree Celsius.”
Another news portal uploaded the article using the same viral image claiming that it is from the Canadian wildfire.
Here you can see the post of Farhan Rafid.
Another news portal also published an article using the same image. Here you can see the archived post.
Investigation –
Headline8 did a fact check on the viral image and here is what was revealed:
As the initial part of the investigation, a Yandex reverse image search was done on the viral wildfire image. During the search, a similar image was found. The similar image was from the Gettyimages website. In the caption of the image the following was written:
“The church of Zoodohos Pygi near the village of Andritsena on the Peloponnese peninsula is threatened by a fire, 27 August 2007. Greece battled raging forest fires for a fourth day today and charged seven people with arson as a growing international force gathered to battle the flames that have claimed more than 60 lives.”
In the caption of the Gettyimage, it has been clearly mentioned that the image is from Greece and dates back to August 2007.
Image source: GettyImages
At the second part of the investigation, Headline8 did a check on the internet with the keyword: “Greece wildfire 2007” and found a relevant article.
The original post of the article can be seen here.
During the search Headline8 found another article on the wildfire which clearly stated that the viral image is from the Greece wildfire which dates back to August 2007.
The original article can be seen here.
At the last part of the investigation, Headline8 did a check on the Facebook profiles of the above mentioned.
Farhan Rafid is from Chittagong, Bangladesh and is a resident of Montreal, Quebec.
The news portal which circulated the fake article has a total of 2,149 followers and 1,805 likes.
Conclusion –
After the investigation Headline8 came to the conclusion that the viral image circulating as Canada wildfire is fake.
The original image of the wildfire is from Greece and it dates back to August 2007.
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