Old Image From California Shared As Recent Turkey Wildfires
The Claim
An image depicts a burning forest in Turkey.
News posted on
Emerging story
An image has been circulating on social media, particularly Facebook, showing a forest on fire, with claims linking it to the current fires in Turkey.
Misbar’s Analysis
MENA: The image circulating is not from the Turkey fires but the 2007 California wildfires in the United States of America. The photo was taken by photographer David McNew and has been used in misleading claims multiple times to depict fires in different world regions. For example, a post claiming that the image was of fires in Zimbabwe in 2019.
It is worth noting that the origin of the misleading image was found on the Turkish page TRT Haber and was shared along with other genuine pictures related to the wildfires.
The fires, a result of climate change, erupted in different regions, mainly in southwest Turkey, and resulted in many deaths and injuries.
