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California wildfire: Thousands flee as strong winds fuel flames

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More than 10,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate since the blaze began on Wednesday.

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Insurance companies pull back wildfire coverage in California

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Increasingly intense wildfires have become more common in California, upending the lives of thousands. Many insurers are dwindling coverage options, leaving several homes in danger. Business Insider senior sustainability reporter Catherine Boudreau joins “The Daily Report” to discuss.

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Southern California fire grows to over 3,000 acres in Malibu amid dangerous conditions

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A brush fire that broke out on Monday evening in Malibu Canyon has led to mandatory evacuation orders in parts of southern California as the fire rapidly spread.

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‘It comes with the territory.’ Malibu residents defy evacuation order to defend homes

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A Malibu resident who defied the evacuation order and made the risky decision to stay behind in an effort to protect his home from the Franklin Fire said he’s grateful he was unharmed.

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This article debunked misinformation from a previous wildfire, but it is an effective example of how social media can spread a false sense of reality.

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California wildfire and train conspiracy theory is baseless

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A recent Instagram post claims that wildfires raging in Canada for the past several weeks are distracting Americans from

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Another older article regarding a previous wildfire that generated a spread of misinformation online because journalists and social media users were circulating photos from other unrelated wildfires.

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Firefighters sleep outside after a long shift tackling a California wildfire - in 2017

As the deadliest wildfires in California's history have spread, so too have misinformation and pictures wrongly attributed to the current blaze.
At least 63 people have died and more than 600 are missing, officials say, while hundreds of thousands of others have been forced to flee their homes.

Online, social media users have coordinated missing person appeals, organised assistance for the displaced and shared information.

But in the scrabble for details, photographs of previous fires in California and elsewhere have been unwittingly muddled in with legitimate images of the ongoing fires.

Here are some of the most widely-shared - and the real stories behind them.

Thomas Fire, California - 2017

It's easy to see why this image struck such a chord.

California firefighters of the Tehachapi Wildland Fire Crew 11 grab some well-earned sleep after an exhausting 24-hour shift. The photograph encapsulates the commitment and dedication of the emergency services.

A single tweet of the image has attracted thousands of shares and tens of thousands of likes, in the context of the ongoing fires in California.

Michele Newell posted the image to Facebook on 19 December last year. Her son, Dylan, was among the resting firefighters.

"A little over two weeks ago Dylan texted me that Venture had a 100-acre fire," she wrote at the time.

"That fire erupted into something that took the homes of many friends and displaced hundreds of families.

"It's been heart-wrenching."

Malibu, California - 2007

Flames dwarf a trailer in the foreground as a fire in Malibu rages.

Actor James Woods was among the social media users to share the image - but it actually dates from October 2007.

According to the LA Times, close to 4,000 acres of land were burned and dozens of structures and vehicles destroyed when electricity pylons toppled over in high winds.

Mr Woods has played a prominent role in coordinating help and assistance for fire victims online, through his use of the hashtags #SoCalFiresJamesWoods and #CampFireJamesWoods.

The actor, who has developed a large online following in part through his vocal support of conservative causes, enlisted his 1.85 million Twitter followers in efforts to amplify missing person appeals, solicit donations and attract volunteers.

Sula, Montana - 2000

But nonetheless, some social media users mistakenly attributed the fire to California in 2018. Thousands shared and liked posts featuring the image online.

The photograph was taken in Sula, Montana, in 2000 by John McColgan, who worked with the Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Fire Service.

Sparked by lightning strikes, the fire was one of 86 which raged across America's western states in August that year, according to Time.

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No, these photos are not from the California wildfires

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As California's deadliest wildfires have spread, so too have photos misattributed to the current blaze.

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This article discusses the ways to counteract wildfire misinformation.

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"Journalists, scientists, and policymakers must be wary of pressures to overstate or oversimplify complicated wildfire issues to garner attention in a competitive media ecosystem (West and Bergstrom )"

"For example, misinformation about climate change spreads by repeated overexposure of “climate contrarians” whose media visibility far outweighs the quality of their science or scientific credentials (Petersen et al. )"

"Requires partnerships between scientists, land managers, and journalists. . .prospective authors must provide sufficient scholarly context and caveats."

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Assessing the credibility of the sources

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Assessing the credibility of the sources

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When looking over the research articles, the common trend is that social media circulation in the news tends to be the culprit of misinformation--when such misinformation is exposed to the truth. Distinguishing between fact and fiction often begins with published articles providing, "sufficient scholarly context and caveats," (esajournals). When news sources do not reference the work of scientists, doctors, and experts on the topics, it raises suspicion as to the validity of their claims. Would a student write a research paper without any cited sources? I believe the same goes for our news outlets--they must be in continuous dialogue with the experts and specialists on the matters they are discussing and amplifying.

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When the line between fact and fabrication is dissolved, we get exactly what we see in the tornado of digital media. In the whirlwind of this influx in media consumption, it is important to ask questions about the who, what, where, when, and why of what we consume. The danger of media illiteracy is that people become increasingly divided and fear-mongered into a mass hysteria. It takes away citizen's trust in their news sources, and narratives become blurred. To prevent this from worsening, it is important to spread the message of media literacy, and how to stay vigilant against falling for misinformation.