Space lasers, boat burnings and elite land grabs: How the Maui wildfires became fodder for conspiracy theorists
Viral claims that the deadly Hawaiian wildfires were started deliberately as part of a shadowy plot followed a grimly predictable playbook, Bevan Hurley reports
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When Joe Biden announced the federal government’s latest aid package to families left homeless by the Maui wildfires on Monday, a seemingly innocuous turn of phrase sent conspiracists into meltdown.
“We’re laser-focused on getting aid to survivors,” the president wrote, apparently unaware of the bogus claims circulating on social media of space lasers being used to deliberately start the wildfires that swept through Maui on 8 August.
As with nearly every traumatic event, from natural disasters to school shootings, fake theories that sprung up immediately online followed a familiar narrative of climate change denial, government cover-up and in some cases antisemitic tropes.
Some suggest the United States military set off the blaze, or that it was part of an “elite land grab” possibly spearheaded by Oprah Winfrey herself.
As far-fetched as they might seem, conspiratorial posts suggesting that the wildfires that have claimed at least 99 lives were started as part of a government-celebrity plot have garnered tens of millions of views on X.
The site formerly known as Twitter has become an increasingly fertile ground for misinformation under Elon Musk’s ownership.
The theories also tap into legitimate complaints from the grieving and the displaced about the lack of warning they received, despite the threat from wildfires being well documented by Maui County officials.
The cause of Maui’s wildfires remains under investigation, but officials say that wind gusts whipped up by Hurricane Dora combined with severe drought conditions on west Maui are to blame.
‘Can anyone confirm?’
Among the most prominent claims circulating online are that the fires were not a natural disaster fuelled by the climate crisis, but some kind of blast from space lasers or directed energy weapons (DEWS).
In one post viewed more than one million times, a “verified” user with more than 100,000 followers posted an image claiming to show a light beam reminiscent of something out of the movie Independence Day being shot at Hawaii.
“This photo is circulating social media. Apparently this beam was captured before the Hawaii fires. Can anyone confirm?”
The image in fact depicts a time-lapsed image of a 2019 SpaceX launch at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, now known as Space Force Base, as users pointed out.
Another video posted to Twitter by a verified user falsely claims to show a massive explosion on Maui just before the fires broke out on 8 August.
“Disturbing New FOOTAGE from Maui fires shows what allegedly happened,” the user wrote.
“DEW’s Terrible Revelation in MAUI,” another wrote on Instagram. “Prepare to step into a world forever changed by a sinister turn of events.”
The footage was actually of a transformer explosion in Santiago, Chile, earlier this year, according to fact checkers from the Associated Press.
The video went viral on TikTok in May, where it has been viewed nearly 10 million times.
Chilevision News later reported that a transformer in the suburb of Macul had exploded in high winds, causing a bright flash of light.
“No, it wasn’t an alien attack or a military attack,” reporter Javiera Salazar says in the report. “It wasn’t even lightning, much less artificial intelligence.”
In a separate post on X, a verified user with 431,000 followers posted a photo of a light beam and an explosion on 10 August that has been viewed nearly three million times.
“If the fires in Hawaii were natural, what in the h is this?” the user writes.
In 2018, the fact-checking site Snopesinvestigated the image and found it showed an optical phenomenon known as a light pillar, which is caused by light reflections from tiny ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere.
Another clearly digitally-altered photo claiming to show a laser beam striking the Waiola Church has been viewed more than nine million times since being posted to Xby Matt Wallace, a right-wing influencer, who often interacts with X owner Elon Musk.
Directed energy weapons are defined by the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research as “electromagnetic systems capable of converting chemical or electrical energy to radiated energy” which are shot at the speed of light.
The “space laser” conspiracy theory gained traction in 2018 after Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested on Facebook that the Camp Fire in California was caused by a beam from “space solar generators”.
Can boats catch fire?
Some have questioned the authenticity of images showing the spread and reach of the wildfires, which were buffeted by strong gusts and severe drought conditions on western Maui and quickly consumed almost the entire town of Lahaina.
Among the images of attracting attention are footage showing boats ablaze purportedly somewhere off the coast of Hawaii.
“UNEXPLAINED INFERNO: EVERY Boat Aflame! How did this happen?” the caption on one such video, posted to X complete with dramatic soundtrack, asks.
While impossible to verify where the video was shot, it is entirely plausible that boats could catch fire during wildfires fuelled by hurricane-force winds, according to experts.
Glowing red-hot embers can rain down on boats, and intense heat from the shore could also cause water-borne vessels to ignite, University of Minnesota Center for Forest Ecology director Lee Frelich told The Independent by email.
“Fires such as the one that hit Lahaina on Maui occur when there is very flammable vegetation (i.e. dense vegetation dry due to drought) right outside a city, the city has closely spaced buildings made of flammable materials, and there is a day with high winds,” Mr Frelich said.
“It is not surprising that boats started on fire — with winds gusting to 80 mph blowing offshore, boats would have had thousands of red hot embers falling on them every minute, and those very close to shore would have experienced high levels of radiant heat as well.”
Fires that spread across a small body of water to ignite in neighbouring islands, boats and inlets is known as spotting, or spot fires, Mr Frelich told The Independent.
The phenomenon is common on islands in northern Minnesotan lakes during wildfire season, he added.
How did the trees survive?
A video posted to X by the Punish Dem 1776 account showing some trees still standing after the Lahaina blaze, while houses and cars surrounding them have been reduced to ash.
“Everything is burnt but the trees, but don’t point that out or (you’re) a conspiracy theorist,” the caption reads.
The video has been viewed nearly 25 million times in four days. Context has been added by X’s crowd-sourced fact checking service community notes showing that many plants and trees have adapted to survive and even flourish in fires.
But the thousands of reposts and comments on the video show that few people have been swayed.
Footage showing that the historic Maria Lanakila Catholic Church in downtown Lahaina was spared from the fires set off similar claims that some nefarious hand was at work.
The historic church, completed in 1873, was mostly built from stone, and its wooden roof suffered some damage, church officials have said.
An elite land grab
An offshoot of the “directed energy weapons” claims is that the Maui wildfires were started deliberately by wealthy landowners to steal land from indigenous populations on the island.
The fake claims have fed into very real fears that residents who have called Maui home for centuries could be forced out after losing their homes in the fire.
The island has a chronic housing shortage and in recent years has seen a stream of wealthy transplants and second-home buyers move into towns like Lahaina. The wildfires are likely to send the already high cost of living on the island much higher.
Among the many celebrity property holders on Maui are Oprah Winfrey, who owns more than 2,000 acres, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, actors Matthew McConaughey and Clint Eastwood, and tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel.
Ms Winfrey has been assisting with the humanitarian relief effort, while Mr Bezos and wife Lauren Sanchez have set up a $100m humanitarian relief fund.
On Monday night, Governor Josh Green asked the state attorney general to approve a moratorium on property sales to prevent predatory land grabs.
The spread of conspiracy theories on the social media platform X has increased since Mr Musk removed the blue check marks of experts, celebrities and government officials, and allowed anyone who paid $8 a month to gain “verification”.
This enables so-called verified users to appear more prominently in mentions and posts due to the site’s algorithm.
Ben Collins, who covers the “dystopia beat” for NBC News, wrote on X this week that the Hawaiian fires showed how “conspiracy culture cannot and should not be reasoned with”.
“There will be no come-to-Jesus moment on climate change or severe weather. There will just be more people claiming Oprah or Biden used a direct energy weapon. That’s our future.”
X did not provide a response to questions from The Independent about the spread of conspiracy theories on the platform.
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