Southern California continues to battle devastating wildfires that have claimed at least 24 lives and destroyed more than 12,000 structures. Over 40,000 acres have burned in the region, with the Palisades fire accounting for nearly 24,000 acres, making it the largest wildfire in Los Angeles history.
Dramatic images and videos have circulated since the fires began on Jan. 7. Onewidelyshared image shows an aerial photo of a house with a red roof and its surrounding landscaping appearing to be unscathed by fire in the middle of a neighborhood reduced to ashes.
Another image with 14 million views shows a home seemingly untouched by fire next to burned-out cars and destroyed homes
QUESTION #1
Is the image of the house with the red roof surrounded by burned homes real?
THE SOURCES
- VERIFY analysis of the image
- Google image results
- Video from Jan. 9 Australia’s 7 News broadcast
- InVid and RevEye, video and photo forensics tools
ANSWER #1
No, this image of a house with a red roof surrounded by burned homes isn’t real. It was created with Google’s artificial intelligence content creator.
WHAT WE FOUND
This viral aerial image of an untouched house with a red roof in the middle of a burned neighborhood is not real. It was created using Google’s AI generation tool.
Google’s AI tool adds an invisible watermark to content it generates, Google says in a blog post. When you search for an image using Google’s search bar (here’s how), the search engine will identify images created by Google’s AI image generator and label them as AI.
VERIFY uploaded the image to Google Lens, Google’s reverse image search tool, and navigated to the ‘About this image’ section of the result, where it said, “Made with Google AI.”
AI-generated images often contain telltale signs to indicate they aren’t real photos. These include distorted or misshapen details, such as numbers, letters, textures, or background elements that appear over-stylized or unrealistic. AI experts call these details “artifacts” – clear indicators the content is AI-generated.
In this viral image, the surrounding burned homes appear unnatural. There are no cars in the image, no debris and the homes appear to have burned uniformly.
Further, some social media posts paired the viral image with an interview of a wildfire victim describing how his home survived while his block burned. VERIFY traced this interview to Australia’s 7 News, which published it to YouTube on Jan. 9. While the interview is authentic, the viral image of the house standing doesn’t appear in the original broadcast.
In addition, a reverse image search revealed that this image was absent from any reputable news coverage of the wildfires.
QUESTION #2
Is this image of a home standing next to burned structures real?
THE SOURCES
- Greg Chasen, who took the original photograph
- Cal Fire
- Google Maps
- Variousnews reports from the California wildfires
ANSWER #2
Yes, this image of a home standing next to a burned structure is real.
WHAT WE FOUND
Greg Chasen, a California-based architect who helped design this home, confirmed to VERIFY he took the image at 4:35 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 8 and posted it online on Jan. 9. The Pacific Palisades fire started at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 7, according to Cal Fire.
He said the home stands in the Alphabet Streets neighborhood of Pacific Palisades and credited several factors for its survival, including weather conditions, construction materials and landscaping. Chasen provided the address of the home and VERIFY found the same one on Google Maps street view and confirmed it is located in the Pacific Palisades burn area.
He said when he first saw smoke in the area, he took measures to protect the home, such as removing flammable items and propping gates open.
“Gates are usually built out of flammable materials, and when they attach to a house, they can act as a fuse,” Chasen said.
The home’s minimalist desert landscaping played a role too, Chasen said, which “didn’t provide much fuel to burn on the site.” He said the landscaping and the home’s distance from other structures were “the first line of defense,” while the second line was the home’s tempered glass and fire-rated walls.
Chasen was surprised his photo went viral, especially as it was his first time posting on social media, he explained to VERIFY. He has since seen it shared widely across social media platforms.
“I’m happy that the spread of this image has allowed me to discuss the particular elements here that have helped save this house. I think people do a real disservice to the importance of this, when they are muddying the waters with fabricated imagery that are leading people astray. We need answers. We need to learn from this. When people are posing imagery that’s fabricated it makes it that much harder,” Chasen said.
In addition to speaking with Chasen about the image, VERIFY conducted a reverse image search of the image and found his social media posts were the first time they were posted online. Chasen also shared his experience with various news outlets.
A video posted by USA TODAY shows the Alphabet Streets neighborhood, where the home Chasen photographed is located. The video highlights the varying levels of damage, with some homes severely affected while others remained intact.
The home Chasen photographed isn’t the only one left standing in otherwise destroyed Los Angeles neighborhoods. Associated Press photographers also took photos of solitary homes standing amid the rubble.
For more tips and information on checking images or social media posts, here are five VERIFIED ways to fact-check content online.