Fact Check: Video Of Youth Dancing Before Fire Is Misattributed To Recent LA Wildfires
A video showing young people dancing and singing in front of a window with flames visible outside has gone viral on social media. It is being claimed that the image is from Los Angeles wildfires that claimed at least 25 lives and displaced many in the US.
The video has been shared on Facebook with a caption: “Foreigners dancing as they watch California burn to the ground. It reminds me of the dancing Israelis during 9/11.”
Here’s the link to the above post. (Archive)
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be MISLEADING.
Upon investigation, the video was traced to a TikTok post, dated December 23, 2024, with a hashtag ‘Svizzera’, which translates to ‘Switzerland’ in Italian. This indicates the video predates the California wildfires.
Further scrutiny of the Swiss media reports confirmed that the fire occurred in a historic bathhouse, known as the Badhütte, in Rorschach, a town on Lake Constance. The visuals in the viral video matched photos of the burning Badhütte from the reports, solidifying that the incident occurred in Switzerland.
Thus, we can conclusively say that the viral video is unrelated to the recent Los Angeles wildfires in the US.