Did a pyrotechnic device cause the largest of California's recent wildfires?
By Jacqueline Agustin
Copy link
Copy featured image
NO
Wildfires in California have burned through 3.3 million acres so far this year. The state is battling what is as of Sept. 16 an 18,500-acre fire east of Los Angeles, which the state's fire-control agency says was started by a “pyrotechnic device” used at a gender-reveal party on Sept. 5.
The state is also simultaneously fighting at least 10 larger fires, ranging up to 800,000 acres in size. Most are in the northern part of the state, and several were started by an unusual wave of lightning strikes across northern California earlier in August.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
State of California Cal-Fire San Bernadino unit Instagram post about El Dorado fire
State of California Fire active incident map
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
