Skip to content

Thursday, Sep. 17, 2020

Did a pyrotechnic device cause the largest of California’s recent wildfires?

Jacqueline Agustin, Gigafact Foundry
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.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

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 If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

Learn More

Latest Fact Briefs

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.