Untouched palm trees spark wildfire conspiracy theories

Another conspiracy theory posits that the fire was orchestrated by Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, and Joe Biden, the US president. Their alleged motive? Stopping a high-speed rail development funded by China.

The theory claims that the fire will inevitably deem the land unusable for residential development and will instead be repurposed to develop “15-minute cities” – a dominant lightning rod topic among the conspiracy-laden, online alt-Right movement. The “15-minute city” is an urban planning concept that aims to make most daily needs within walking or biking distance of any point in a city.

Similarly, a separate internet user asserted that all Californian fire hydrants had stopped working and that the blazes were started to destroy evidence.

“There’s always so many layers to these events,” the user noted, without explaining what evidence was being destroyed or how the fire supposedly started.