Hawaii wildfires prompt conspiracy theories about directed energy weapons

Social media users are claiming lasers started the deadly wildfires that scorched a historic town in the US state of Hawaii in August 2023. But various images shared online are from other events, and there is no evidence that directed energy weapons are to blame for the flames; the National Weather Service has said the blazes in Maui were fueled by dry conditions and strong winds from nearby Hurricane Dora.

“Lahaina, Maui has been RAZED to the ground,” says one of several August 10, 2023 posts from Stew Peters, a far-right radio host who has previously spread conspiracy theories about Covid-19 vaccines and other topics. “Only a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) can cause this kind of destruction.”

In another post on Twitter, which is being rebranded as “X,” Peters said: “The Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) being used on Hawaii are powerful enough to set the Pacific Ocean on fire.”

Directed energy weapons use concentrated electromagnetic energy fired at the speed of light to combat enemy forces and assets, according to the US Government Accountability Office.

Similar claims have spread across X and other social media platforms, including Instagram and TikTok. The posts come as brushfires have left the seaside town of Lahaina in charred ruins, killing at least 55 people.

Some of the posts include images purporting to show bright beams of light shooting from the sky. The claims echo conspiracy theories about previous disasters, such as Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s blaming of laser beams from space for a 2018 wildfire in California.

While authorities have not pinpointed what set Maui ablaze, there is no evidence directed energy weapons were involved.

“Obviously these are really crazy allegations,” said Michael Gollner, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California-Berkeley who researches fire dynamics.

‘Red flag conditions’

A high-energy laser striking dry vegetation could in theory cause a fire, said Iain Boyd, director of the University of Colorado’s Center for National Security Initiatives and an expert on directed energy weapons.

But there are far more likely explanations for the Hawaii flames.

Susan Buchanan, director of public affairs for the National Weather Service, told AFP the agency alerted local officials up to a week in advance “about dangerous fire weather conditions on the Hawaiian Islands,” issuing official warnings in the days before the inferno began (archived here).

“A mix of dry vegetation, strong winds, dry subsiding air and low relative humidity helped to spread the deadly fires once they were ignited,” Buchanan said in an August 11 email.

Several independent experts agreed.

“We had red flag conditions,” said Arnaud Trouve, chair of the University of Maryland’s Department of Fire Protection Engineering.

Trouve said he does not believe the Hawaii blazes should be pinned on “extraordinary sources.”

Lightning and other natural phenomena — or human activities such as engineering failures and arson — are more often to blame, he said.

The nearby hurricane generated downslope winds capable of intensifying flames and embers. Gollner, of the University of California-Berkeley, said that can be especially dangerous in communities with buildings made of wood and few protections against wildfires.

“While the ignition source is unknown, it could have come from power lines damaged in the winds or any other potential accidental source,” he said. “With winds this severe and a large amount of dry grass surrounding the community, there is no need for an ignition from ‘space.'”

‘Lack of basic understanding’

Once confined to fringe circles, conspiracy theories about lasers have picked up steam online since the California wildfires of the 2010s, according to Mike Rothschild, an expert on the QAnon movement and author of the book “Jewish Space Lasers.”

“It works on the lack of basic understanding that conspiracy believers have of how fire and wind work,” Rothschild said. “The theory is especially adaptable to social media because it fits with pictures taken of fires that show beams of light supposedly coming from space.”

One photo social media users are claiming shows a laser directed at Maui actually dates to at least 2018, reverse image searches show.

Snopes, another fact-checking outlet, reported at the time that the photo likely showed light from a controlled burn at an Ohio oil refinery.

Boyd, the expert on directed energy weapons, said the image could not possibly show a high-energy laser fired from the sky.

“First, modern high-energy lasers used for weapons operate at a wavelength in the infrared that cannot be seen with the naked eye,” Boyd said of the picture. “Second, to produce the effects that are seen on the ground would require an incredibly high power laser that could not be flown in the air or operated in space.”

Another photo misrepresented online was featured in a 2018 article (archived here) saying it showed a SpaceX rocket launch.

“It’s easy to use those pictures as ‘proof’ of what ‘they’ are doing to us to further their climate change agenda or societal control, and people desperate for answers would rather believe in space weapons than the reality of the climate crisis,” Rothschild said.

AFP has debunked misinformation about past wildfires here and here.