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Was Hollywood Sign surrounded by fire? No, this image is fabricated | Fact check
The claim: Image shows Hollywood Sign ‘covered by fire’
A Jan. 8 Threads post (direct link, archive link) appears to show flames surrounding a Los Angeles landmark.
“The Hollywood sign is (sic) LA is now covered by fire,” text in the image reads.
The Threads post received more than 2,000 likes in a day. The image also circulated widely on Instagram and on X.
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Our rating: Manipulated media
The image is a fabrication, according to an expert on artificial intelligence and to the leader of the nonprofit that maintains the sign. Hollywood Sign Trust Chairman Jeff Zarrinnam said that as of Jan. 9, the structure was unaffected by the fires.
Hollywood Sign ‘secure,’ unaffected by wildfires
At least five active fires in Los Angeles County burned more than 40 square miles across the region, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate. But as of Jan. 9, the fires had not reached the iconic Hollywood Sign.
While the park surrounding the landmark was closed as a precaution, “the sign itself is not affected and is secure,” Jeff Zarrinnam, who chairs the nonprofit Hollywood Sign Trust, told USA TODAY in a Jan. 9 email. In a Facebook post shared later that day, the trust called the image a fabrication.
Fact check: Los Angeles Fire Department asked off-duty members to help combat wildfires
The sign was not in the evacuation zone as of that day, USA TODAY reported. Rather, the active fire closest to the sign was more than 2 miles from it, according to an interactive map of the fires published by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The BBC reported Jan. 9 that the fires were “approaching” the sign, not that they reached it.
Walter Scheirer, an engineering professor at the University of Notre Dame whose area of research includes visual recognition, described the Threads image as “fake” in an email to USA TODAY. Hive Moderation, which can detect if generative AI was used to create an image, determined it was 87% likely to contain AI-generated content, with a high probability the specific tool used was Stable Diffusion XL and an “inpainting” technique that allows selected parts of the image to be edited.
In addition to “the obvious fact that the fire hasn’t come close to the sign,” Scheirer pointed out a discrepancy in the metal grids that hold up the letters, noting that authentic images of the “H” show diagonal bars that are missing from the Threads image. Additionally, the fabricated image shows more rows of metal bars crossing the empty space of the letters than authentic versions show. In the version posted to social media, some bars also are unevenly spaced.
USA TODAY previously debunked false claims that images show President-elect Donald Trump wading through flood waters after Hurricane Helene and human hands being sold as meat in a grocery store.
USA TODAY reached out to several social media users who shared the image but did not immediately receive any responses.
Our fact-check sources
Jeff Zarrinnam, Jan. 9, Email exchange with USA TODAY
Walter Scheirer, Jan. 9, Email exchange with USA TODAY
Hollywood Sign Trust, Jan. 9, Facebook post
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (archive), Jan. 9, Southern California Fires January 2025
Hive Moderation (archive), Jan. 9, AI detection results
BBC News (YouTube), Jan. 9, LIVE: Los Angeles wildfires approach Hollywood sign, with Sunset Boulevard in ruins | BBC News
Hollywood Sign Trust, June 11, 2024, Instagram post
Hollywood Sign Trust, Jan. 12, 2024, Instagram post
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Doctored image shows Hollywood Sign surrounded by fire | Fact check