By Staff
Starting early this month wildfires broke out on the island of Maui in Hawaii. The fire devastated the island of Maui. Killing at least 115 people. The fires have caused thousands of buildings to be destroyed. The damages are expected to be up to 5 billion dollars. Currently 815 people are missing from the town of Lāhainā alone. The Maui fire has been one of the most devastating fires in recent history.
As with many disasters and widespread news stories the Maui wildfires have caused a storm of conspiracy theories. One theory of the cause of the fire is attributed to a massive energy weapon. The theories seem to spring from a man posting a video to Instagram claiming “This was a direct energy weapon assault,” and “coming out of the sky, directly targeting the city.” The man claimed his friend who lives in Maui sent him a video of the laser attack. Many viral videos claiming to show the attack have been disproving. Some of the false videos were proven to be SpaceX rocket launches or electrical explosions in Chile. Some videos have been digitally altered; like one that shows a fake laser beam hitting a church on fire.
A piece of reasoning behind these conspiracy theories is that many trees are still standing while thousands of structures are destroyed. Theorists claim that buildings were directly attacked by lasers and show proof by how trees were not burnt down. A post that has been seen over 25 million times on the app known as X(formerly Twitter) states: “Everything is burnt but the trees, but don’t point that out or you’re a conspiracy theorist.” Fire experts have attempted to disprove the tree theory. Experts claim that many trees will stay standing even after fire damage. Experts also say that high moisture in trees can make them difficult to burn down.
Another bizarre theory declares that the fires were created to start a massive land grab by the rich. It is not surprising to say that Maui is a desirable place to live. The beautiful views and beaches make it desirable for anyone. The land grab hypothesis states that the disastrous inferno was orchestrated by the rich to seize valuable land. As of now it is an actual concern to the people of Maui that there will now be a land grab after the fires. Whether you believe or not that the fires where orchestrated the land grabs are a real threat. The governor of Hawaii has even stated his intentions to stop housing sales to prevent a massive land grab. Another crazy theory that has been spread around the internet is that the land grab was orchestrated by Oprah Winfrey. On the app TikTok many individuals have been blaming popular talk show celebrity Oprah Winfrey for the fires amongst other billionaires. Oprah has bought over 2,000 acres on the island of Maui this year but there is no proof connecting her to any solid evidence of wrongdoing.
It is safe to say that the Maui wildfires have been devastating for people all across the island. More than one hundred people have lost their lives and hundreds are still missing. People’s whole lives have ripped from under them. Thousands of homes have been demolished and it will take billions of dollars to rebuild. These conspiracies, no matter how believable or not, are used to direct attention to conspiracy theorists for their own benefit and attention. The theories are interesting to say the least but practically all of them have been disproven. Instead of spreading harmful theories across the web we should be uniting to help the people of Maui in their time of need and grief.
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