Fake Visuals of Hollywood Sign on Fire Viral Amid California Wildfires

The Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, California, is NOT on fire. The viral visuals are fake.

The viral clip is fake as the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles has not caught fire amid the souther California wildfires.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Altered by The Quint)

Visuals showing the iconic Hollywood sign in California's Los Angeles on fire have gone viral on social media, where users have claimed that the sign, too, caught fire as the state continues to be ravaged by wildfires.

• One such video was also shared by news organisation ET Now's Facebook page in a post, which was shared by over 1,000 users at the time of writing this report.

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

Another image, showing the sign engulfed in flames, was also shared with the same claim.

An archived version of this post can be seen here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

(Archived versions of more claims on social media can be seen here, here, and here.)

But...?: The visuals are fake. While there is a fire close to the area, the actual Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, California has not caught on fire as on 13 January 2025.

How did we find out the truth?: We ran a keyword search to look for details about whether the sign had caught fire, but did not come across any news reports or credible visuals confirming it.

• Instead, we found several news reports and social media posts stating that the sign was fine and had not caught on fire, like this video shared by Toronto Star on 11 January after similar claims surfaced, showing that the sign was unaffected.

Some reports, however, mentioned that there was a fire in Hollywood Hills, dubbed 'The Sunset' fire, which posed a threat the "beloved" LA landmarks.

The sign did not catch fire.

(Source: The New York Times/Screenshot)

• This fire, however, spread to 42.8 acres of land and is fully contained as on 13 January, as per the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's website.

• We looked for the sign's location on Google Maps, which is currently displaying signs for areas affected by the wildfires.

• Here, we saw that the Hollywood sign was located away from all three major fires — the Palisades, the Hurst, and the Eaton fires — in the greater Los Angeles area.

The sign sits away from all major fires.

(Source: Google Maps/Altered by The Quint)

We were able to confirm the same the state's fire department's website, which showed that the sign was safe from the Sunset fire as well.

The green encircled star denotes the rough location of the Hollywood sign, which is safe from all ongoing and contained fires.

(Source: Fire.ca.gov/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)

A report by LA Times debunked some of the most viral misinformation surrounding the southern California wildfires, including this viral claim about the Hollywood sign on fire.

Conclusion: Fake visuals showing the Hollywood sign on fire are being shared as real visuals.

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