A wildfire broke out in a forest near the city of Los Angeles in the state of California, USA, on the morning of 07 January 2025, and it is still not under control (here). According to news reports (here, here, and here), at least 36,000 acres of land have already been burned in this incident, and more than 10,000 homes and buildings have been destroyed including the residences of Hollywood celebrities. At least 20 people have lost their lives in this fire so far. Amid this, several photos are being widely circulated on social media platforms, claiming to show a religious structure (church/mosque) that remained unaffected by the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). Through this article, let’s fact-check the claims made in the posts.
Claim: Photos showing a religious structure (church/mosque) unscathed by the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.
Fact: These viral photos have no connection to the ongoing 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. The first photo in the first post shows a house that remained intact after a fire broke out in West Maui, Lahaina, Hawaii, in August 2023. The other images are AI-generated. Additionally, we found several news reports stating that many churches, mosques, and several other places of worship were burned down in the 2024 Los Angeles wildfires. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the claim, we conducted a relevant keyword search. However, this search did not yield any credible reports featuring these viral photos or mentioning a religious structure (church/mosque) remaining unscathed by the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. Moreover, we found several news reports stating that many churches, mosques, and other places of worship were affected by the 2024 Los Angeles wildfires (here, here, here, here, & here).

Photo-1:
To learn more about this viral photo, we conducted a Google reverse image search which led us to a report by the BBC, dated 22 August 2023, titled “Hawaii Wildfires: The Red Lahaina House That Survived Maui Fires,” featuring the same structure. According to the report, a deadly fire tore through the town of Lahaina on Maui Island, Hawaii, reducing it to ash and rubble. However, the fire reportedly left a red-roofed house untouched.

We also found multiple news reports (here, here, & here) about this “miracle house” in Lahaina that survived the 2023 wildfire seemingly unscathed. According to these reports, the owner of the house at 271 Front Street was Trip Millikin, who credited the miracle to the heavy-gauge metal roof he and his wife, Dora Atwater Millikin, had installed during the house’s recent renovation. The house, dating back to 1925, was renovated in 2022 after the Millikins bought it in 2021. The couple had also removed all vegetation around the house and installed riverstones. The only damage incurred by the fire was to a PVC pipe on the walls.
We also found a different version of the viral photo on the stock image website Getty Images. The description of this photo reads: “An aerial image shows a red-roofed house that survived the fires, surrounded by destroyed homes and buildings reduced to rubble in historic Lahaina in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii, on 10 August 2023”. From this information, it is clear that this viral photo depicts a house that remained intact following the devastating 2023 Hawaii wildfires.
Photo-2:
Upon conducting a reverse image search using Google Lens, we discovered that the photo was created using Google AI. When we reverse image search the photo, Several tabs under the search are visible. One of them, “About this image,” opens a new window (inset) that shows the label, “Made with Google AI.” An article from MIT Technology Review, dated 29 August 2022 (archived link), describes a digital watermarking technique called SynthID, which detects AI-generated images that are invisible to the human eye. It should be noted that this detection feature, incorporated into the Google Lens image search, successfully identified this image as being generated by Google’s AI.

To further verify whether the photo was AI-generated, we examined it using multiple AI content detection tools, when we examined it using ‘sightengine’, an AI content detection tool, the result showed that the image had an 84% likelihood of being AI-generated. However, other AI content detection tools, such as Hive, did not confirm this photo as being AI-generated.

Photo-3:
To gather more information about the person featured in the viral photo, we conducted a reverse image search which led us to a video (archived link) shared on the official YouTube channel of the media organisation ‘7NEWS Australia’ on 10 January 2025. According to the video description, the man in the photo is a resident of Los Angeles. The man, whose name is not mentioned, tearfully tells the reporter that his house is one of the few that survived the fires. The report includes footage of the aftermath of the wildfire disaster in Los Angeles but it does not show the surviving house in question, nor any building that visually matches the one in the viral photos.

Photo-4:
If you look closely at this viral photo, it appears to be AI-generated. To further verify whether the photo was AI-generated, we examined it using multiple AI content detection tools. When we ran the viral image through Hive, an AI content detection tool, the result showed that the image had a 93.3% likelihood of being AI-generated. However, other AI content detection tools, such as sightengine, did not confirm the photo as being AI-generated.

Photo-5:
This viral photo appears to be AI-generated. To further verify whether the photo was AI-generated, we examined it using multiple AI content detection tools. When we ran the viral image through ‘sightengine’, an AI content detection tool, the result showed that the image had an 82% likelihood of being AI-generated. However, other AI content detection tools, such as Hive, did not confirm this photo as being AI-generated.

To sum up, unrelated and AI-generated images are being falsely shared, claiming that a religious structure (church/mosque) remained unharmed during the 2025 Los Angeles fires.