Old Unrelated Images Going Viral As Explosions In Lebanon.
A photo of burning solar panels went viral on social media claiming it to be from the recent explosions in Lebanon. Sharing the photo on Facebook, the user wrote, "Solar panels belonging to Hezbollah exploded also today in Lebanon"
Facebook Link | Archived Link.
The photo was shared on Twitter, too, with the same claim.
However, as we investigated, we came to know that the image had been shared with a false claim. The image is old and not related to the recent explosions in Lebanon. Here's the fact check.
Fact Check
The viral image is a collage of two images. The left side shows burning solar panels and the right side image shows a burning house.
We started our investigation by conducting a reverse image search of the image on the left side, i.e. the burning solar panels. This led us to a LinkedIn post with the headline, "How to put out a fire in a photovoltaic power station?". The author used the viral image in the article published on 22 July 2022.
Please read here. Archived Link.
Further, we found the image of the burning solar panels in a blog post published on 12 February 2019. The author used the image in the article as a reference but didn't mention the location.
This makes it clear that the image of burning solar panels is not related to the recent explosions in Lebanon.
Moving forward, we conducted a reverse image search of the image on the right side. This led us to a report published on 7 December 2020 with the full version of the viral image attached to it. The caption of the image reads, "A home in the Westshore Estates was completely destroyed by a late night fire Sunday, Nov. 6. (RDCO photo)"
Please read here. Archived Link
According to the report, no injuries were reported. The incident took place in Okanagan, British Columbia.
From this, it's clear that the claim is false. The images in the viral collage are old and not related to the recent explosions in Lebanon.
Conclusion
From our investigation, we can say that the claim is false. The images in the viral collage are old and not related to the recent explosions in Lebanon. The image on the left side has been on the internet since at least 2019, and the image on the right side shows a house fire in West Side, Okanagan, British Columbia, in 2020
