Clip doesn’t show ‘Israeli tourists celebrating’ Los Angeles fires. It shows a 2024 Switzerland fire

In a video, people dance and sing along to music as a fire blazes outside their windows.

A social media post suggested these were Israelis celebrating the wildfires in greater Los Angeles, four of which have not been fully contained as of the afternoon of Jan. 15. The fires, which started Jan. 7, have killed at least 24 people. The Palisades — the largest active fire — has burned more than 23,000 acres. 

“Israeli tourists celebrating fire in LA,” the text in the Jan. 14 Instagram video read.

(Screenshot from Instagram)

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This video doesn’t show the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. It was taken in a different country.

A Community Note appended to a Jan. 13 X post making a similar claim said the fire in the video happened in a bathhouse in Rorschach, Switzerland. The note linked to an article about a 100-year-old bathhouse burning Dec. 23, 2024, on Lake Constance.

TikTok user @dodon_66 uploaded the video used in the Instagram post on Dec. 26, 2024. The same user posted three other videos of the incident to TikTok on Dec. 23, 2024. 

PolitiFact verified the location and found that the windows shown on the video match the windows of Inn Joy Apartments, across from the bathhouse.

(Screenshot of Sept. 2018 image from Google Maps)

The song playing in the video is in Romanian.

We rate the claim that a video shows “Israeli tourists celebrating” Los Angeles wildfires False.

By

Loreben Tuquero

Staff writer

January 15, 2025

Truth-o-meter Ruling

False

IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT

• The video shows a fire in Switzerland in 2024.

Statement

Video shows “Israeli tourists celebrating” the Los Angeles wildfires.

Context

an Instagram post

Speaker/Target

Speaker: Instagram posts

Statement Date

January 14, 2025