Instagram posts
Instagram posts
stated on January 14, 2025 in an Instagram post:

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

False

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

By Loreben Tuquero
January 15, 2025

If your time is short

  • The video shows a fire in Switzerland in 2024.
See the sources for this fact-check

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.

Claim about Israeli tourists celebrating Los Angeles wildfires, with False graphic, 01-15-2025
Figure 1: Claim about Israeli tourists celebrating Los Angeles wildfires, with False graphic, 01-15-2025

(Screenshot from Instagram)

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

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.

Google Maps screenshot of Inn Joy apartments, Rorschach, Switzerland, 2018
Figure 2: Google Maps screenshot of Inn Joy apartments, Rorschach, Switzerland, 2018

(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.

Our Sources

Instagram post (archived), Jan. 14, 2025

TikTok post by dodon_66, Dec. 23, 2024

TikTok post by dodon_66, Dec. 23, 2024

TikTok post by dodon_66, Dec. 23, 2024

TikTok post by dodon_66, Dec. 26, 2024

X post, Jan. 13, 2025

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, accessed Jan. 15, 2025

Swissinfo.ch, Historic Swiss bathhouse on Lake Constance destroyed in a fire, Dec. 23, 2024

Google Maps search, Inn Joy Apartments, Jan. 15, 2025

Spotify, A venit poliția, accessed Jan. 15, 2025