Fact check: Is Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles on fire right now?

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Everyone's on edge as wildfires are tearing through Los Angeles. But this week, things got even crazier thanks to the internet.

Late Wednesday night, as firefighters battled the Sunset Fire in the Hollywood Hills, social media blew up with shocking images claiming the iconic Hollywood Sign was engulfed in flames.

Videos and photos flooded platforms like X (formerly Twitter), showing the famous landmark seemingly burning alive. Naturally, people were freaked out and started sharing the alarming content like wildfire itself.

Fact Check: False

The truth is, the Hollywood Sign was never in any real danger. Sure, the Sunset Fire was raging nearby, but it wasn’t anywhere close to the sign. Those viral images were total fakes. And not just fake—they were AI-generated to be precise, Newsweek reported.

One of the most shared images even had “HOLLYWOODD” written on the sign instead of “HOLLYWOOD.” Furthermore, some of the images had watermarks from Grok AI, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot. So, it wasn’t long before people started putting two and two together.

Meanwhile, the actual Hollywood Sign sat peacefully, far away from the blaze. A live camera feed confirmed it was totally fine, and CAL FIRE’s map of the fire zones showed a reservoir safely separating the sign from the flames.

Raw Alerts even posted an image of the real sign on X. "The Hollywood sign is not on fire, even though a new fire has started," it said. "Numerous news accounts and other pages are sharing fake AI-generated images claiming otherwise."

Of course, that didn’t stop the internet from doing its thing. For hours, people debated whether the images were real as some users doubled down on the idea that the sign was doomed. Thankfully, a few level-headed accounts stepped in to clear things up.

One post showed a current photo of the Hollywood Sign, still standing tall and very much not on fire. Another reminded everyone that community notes on X had already flagged the viral posts as fake.

"This is an AI-generated image that has been presented as fact to mislead the audience," it read. "The Hollywood sign does not have any fire near it. 24/7 live camera support this evidence."

The real wildfire situation

Now, just because the Hollywood Sign is safe doesn’t mean LA is off the hook. The Sunset Fire and other blazes have caused devastating damage across the region.

The Palisades Fire, for example, has already burned through nearly 20,000 acres, destroying over 5,000 structures in some of the most affluent areas of the city. 

And then there’s the Eaton Fire, which has claimed lives and destroyed thousands of homes north of Pasadena. It’s been a brutal week, with hurricane-force winds and bone-dry conditions making everything worse. LA’s mayor Karen Bass even called it a “firestorm,” and she’s not wrong.

"Hurricane-force winds are usually accompanied by rain storms, but these are hurricane-force winds are combined with extremely dry drought conditions," Bass noted at a briefing Wednesday.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell described the situation as "unprecedented" at the same briefing, Axios reported.

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.