The clip also shows a watermark with the text “World Forum”, a Facebook page that previously shared misinformation in Thailand.
Similar claims also circulated elsewhere on Facebook in Thai here And here.
The screenshot of the video also appeared along with the same claim in other languages, such as Italian, Turkish And Spanish.
But the video actually shows a fire in Scotland.
Fire in Scotland
A reverse search for the keyframe of the first clip on Google turned up a video posted on a social media platform X on June 24, 2024 (archived link).
“There has been an explosion at Enva in Linwood“, the caption of the video reads.
The BBC And Glasgow Times reported that a major fire had broken out at the Linwood industrial estate in Paisley, a town in Renfrewshire, Scotland on the evening of June 23 (archived links) here And here).
The fire broke out at Enva’s electronic waste facility, located on the estate. Enva a statement issued on June 25, where it offered its “sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused by the incident” (archived link).
AFP geolocated saw the location in the clip on Google Earth and found it matched a residential area in Ritchie Park, which is located approximately 590 meters away from Enva’s waste recycling facility where the fire occurred (archived link).
Below is a screenshot of the clip in the misleading message (left) and 2021 Street View images of the Ritchie Park residential area on Google Earth (right), with AFP highlighting similar elements:
South Korea fire
The second clip in the video compilation showed the fire at the lithium battery factory in South Korea.
Reverse image and keyword searches on Google led to a similar clip being shared on X on June 24 with the caption “Fire at Hwaseong lithium-ion battery factory” (archived link).
Radio Free Asia also included the same clip in a news report on June 24 (archived link).
“A deadly fire broke out at a lithium battery factory in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province on Monday (June 24), leaving at least 22 people dead, eight injured and one person missing,” the traditional Chinese caption reads.
It was later reported that 23 people have died, mainly Chinese.
AFP has released the location of the area seen in the clip on Naver card and found the same building with the striking glass exterior and the smaller structure behind it (archived link).
Below you can see the screenshot comparison from the clip in the message with the misleading claim (left) and the street scene of the lithium battery factory on Naver Map, with similar elements highlighted by AFP (right):
AFP has previously debunked misinformation surrounding the South Korean factory fire here.
