No, images of trees standing amid wildfire destruction aren’t evidence of directed energy weapons

Images of trees still standing amid structures reduced to rubble are spreading on social media as wildfires continue to burn in greater Los Angeles. 

"How is this possible?" a Jan. 10 Facebook post said, sharing an image of damaged buildings abutting apparently unscathed evergreens and green grass. "Research: DEW. Direct energy weapon." 

A Jan. 12 Instagram post shows a collection of before-and-after photos, such as one shared by the Palisades Presbyterian Church that shows its building burned but with palm trees still standing. 

"Well … that’s odd," the post said. "I’m sure it’s nothing. Right?"

"Energy weapons," one account commented in response.

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Although the Jan. 12 Instagram post’s photos appear to be contemporary, the image in the Jan. 10 Facebook post is from at least 2018, when social media users raised questions of directed energy weapons in connection with wildfires. 

Directed energy weapons are real. They use energy fired at lightspeed — high-energy lasers and high-powered microwave weapons that use concentrated electromagnetic energy — and countries including the United States have researched their use. 

We recently fact-checked claims that directed energy weapons started the fires in California. That’s False, experts told PolitiFact. 

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stated on January 8, 2025 in social media posts

Image shows the Hollywood sign was on fire as of Jan. 8.

And in 2023, we fact-checked and rated False claims that it was suspicious wildfires in Hawaii had burned cars while trees remained standing.  

But it’s not suspicious — or unusual. Lee Frelich, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Forest Ecology, said there’s no reason to think anything but wildfires caused the destruction in the Los Angeles area. And trees can survive wildfires for several reasons, Frelich said. Among them: They have high water content, they experience radiant heat only from nearby flames, they have thick bark protecting them from flames or they’re in a fortuitous location. 

"Trees surrounded by paved areas are less likely to burn," Frelich wrote to PolitiFact in an email. "Trees in the middle of lawns that are mowed to a short height often survive — in such cases, even if flames pass under the tree, the flames are very short and do not have enough energy to jump into the crowns of trees, and do not produce enough heat to girdle the base of the trunk, or to scorch the foliage via hot air rising up through the canopy."

Plus, Frelich said, gusty winds — such as the ones we’ve seen in California — can "lead to idiosyncratic effects like undamaged trees or houses in the middle of a severely burned area."

Michael Gollner, who leads the Berkeley Fire Research Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, said fire can "leapfrog" through a community as embers land on houses and burn while landscaping is spared.

The resulting images can be dramatic, but they’re not evidence of directed energy weapons, Gollner said. It’s just fire spreading through "urban fuels." 

"You don’t need special technology to cause a devastating fire with incredibly dry fuels and extremely high winds," Gollner said. 

We rate claims these photos are evidence that directed energy weapons caused damage in the Los Angeles area False.

PolitiFact Staff Writer Madison Czopek contributed to this report.