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Scotland fire footage misrepresented as South Korea factory blaze

by L'Officiel Lifestyle

Scotland fire footage misrepresented as South Korea factory blaze
<span>Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, taken on July 1</span>

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, taken on July 1

The clip also shows a watermark that read "World Forum", a Facebook page which has previously shared misinformation in Thailand.

Similar claims also circulated elsewhere on Facebook in Thai here and here.

The screenshot of the video also appeared alongside the same claim in other languages such as Italian, Turkish and Spanish.

But the video in fact shows a fire in Scotland.

Blaze in Scotland

A reverse image search of the first clip's keyframe on Google found a video posted on social media platform X on June 24, 2024 (archived link).

"There's been an explosion at Enva in Linwood", read the video's caption.

The BBC and Glasgow Times reported that a large blaze broke out at 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 the Enva electronic waste facility based within the estate. Enva issued a statement on June 25 where it offered its "sincere apology for any inconvenience caused by the incident" (archived link).

AFP geolocated on Google Earth the place seen in the clip and found it matched a residential area in Ritchie Park, which is located about 590 metres away from the Enva waste recycling facility where the fire took place (archived link).

<span>Screenshot of the distance measured between Ritchie Park and the Enva recycling plant on Google Earth </span>

Below is a screenshot comparison between the clip in the misleading post (left) and the 2021 Google Earth street view imagery of the residential area in Ritchie Park (right), with similar elements highlighted by AFP:

<span>Screenshot comparison between the clip in the misleading post (left) and the Google Earth imagery of the residential area in Ritchie Park (right) with similar elements highlighted by AFP </span>

South Korea fire

The second clip in the video compilation showed the fire in the lithium battery plant in South Korea.

Reverse image and keyword searches on Google led to a similar clip shared on X on June 24 with the caption "Hwaseong lithium battery factory fire" (archived link).

Radio Free Asia also included the same clip in a news report on June 24 (archived link).

<span>A screenshot of the Radio Free Asia's X post, captured July 1, 2024</span><span>Screenshot comparison of the clip in the post with the misleading claim (left) and the street view of the lithium battery factory on Naver map (right):</span>

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Scotland fire footage misrepresented as South Korea factory blaze - L'Officiel Lifestyle