As France battled record wildfires in July 2026, a video spread online alongside claims that it showed someone committing arson to manufacture concern for climate change. But while French authorities are indeed investigating cases where blazes were started intentionally, the clip actually shows someone accused of setting vegetation on fire in the province of Avellino, Italy in 2025.
“Meanwhile in France. Man starting Climate Change captured on Camera again. Took him all of 10 Seconds,” says a July 29, 2026 post on X from the account “Concerned Citizen,” whom AFP has repeatedly fact-checked for environmental and other misinformation.
Spanish-language text across the screen refers to the arrest of a 58-year-old man.
Screenshot of an X post taken on August 4, 2026
Similar posts circulated in German and French as France’s largest wildfire since 1949 flared in late July 2026.
But the video is taken out of its context. In reality, it shows a suspect arrested for arson in Montemiletto, Italy.
Through reverse image searches, AFP found identical footage posted by the Italian national news outlet Rai in 2025 (archived here).
A screenshot taken August 4, 2026 of the Italian news outlet Rai’s official YouTube channel
In the top left corner of the frame, the images are credited to the “Carabinieri press office” — a term used to describe Italy’s national gendarmerie.
The footage matches the incident description in records of a case in the Italian province of Avellino (archived here).
On August 9, 2025, “a large fire swept through the Sant’Eusebio and Bosco districts of the municipality of Montemiletto,” the Carabinieri press office said at the time.
Surveillance footage captured the license plate of “a small car spotted near one of the three ignition points,” which helped identify suspect, according to the police statement.
Arson
It is true that the vast majority of fires in France are human-caused. Human origins can mean accidental, intentional, or simple acts of negligence — such as a cigarette toss near vegetation.
Arson, however, has also been a concern in the country. As of the end of July, more than 300 people had been detained with regard to the 2026 wildfire outbreak, with two-thirds suspected of “deliberate arson,” according to French authorities.
According to the French national wildfire database, acts of arson were the top identified cause of fires in 2025 (archived here).
Still, while human-induced climate change does not directly ignite the blazes, it enhances fire weather conditions, primarily through heat, drought and a phenomenon known as “weather whiplash.”
Surface areas destroyed by fire in France have doubled between 2000 and 2018 compared to the 1980-to-1999 period (archived here).
AFP has previously fact-checked several other clips misrepresented amid a spate of 2026 wildfires worldwide.
