Videos of prescribed burns, a practice used by firefighters to contain forest fires, are used out of context on social media.
On the web, various conspiracy theories claim that the forest fires were intentionally caused.
As hundreds of wildfires are active across the country and evacuees number in the thousands, videos posted on TikTok claim the government caused him -even these fires using helicopters equipped with flamethrowers.
Wondering why there are so many fires across Canada and Quebec? Look no further, the answer is, can we read in a video viewed more than 80,000 times on TikTok, in which we see jets of flame projected from an aircraft flying over a forest. They do it on purpose!, can we also read in the video.
The video does show an attempt to set fire to a forest, but it is simply misinterpreted here. During forest fires, it is common practice to strategically burn high fire risk areas to limit their expansion.
In addition, the video in question does not come from Canada. According to AFP, which published a fact-checking article about the same video in another context, the images were first posted on Instagram by a firefighter in 2020. He confirmed that he it was a contained fire, but would not say where the video was shot.
According to Parks Canada, a prescribed burn is a planned fire, started intentionally and controlled by specialists, in compliance with specific conditions and following the procedures necessary to achieve the desired result safely.
< p class="e-p">Once burnt, and all the combustible elements thus eliminated, the zones become firebreaks. Prescribed burns can also be used to protect certain plant species from other invasive species, to promote biodiversity or to help the regeneration of certain plants.
The Forest Protection Society (SOPFEU) states, however, that prescribed burning is rarely used in Quebec. This technique is more rarely used in Quebec since, unlike other places and topographies, we have thousands of lakes and rivers, explains SOPFEU spokesperson Karine Pelletier.
Similar misleading videos have been posted with English captions on TikTok. One of them has accumulated more than 1.2 million views in less than three days.
