Several posts on X, formerly Twitter, and on TikTok claim that blue-colored property and other objects, which appeared to be less damaged than others in the Maui wildfire, are evidence of some sort of wider conspiracy surrounding the disaster.
The Maui wildfires have killed at least 115 people, with 1,100 others missing and the town of Lahaina, on the northwest of the island, largely destroyed.
The blazes began as scattered brush fires, and a rapid spread fueled by the lack of humidity and strong winds from Hurricane Dora turned them into the most lethal wildfires seen in the U.S. since 2018.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Among viral online claims is that blue objects were spared in the destruction of the island, including the home of talk show host Oprah Winfrey. This theory also bases some of its conclusions on the notion that a blue car and some blue umbrellas did not appear to suffer the same damage as other vehicles in the vicinity of the fire.
The X account Wall Street Apes, which regularly posts misleading, and inaccurate claims on a wide range of stories, was among the actors that led the charge.
In a post from August 23, 2023, since viewed more than 490,000 times, the account said: “How Many Coincidences Are You Willing To Accept? Completely Untouched Blue Umbrellas. Completely Untouched Blue Car. And Now We Find Out Oprah’s Maui, Hawaii Mansion Has A BLUE ROOF!! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!?? It’s Amazing!! The Maui, Lahaina, Hawaii fires were a domestic terrorist attack. DEWs, Direct Energy Weapons”
The post included a video, showing what’s claimed to be a property belonging to Winfrey with the caption: “Anyone else thinking they need a blue roof? Oprah has one.”
The same video and similar claims about blue objects have also been widely shared on TikTok.
None have shared any supporting evidence, based merely on a few aftermath images or videos where blue objects did not appear to be as badly damaged as others. Some of the material posted is completely made up or otherwise not linked to Maui.
Oprah’s Maui Home
Oprah Winfrey’s house in Lahaina is also not where fires broke out on the island, as has already been reported by Newsweek.
Her home is situated in a rural area near the Kula Forest Reserve to the southwest of the island—an hour’s drive from Lahaina and a region that was spared from the three large infernos that ripped across parts of the island.
Among other misleading posts about the presenter’s home was a screengrab of an online article with the headline “Why the Heck are Celebs All Painting Their Maui Properties the Same Weird Shade of Blue?” dated October 18, 2022. Not only is this article not online but the photo used in the picture is from a property on a different Hawaiian island.
The video posted by Wall Street Apes alongside this claim, and shared on TikTok, of blue houses is also meaningless. Newsweek searched each of the images in the video and found they were either stock images, not thought to have been shot in Maui, or otherwise were linked to building projects elsewhere in the U.S.
Blue-Colored Property Not Spared
As photos have shown, property and objects in other colors were also not (or less) damaged by the fire.
The Los Angeles Times reported on August 18 on a red house that survived the destruction around it. The owner of the house, Atwater Millikin, told the LA Times that the asphalt roof was replaced with heavy-gauge metal, and foliage around it was removed as part of a restoration.
“When this was all happening, there were pieces of wood—6, 12 inches long—that were on fire and just almost floating through the air with the wind and everything,” Atwater Millikin said.
“They would hit people’s roofs, and if it was an asphalt roof, it would catch on fire. And otherwise, they would fall off the roof and then ignite the foliage around the house.”
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
As satellite images of Lahaina also show there were a number of buildings before the fire that were painted blue which subsequently were destroyed by the wildfires, as seen in aerial footage of the destruction.
As to the image of the blue car, video footage taken on Front Street, Lahaina, where cars were abandoned as the fires swept the town, shows a number of vehicles in other colors that were not as badly damaged by the flames.
Energy Weapons Theory Debunked
The blue objects hoax is linked to another debunked theory that directed energy weapons targeted the island, orchestrated by the federal government.
DEWs involve “high energy lasers and other high power electromagnetics” that “use concentrated electromagnetic energy to combat enemy forces and assets,” according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Although the Defense Department has spent $1 billion annually on developing these weapons to take down missile and drone threats, an April 2023 GAO report says the department has had trouble deploying these technologies outside of labs because of a lack of transition planning.
State officials have said that various forms of extreme weather, like dry conditions, low humidity and high winds, set Hawaii up for the extreme wildfires, but their exact cause remains to be determined.
“We don’t know what actually ignited the fires, but we were made aware in advance by the National Weather Service that we were in a red flag situation. So that’s dry conditions for a long time—so the fuel, the trees and everything was dry,” Major General Kenneth Hara of Hawaii’s Department of Defense said.