SerpApi.Org
Startling images of the first large burst of Canadian wildfires of 2026 spread across social media in mid-July, but not every clip circulating online was current. AFP identified two videos that were captured during previous seasons but inaccurately labeled online as scenes from 2026.
"An aerial view of the large wildfires burning in Ontario Canada this afternoon," says a July 15, 2026 X post .
The attached clip shows the perspective from an aircraft as it flies over a large wildfire toward a wooded landscape.
Different versions of the footage spread across Instagram and Facebook -- and also appeared in a compilation of user-generated content broadcast on CTV news.
Other social media users spread a video of figures holding their hands up and backing away from massive flames on Facebook , X and Instagram , claiming it showed the July 2026 wildfires in Ontario.
After a relatively slow start to the 2026 wildfire season, massive blazes spread across Canada in mid-July , sending huge swaths of smoke sweeping over North America and forcing numerous northwestern Ontario communities to evacuate .
Several legitimate videos surfaced online amid the fires' devastation, including footage of a train crew being engulfed by raging flames outside their control room and a video of a community evacuating by boat from Collins First Nation (archived here and here ).
However, both the aircraft clip and the footage of the figures gesturing toward towering flames are outdated.
2025 pilot clip
The aerial footage has been online for at least a year.
Many of the posts resharing the clip credited the footage to "Bush Piloting." Indeed, an Instagram user who goes by " @bushpiloting " shared the video on July 15, 2026 with the caption: "This time last year" (archived here ).
The account had previously posted the same footage on July 20, 2025 and stated it was recorded in Saskatchewan province, not Ontario (archived here ). AFP reached out to the user, but no response was forthcoming.
After AFP contacted CTV about the clip's inclusion in the broadcaster's coverage, the channel acknowledged the error and removed the clip from its website.
"CTV News mistakenly used a single shot of file video in coverage of Northern Ontario wildfires. The video has since been corrected," the outlet told AFP in a July 17, 2026 email. CTV News pinned the same correction notice to the bottom of an article about the fires on its website.
2023 volunteer firefighters
"So…. Thunder Bay, Ontario is experiencing massive wild fires," says the caption of a July 15, 2026 X post sharing the second video, of the figures waving their arms at massive flames.
But the clip was actually filmed in 2023 in Quebec. AFP previously reported on the footage when it was incorrectly shared in posts claiming it showed arsonists starting wildfires.
In reality, the video shows volunteer wildfire fighters from the Opitciwan community of the Atikamekw Nation near the remote village of Obedjiwan, Quebec.
The French content creator who originally posted the clip on June 25, 2023 told AFP at the time that the people in the video were raising their hands as a gesture of surrender once the wildfire was deemed to be out of control (archived here ).
AFP previously debunked numerous posts in 2023 that claimed the year's unprecedented number of wildfires were ignited by nefarious actors trying to prove the existence of climate change.
Scientists have repeatedly told AFP that climate change is worsening wildfire seasons, and while some conflagrations have been linked to human causes , a human connection does not necessarily mean blazes were intentionally started.
Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here .
