“U.S. wildfires were deliberately ignited using directed-energy weapons operated covertly.”

Analyzing a 79-year dataset (1940–2019) from U.S. Forest Service regions across the continental United States, we found that different ignition sources in different regions have been a major driver of wildfire trends, accounting for 60%–80% of the interannual variation in fire frequency and approximately 20% in area burned across most U.S. regions. Lightning and campfires were the dominant sources in western regions, while arson drove fire activity east of the Mississippi River.

Fire weather is becoming more common, and human activities are the main cause. Although some variations in the weather are natural, human-caused climate change is making some locations much warmer and drier, increasing the risk of wildfires. In the Western U.S., the amount of summertime precipitation has the biggest effect on how much land area is burned in a given year. Historical efforts to reduce all wildfires led to decades of fire suppression, which has caused a buildup of fuels in some forests. This combination of fuel build-up and warmer, drier conditions increases the potential for extreme fires.

Between 1992 and 2015 humans were the dominant source of wildfire ignitions in the southeast United States. However, the annual burn area of these wildfires is still linked to environmental conditions that allow fuels to ignite and wildfires to spread. In the west, 70% of the area burned is from lightning‐ignited wildfires (n = 217,187) and 30% is from human‐ignited wildfires (n = 350,412).

Much more often, fires are ignited by people - on average, 85% of wildfires reported nationally each year are human-caused. Certain causes come up time and again, and fire investigators become familiar with them. Other common causes include various powerline failures, debris burning, escaped campfires, shooting, and fireworks.

Nationally, there were 77,850 wildfires reported in 2025, compared to 67,897 wildfires reported in 2024. Reported wildfires consumed 5,131,474 acres, compared to 8,924,884 acres in 2024. In 2025, the Southern California Geographic Area accounted for the highest number of structures destroyed, totaling 16,324.

Nearly 85 percent* of wildland fires in the United States are caused by humans. Human-caused fires result from campfires left unattended, the burning of debris, equipment use and malfunctions, negligently discarded cigarettes, and intentional acts of arson. Lightning is one of the two natural causes of fires.

Over the last several decades, climate conditions, especially in the western United States, have grown hotter and drier. If climate change continues to play out as predicted, the likelihood of wildfires will worsen. We have learned that fire is an important part of many ecosystems. It “cleans out” dead leaves and branches, adds nutrients to the soil, and helps the seeds of some plants to sprout.

Wildfire business was minimal most of February, with most wildfires arising during the first week of the month. The daily wildfire ignition average during February was less than one, which is less than the February 2008-2025 daily ignition average of nearly two. No significant fires were reported during February.

Dry wind events, lightning, and potential heat waves are expected to be the primary triggers for large wildfires statewide. CAL FIRE investigators identify the causes of wildfires in California, which can include lightning, power lines, equipment use, arson, vehicles, and escaped debris burns, among others. These causes are documented in incident reports and statistics that help guide prevention efforts.

We also note that there are no known natural ignition sources at this time of year in the region, so the fires were almost certainly started by human activity of some kind. In this sense, the human origin of the fires is indisputable. But we will leave to others to ascertain what led to the fires’ initiation, and focus on the climate and weather factors that allowed the fires to become so large and destructive. Based on current understanding of the importance of fuel moisture and fuel loads for wildfire behavior in grassland and chaparral ecosystems, we believe that the fires would still have been extreme without the climate change components noted above, but would have been somewhat smaller and less intense.

It's not known what sparked the wildfires in Maui, although some evidence points to downed power lines. Social media, however, has been flooded with baseless claims suggesting that the fires are suspicious and appear planned, with some posts repurposing or altering photos or video clips of other events to falsely suggest the fires were the result of laser beams or other weapons.

Bryant University Biological and Biomedical Sciences Lecturer Robert Patalano, Ph.D., notes that, according to a World Weather Attribution scientific report, the LA wildfires were approximately 35 percent more likely to occur because of man-made climate change from the burning of fossil fuels; the excessive buildup of dead plant matter also resulted in the fires being 6 percent more intense. “The combination of dried vegetation, prolonged drought, and rising temperatures caused the January 2025 wildfires to burn at unprecedented intensity,” Patalano says.

A Threads post claimed that "blue items that survive" the California wildfires are "indicative of DEW's (Directed Energy Weapons)." However, directed energy weapons powerful enough to spark fires wouldn't spare items from destruction just because they are blue, and wildfires do not leave a uniform pattern of total devastation.

There is no evidence to support claims that huge fires in Lahaina, Hawaii, and Paradise, California, were caused by “directed-energy weapons.” The 2018 Camp Fire in California was started by a faulty electric transmission line, and while the cause for the Hawaii fire is still under investigation, experts suggest dry conditions and high winds were factors.

Wildfires tore through the Los Angeles area this January, displacing tens of thousands of people and claiming at least 29 lives as of Feb. 4. While California is no stranger to summer wildfires, this January outbreak was an extreme outlier, fueled by unusually severe fire weather conditions across the state's southern region. It is a stark reminder that climate change is making wildfires more frequent, intense and destructive than ever before.

A video shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Aug. 13, 2023, by user Jacob Conterio, claimed, “Maui was attacked by directed energy weapons (dews).” Another Weibo post stated, “The Hawaiian fire is getting weird, and the Maui police chief said the trees were intact, but the metal was melted, so it was likely an attack from directed energy weapons.”

As deadly wildfires devastated a wide area of Los Angeles in early 2025, social media posts claimed that directed energy weapons ignited the blazes — a conspiracy theory shared around similar disasters. But experts said the flames were fanned by unusually strong Santa Ana winds and dry conditions, and no evidence has linked the outbreaks to experimental energy weapons.