evidence: Another post features one of the same images, with the caption: "California, Greece, Australia and now Maui fire were all started using direct energy lasers as shown in this photo". There is no evidence that a weapon or "direct energy laser" caused the recent wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, which at the time of writing had killed at least 110 people, or any other similar events this year in Europe and North Africa. [...] We have checked other baseless claims that the wildfires in Maui were caused by ‘directed energy weapons’. Misinformation can spread rapidly online in the midst of breaking news events like this, and it can be difficult to halt the spread of these false claims. We have seen this pattern of misinformation many times, with recent examples including multiple false claims about riots in France earlier this summer and the February earthquake in Turkey.