evidence: There were many more such posts, all of which shared this same glaring attribute: a complete lack of evidence in support of the notion that the fires were caused by any sort of attack, much less an attack by a "direct energy weapon." (What is a "direct energy weapon"? The devices most often mentioned in discussions of this type of weaponry are lasers and microwaves. You may recall internet chatter about "space lasers" in the aftermath of the 2020 California wildfires, which some people claimed were indeed caused by direct energy weapons.) The image of choice in many of these posts was a photograph showing what appeared to be a beam of light descending from the heavens and bursting into flame upon contact with the Earth's surface. Though the clear implication was that this photograph was taken in Maui in 2023 and shows the "direct energy weapon" in action, it has actually been circulating on the internet since at least January 2018 and has nothing to do with lasers or wildfires. As Snopes reported in 2018, the photograph is one of many documenting a controlled burn that occurred at an Ohio oil refinery that January. The apparent "beam of light" seen in the pictures is a cold-weather visual phenomenon known as a "light pillar." [...] A similar rumor falsely described a 2018 video of electrical explosions in Kenner, Louisiana, as evidence that the Maui wildfires were started by directed energy weapons.