A photo of a red-roofed house that was spared in the Hawaii wildfires in August has been miscaptioned online as evidence that celebrities intentionally changed their roofs prior to the fires to avoid destruction.

The claim ties into an online conspiracy theory that the fires were intentionally started using “Directed Energy Weapons” (DEW) such as lasers, and that these attacks don’t burn objects of a specific color. Online posts then claimed that celebrities had painted their Hawaii properties blue to spare them from damage, as laid out by PolitiFact.

The wildfires started on Aug. 8 on the Hawaiian island of Maui, leaving the historic resort town of Lahaina in ruins. Following the fires, multiple news outlets reported on the survival of a “miracle house,” owned by a Hawaii resident.

A post on social media said, in part: “OPRAH & MULTIPLE OTHER CELEBRITIES UPGRADED THEIR ROOFS ONLY MONTHS BEFORE THE MAUI FIRES.” The accompanying photo shows a white house with a red roof seemingly unscathed while surrounding houses were burned to the ground by the Maui blaze.

Although the roof in question was not the blue usually related to claims of DEW use, some user replies to the post suggested that it had been changed to avoid DEWs or lasers.

The aerial photo of the red-roofed house can be seen on Getty Images credited to AFP and described as showing the aftermath of the Maui wildfires in Lahaina on Aug. 10.

Another camera angle of the house is visible in an Aug. 19 article published by local news outlet Honolulu Civil Beat, which reported on the home located at 271 Front Street in Lahaina and owned by Trip and Dora Millikin.

Millikin is a retired portfolio manager, according to interviews provided in August to NPR and the Los Angeles Times, which also reported on the surviving house.

Millikin and his wife Dora bought the house in 2021, according to the news reports. They completed a restoration project on the house in 2022, which included replacing five layers of asphalt on the roof with metal, removing all vegetation at the ground level and adding a stone buffer, the NPR article said.

When asked what he thought had spared their house, Trip told NPR he thought it was these changes and good fortune that helped spare his property.

A photo of the Millikins’ house prior to the restoration can be seen on Google Maps.

“Everybody’s calling it ‘the miracle house’,” Trip was quoted as saying to NPR. “As soon as we can, we want to open it to our neighborhood and open it to everybody who worked on it, as a base to help rebuild our part of Lahaina.”

Trip Millikin did not immediately respond to a request for comment via LinkedIn.

VERDICT

Miscaptioned. The photo shows a surviving house from the Maui wildfires owned by a Hawaii resident.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

A host of well-known rugby players, footballers, boxers and reality TV stars are among the laundry list of celebrities heading to Neath next month to take part in a charity football match. Organised by Swansea resident Dan Richards and Love Island’s Jake Cornish, the aptly-named ‘Celebrity Football Match’ will take place on October 1 and will see more than 30 celebs dust off their football boots and take to the field at The Gnoll sports ground in Neath.

The event aims to raise awareness and funds for the Swansea Veterans Hub, a community interest company which supports local veterans with their mental health and wellbeing. It is the third celebrity football match Dan has organised, coming after a brilliant event in 2019 in memory of Swansea City fan and dad-of-one Mitchell Powell, who sadly died after he went into cardiac arrest while undergoing double heart valve replacement surgery, and a popular ‘Sellebrity Soccer’ game in memory of Call Centre star Nev Wilshire last May.

“In 2020, in lockdown, I started doing runs for charity. I’d share my progress on social media and raised money for the British Heart Foundation,” ,” Dan explained. “Jake Woods, the actor from EastEnders, found out about it and he and Danny Dyer actually phoned me – it was so funny because when they rung me I thought it was the boys [my friends] just pranking me, but it was actually Jake and Danny. They said they wanted to get involved and we came up with the idea of a charity football match. The first one in 2019 was in memory of Mitchell Powell, then I organised another one last year.” For the latest Neath Port Talbot news, sign up to our newsletter here

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At the time of the event in memory of Mitchell Powell, Dan said: “I play football in the local leagues in Swansea and Mitchell was heavily involved with Maltsters Sports AFC. I wasn’t friends with him, but I played against his team and often saw him stood on the side-lines. Over the last couple of months, we’ve done lots of charity events for Mitchell’s family. I’m running the London and Florida marathons to help raise money in his memory but I also thought I would like to organise a charity football match.

“I got in touch with Sellebrity Soccer who have helped us and they said a number of celebrities would be keen to be involved because they have connections to heart charities. Mitchell raised so much money for the British Heart Foundation and other charities. It was remarkable what he did and he always kept a smile on his face even with all he went through. I always believe in giving back and I knew we had to keep Mitchell’s legacy going. Hopefully it will live on and he can continue to help people even though he’s no longer here.”

This year’s event is being held in aid of Swansea Veterans Hub as Dan and business partner Jake Cornish wanted to support a local charity which helps veterans with their mental health. “My father used to be in the army and he came back here when I was 12 or 13 – I just saw how much being in the army affected him and his mental health,” Dan said.

“And one of my best mates did two tours in Afghan and Iraq and he just wasn’t the same person when he came home.. He’s okay now, because of the support he’s had, but he just wasn’t the same when he came home – he’d obviously seen some stuff and some of it he couldn’t even tell us about. So I chose this charity as they support veterans with their mental health and I could see how important that support is.”

Explaining how he’s managed to get so many great names to sign up to the event (scroll down for the full list), Dan added: “This year I’ve started a company with Jake Cornish from Love Island and so when we were first talking about having another celebrity football match, he was able to use his contacts to invite the celebrities to come. A lot of the celebrities coming do a lot to support veterans’ charities so when we told them that this was to raise money for a charity supporting veterans they were really happy to get involved.”

“Gerwyn Price, the darts player, used to play rugby for Neath so we’ve got him as one of our team captains, and the other team captain will be rugby player James Hook. The other celebrities will make up the teams,” he added.

Who’s playing in the Celebrity Football Match in Neath?

• Gerwyn Price – Darts player and former rugby player
• James Hook – Rugby player

• Paul James – Rugby player

• Josh Navidi – Rugby player

• Tom Williams – Rugby player

• Luke and Tom Stoltman – ‘The World’s strongest brothers’ weightlifters

• James Lilley – MMA fighter

• Ebanie Bridges – Boxer

• Martin Murray – Boxer

• Leon Britton – Footballer and coach

• Lee Trundle – Footballer
• Liv Cooke – Footballer
• Jazz Richards – Footballer
• Scott Murray – Footballer

• Wayne Routledge – Footballer

• Lewis Leigh – Footballer

• Danny Graham – Footballer
• James Jones – Footballer
• Shaun MacDonald – Footballer
• Joe Skipper – Triathlete
• Brett Johns – Mixed martial artist
• Matthew Pritchard – Skateboarder and stunt performer
• Kym Marsh – Singer and Actress (Hear’Say, Coronation Street, Waterloo Road)

• Travis George – Singer and Britain’s Got Talent finalist

• Andrew ‘Biggie’ Morris – Viral video creator turned musician

• Nicola McLean – Model and Television personality (Celebrity Big Brother, I’m A Celeb)

• Jake Cornish – Reality TV star (Love Island 2021)
• Danny Bibby – Reality TV star (Love Island 2021)
• Tyler Cruikshank – Reality TV star (Love Island 2021)

• Callum MacLeod – Reality TV star (Love Island 2019)

• Joe and Nicole Sealey – Reality TV stars (The Real Housewives of Cheshire)

Further names to be added in the coming weeks

OTB Promotions ‘Celebrity Football Match’ is taking place at The Lextan Gnoll, Neath Rugby Club SA11 3AW on October 1, 2023. Doors open at 12pm, with kick-off at 3pm. Anyone who is interested in sponsoring a player and having their business advertised on the matchday kit is invited to contact organisers OTB Promotions.

Tickets for the football match can be purchased online from DerricksMusic.co.uk here. General admission is £10 per person, or you can pay £35 for a VIP ticket featuring a ‘meet and greet’.