The video showing the huge fire incident is from Idukki, Kerala, and not Bikaner!
The footage that purports to show water connection pipes in Bikaner, Rajasthan, catching fire is untrue.
Claim
Due to high temperature, water connection pipes caught fire in Bikaner, JCB narrowly escaped…!
Rating
Explanation
In the eighteen-second clip, a large open space with some enormous black pipes lying on the ground is seen. We can see a massive fire blazing in the midst of all of this, and some people are running here and there. A JCB excavator emerges from the fire just in time to avoid being caught in the pandemonium. This is where the video ends.
This post is shared with a claim stating, “Due to high temperature, water connection pipes caught fire in Bikaner, JCB narrowly escaped…!” You can view similar claim posts here and here.
बीकानेर में अधिक तापमान से जल कनेक्शन के पाइपों में लगी भीषण आग!!
JCB बाल बाल बची…!
pic.twitter.com/qRMiwMw4fL— Dr. Arunesh Kumar Yadav (डॉ अरुणेश यादव) (@YadavArunesh) May 26, 2024
What’s the truth?
Using pertinent keyword searches such as “JCB in between fire” and “JCB escapes huge fire,” we began our investigation. Additionally, we processed the viral keyframes using the reverse image search method. We found some news stories as a result of this.
The article, titled “Fire at Idukki Pooppara: Pipes worth Rs 2 crore gutted,” was published on March 1, 2024, on Manorama Online. The viral video’s screengrab was also included in this report.
According to the article “Pipes kept near Idukki Poopara village office for Rajakumari Jal Jeevan Mission clean water supply project were burnt. The preliminary conclusion of the water resources department is that the pipe worth more than two crore rupees has been destroyed by fire.”
The report continued by saying that a fire broke out in the High-Density Polyethylene (HDP) pipes at approximately 5:30 p.m. Nedumkandam and Munnar fire brigade units came on the spot around 7:30 am and extinguished the fire.
The majority of the pipes were burned. The irrigation department’s Kattappana Division officials stated that earthmoving equipment was used to remove the pipe valued at lakhs of rupees. The cause of the fire in this location is unclear.
Following this lead, we located a March 1, 2024, YouTube video that the channel 24 News posted about this same incident. The news article was released under the headline “Huge fire in Idukki Poopara: Plastic pipes burned.”
It is evident from the information above that Idukki, Kerala, and not Bikaner, is the source of the widely shared fire footage.
Conclusion:
Thus, we conclude that the viral claim stating that the fire broke out and destroyed water connection pipes in Bikaner is false. The incident is factual, but it happened in the Keralan town of Idukki and not in Rajasthan.
