On Aug. 8, 2023, massive fires swept across the island of Maui, Hawaii, inspiring various conspiracy theories around the topic. Numerous social media users claimed that a book describing the fires was published before they happened, allegedly proving that the disaster was planned.

While a book titled “Fire and Fury: The Story of the 2023 Maui Fire and its Implications for Climate Change” indeed exists, it was not a predictive text. It was published on Aug. 10, 2023, two days after the wildfires broke out on the island. Additionally, the book did not contain any information that was not widely reported as of Aug. 10. For that reason, we rated this claim “False.”

Snopes has been on the fact-checking case. This has stemmed from Fire and Fury claiming to cover the events of August 8-11 while being published on August 10th.

Interestingly, Snopes does some analysis into the possibility it is the work of an AI. Take a look through the link and see what you think.

Snopes