[For LoCO’s chronological list of fire updates, go here.]

This photo is going viral on Facebook right about now:

Impressive, right? Shared yesterday by Millbrae resident Kenneth Morando, the shot, which is rapidly approaching 15,000 shares, has prompted exclamations such as, “Oh shit!,” “OMG no way!” and “Holy crap that is unreal.”

Which is correct. It is unreal. Or, rather, the photo is real, but it depicts neither Clearlake nor “right now,” as the caption claims. 

Here’s the image on the National Geographic website. Near Lake Arrowhead. 2004.

Sometimes the Internet isn’t true.

UPDATE: CalFire has a blog post with more info about the original fire, which burned the hills above San Bernardino in October 2003. At least five people in the burn evacuation area died from heart attacks. The blaze was started by an arsonist named Rickie Lee Fowler, who was sentenced to death a decade later. 

It’s perhaps an ironic twist, given the reemergence of this photo, that the blaze was officially known as the “Old Fire.”