04-02-2025
Fact Check: Photo shows North Carolina house burned, not TV show location in LA
A photo of a house in North Carolina that caught fire in 2007 has been miscaptioned online as showing a location from the television show "Hannah Montana" purportedly destroyed by the Los Angeles fires in January 2025.
The LA property used in the TV show that starred singer Miley Cyrus was not affected by the recent fires in and around the city, according to its property manager.
An example, opens new tab of the posts on Threads shows an image of the real "Hannah Montana" house intact alongside a picture of the charred North Carolina beach house and the caption, "Hannah Montana's Malibu beach house has officially been destroyed in the palisadesfire."
The wildfires in Los Angeles, which began on Jan. 7, have left at least 29 people, opens new tab dead and damaged or destroyed more than 16,000 structures.
Media outlets including the Los Angeles Times, opens new tab, Deadline, opens new tab and the portal Film Threat, opens new tab have reported on locations that have appeared in film and television productions and were damaged or destroyed by the California wildfires, but Hannah Montana's house does not appear in the reports.
The house where the show's protagonist lived is located at 30760 Broad Beach Road in Malibu, California, according to the website, opens new tab Internet Movie Database.
Malibu Luxury, a vacation homes site, opens new tab, as well as Google Maps and Google Earth, opens new tab show images of the property. As of Jan. 31, the closest fire, the Palisades fire, was about 10 miles, opens new tab (16.1 km) from the location.
Malibu Luxury said in a Facebook message that the house 'was not destroyed.'
The burned house in the image shared online appears in an Oct. 29, 2007, report published by NBC-affiliate WRAL, opens new tab about a house fire in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, where seven students died.
The Associated Press, opens new tab and Getty Images, opens new tab agencies published other photographs about the case where the same affected home, opens new tab with a damaged red van parked on the right side can be seen.
VERDICT
Miscaptioned. The photo shows a house destroyed by fire in North Carolina in 2007, not a Malibu beach house used as a location in the 'Hannah Montana' television show.
