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Fire is a real fear for families living in temporary homes in Colombo, so footage of a blaze travels fast. On 13 October 2026, a sudden fire destroyed temporary houses near the old railway line at Mahawatta, Grandpass. Soon after, a dramatic video of a fire tearing through a block of two-storey houses was shared as footage from that incident. Here are the posts that carried it.
Social Media Posts
The video was posted on social media with the claim that it showed a fire in an area of temporary housing at Mahawatta, Grandpass, Colombo.
Fact-Check
Mainstream media confirmed the Grandpass fire, but the viral video was not in their footage
A sudden fire did break out near the old railway line at Mahawatta, Grandpass, Colombo, at about 2.15 p.m. on 13 October 2026. Ada Derana reported that 15 unauthorised temporary houses were completely destroyed and that about 21 houses in the area were affected. Mainstream media outlets, including Ada Derana and Hiru News, reported damage to property. Ada Derana’s reporter and Hiru News (English), citing police, said no deaths or injuries were reported.
Mainstream media also showed footage of Colombo Mayor Vraie Cally Balthazaar visiting the site to inspect the damage. In Ada Derana’s video of the visit, residents rejected temporary solutions and asked for proper houses.
We examined the genuine videos of the incident published by mainstream media. The video shared on social media did not appear in any of them.
The viral video was filmed during a fire in Manado, Indonesia
We turned several scenes from the viral video into still images and ran reverse image searches. They led us to a Facebook page called Vay Nando Mandey, which had posted the same video on 12 October 2026, a day before the Grandpass fire.
<iframe src=”https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=476&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Freel%2F2290731871478573%2F&show_text=true&width=264&t=0″ width=”264″ height=”476″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”true”></iframe>
Our further search showed that the video was filmed during a fire on Monday, 12 October 2026, at around 4.55 p.m. local time (WITA), in the Lorong Sakura area on Jalan Kembang, in Sario urban village, Sario district, Manado city, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Local media spell the street name differently, as Jalan Kembang (Lorong Sakura) or Jalan Sakura. Going by the reported local start times, the Manado fire began about a day before the Grandpass fire (own calculation). According to Kompas.com, Manado police said seven houses were affected, three of them burnt down and four damaged in the kitchen and living room, and that 11 families, about 60 people, were affected. Police reported no deaths, and 12 fire vehicles were deployed. The cause had not been confirmed, and police and the regional police identification team (Inafis) were set to investigate. ANTARA Foto’s caption said an electrical short circuit was suspected, but police had not confirmed a cause.
Two-storey houses in the viral video do not match the burnt shacks in Grandpass
Media reports describe the burnt homes in Grandpass as a row of unauthorised temporary houses, or shanties. The genuine footage of those houses showed no multi-storey buildings, only single-storey houses. The viral video, however, showed a fire in a housing block of two-storey houses.
The location of the fire in the viral video also looked completely different from the fire site in Grandpass.
https://srilanka.factcrescendo.com/tamil/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/image-28-1024×577.jpeg
Colombo journalists confirmed the video is wrong
We contacted regional journalists in Colombo about the video. They said it was wrong. According to them, the fire site in Grandpass had only temporary, hut-style houses, and those were the houses that burnt down. The journalists added that no lives were lost, but the cause of the fire had not yet been found.
No deaths or injuries were reported in the Grandpass fire
Media reports said no deaths or injuries were reported in the fire and
Grandpass Police told us during our inquiry that the cause of the fire had not yet been identified and that further investigations were under way. As of 15 October 2026, we found no published report naming a cause.
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Conclusion
Our research shows that the fire near the old railway line at Mahawatta, Grandpass, Colombo, on 13 October 2026 was real. News reported that 15 unauthorised temporary houses were completely gutted. However, the video shared on social media as footage of that fire is misleading.
The video actually shows a fire that broke out on Monday, 12 October 2026, in the Lorong Sakura area on Jalan Kembang, in Sario urban village, Sario district, Manado city, Indonesia. It had been posted on Facebook a day before the Grandpass fire. Manado police said seven houses there were affected and no deaths were reported.
Colombo regional journalists told us that only temporary huts burnt down in Grandpass. Media reports citing police said no lives were lost, and no cause of the fire had been announced as of 15 October 2026.
Title: This Grandpass Fire Video Is Misleading: Footage Is From Manado, Indonesia
Written By: Suji Shabeedhran
Result: Misleading
