Fabricated story fantasizes about Maui gunfight between U.S. Marine Corps and FEMA agents

Did you miss the news about an epic Maui gunfight between the U.S. Marine Corps and Federal Emergency Management Agency employees? 

So did we. 

But an image of what looks like a news headline is circulating on social media and drawing questions about “what is really going on in Maui,” as one recent instagram post that has since been deleted asked. 

Other posts on Facebook featured screenshots of the headline and accompanying story. 

“Marines neutralize fleeing FEMA convoy in Maui,” the headline says. 

But the story originated on Real Raw News, a site that regularly publishes fabricated stories and has a caveat on its “about us” page that its content includes satire.

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Real Raw News published the headline Aug. 20, along with a story citing an anonymous source that recounted Marines “opening fire on federal forces,” a Black Hawk helicopter that fell into a Hawaiian crater and FEMA agents who “fell like dominos” (and misspelled dominoes.)

A Defense Department spokesperson told PolitiFact, “There is no truth to this claim.” 

We found no credible news stories or other sources to suggest otherwise. 

We rate this claim Pants on Fire!