--- title: "Calm Down About the Area 51 Fire, People" description: "A large wildfire touched down earlier this week near Nevada's mysterious Area 51 Air Force base — and naturally, the rumor mill is churning." date: "2025-07-17" modified: "2025-07-17" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/area-51-fire" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "air force" - "area 51" - "military base" - "wildfires" --- # Calm Down About the Area 51 Fire, People ![A large wildfire touched down earlier this week near Nevada's mysterious Area 51 Air Force base — and naturally, the rumor mill is churning.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* A large wildfire torched up this week near Nevada's mysterious Area 51 Air Force base — and naturally, the rumor mill is churning. As the [*Daily Mail* reports](), the blaze near the highly-classified base was sparked by the [so-called Gothic Fire](), a massive wildfire that broke out some 20 miles away from the base and has since burned through tens of thousands of acres of desert. EWU Crew, a livestream based in the nearby town of Rachel, Nevada that watches the Air Force base around the clock, [captured video of a massive plume]() of smoke unfurling over Area 51. Soon after, conspiracists began to speculate about what they believed might *really* be happening there. "Look to lame contrived bullshit like this to distract from Trump / Epstein Files," [one user posted on X](). "Just release the Files." "Locals said they heard a boom and don't believe the official story," [another account claimed](). To be fair, recent reporting has revealed that there's good reason to be suspicious of any official narratives out of Area 51. In a wild new exposé last month, the [*Wall Street Journal* reported]() that years ago, an Air Force colonel gave out [photos of a fake flying saucer]() at a bar near the Air Force base — likely in an effort to obfuscate the testing of actual experimental aircraft in the area. So rampant were these conspiracy theories that a reader-submitted note explaining that the smoke was the result of the Gothic Fire was affixed to the bottom of one of the posts of the EWU Crew footage. In its reporting on the blaze, the *Daily Mail* noted that the Gothic Fire — which is still burning, [per the Watch Duty wildfire-tracking app](), and is currently about 35,000 acres in size — gained traction as it spread through the heat and low humidity of northern Nevada. The tabloid also pointed out that the area surrounding the classified base is full of burnable vegetation, including [pinyon pines](), juniper trees, and [Joshua trees](). Indeed, [data compiled]() by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) listed timber as the primary fuel method, which is now about 20 percent contained. Despite its massive size, [per the Bureau of Land Management](), there have been no evacuations ordered for the Gothic Fire because it broke out in such a remote part of the Nevada desert. **More on blazes:** [*Millions Of Americans Are Being Advised Not To Go Outside*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()