Firefighter Antonio was injured saving a child from a fire?

The fires that broke out in early August prompted numerous social media posts about the issue. Some included alleged testimonies and stories from firefighters.

One such post is the story of Antonio , a firefighter from Valencia (whose nationality is unknown), Spain. According to the social media post, he was seriously injured while saving a child from a burning apartment.

“He ran into a burning apartment — not because he had to, but because a child was screaming,” the post reads, indicating that Antonio “saved that child” and brought that “life back.”

However, this fire, which the publications never specify where it started, made him pay a price: "His hand, his skin, his breath." Antonio was reportedly seriously injured and is now "in the hospital" after saving the child from the burning apartment.

"His wife and children are crying at his bedside. He's still alive, but barely," continues the post, which features a photo of the alleged firefighter in a hospital bed with a picture of a child in his hands. "This photo isn't an advertisement. It's not a movie. It's the truth. The price some pay to save someone else's child."

The publication also praises Antonio's "courage" in "saving" the child's life and "how much pain" he left behind. "A prayer for Antonio. And for all who pay with their bodies for our safety."

In Portugal, since the August fires began, several firefighters have been injured. One of them, who was fighting the flames in Sabugal, in the Guarda district, died after battling the fires. Additionally, in Coimbra, a firefighter is hospitalized in serious condition after suffering burns in the Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo fire.

Publicly, there is no report in the Portuguese media, nor in any official source, that there is a firefighter named Antonio who came from Valencia to fight a fire in an apartment.

In fact, the image of this firefighter is the same as that circulating in other social media posts. In these posts, the alleged firefighter's name wasn't Antonio, but Tiago . And there's a parallel between the stories: if Antonio had saved a child from a burning apartment, Tiago had rescued a child inside a car in a burning area.

Observador had already classified the story of the alleged firefighter Tiago as false, with no basis for the rumors circulating on social media. The same applies to Antonio: there is no information to prove his existence or the reliability of his story.

Fact Check. A firefighter recounts how he saved a child and how he saw a man die during the fireworks.

Additionally, several artificial intelligence detectors indicate that the photo of the alleged firefighter Antonio was generated, with a high degree of probability, using artificial intelligence, as was the case with Tiago's.

Conclusion

There is no basis for the story circulating on social media that a firefighter named Antonio from Valencia was seriously injured after saving a child from a burning apartment. It's highly likely that the photo in the posts was generated by artificial intelligence. There are also several parallels (such as the alleged firefighter's face) with the case of Tiago, another fake firefighter story that has already been classified as false by Observador.

So, according to the Observer's rating system, this content is:

WRONG

In Facebook's rating system , this content is:

FALSE : The content's main claims are factually inaccurate. This option typically corresponds to "false" or "mostly false" ratings on fact-checking websites.