(SFGate) - It may be months before fire investigators are able to determine what caused the devastating and deadly Wine Country fires. But that didn't stop multiple fake news sites from spreading conspiracy theories about causes, even as firefighters are still working to contain the fires. 

Fact-checking website Snopes has already debunked one popular rumor: that the fires were "started by Mexican drug cartels in order to gain a strategic advantage over the legal marijuana industry."

The GotNews.com article purporting that theory only cites "law enforcement authorities," "senior Department of Homeland Security officials" and "key people within the legal marijuana business." The story doesn't contain a single quote or named source. 

The site also claims the fires' timing was "suspicious," because most wildfires in California "usually occur in December and January, not October." But as Snopes points out, that's simply not true. More fires have burned in October than December or January almost every year of the past decade, as shown by California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection data.