Biden Compares Deadly Maui Wildfires to 2004 Home Fire That Authorities Called ‘Insignificant’: ‘I Don’t Want to Compare Difficulties, But…’
President Joe Biden assured the people of Maui that he could relate to their experience with the deadliest wildfires in modern American history on Monday.
“I don’t want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense — Jill and I — what it’s like to lose a home,” began Biden. “Years ago now — 15 years ago — I was in Washington doing Meet the Press. It was a sunny Sunday and lightning struck at home on a little lake that is outside of our home — not on a lake, a big pond, and hit a wire and came up underneath our home into the heating ducts, air conditioning ducts. And to make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ’67 Corvette and my cat.”
“They [firefighters] ran into flames to save my wife, and save my family,” he continued.
He previously claimed in 2021 that he “had a house burn down with my wife in it” and that “we almost lost a couple firefighters” during the incident in October 2022.
Biden’s telling of the story can be contrasted with contemporaneous press reports and the account of the fire department that responded to the incident.
According to the Associated Press, “firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the house, but were able to keep the flames from spreading beyond the kitchen.”
Cranston Heights Fire Company Chief George Lamborn said that the department “got it pretty early.”
“The fire was under control in 20 minutes.” he added.
Last, year, the department felt compelled to release another statement responding to the president’s embellishments:
For the fire service, this could be considered an insignificant fire as it did not lead to multiple alarms and did not need a widespread incident response throughout the county. However, in the case for any homeowner, it was obviously significant at the time and was quickly responded to by the local firefighters.
At least 115 people have been confirmed to have died in Maui. Over 800 are still missing.
