Joe Biden has repeated an exaggerated story about how a house fire in 2004 nearly killed his wife Jill, their cat and destroyed his Corvette — even though the fire was far smaller.
The president, 81, shared the allegation while campaigning in Michigan on Thursday for the upcoming presidential election.
He told a crowd that the fire department once ‘saved my wife, saved my cat and saved my Corvette’ while battling a fire at his home in Delaware after a lightning strike.
But Biden’s home suffered a ‘small fire contained to the kitchen’, according to reports at the time, and firefighters were able to bring it under control in just 20 minutes.
He has now told the exaggerated story at least seven times as president, including in August after the devastating wildfires in Hawaii that killed 101 people.
Joe Biden has repeated an exaggerated story about how a house fire he suffered in 2004 nearly killed his wife Jill, their cat and destroyed his Corvette, even though the fire was much smaller
The president, 81, has told the story at least seven times as president, including in August after the devastating wildfires in Hawaii that killed 101 people
Biden repeated the exaggerated story to a small group of people in Michigan during his campaign.
He sparked controversy after he made the announcement during a visit to Hawaii in August, when the state suffered the deadliest wildfire on record in American history.
“I don’t want to compare hardships, but we have a little sense, Jill and I, of what it’s like to lose a home,” Biden said.
‘Years ago, now 15 years ago, while I was in Washington doing Meet The Press, it was a sunny Sunday and lightning struck at home on a small lake outside our home – not a lake, a pond.’
He said the spark went through the wiring and into the heating ducts and into the kitchen.
‘To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my 67 Corvette and my cat.
Biden repeated the exaggerated story to a small group of people in Michigan during his campaign
He told the audience that the fire department once ‘saved my wife, saved my cat and saved my Corvette’ while battling a fire at his home in Delaware after a lightning strike
‘But all kidding aside – I watched the firefighters, the way they reacted.’
It’s an anecdote Biden often tells in times of tragedy, and he made similar comments to Hurricane Idalia victims in August.
While at a conference for firefighters in March, he said: ‘Lightning struck a pond behind my house, went up under the duct and caught – caught fire under the floorboards of my house.
‘It was during the summer. Air conditioning was on. Smoke so thick all three floors.
‘My fire company was there to go in and save my wife, get her out; the cat; and my ’67 Corvette.’
Biden sparked controversy after he made the remark during a visit to Hawaii in August after the state suffered the deadliest wildfire recorded in US history
While in October 2021 he made the bizarre claim that they almost lost a couple of firefighters in the kitchen fire. Pictured: Biden speaks during a visit to the Philadelphia Fire Department in December
But in October 2021, he made the bizarre claim that they almost lost a couple of firefighters in the kitchen fire.
“We almost lost a couple of firefighters, they tell me, because the kitchen floor burned between joists in the house, and it almost collapsed into the basement,” he said at a fire prevention summit.
In November 2021, he told an infrastructure event: ‘I know, having had a house burnt down with my wife in it – she got out safely, God willing – that having a significant part of it burnt, I can tell you: 10 minutes makes a hell of a difference.’
But the accounts of Cranston Heights Fire Company Chief George Lamborn are much less dramatic.
“Fortunately, we got it pretty early,” he said at the time. ‘The fire was under control in 20 minutes.’
Firefighters reached heavy smoke but were able to contain the flames inside the kitchen.