Biden uses small fire to try and relate to Maui victims

President Joe Biden visited the fire-ravaged remains of Maui, where he recalled the story of how his home almost burned to the ground 15 years ago. According to Biden, a lightning strike sparked a fire which spread to the air conditioning ducts and threatened to consume the entire house. "I don’t want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense, Jill and I, of what it was like to lose a home," Biden said, referring to he and his wife. "Years ago, now, 15 years, I was in Washington doing ‘Meet the press’… Lightning struck at home on a little lake outside the home, not a lake a big pond. It hit the wire and came up underneath our home, into the…air condition ducts." Regarding the fire, Biden confirmed it threatened to burn down his house, along with his wife, his 67 Corvette, and his cat. A press report from 2004 archived by LexisNexis backed up Biden's claims, saying firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the kitchen after 20 minutes. Since then, Biden has brought up the story numerous times, including during a speech in New Hampshire about the bipartisan infrastructure plan. "Without this bridge, as I said earlier, it’s a 10-mile detour just to get to the other side. And I know, having had a house burn down with my wife in it – she got out safely, God willing – that having a significant portion of it burn, I can tell: 10 minutes make a hell of a difference," he said.