Biden likens Maui wildfires to 'insignificant' kitchen fire in his home

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President Joe Biden told a group of Maui wildfire survivors that he could understand their pain because firefighters “ran into flames” at his own home to rescue First Lady Jill Biden.

The president was trying to make a connection with a community centre audience by talking about a small kitchen fire in 2004 at his Wilmington, Del., home, which fire officials said “could be considered an insignificant fire” because it was quickly put out.

“I don’t want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense — Jill and I — what it’s like to lose a home,” Biden told the Lahaina residents, whose town was destroyed on Aug. 8 in wildfires that killed at least 114 people.

“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,” Biden said.

“And it 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.”

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The president has told differing versions of the story in the past.

At a fire prevention convention in October, he said, “We almost lost a couple firefighters” during the blaze.

At an infrastructure event in 2021, he said he “had a house burn down with my wife in it.”

In a statement last year, Delaware’s Cranston Heights Fire Company said: “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.”

The group of Maui residents Biden spoke to didn’t take kindly to his house fire comparison.

Earlier in the day, the president was met by dozens of protesters who chanted “Go home, Joe” and held signs saying “No Comment” in reference to Biden’s refusal to comment on the disaster when asked last week about the mounting death toll.