Biden AGAIN thanks firefighters for saving his wife, dog, cat and Corvette in 2004 fire at his Delaware home – despite report it was ‘contained to the kitchen’ – as he announces $22m grant to reopen Philadelphia fire stations

President Joe Biden on Monday again repeated the exaggerated story that his Delaware home caught fire as he appeared at a Philadelphia fire station that was able to reopen thanks to a $22.4 million federal grant.

The president began his speech by praising the local fire company in Wilmington, Delaware, for helping him survive a snowstorm and get him to the hospital when he suffered a cranial aneurysm in 1988.

Biden told the crowd gathered at Staircase 1 in Philadelphia that he had “confession and full credit” that firefighters saved his life.

“They also saved my home and my wife’s life,” the president said, retelling a story that raised eyebrows among fact checkers. “And my wife was there, and my dog, and my cat, and my ’67 Corvette, but all jokes aside, they saved my wife, they got her out, they saved my house.”

The president described how lightning struck a pond behind his Wilmington home, struck a power line and rose three stories.

President Joe Biden has again told an exaggerated story about how firefighters saved his wife’s life during a 2004 house fire in Delaware. News reports at the time said there were no injuries and the fire was contained to one room.

The Bidens’ home in Wilmington, Delaware, caught fire in 2004 after lightning struck a pond behind it and ignited a wire running up the side of the house, the president said Monday. Fact checkers have previously accused him of inflating the story.

“And the smoke was literally so thick, literally so thick, you saw it, you guys saw it,” Biden said.

News reports about the 2004 fire noted that “there were no injuries and firefighters contained the fire to one room,” according to the report wilmington news magazine.

The article stated that “firefighters from the Cranston Heights, Talleyville, Ellesmere, Mill Creek and Hockessin fire companies arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the house.”

In August, The Washington Post reported this. that Biden has told the house fire story at least six times while president, including to victims of the Maui wildfires earlier that month.

The president also said Monday that Republican President Ronald Reagan was going to loan him a Marine jet so he could be flown to Walter Reed during the aneurysm scare, but a snowstorm prevented that.

“It was in the middle of a snowstorm. I’m not kidding. I couldn’t figure out how—President Reagan was kind enough to send the Air Force… Helicopter One to shoot me down, but we couldn’t fly,” Biden recalled, noting how he was transported by a local fire company instead.

At the time, the President was serving in the US Senate.

At Monday’s event, Biden again praised the firefighters gathered in the room, telling them they were “crazy” people.

President Joe Biden was in Philadelphia on Monday after a $22.4 million grant was used to open Ladder 1, which would have been the closest fire station if it were operational and serving the Fairmount area where 12 people died in a fatal shooting. house fire in January 2022.

“You are all crazy, you are all crazy, I love you for it,” the president said. “All my friends became either policemen or firefighters or priests, and here I am,” he laughs.

The president then recalled the January 2022 fire that killed 12 people in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood, including nine children.

A Christmas tree caught fire in a row house converted into apartments.

“If the company had not been taken out of service, the first ladder would have been the truck closest to the fire,” Biden said. “God knows if they could have gotten there sooner enough to save lives and respond and maybe save some lives.”

“And starting today, for the first time in nearly 15 years, the area once again has a ladder company on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, ready to keep them safe,” Biden said. “I kept my promise and got the job done.”

Two additional stations in Philadelphia, Engine 6 and Ladder 11, will also reopen using SAFER grant funds.

The dollars will go toward paying firefighters’ salaries and benefits.

“I think the worst thing a person can do is get into a fire,” the president also said. “Almost everything else is less important.”