Emergency first responders arrived at the White House Monday morning after receiving a fake 911 call of a fire.
A little after 7 a.m., first responders from the District of Columbia’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department arrived at the White House in response to a call from a person claiming there was a fire with someone trapped inside, according to NBC News.
President Joe Biden was at Camp David at the time that emergency personnel arrived at the White House.
“At approximately 7:03 a.m., the Office of Unified Communications (OUC) received a 911 call for structure fire at the White House,” Noah Gray, the chief communications officer for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, told IJR.
DC Fire & EMS dispatched 13 units responding to a false report of a fire at the White House just after 7am today. President Biden was at Camp David and not at the WH at the time. Per 2 sources to me & @MacFarlaneNews, the callback number for the individual who called 911 was fake
— Sara Cook (@saraecook) January 15, 2024
“At 7:04 a.m., DC Fire and EMS was dispatched and in coordination with the United States Secret Service, it was determined there was no fire emergency,” Gray added. “All companies returned to service at 7:16 a.m.”
Biden was reported to be traveling to Philadelphia later in the day in order to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., who was born Jan. 15, 1929. The day is also commonly referred to as Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
While Biden was previously out of town, a driver was taken into custody after crashing his vehicle into the White House gates. During this time, Biden was traveling to Dallas, Texas, to pay respects to Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), who died Dec. 31.