Emergency responders arrived at the White House on Jan. 15 after a false report of a structural fire at the executive residence.
Noah Gray, spokesman for the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department, told NTD News that the city’s Office of Unified Communications received a 911 call at about 7:03 a.m. claiming that there was a structure fire at the White House.
He said fire and EMS companies were dispatched by 7:04 a.m. and, in coordination with the U.S. Secret Service, determined that there was no actual fire emergency. Mr. Gray said all companies returned to service by 7:16 a.m.
Asked for additional details about the incident, the Secret Service referred all questions to the D.C. Fire and EMS Department.
President Joe Biden was out of town during the false fire call, staying at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland at the time. The president continued on to Philadelphia on the morning of Jan. 15 and returned to the White House later in the afternoon, hours after the fire call.
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
Making a false emergency call with the intent to harass the targeted person is known as “swatting.” Swatting typically involves the making of a false report of an active threat of violence with the intent to prompt an armed law enforcement response. The behavior is called swatting because it can trigger a heavily armed response from police Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT, teams.
Swatting runs the risk of getting innocent people injured or killed by heavily armed law enforcement officers who respond to these emergency alerts expecting an active shooter or other deadly threat.
This was the case during a December 2017 incident in which an online argument over a video game resulted in a bogus call that saw police in Wichita, Kansas, called to a home where an officer fatally shot a homeowner who had no involvement in the online dispute. Tyler Barriss admitted in federal court to making the bogus police call and was sentenced in 2019 to 20 years in prison.
While a false call about a fire might not illicit an armed response, it could still be used to disrupt the actions of the targeted building or individuals and interfere with emergency response services.
Recent False Emergency Calls
The false fire call at the White House on Jan. 15 comes amid a string of false emergency reports targeting the homes of various political figures.Rep. Brandon Williams (R-N.Y.) also reported being targeted with an apparent swatting call on Christmas Day 2023, with the caller claiming that there had been a shooting at Mr. Williams’s residence.
The Naples, Florida, home of Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) was targeted with another bogus emergency call just two days later, on Dec. 27, 2023. During that incident, the caller similarly claimed that he had shot his wife three times with an AR-15-style rifle because he had found her sleeping with another man. The caller also said that he had a pipe bomb and would blow up the residence if someone didn’t bring him $10,000.
As in the call targeting Mr. Scott, the caller who had targeted Ms. Wu’s residence had also claimed that he had found his wife sleeping with another man and had shot her. Upon arriving at Ms. Wu’s home, responding officers quickly determined the incident to be a hoax.
