A fire broke out early Friday morning in Bowling Green (Kentucky) at the office of Sen. Rand Paul.
The roof collapsed, causing heavy structural damage. Fortunately, no one was injured. The incident occurred just before 2 am.
BG Fire crews still on scene at a structure fire on State Street. The building housed Sen. Rand Paul’s Bg office. Traffic is being detoured. Cause unknown as of 8:30 this morning. More to come. pic.twitter.com/6CoTdgBxH5
— Will Whaley (@Will_Whaley_) July 21, 2023
The gray smoke that emitted from the structure housing Paul’s Office, Kerrick Bachert’s law firm, and Dezign Tees, a custom shirt printing shop, had to compete against the sunrise on Friday.
The large branches in front of Paul’s office needed to be removed so that a hose would reach the windows on the second floor. The aerials on trucks 1 and 6 were manned by firefighters to attack the fires from above.
McKee said that nine units, including two deputy chiefs, and Bowling Green fire chief Justin Brooks, responded to the incident.
BREAKING: The fire department is reportedly on scene at Rand Paul’s (R-KY) office in Bowling Green, Kentucky after it caught fire overnight. (story is still developing) pic.twitter.com/UVI83A6Haw
— TexasLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) July 21, 2023
Several large tree limbs in front of Sen. Rand Paul’s office had to be cut so a hose could reach the 2nd floor windows. Six units worked to extinguish the flames, with firefighters manning the aerials of trucks 1 and 6 to get at the fire from above. (Bowling Green Daily) pic.twitter.com/80t9ChetHN
— TexasLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) July 21, 2023
Paul thanked the firefighters.
When asked for a comment, Paul replied: “We’re grateful for the Bowling Green firefighters who responded quickly to the fire scene and continue to work with the authorities to assess the damages and determine the cause.” “We have an emergency management plan that is well-established and we can continue our operations without affecting the work we do to help Kentuckians.”
Bowling Green Fire Department is currently investigating the fire.
Many people on social media wished Paul well. Some noted that this occurred a few days after Paul made a second referral to the Department of Justice in regards to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who lied to Congress by denying the NIH-funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan.
I’ve referred Anthony Fauci to the DOJ (again) for lying to Congress when he denied the NIH was funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan. Read more here: https://t.co/FgAo9cKbgF pic.twitter.com/BKL4XTNePT
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) July 18, 2023
Paul made a similar recommendation two years earlier, but, as we have seen, it didn’t appear to produce any results. We noted that at the time:
It seems that Dr. Anthony Fauci lied when he said in a Senate Hearing in May 2021, that the US was not funding gain-of-function research on coronaviruses. We have documented that NIH/NIAID grants were used to fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, through awards given by PREDICT and EcoHealth Alliance. This was also done through collaborative research undertaken by Dr. Ralph Baric from UNC-Chapel Hill with Dr. Shi Zhengli in Wuhan.
At this stage, the cause of the fire and the location where it started are not clear. The fire may have been related to Paul’s work, but we don’t yet know.
Paul has unfortunately been targeted in many situations in the past. He was attacked by a neighbor, he had been threatened by another person, and he received a shot during the attack at the GOP practice game for the Congressional Baseball Game.
