Electrical fire burns Sharpton's headquarters
NEW YORK (AP) — An electrical fire spread through the headquarters of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network on Wednesday, gutting a reception hall one day after Sharpton formally became a Democratic presidential contender in 2004.
Fire investigators were focusing on an extension cord as the cause of the Wednesday morning blaze, Chief Fire Marshal Louis Garcia said. The cord may have been hooked up to a computer, fire officials said.
The fire was reported at about 8:30 a.m. on the second floor of the three-story building in Harlem. Fire officials said the reception hall where Sharpton holds weekly rallies and news conferences was gutted. The fire also spread to the third floor, occupied by the Israeli Church of UPK... Officials said an office where the group's financial records are kept was mostly spared in the fire.
Sharpton spokeswoman Rachel Noerdlinger said the fire was discovered by a National Action Network office manager who had unlocked the office about 8 a.m., then heard a popping noise and smelled smoke.
On Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had joined Sharpton at the offices for a forum commemorating the life of the slain civil rights leader.
Evidently this isn't the first time there was a fire in his office. Similar thing happened when he was going to run for Mayor. The New York Times ran a story (1/24/03) entitled "Sharpton Fire Is Spawning Conspiracy Theory" that mentions the first fire.
With events such as these, it's easy to see how conspiracy theories get started, and I'm sure I have just contributed to that kind of thinking by highlighting the mention that Hillary was in Al's office a couple days before the fire. Probably brushed her big ol' hips right up against that computer cord and caused it to short out, eh? LOL