FIRE! IN THE WHITE HOUSE!

There was a fire in the White House. On Wednesday morning 1,000 federal workers ran for safety because of the fire in Vice President Dick Cheney’s ceremonial suite in the historic Eisenhower Executive Office Building across from the West Wing. Mr. Cheney was not there when the fire started. The fire started about 9:15 a.m. He and President was in the White House Situation Room for an intelligence briefing. They were told about the fire when they returned to the Oval Office, and later went outside together to shake the hands of firefighters who had stoped the fire. There were no serious injuries only one person, a marine, got cuts when he punched his hand through a fifth-floor window to escape.

During the War of 1812 the White House was not the White House yet. The British burned the President's House down. The building was recovered. Most of the building was black from when teh British burned it down, and it was painted white. That is how twh White House got its name.