AFL-CIO Building, St. John's Church Set On Fire During Protests

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Emergency crews responded to multiple fires Sunday night during protests following the death last week of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

D.C. fire fighters and EMS crews responded to the AFL-CIO building at 16th and L Street NW after the building's sprinkler system was activated, according to spokesperson Vito Maggiolo. The sprinkler system was able to contain the fire until crews arrived to extinguish it, he said.

The fire was confined to a relatively small area of the lobby and there were no injuries reported.

"Prior to our arrival, the law enforcement, knowing that we needed to get to the scene, cleared the area for us so we could safely deal with the emergency so we did not have any interaction with protesters," Maggiolo said.

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a group of 55 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million working men and women to ensure all working people are treated fairly, with decent paychecks and benefits, safe jobs, dignity, and equal opportunities.

"I don't have to tell you what the mean and women of labor have meant to our country, and making our country a more fair place and now they are too responding to this type of vandalism," said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser

D.C. Fire and EMS, along with the Metropolitan Police, also responded to St. John's Episcopal Church in the 1500 block of H Street, NW, for a fire that had been set in the basement. According to police, the church has been standing in the city since the early 1800's.

"It appeared to me, looking at the furnishings that it was a nursery, or a room set aside for kids that was intentionally set and that does not advance the cause of the protesters," Bowser said. "That type of destruction is intolerable."