A fire in Fox News’ D.C. studio forces Mike Pence and Newt Gingrich to evacuate and film across town

Jan. 20--Fox News nearly put Mike Pence on the hot seat.

A Sunday morning fire forced "Fox News Sunday" to shoot in a new location and take Vice President Pence and pundit Newt Gingrich along for the ride.

The conservative media outlet taped its weekly program at Fox 5's Friendship Heights office in D.C. while its Capitol Hill location extinguished an electrical fire.

"If things look a little bit different here today that's because of the fact that we had a fire -- yes, a fire -- in our building on North Capitol Street," host Chris Wallace said at the outset of the program.

Interestingly, the Fox News studio was damaged by a fire that started on the building's eighth floor, which hosts liberal-leaning MSBNC's offices.

C-Span's studios, also housed in 400 N. Capitol Street NW, endured "extensive damage" from the fire too, according to political editor Steve Scully. He tweeted C-Span endured "extensive smoke and water damage."

No injuries were reported to DC Fire and EMS, which confirmed sprinklers had been activated by the fire.

Once cameras started rolling, Wallace grilled Pence a bit about re-opening the Federal government, which has been partially shutdown since Dec. 22 as President Trump pushes for more than $5-billion to build a wall along the Mexican border with the U.S.

"The House passed bills to open the government tomorrow," he said. "Why don't you sign them and open the government and then you can negotiate about this?"

Pence pushed back that "Well, because, I mean, I mean, frankly Chris, what the American people want us to do is work on their priorities and the American people want us to secure the border."

Wallace accused the Trump administration of not wanting to give in and compromise political leverage.

While Fox News personalities Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro have drawn criticism for biased advocacy that includes the joining the President on the campaign trail, Wallace has been known to speak truth to power.

Earlier this month, he called out White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders for falsely implying terrorists were entering America because there was no border wall.

"The State Department says there hasn't been any terrorists found coming across the southern border," he said.

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