Russian consulate staff in San Francisco apparently burned something to keep it out of U.S. hands

Black smoke billows from a chimney on top of the Russian consulate on September 1, 2017 in San Francisco, California
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Employees of the Russian consulate in San Francisco used a fireplace to burn unknown items Friday, causing the building to emit black smoke from its chimney.

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When local firefighters showed up to investigate, presuming an emergency because the temperature outside was in the 90s, consulate staff turned them away and explained the smoke came from intentional fireplace use. The fire happened while consulate staff emptied the building in response to a White House order to vacate by Saturday in connection to rising tensions between Moscow and Washington.

U.S. agents are expected to search the facility Saturday and have already "search[ed] apartments in San Francisco used by Russian diplomats and their families," Politico reports, quoting Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.