Suspicious fires twice destroyed financial records of Reverend Al Sharpton ( pictured ) Suspicious fires twice destroyed the financial records of Reverend Al Sharpton , a report has claimed . The civil rights activist was running for office at the time of the fires , which were six years apart and in separate buildings in New York . It has been reported that Sharpton subsequently failed to comply with tax and campaign filing requirements . According to the National Review Online , the first fire happened in 1997 as Sharpton was running for mayor while the second happened while he was running for president in 2003 . The fires destroyed ‘ critical financial records ’ , the report said . The first blaze , on April 10 , 1997 - five days before Tax Day - started in a hair and nail salon below Sharpton ’ s headquarters at West 125th Street in New York and investigators treated it as an arson/explosion case . At the time , the Reverend ’ s spokesman said the campaign had lost its ‘ entire Manhattan operation ’ while the mayor at the time , Rudy Giuliani , said the investigation centred on the salon rather than Sharpton ’ s campaign . The National Review reports that Sharpton said he was unable to file certain financial documents and blamed the fire for the destruction of the records . On January 23 , 2003 , a fire caused extensive damage in the offices of his non-profit organisation National Action Network on Madison Avenue . It happened a day after Sharpton submitted documents to create a presidential exploratory committee , the website reports . Investigators initially treated the blaze as suspicious but later put it down to ‘ NFA ( Not Fully Ascertained ) – heat from electrical equipment ’ . But National Review Online reports that ‘ significant oddities ’ surrounded the fire and the investigation . The civil rights activist ( pictured ) was running for office at the time of the fires , which were six years apart and in separate buildings in New York . It quotes supervising fire marshal , James Kelty , who attended the scene , as saying that he found it ‘ unusual ’ when he was unexpectedly relieved from investigating the blaze . When Mr Kelty was told that the report into the fire was only six pages long with 38 pictures from the scene , he said that such a document would generally be ‘ much more exhaustive ’ given Sharpton ’ s high profile . The website also quotes sources about one of Sharpton ’ s former employees J. D. Livingston . It says Mr Livingston , who immigrated to the United States from Guyana , was first on the scene as the fire took hold . The report says Livingston claimed he was in a reception room when the fire broke out but that a major fire had developed by the time fire crews arrived . Civil rights activist Al Sharpton is pictured in April last year with US President Barack Obama . Mr Kelty is quoted as saying that this was ‘ odd ’ and ‘ not normal fire behaviour ’ . Mr Livingston is said to have had Sharpton ’ s lawyer with him when he was speaking to authorities . The report says that the maintenance man , who died in 2014 , had , at some point , been living in the US illegally . In an interview with the National Review Online , Sharpton confirmed that Mr Livingston had done some ‘ side work ’ with him , but dismissed allegations he was paying him ‘ under the table ’ . When asked whether the fires were a case of bad luck , NRO quotes Sharpton as saying : ‘ I would say that you could speak to people that would certainly , whoever they are , could have their views . ’
Reverend Al Sharpton was running for office at the time of both of the fires . 38 broke out below New York offices in 1997 as he was running for mayor . The second happened in 2003 at the offices of his National Action Network . Report suggests fires destroyed key financial records of civil rights activist .