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Having spent more time than I care to admit prowling the halls and (before it was placed off limits to "terrorists" like me) riding the peculiar mini-subway in the bowels of Capitol Hill, I can tell you a little about the layout.
Capitol Hill is best likened to a vast rabbit warren. The Capitol building itself used to serve as a central nexus of a series of underground hallways, offices, and storage rooms which connect the House Offices, the Senate Offices, the Library of Congress, and the Supreme Court. There is, supposedly, another set of light rail lines which connect to Federal Triangle, the FBI, the Department of the Treasury, the White House and Union Station--but I never went to any of those places underground.
The Rayburn building is the largest House office building. Its underground section is almost certainly far larger than the building itself, as the building is on a triangular block. Down there you can find a couple of huge cafeterias, a pretty good barber shop, a credit union, a gift shop, and who knows what else. A fire "in" the Rayburn building could be anywhere underground within a hundred yards of the building itself. One thing the complex does not lack for is a sprinkler system which undoubtedly could water a 36 hole golf course in the Sahara.
I have to admit that back in the day, things were pretty damned ridiculous. Congress, temporarily recognizing that the entire complex was owned by the American people, let pretty much anyone and everyone in. I've ridden the subway with Senators and had my shoes shined alongside Representatives. There was no possible way to accurately track anyone--cameras were few and far between, officers on duty were fewer. And of course, every Member's office was open most of the time. I was a guy with long hair, which automatically won me special attention--I used to joke that I was the best-protected man on the Hill--and yes, sometimes I had my fun losing tails as I made my rounds.
As I've hinted, my curiosity got the better of me more than once, and once I had a helluva lot of explaining to do when I started in the Library of Congress, followed my nose and tried a few unlocked doors, and popped up in front of a Capitol Building security booth without a badge or a clue. I never walked through a metal detector until I was unceremoniously kicked out.
Blah, blah, blah. So the bottom line is, if and when someone wants to put the hurt on Congress, well, it probably wouldn't be that hard. But not as easy as it once was. Setting a fire in a storage room wouldn't be the way to do it.
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