Firefighters extinguished a two-alarm fire this morning in a battery room at the AT&T building in downtown Escondido, authorities said.
The non-injury blaze was reported shortly after 4:05 a.m. on the first floor of the three-story building at the corner of West Second Avenue and South Broadway, Escondido Fire spokesman Jeff Murdock said.
Firefighters responding to an alarm found smoke coming from the vents on the sides of the building, Murdock said, adding that no one was inside when the fire broke out.
Crews were unable to put water on the fire because it was inside the battery room and were instead using chemical extinguishers to control the flames, he said.
By 7:45 a.m., the fire was contained to the room, but not extinguished, Murdock said.
Around 8:30 a.m., crews were confident that the batteries weren’t going to re-ignite and declared the fire extinguished, he said.
The fire did not spread to other buildings, but smoke did make it to all three floors of the AT&T building, he said.
Escondido’s 911 phones were down as a result of the fire, but calls were being rerouted to Carlsbad police and being answered, Murdock said. Text messages to 911 were not affected.
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
–City News Service