Brief fire breaks out inside White House complex

By Greg Robb, MarketWatch

Last update: 12:53 p.m. EST Dec. 19, 2007
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A brief fire broke out Wednesday morning in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is adjacent to the White House. No one was seriously hurt and the fire was contained within a half-hour.

The two-alarm blaze started on the second floor of the building. Black smoke, which observers said smelled like plastic, billowed out of the windows overlooking the West Wing of the White House for about 30 minutes.

Firefighters were forced to break windows in the historic building. It appeared that several offices were gutted on the second floor near the ceremonial office of the vice president, but the fire did not appear to have spread to other floors.

Vice President Dick Cheney was not in the building at the time of the fire.

The building, commonly called the Old Executive Office Building, has a long, colorful history. Several presidents had their offices in the building. It also housed the office of the secret White House plumbers, who engineered the break-in of the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate that ultimately led President Richard Nixon to resign.

Renovation was ongoing in the building. There was damage to historic areas, officials said.

The Secret Service quickly ruled out any suspicious source for the fire; the building was quickly evacuated. Only one Marine was slightly hurt when the smoke in upper floors caused him to break a window, according to Washington, D.C. fire authorities.

The building originally housed the State, War and Navy departments between 1871 and 1888. The granite structure, often compared to a giant wedding cake, is one of America's best examples of the French Second Empire style of architecture.

There had been talk of tearing the building down, but it was spared and given historic landmark status. To accommodate an ever-growing White House staff, a new executive office building was erected across the street.