[A] fire at the National Life building Saturday afternoon has damaged state offices used by the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans).
Water used in containing the fire caused extensive damage to offices on the third and fourth floors of the Deane C. Davis Building, according to a press release from VTrans. There were no injuries as a result of the fire.
VTrans employees have been asked not to report to work on Monday and will be relocated for several weeks starting on Tuesday.
The fire was called in to the 911 Emergency Dispatch Center at 2:45 p.m. Saturday. A fire alarm system that would have automatically notified the Montpelier Fire Department was offline that day because a sprinkler system in another part of the building was being tested at that time, according to a press release from the Vermont State Police.
By the time the fire department arrived, there was heavy smoke on the fourth floor and sprinklers had been activated, police said. The fire was contained in the area of an office work station.
The Department of Public Safety conducted an investigation and found that the fire originated in a work cubicle on the fourth floor and spread from an electrical wire service in a partition wall, police said. The fire set off a sprinkler above the cubicle, which dowsed the fire.
“The fire is classified as undetermined pending further analysis of the possibly failed electrical components,” according to the release.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. No monetary damages have been estimated but state police say costs “may reach into the higher hundreds of thousands of dollars to start.”
