An electrical fire in the basement of the University of Rochester's Eastman Dental brought a number of firefighters to Elmwood Avenue early Monday morning.
Fire officials say that a U of R security person on routine patrol at about 2:30 a.m. smelled smoke in the basement of the dental school and then found heavy smoke.
When firefighters got there they upgraded it to a second alarm to make sure they could get additional resources. The fire was in an area where there is electrical equipment in the basement of the dental center.
There was a brief power outage to the entire U of R campus, but generators immediately started and officials say that patients at Strong Hospital were not in any danger.
The fire was declared under control at 5:30 a.m. There were no injuries. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
URMC released this statement on Monday afternoon:
A small basement fire early today caused some minor smoke damage in parts of our main building at 625 Elmwood Ave. Our clinic is open tomorrow. We called a small number of individual patients to cancel and reschedule their appointments for tomorrow. We will see a limited number of walk in urgent care patients tomorrow and Wednesday. But our clinics located at Highland Hospital Office Bldg, School 17, and Downtown in the Sibley Building can all treat emergency patients on a walk-in basis (see below). We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
