Fire Leads To Evacuation of Alcatel-Lucent Building

Wires that sparked and ignited a wooden pallet caused a fire that led to the evacuation of a building at the Alcatel-Lucent campus in Berkeley Heights Monday morning, fire officials said.

According to a press release from the Berkeley Heights Fire Department, at 7:05 a.m. this morning, fire crews were dispatched to a reported fire at Building 4 at Alcatel Lucent.

"The fire was inside a vault used for testing equipment and caused a smoke condition inside the building," the press release stated.

The building was evacuated shortly after the blaze began, according to Fire Chief Anthony Padovano.

As firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze, mutual aid from neighboring towns was requested. Firefighters arrived from New Providence, Stirling, Summit, Cranford, Springfield and Watchung.

"It appears that the fire started accidentally when wires ignited a pallet," the fire chief added in the press release. Fire crews were at the scene for approximately 90 minutes.

Fire officials say Alcatel Lucent employees attempted to extinguish the flames before firefighters arrived.