By DPA
Washington : A fire at a building next to the White House Wednesday damaged an office used by US Vice President Dick Cheney and forced more than 1,000 employees to evacuate.
Cheney was in a meeting with President George W. Bush in the White House when the blaze broke out, but the vice president’s ornate ceremonial office received smoke and water damage, Bush’s spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Thick grey smoke poured from the ceremonial office’s windows as fire fighters doused the blaze. Several dozen passers-by on the pedestrian mall in front of the White House stopped to watch the emergency response.
One White House staffer suffered minor injuries in the evacuation.
Initial reports indicate that the morning fire broke out in an electrical room or a telephone bank, Perino said.
The half-hour blaze sent smoke throughout the 19th-century Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which overlooks the White House’s west wing in central Washington and houses most presidential staffers.
While Cheney’s office is in the West Wing, he also has a large room in the old building – complete with chandeliers, two fireplaces and gilded walls – that is used for meetings and interviews with journalists.
Until the first decades of the 20th century, the old executive building housed the state, war and navy departments until they moved into their own buildings as US global power grew. The vice president’s room used to be the US navy secretary’s office.
White House employees affected by the fire were allowed to go home early, Perino said.