By Julie Scharper
The Baltimore Sun

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A fire caused a half-million dollars in damage when it roared through a storage room in an Annapolis public works building yesterday morning, fire officials said.

Shortly before 8 a.m., a malfunctioning light fixture sparked the fire in a second-floor room where lawn mowers, paper products, tires, oil filters and petroleum-based chemicals are stored, Annapolis Fire Department spokesman Lt. John Bowes said.

More than three dozen firefighters from the city, Anne Arundel County and Naval Academy fire departments worked to contain the two-alarm fire as public works employees hastened to move garbage trucks from the building in the 900 block of Spa Road, Bowes said.

Firefighters brought the blaze under control about 8:15 a.m. But a section of the road was closed until 10:30, snarling traffic during the morning rush hour. The building was closed yesterday as inspectors investigated whether it had been structurally damaged by the flames.

No one was injured during the fire, said Bowes, adding that it was fortunate that the fire did not spread to an area of the building where gasoline for city vehicles is stored.

"They got there just in time," he said. "It could have been a whole lot worse."

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