Smoke Linked to Attempt to Use 2nd-Floor Fireplace

It was freezing in Washington yesterday, and snow was seeping into the forecast, making it just the sort of day for a fire in the fireplace.

But an apparent attempt to ignite one in the historic building next to the White House caused a bit of commotion and prompted an evacuation, officials said.

"The D.C. fire department was called to the Executive Office Building" in the early afternoon "in response to reports of smoke," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

"A limited number of staff were temporarily evacuated," Gibbs said in a three-sentence statement.

He said authorities reported no injuries or damage to the French Empire-style federal building at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, now known as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

A D.C. fire department spokesman said it appeared that "somebody tried to start a fire in a fireplace on the second floor."

Some sort of obstruction in the chimney, probably on the fourth or fifth floor, "caused smoke to back up" on the fourth floor, said Alan Etter, a spokesman for the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.

Only a few people were working in the granite building, which was completed in 1888 and houses most White House staff offices.

Many chimneys sprout from the building roof, and Etter said that starting a fire in the fireplace was completely lawful.

The incident occurred on a cold day in a cold month. The mercury nudged above freezing yesterday for no more than an hour. The day's high temperature, as measured at Reagan National Airport, was 33 degrees at 2:24 p.m.

Meanwhile, what could be Washington's first measurable snowfall of the winter was forecast for tomorrow. National Weather Service forecasts said there was an 80 percent chance of snow during the day.

But in a printed discussion of the forecast, meteorologists said they were becoming more confident of a "mixed precipitation event" that would begin as snow and change tomorrow night to sleet and freezing rain.

In a previous incident at the Eisenhower building, firefighters responded to a blaze in December 2007 that damaged a ceremonial office that had been used by then-Vice President Richard B. Cheney and many of his predecessors. Hundreds of people were evacuated, and officials said at the time that the fire caused significant damage to the office.