A building housing research and development projects for Apple’s Cupertino campus almost went up in flames Tuesday as more than 60 firefighters from neighboring fire departments battled fire and black smoke.
Santa Clara Deputy Fire Chief Hal Rooney said he suspects the fire started in the Valley Green Six building’s second floor under an air-conditioning unit around 10 p.m. The unit was serviced by maintenance workers earlier in the day. Firefighters from the San Jose Fire Department were among those on the scene.
At least 100 Apple research employees were evacuated from the burning building and others visited the scene and reportedly took photos of the fire — with iPhones, of course.
A Lot of Smoke Damage
The fire was contained to the building’s second floor and roof and extinguished by 1 a.m. Wednesday, according to the fire department. Although the three-alarm event was not considered a big fire, firefighters said the scorched building sustained a lot of smoke damage.
Fire investigators were on the scene Wednesday, but Santa Clara Captain Dan Pisciota said the fire is being treated as accidental. The veteran firefighter said this was the first fire at Apple he could recall. He added that Apple employees are in the campus buildings at all hours, but it wasn’t clear how many were in the building at the time of the fire.
A former Apple security officer said in a Web post that Valley Green Six houses engineers, contract employees, and iTunes Store employees. The iTunes Store employees, however, are housed on the opposite side of the building from the fire.
The 120,000-square-foot building, which was built in the late 1970s to early 1980s, was difficult to fight, according to Battalion Chief Kendall Pearson.
Calls to Apple and the Santa Clara County Fire Department were not returned in time for publication. Fire dispatchers referred…