LFR: Small fire extinguished in mechanical room at Lincoln East

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Lincoln Fire and Rescue says a small fire in a mechanical room at Lincoln East High School caused quite a few problems for firefighters early Tuesday morning.

Battalion Chief Bob Watton says crews were called to the school around 1:30 a.m., initially on a fire alarm. LFR says that firefighters, once inside, found their way to an area of the building that had smoke in it. They then upgraded the call in order to have additional personnel respond.

Watton says crews eventually found a small fire, which was still active, inside a mechanical room in the basement area of the northwest portion of the building.

Watton says the extent of the damage was contained to the area where the fire started, and caused roughly $10,000 in damage. The exact cause is still being determined, but Watton says that a table that had multiple charging devices on it was completely burnt up and destroyed.

Watton says an active sprinkler head and trouble resetting the fire alarm system made things difficult for firefighters in getting everything resolved at Lincoln East. Additionally, though successful after a couple hours, crews had a tricky time trying to get all the smoke out of the northwest portion of the building.