Crews knocked down a fire on the San Diego State campus early today but not before the blaze caused an estimated $300,000 in damage to a maintenance building and scaffolding and construction materials, authorities said.
The noninjury fire in the university's "chiller plant'' at 5555 Aztec Circle Drive was reported at 11:20 p.m. Wednesday, according to San Diego fire- rescue spokesman Lee Swanson.
The building houses the controls for all the air conditioning on campus, he said, adding it took crews about 45 minutes to knock down the fire.
"Workers were doing repairs and reconstruction and the foreman told investigators he saw a spark from one of the worker's cutting torches start the fire,'' Swanson said. "The work crew attempted to put out the fire, and when they were unable to get it out, they evacuated safely and called 911.''
Damage was estimated at $200,000 to the building and $100,000 to its contents.
It was not immediately clear whether the fire would affect air conditioning on campus today.
