Fire at FAA buildings forces evacuation

A blaze at a Federal Aviation Administration facility outside Atlantic City, New Jersey, has forced the evacuation of two buildings and impacted the agency's internal e-mail and Internet systems, including the www.fly.faa.gov site that provides passengers with the status of airport operations, an FAA spokeswoman said.

But there are no early indications that the fire has impacted air traffic control operations, and no one was injured.

The fire broke out about 12:10 a.m. at buildings 300 and 316 at the FAA Technical Center in Egg Harbor, New Jersey. While the cause of the fire is unknown, contractors were working on the roof of building 300 at the time, spokeswoman Laura Brown said.

The fire was extinguished, but the building's 1,600 employees had not been cleared back in as of 4 p.m.

The buildings house administrative and researchers for the agency.

An Atlantic City International Airport runway adjacent the buildings was temporarily closed during the fire, but has since been reopened, she said.