Fire closes IRS headquarters

The Internal Revenue Service's headquarters building in Washington remains closed after an electrical fire Wednesday morning.

The building, which is downtown on Constitution Avenue and houses more than 3,000 employees, was evacuated at about 9:30 a.m., a spokeswoman said. Employees were later told they could go back inside to collect personal belongings before heading home, she said.

"Everybody's standing outside the building waiting for information, and it sort of dribbles through the crowd," the spokeswoman said. "They were told to go back inside and get their personal belongings if they needed to and, while they were in there, to shut down their computer systems."

There have been no reports of injuries and the spokeswoman said she did not see a great deal of smoke, but added that another IRS employee told her about smoke in a stairwell.

"I did see a little bit of smoke when I went to pick up my laptop … actually what I saw was just a haze, not even smoke," the spokeswoman said. She added that she was successfully able to log on to the agency's computer systems at home using a recently deployed technology known as ERAP, which gives agency employees secure, high-speed access to the network from remote locations.

According to an agency statement, the building remained closed because of the smoke and a lack of electrical power, but the spokeswoman said the building's power was still on when she returned for her personal items.

The IRS encouraged employees who work in the building to check the Employee Resource Center hotline because it is uncertain when the building will re-open.