Fire strikes Army counter-espionage building
6-alarm blaze breaks out at Fort Meade, Md.

Updated: 12:29 a.m. ET Oct 21, 2006
FORT MEADE, Md. - A fire at the Army base that houses the National Security Agency heavily damaged a building containing “sensitive”  materials Friday afternoon, base officials said.

There were no serious injuries, officials at Fort Meade said.

The six-alarm fire at Fort Meade started shortly before 4 p.m. in a building whose contents are “sensitive in nature,”  said Fort Meade spokeswoman Jennifer Downing.

The building contains the 902nd Military Intelligence Group Command, the Army’s largest counter-espionage unit, according to the group’s Web site.

Lt. Col. James Peterson, director of emergency services at Fort Meade, would not say what kind of work was going on inside Building 4554.

Strong winds hampered efforts to contain the blaze at the three-story brick building, which was evacuated. Part of the roof collapsed onto a lower floor before the fire was contained.

“We don’t really know the cause. We just know it started on the roof of the structure,”  Peterson said.

Minor construction was under way in the area of the roof where the fire started, Peterson said. There was no damage estimate.

The Army base, between Baltimore and Washington, has about 39,000 employees.