SALLISAW, Okla. --
The Sallisaw police chief said he's not sure how exactly the fire started, but fire crews were called to the police station Tuesday night.
"Fire alarms went off here at the Police Department," Police Chief Shaloa Edwards said. "Officers checked it out and there was smoke. We contacted the Fire Department and sure enough, there was a fire".
Sallisaw Fire Chief Anthony Armstrong said around 16 firefighters arrived at the police station and found a stack of boxes on fire.
"It is in the corner of the room. It's inside the evidence room. It was some boxes stacked up which we will be investigating that here shortly," Armstrong said.
Wednesday officers were carrying out old evidence that had been damaged by the fire.
"A lot of that stuff that was in there, at the time was stuff we already received back from the State Crime Lab and it was scheduled to be sent back to be destroyed," Edwards said.
Edwards said evidence of murder and high profile cases were not destroyed in the fire.
"All of our high profile cases that we have to maintain longer, they are kept in a different room than this," Edwards said.
Fire crews called in a hazmat team to clean up the debris when chemical labs stored in the evidence room were heated by the fire.
The administrative side of the building had smoke damage but it is still open and operational.
No one at the station was hurt but fire crews say the administrative side of the police department will be without power for a while.
The Oklahoma fire marshal has been called in to investigate the cause but fire officials said they believe it was electrical.
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