WASHINGTON (AP) -- An underground electric transformer exploded Thursday, sparking a fire that forced authorities to close streets and evacuate several buildings, including the World Bank headquarters.
There were no injuries in the fire, which happened about as many employees were on their way to work in the morning.
There was initial concern because the World Bank and adjacent International Monetary Fund have been the targets of repeated protests in recent years. Last August, the U.S. Homeland Security Department issued an ''orange'' terror alert - nearly the highest of its kind _ for financial institutions in Washington after the U.S. government said it received credible information of a terrorist threat against the World Bank and the IMF.
However, Mary-Beth Hutchinson, a spokeswoman for the electric company said it was an ''ordinary incident'' and ''typical system failure'' that might have been the result of an electrical short caused by recent rain.
She said a cable might have caught fire, but did not know whether the fire came first or the explosion.
World Bank President James Wolfensohn, speaking by video-link to an open meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York on post-conflict peace building, made light of the incident.
He said that the evacuation ''was to set the scene for me for this meeting to get some idea of what post-conflict is like.''
Wolfensohn's last day on the job is Tuesday. He becomes special coordinator for Gaza on Wednesday.
The District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department was investigating. Firefighters were going into the manhole with electricity company workers to check for possible hot spots.
World Bank spokesman Damian Milverton said workers were allowed to go home because air conditioning in the building was no longer working.
The IMF, the World Bank's sister institution located across the street from the bank, opted to stay open.
The incident was the latest of a series of security scares in the city over the last year.
On May 11, authorities evacuated the U.S. Capitol building, the White House and the Supreme Court and scrambled F-16 fighter jets after a Cessna 150 plane strayed into a no-fly zone over the city.
