April 13--A woman living in a converted office space at a business on Petaluma Hill Road left candles burning Saturday evening and returned to find the room on fire, Santa Rosa fire officials said.

The blaze caused about $22,000 in damage, said Battalion Chief Michael Jones in a press release. The news release did not confirm whether the burning candles caused the fire.

The fire department responded to the report of a structure fire at M & A Appliances, 1015 Petaluma Hill Road, shortly after 9 p.m. Saturday.

The first firefighters arrived in about five minutes and saw light smoke coming from the back of the building, Jones said. After getting into the building, firefighters found that a converted office was on fire.

They confined the flames to just that room, Jones said. However, the fire created billows of smoke and firefighters headed to the roof to ventilate the building.

One woman was staying in the converted office and she was able to get out before firefighters arrived, Jones said. The woman told firefighters that she had left candles burning in the area where the fire started when she went to visit a friend. When she returned, she saw that the building was filling with smoke. She called 911, Jones said.

Firefighters also found that the building was being temporarily powered by an extension cord from another building in the same business complex.

Copyright 2014 - The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, Calif.