Last night around 9:30 p.m. San Francisco's City Hall tried to burn itself down with an electrical fire. According to the Mayor's spokeswoman, the building's self-immolation attempt began in a basement electrical vault where something boomed, flashed and then sent blue smoke wafting up into the building's grand, historic rotunda. Several hundred people who had been in the building for a private after-hours reception had to be evacuated.

Thankfully for Willie Brown's gilded dome, the automatic sprinklers kicked in to douse any flames until the fire department could come in and finish the job. Crews were in the building this morning to clean up some minor water damage and some parts of the building were still without power, but City Hall is more or less "open for business" today.

No word yet on the cause of the fire or how much it will cost the city to mop up the basement.

Update: As commenter mayonnaiseslacks notes, Mayor Lee was on the scene this morning to don his hard hat and stage this photo inspect the damage:

[Chron]
[BCN/Appeal]