The sealed-off scene of a 1954 murder — a second-story office above what is now Jefferson’s Restaurant, 743 Mass. — burned early Monday morning.

The fire caused about $150,000 in damage, including smoke and water damage to the restaurant below, a fire official said. One firefighter suffered a minor injury when debris fell onto his arm.

When Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical firefighters arrived at the scene about 12:15 a.m., there was a problem. They saw smoke coming from the building’s second story, but they had no way to get to it.

Above Jefferson’s is what used to be the walk-up office of attorney Leroy Harris, who was sitting at his desk May 28, 1954, when a client walked in and fatally shot him. After the death, the building’s owner did a little cleanup, then sealed the office with metal siding.

In 2000, the office opened temporarily when the owner’s son let a Journal-World reporter in through a sealed skylight. Inside lay documents, whiskey bottles and a Franklin stove, among other dated items.

The office is visible from Massachusetts Street but doesn’t extend all the way to the rear alley. To get into the building Monday, officers stood on the first-story roof behind the building as they cut a makeshift door in the second story’s metal siding.

They then poked a ventilation hole in the east wall of the siding and extinguished the fire by 1:34 a.m.

Investigators said they thought the fire started when high winds from an overnight storm blew an aluminum ladder left atop the first story into a power line, which caused arcing and ignited wooden beams inside the old office.

Mark Bradford, deputy fire and medical chief, said the room appeared to be empty when firefighters entered.

¢ 6News video: Fire breaks out at Jefferson’s

“Several of the firefighters knew the history of the building, but it’s not identified in any way,” he said.

In all, 31 firefighters responded to the blaze.

The restaurant was closed Monday, and restaurant employees declined comment.

Part of Massachusetts Street was closed for several hours as firefighters battled a blaze at an office above Jefferson's Restaurant, 743 Mass. Investigators said they thought high winds might have caused Monday's fire by blowing an aluminum ladder onto a power line, causing arcing and igniting wooden beams inside the office. The site was sealed off in 1954 when the attorney working there was shot to death by a client.