Washington, D.C. ? A fire in an electrical closet near Vice President Dick Cheney’s ceremonial office forced the evacuation Wednesday of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House.

The vice president was in the White House West Wing when the fire broke out around 9:15 a.m., White House officials said.

The fire was contained to the closet, but the elaborate floor of mahogany, white maple and cherry in the vice president’s office was under water, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said.

Thick black smoke “fairly filled” the second through fifth floors, she said. It billowed from an open doorway and cast a pall across the White House north lawn.

The building, a classic example of French Second Empire style featuring granite pillars and tiers of balconies suggesting a wedding cake, has been undergoing renovations for several years. Sprinklers are being installed, but the work had not reached the area where the vice president’s office is situated.

The structure was built between 1871 and 1888 and originally housed the Departments of State, War and the Navy. Until Walter F. Mondale took an office in the West Wing near the Oval Office, it also housed the vice president’s working office.

The desk in the office, set among other antiques, was first used by Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, and by Presidents Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Truman and Eisenhower.