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WASHINGTON - A fire on Thursday damaged Washington's world-famous Phillips Collection museum, which houses works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh, Willem de Kooning, and Winslow Homer.
Washington's deputy fire chief Kenneth Crosswhite said the one-alarm blaze broke out shortly before 8:30 (1230 GMT) and was quickly put out, but not before sprinkler systems and more than a dozen firefighters doused the roof and upper floors of the museum with water.
There were no injuries or structural damage, Crosswhite said.
"Our concern now is for the artwork, because all four floors suffered smoke and water damage."
Museum spokeswoman Cecilia Wagner said the artwork appeared to undamaged in the "renovation-related fire" that began on the roof of the building.
"The fire was contained and extinguished. No one was injured. All artwork is safe and secure," she said.
"Museum conservators are currently evaluating the artwork but nothing has incurred significant damage. The building condition is being evaluated as well."
The Phillips, which is undergoing a facelift and has scaffolding covering much of its exterior, opened in 1921 as the first museum in America dedicated to modern art.
Crosswhite said the cause of the fire was not immediately known but that investigators would examine all possibilities, including arson.
Witnesses said they saw carrying materials, possibly paintings, from the main building where the fire broke out to an annex across a small alley.
"I saw the smoke and the flames and I started crying," said Marjorie Branchaud, a former resident of the area who was visiting the neighborhood.
She said firefighters cut open a top floor window to gain access to the building and extinguish the blaze.
The Phillips Collection, tucked into Washington's Dupont Circle district, is often overlooked by the hoardes of tourists that descend each year on the city and its sprawling - and free - Smithsonian Institution complex of museums.
But its collection is world-class, a virtual who's who of late 19th century and early 20th century stars: Degas, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Cezanne, Calder, Hopper, O'Keeffe, Rothko, and Pollock.
Its best-known work is arguably French Impressionist Renoir's "Le dejeuner des canotiers" ("Luncheon of the Boating Party").
- AFP/al
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