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A scooter burst into flames inside Dropbox's San Francisco headquarters, forcing employees to evacuate

Rebecca Aydin   

A scooter burst into flames inside Dropbox's San Francisco headquarters, forcing employees to evacuate

A man rides an electric scooter in Paris, Monday, Aug. 12, 2019. The French government is meeting with people who've been injured by electric scooters as it readies restrictions on vehicles that are transforming the Paris cityscape. The Transport Ministry says Monday's closed-door meeting is part of consultations aimed at limiting scooter speeds and where users can ride and park them. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Lewis Joly/AP Images

An electric scooter caught fire at Dropbox's headquarters on Wednesday.

  • An e-scooter caught fire inside Dropbox's San Francisco headquarters on Wednesday. 
  • The building was evacuated, the fire was put out, and no one was hurt, Dropbox told Business Insider in a statement.
  • "Seriously living in an episode of Silicon Valley over here," one Dropbox employee Tweeted along with a photo of the still-smoking e-scooter.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

An electric scooter caught fire in Dropbox's San Francisco office on Wednesday, forcing employees to evacuate.

One employee tweeted a photo of the still-smoking e-scooter, comparing the incident to an episode of HBO's "Silicon Valley."

 

"We experienced a small fire at 333 Brannan Wednesday afternoon. It was quickly put out, no injuries have been reported, and everyone was able to evacuate safely," a Dropbox spokesperson told Business Insider. "We're thankful to the SFFD for their swift response."

The Verge reported that the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) confirmed an electric scooter caught fire on the office's fifth floor, the fire was extinguished by the SFFD, and no injuries occurred. 

Dropbox was preparing to move out of its Brannan Street office to its new office space in Mission Bay's Exchange building on Monday, according to SF Gate. The fire interfered with Dropbox's request that employees move their belongings out of the current office by the end of the work day on Wednesday, according to the report.

E-scooters and so-called hoverboards catching fire have made headlines in the past. The Washington Post reported that a Skip scooter burst into flames on the streets of Washington DC in May, noting that " it appears to have started around the battery pack while the scooter was parked." Lime made a statement in October 2018 about a manufacturing defect in the batteries used in an early version of the Ninebot scooter that could lead to "battery smoldering or, in some cases, catching fire." 

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