The nonprofit East Bay Media Center on Addison Street in downtown Berkeley was heavily damaged in a fire Monday morning that led to the evacuations of some neighboring apartments.

A fire began around 3 am this morning at the East Bay Media Center at 1939 Addison Street in Berkeley, near Milvia Street, just a few blocks from the UC Berkeley campus. As ABC 7 reports, dozens of families and students living in apartments next door to the one-store Media Center building were evacuated as the firefight began, but they have since been allowed to return home.

Firefighters told KTVU that the fire was fueled by "dense storage" inside the building, and tht the roof collapsed during the firefight.

""When we arrived, we had heavy smoke and fire showing from the front of the building and through the roof," said Berkeley Fire Department Battalion Chief Brian Harryman, speaking to KTVU. "We had exposures on all three sides, and we ended up having to evacuate the apartment complexes to the east, to the west and to the north of the building."

The fire was reportedly brought under control by 5:30 am.

No one was in the Media Center a the time of the fire, and no firefighters were injured battling the blaze.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The East Bay Media Center was founded in 1980 as a community-focused arts education facility, offering affordable training programs and access to technology to train young people in video and filmmaking, as well as postproduction. The organization also founded and puts on one of Northern California’s largest independent film festivals, the Berkeley Video & Film Festival, which launched in 1991.

They have been housed in their current facility on Addison Street since 1998.

Photo via Google Street View