A multistory senior apartment complex in East Baltimore was evacuated Friday morning after firefighters discovered an underground fire, officials said.

Firefighters were dispatched to the 1200 block of Greenmount Avenue for a reported “grass fire,” said Khalilah Yancey, a spokesperson for Baltimore City Fire Department. They detected a smell of gas, Yancey said, so firefighters asked Baltimore Gas and Electric to strike out a hazmat box. They quickly extinguished the fire, Yancey said.

Crews activated a second alarm to call in more resources, including an MTA bus so residents could take shelter. Baltimore Police and the city’s transportation department and Office of Emergency Management also responded to the scene, Yancey said.

As of 8 a.m., several blocks of Greenmount Avenue from Preston Street to Biddle Street were closed.

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Residents were able to return to the apartment complex by 11:30 a.m. No one was injured, Yancey said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

WJZ reported that BGE crews appeared to focus on the flower bed area, where they believe a transformer or something in an electrical panel may have caught fire underground or in the basement.

Crews found high levels of carbon monoxide on the ground floor and in the basement, as well as lower levels on the upper floors, the news station reported. Later in the morning, officials reported the carbon monoxide levels were subsiding as the building was being ventilated. They said the levels would be brought back down to zero before everyone was allowed back inside.

BGE partially restored power by 5 p.m. and hoped it would be fully restored Friday evening.

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Residents told WJZ it was a hectic scene in the morning and that the cutoff of power posed a challenge for residents, some of whom have disabilities.

“It’s a scary situation, you know, when you don’t know what’s going on,” Roszetta Timmons said.

WJZ reporters Renee Anderson and Tara Lynch contributed to this report. WJZ is a media partner of The Banner.