The Raleigh headquarters of the state Department of Environmental Quality will reopen to employees and the public at 8 a.m. Monday and resume its normal operating schedule.
Officials closed the Green Square office building at 217 West Jones St., Friday after a fire at a nearby apartment building under construction inundated the state office building with heavy smoke and forced the loss of electrical power to the building.
The decision to reopen the Green Square office building came Sunday afternoon after the agency’s facilities engineers inspected the building and determined that its ventilation and other operating systems are working properly. DEQ officials alerted employees of the agency Sunday that the buildings would reopen on the normal 8 a.m.-5 p.m. schedule starting Monday morning.
On Friday, loss of electrical power at Green Square temporarily interrupted phone and Internet service at the Archdale Building, the department's other headquarters building that sits several blocks away and shares connections with Green Square. Services to the Archdale Building were restored by midday Friday and some employees were able to work onsite, while others were authorized to either work from an alternate location or take administrative leave. Computer servers were also restored to the Archdale Building later in the day.
The fire forced the loss of electrical power and shutdown Friday of several other state office buildings in the area. All of the other state offices closed Friday were expected to resume their normal operations Monday.