BALTIMORE — Baltimore officials have convened leaders from multiple utility companies to probe the cause of repeated fires beneath the city’s downtown streets, including one that badly damaged a city business and disrupted the power for thousands of residents Sunday.

Mayor Brandon Scott said during a news conference Monday that he does not believe there is an ongoing safety concern for residents and businesses following the underground blaze, which was the third the city has experienced in the area this year. Scott emphasized the age of the city’s infrastructure, however, and said he couldn’t promise that there will be no additional fires.

“We’re going to do everything that we can do to keep our residents and businesses safe,” he said. “As we get everyone together to look into what’s happening on the ground, we can have a better perspective on what may need to happen and what may need to change.”

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. crews were working Monday morning to restore power to customers in the area of the fire, which began at East Pleasant and North Charles Streets. City firefighters were first called to the area around 5 a.m. and observed smoke coming from numerous maintenance holes and one emitting flames, officials said. The fire was extinguished around 9 a.m.

BGE said Sunday night that it had restored power to the “vast majority” of customers who had lost service. BGE de-energized part of its electric system after firefighters discovered scorched electrical wires and other burnt infrastructure under destroyed maintenance holes.

The underground fire also impacted fiber lines that provide internet service, according to the Enoch Pratt Free Library, which said on the social media platform X that its Central Library downtown would be closed on Monday as it assessed the damage to those lines.

Baltimore Circuit Court was also closed Monday “due to yesterday’s fire in downtown Baltimore,” the Maryland Judiciary said on its website. In addition to city courthouses, the city’s Councilman Harry S. Cummings Building was still without power and closed to the public and employees, Scott said on X. He encouraged those who were still impacted to report outages by calling 311 or BGE.

BGE crews lined the 300 block of North Charles Street on Monday morning, which remained closed to traffic. Some pumped water from a maintenance hole at East Saratoga Street and North Charles Street as others ate breakfast near a pair of BGE “Mobile Command Center” trucks.

A group of three utility workers examined a box of burned electrical equipment across the street from Mick O’Shea’s Irish Pub, which, along with its neighbors, was marked with an orange cease-and-desist notice from the city fire marshal’s office. The notices ordered businesses at Brown’s Arcade, which spans from 322 to 328 N. Charles St., to halt operations due to “unsafe conditions,” including a lack of “primary or emergency power.”

The fire badly damaged Viva Books at 326 N. Charles St., which was the only business boarded on the block Monday. One day earlier, singed books and debris littered North Charles Street. A gaping hole could be seen in the middle of the store charred from flames and exposing the space beneath it.

Scott said officials do not yet know whether the fires are related to construction work that has been going on in the same area of North Charles Street this year. Asked if the city might have cause to pursue legal action, he said there was “no indication of this being anything other than an unfortunate incident.”

“If there is something like that, the city will be sure to look into it,” he said. “But as of right now, this is just an unfortunate emergency.”

About 2,200 customers were without power Sunday around noon, BGE said at the time. That number had dropped to just over 200 customers in Baltimore City shortly after 10 a.m. Monday, with most expected to be restored by noon, according to the utility’s outage map.

Crews are continuing to “perform the necessary repairs to restore customers who remain without power” on Monday and anticipated remaining customers will be restored in stages Monday morning.

The utility said that customers “may experience additional temporary service interruptions during the restoration process.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Alex Mann contributed to this article, which will be updated.

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