Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A small fire forced the brief evacuation of the Best Buy store in Brighton this afternoon.

Crews with the Brighton Area Fire Authority responded around 1:15 after store employees called 911 to report a piece of equipment was smoking and had caught fire.

Deputy Fire Chief Mike Evans tells WHMI a small fire was caused by a battery in a Hi-Lo used in the stock area on the sales floor that had an electrical short.

Evan said there was no active fire, just a fair amount of smoke throughout the building. He said they were able to disconnect the batteries and it took a couple of minutes to get all of the smoke out of the building.

Evans said staff did a great job of evacuating everyone, noting everyone was already out when they arrived on scene.

The store re-opened within roughly half an hour.

Brighton Police assisted on scene.