UPDATED Fire shuts Detroit Auto Show. Video and pictures from Cobo Center. Fireground audio added.

Video of firefighter arriving (and people still inside taking pictures) here, here and here

Interview with spokesperson for the show

North American International Auto Show website

Detroit Free Press article by Tammy Stables Battaglia and Matt Helms:

The Detroit auto show is expected to reopen this evening after a brief electrical fire caused the evacuation of Cobo Center today.

Shand Spencer, an auto show spokeswoman, said organizers expect to let people back into the show around 5 p.m., once the smoke clears.

Spencer said no one was injured and there were no immediate reports of damaged vehicles from what she said was “a small electrical fire” at the Audi display.

“It was quickly contained,” Spencer said. “Everything is under control. We cleared the floor … as a precautionary measure.”

She said visitors who missed out on the show and didn’t want to wait until it reopens later today would be issued replacement tickets to see the show on any of its remaining days.

Kelly Strong, 23, a student at Ohio University, saw flames going up fast in the ceiling above the Audi exhibit.

“The Audi employees tried moving people off the floor, and started moving the cars. The flames really spread fast.

“They did a good job making sure people out of there.”

The fire started in the scaffolding and high-powered lights hanging in the ceiling above the Audi exhibit. Gone were cars like the $175,000 R8 Spyder, which Audi employees moved.

Only a couple of cars sat at the edge of the booth covered with white cloth, a swath of black soot from the ceiling spread across the barren floor.

Karen LaDucer and Sherry Fredericks, administrators at the College for Creative Studies, said they were taking a quick tour of the show before their shifts working the school’s vehicle design booth when they saw and smelled something amiss.

Just after they walked into the main showroom, LaDucer looked up and saw a small fire in the ceiling above the Audi exhibit.

“It looked like flames from a gas grill,” LaDucer said.

Fredericks said the area “smelled terrible, and it was smoky in there.”

The pair and thousands of others were ushered out by police and security personnel. There was no panic and the evacuation was orderly, said Paul Farrell of Macomb Township, a salesman for an auto supply company who was visiting the show with friends.

“It didn’t seem that severe,” Farrell said. “We were standing in the Mercedes area and saw them moving cars from the Audi stage.”

Guests were milling about in the Cobo center lobby, waiting to be let back into the show floor, which has been blocked off. The doors are closed, and the velvet ropes block the way.

Tim King, 30, of Lansing, said he’s “kind of annoyed” to be standing outside the displays.

“I just got here,” he said.

A pale haze of white smoke is in the lobby with a faint of smell of burning plastic. Smoke has permeated the air. The hall is now empty, with a few firefights scattered in the aisle.

“Nobody cares about their safety,” one Detroit police officer said, looking at the crowd waiting in the lobby despite the smoke.

“They just want to get into the auto show,” another officer replied.

Roland Jakimowicz, 56, of Brighton, visiting the show with his son, James, 18, was wondering if he’ll be able to go back in, or would he be compensated for his tickets.