Electric scooter at Dropbox HQ in San Francisco catches on fire

FILE - A 750,000 sq. foot lease by Dropbox on 16th St. in the Mission Bay on Tuesday, October 10, 2017, in San Francisco, Calif. An e-scooter fire on Wednesday threw a brief wrench into moving plans for employees, as an evacuation delayed necessary packing to get out of their building by 5 p.m. Dropbox is apparently moving to their new office space on Monday. less FILE - A 750,000 sq. foot lease by Dropbox on 16th St. in the Mission Bay on Tuesday, October 10, 2017, in San Francisco, Calif. An e-scooter fire on Wednesday threw a brief wrench into moving plans for ... more Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Electric scooter at Dropbox HQ in San Francisco catches on fire 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

An electric scooter briefly caught fire at Dropbox headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon, causing an evacuation of the building, according to employees.

The e-scooter caught fire at about 2:45 p.m., according to Dropbox employee Ruihan Zhao, and employees were forced out of the building for close to two hours as they waited for the all-clear to go in.

The scooter apparently did not cause much damage, and Dropbox confirmed the next day that a "small fire" took place, but did not state the source of the fire in a released statement to SFGATE.

"We experienced a small fire at 333 Brannan yesterday afternoon," a Dropbox spokesperson said via email. "It was quickly put out, no injuries have been reported, and everyone was able to evacuate safely. We're thankful to the SFFD for their swift response."

Dropbox employee Davy Rudolph shared a photo of the fallen e-scooter with smoke rising from it, writing on Twitter, "My office was evacuated today because an electric scooter exploded and caught fire. Seriously living in an episode of Silicon Valley over here."

My office was evacuated today because an electric scooter exploded and caught fire. Seriously living in an episode of Silicon Valley over here. pic.twitter.com/cX2iVvejtf — Davy Rudolph (@davyr) August 14, 2019

Although e-scooters have recently been in the news for catching fire — the most recent being the Skip brand e-scooters, which were subsequently pulled off the streets of San Francisco and Washington D.C. in early June after a particularly fiery incident — the scooter in question was apparently an employee's personal scooter. It's currently unclear if the lithium ion batteries in this scooter are the same as the ones used in Skip rental e-scooters.

The fire itself was apparently ill-timed, as the company was preparing to move out of its current Brannan Street offices and into their new digs at The Exchange building in Mission Bay next week. Employees were previously asked to move their belongings from the current site by 5 p.m. Wednesday, and the fire delayed the process for many as they waited around to re-enter the building.

Dianne de Guzman is a Digital Senior Editor at SFGATE. Email: dianne.deguzman@sfgate.com

Madeline Wells is an SFGate editorial assistant. Email: madeline.wells@sfgate.com | Twitter: @madwells22