Monday, June 26, 2006. Gearbox employees filter into work, like any other day. Little do they know the terror and trauma that await them! At appx 10am, CST, the Bank of America building's fire alarms begin to sound. Many believe this just another test, an unwelcome disturbance in their morning routine. However, a true fire has begun to rage in the heart of their place of work! How much damage will be done? Will Gearbox survive? Will any level designers perish in the burning flames?! Tune in at ten to find out. In the meantime, please observe this artist's rendition of the event. We'll continue to bring you live, late-breaking coverage.

Here you can see the Gearbox building exploding into flame! (click for big)

Alright, so maybe it wasn't as devastating as that artist's rendition made it seem. There was a small electrical fire in a machine room on one of Gearbox's floors in the Bank of America Tower. It burned for thirty or forty minutes before it was put out, but there was a good deal of smoke and the building shut down for the day. No Gearbox hardware was damaged, and no employees were injured. Now they're filtering the air with loud machines. Here are some photos we took of the day:

MAD_Mike poses in front of the building. He saved a basket of kittens from certain death. You can see many level designers behind him, none on fire.

There were several fire engines on the scene!

The brave firemen put out the flames and saved Gearbox!

The firemen had to hack their way through this door!

They left the handle on the floor!

These noisy machines are cleaning our air.

There were a couple local news stories about the fire, and botman posted some pictures on our forums of the aftermath. We're glad no one was hurt and nothing was damaged - now life continues on at Gearbox as usual!