SAN DIEGO – Two hazardous-materials teams were called to La Jolla on Thursday after a flash fire caused by a chemical at a Scripps laboratory.

The fire was reported just before 9:30 a.m. at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Chemical Sciences building at the Scripps Research Institute on North Torrey Pines Road just north of Genesee Avenue, said San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Maurice Luque.

Six employees were in the lab, where experiments were being conducted with the highly corrosive and flammable chemical lithium aluminum hydride, Luque said. They put the blaze out with fire extinguishers.

The building, which had an estimated 40 people inside at the time, was evacuated as a precaution, Luque said.

He said crews were trying to determine if there were potential dangers due to the number of other chemicals present and any reaction they might have to the flames, the smoke and the gasses released by the fire.

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