Carl Glassman / Tribeca Trib

The southern entrance of the Manhattan District Criminal Court building at 100 Centre Street, walled off by metal barriers a day after a fire broke out in the basement.

Faulty electrical wiring caused the blaze last Tuesday morning at the Manhattan District Criminal Court building at 100 Centre Street, according to the city's Fire Marshall. But the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which manages and maintains the building for the state court system, was cited for illegally disconnected sprinklers in the basement, where the fire began.

The courthouse reopened on Monday.

Five firefighters, two civilians and a prisoner all suffered minor injuries during blaze, which started around 10:30 a.m. It took firefighters just under an hour to extinguish the flames, which fire officials confirmed igited as a result of faulty wiring for temporary construction lighting in the building's basement. A spokesman for the courts said while there was a siginificant amount of smoke and water damage at the site of the fire, the building remained structurally sound.

Hundreds of lawyers, judges, jurors and defendants were evacuated from the building, and Centre Street between Worth and Walker Streets was closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic. More than a dozen FDNY trucks and ambulances responded to the alert. The courthouse was particularly crowded Tuesday in anticipation of a sentencing hearing for rap star Lil' Wayne, who pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a firearm in October.

“I think a lot of people thought it was a fire drill at first,” said an attorney working on the fourth floor, who asked not to be identified. “Once we saw how aggressively the court officers were moving us out, we knew it was for real.”

Carl Glassman / Tribeca Trib

An injured firefighter is wheeled from the scene of a fire at the Manhattan District Criminal Court building at 100 Centre Street. He was one of five firefighters injured in the March 2 blaze.

No smoke was seen emanating from the building, but witnesses described smoky hallways and stairwells all the way up to the building’s top floors. Most of the people ushered out of the building by court officers described the evacuation as calm and orderly, though a few said some logistical problems did arise.

“It got a little bunched up in the stairwells,” said Arik Hesseldahl, who was serving jury duty on the ninth floor when officers began evacuating the building.

“There was a really strong odor of plastic or electrical wires in the smoke. A lot of people were holding handkerchiefs over their faces while we were trying to get out.”