Fire officials said an electrical short in an extension cord used by the Pearl nightclub started a small fire in an Ala Moana Shopping Center storage room that was quickly extinguished this morning by an internal sprinkler system.

However, water seeped from the fire sprinkler system to the Barnes and Noble Bookseller store below on the street level causing extensive damage to books and display equipment.

Carolyn Brown, a New York spokeswoman for the book company, said in an e-mail that the company does not plan to disclose any damage figures.

The book store, which was scheduled to open at 9 a.m., opened at about 11:45 a.m. after the damage was cleaned up.

The fire was reported at 7:54 a.m., and the blaze was reported to be in a storage room on the mall level of the center. Firefighters arrived at 8:01 a.m. and had everything under control 10 minutes later. Fire damage to the storage room and its contents was set at $5,000 by fire officials.

Pearl’s storage room is located behind Fendi’s woman’s apparel store on the mall level. Although the store was not damaged by the fire, a strong odor of smoke lingered after the fire was extinguished.

Firefighters helped the shopping center crews siphon water that had accumulated in the book store.