DRAGUIGNAN, France, May 17, 2008 (AFP) - Fire caused extensive damage to a villa in southern France owned by former Formula One double world champion Mika Hakkinen, local police said Saturday.

Hakkinen´s partner and another woman escaped from the building when the fire broke out overnight Friday at the villa, in the village of Callian, in the Provence region.

Although neither woman was hurt, paramedics took them to hospital in nearby Frejus as a precautionary measure. A dog inside by the building perished in the fire.

The fire swept through the first and second floors of the 800-square-metre (8,600-square-foot) villa, north of Lake Saint Cassien, leaving only the ground floor intact.

Initial investigations by fire investigators believe it was caused by an electrical fault they traced to a display window where the driver´s trophies were on display.