Around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 17, there was an electrical fire in one of the dorm rooms at North Hall. There were no injuries.

Riley Kizziar, a resident of North Hall, said she was doing homework when her laptop began to smoke and then caught on fire. Dean of Student Success Gregg Heinselman said he could see the response from his office.

“I was in my office and right away saw the ambulance response and the fire department response,” Heinselman said. “Students had already been evacuated from the building.”

According to Heinselman, students will be moved into different on-campus housing tonight after the fire department gives an all-clear on whether or not it is safe for students to collect their belongings. The recovery of items and building repair process will begin following these steps.

“It looks like at this point in time the majority of the damage is to one room,” Heinselman said.

Anali Ruiz, a studio arts major, said she was hanging out with a friend outside the back of North Hall when a resident came out and told them the fire alarms were going off inside the building. Ruiz is not a resident of North Hall.

Paul Horner, a resident of Stephens-Whitney, was halfway through a timed final exam for COM 220 when the power was shut off in response to the electrical fire and all his systems went down.

“I recognize that for me there won’t be a significant negative outcome,” Horner says. “But it was highly inconvenient.” He said his professor was understanding of the situation.

Horner said that if he wasn’t so close to the library it would have been a much greater inconvenience for him. 

Heinselman said that there are 20 to 25 residents of North Hall that have been evacuated, and that there are no injuries.

“The student responded appropriately,” Heinselman said. “Police, our campus emergency staff responded appropriately, … it works like it needs to work. The good news is it was contained to one room and that nobody was injured.”