Students living in Hassayampa Academic Village on the Tempe campus evacuated their residence halls Friday evening after a cooling system motor overheated and sparked a fire.
More than 30 firefighters responded to Acacia Hall at around 6:30 p.m. as student residents waited outside.
Tempe Fire spokesman Mike Reichling said the fire was contained to a maintenance room on the bottom floor of Acacia Hall. The motor that runs water through the buildings' cooling system burned up because of Friday's high temperatures, Reichling said.
"It just over-tasked the system," he said.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures reached 115 degrees at 5:30 in the evening.
Business communications freshman Kailey Warren stood outside in a maroon bath towel as she waited for ASU housing officials to let students back inside.
Warren said she was in the shower washing her hair when the fire alarm went off.
"Honestly, I thought it was going to be a five minute drill," she said.
Warren's roommate, Colleen Quinn, a business management freshman, said they lived on the fourth floor of Acacia Hall and evacuated down the building's stairwell when the alarm went off.
At around 7:30 p.m., fire crews were still waiting to put the fire out, Reichling said. The fire was contained, but firefighters needed to be advised by ASU maintenance officials on how they could isolate the motor from the rest of the cooling system before dousing the flames.
Reichling said there were no injuries.
At around 8 p.m., ASU Police sent out a tweet that stated the dorms were open.
Reach the reporter at kjdaly@asu.edu
