Firefighters confirmed a fire at a Vanderbilt residence hall has been put out.
The fire broke out at Carmichael Towers East in the 2300 block of West End Avenue before 4:30 p.m. Friday.
A portion of West End Avenue was blocked off, and officers were directing traffic. University officials said the hall was evacuated.
Fire at Carmichael Towers East is out. Possibly mechanical. Some sort of motor caught fire on First floor. No injuries. Bldg evacced pic.twitter.com/bEltJOqdip
— Nashville Fire Dept (@NashvilleFD) March 3, 2017
Just after 5 p.m. crews confirmed the fire was out. They added the fire was possibly caused by a motor in the mechanical room on the first floor catching on fire, but the exact cause as far as what sparked it was unknown.
A smoke detector in one of the four high-rise towers that compose the complex went off at 4:11 p.m. and the buildings’ occupants immediately evacuated the building.
"The alarm came out and people started running out of their rooms, and I just thought maybe it was a practice run and I saw the smoke and that's when I started getting down the steps," Bianca McClain said.
The complex normally houses 1,200 students, but only about 100 students were in the residence halls at the time.
"We thought it was ours at first. So we thought it was malfunctioning; so we looked up and was like what's going on and then all of a sudden we hear everybody start to leave so we're like we should probably get out of here," Sophomore Tyler Mastey said.
Students were able to go back inside Towers West around 6:15 Friday night. Housing officials escorted students to their rooms in Towers East to retrieve their belongings.
The building suffered no structural damage, but Towers East did receive minimal smoke damage.
University housing and workplace safety officials are still determining when Towers East can be reopened for residency.
Authorities said the fire was only upgraded to a two-alarm fire because it involved a high-rise building.
No injuries were reported in this incident. The investigation into the fire was ongoing.
