An unattended candle was blamed for a fire in Manzanita Hall late Wednesday afternoon, causing an evacuation of the building and water damage to students' rooms, a fire inspector said.
ASU police and the Tempe Fire Department responded to the fire about 4:45 p.m., and 250-300 residents were evacuated for about 20 minutes, said ASU spokesman Manny Romero.
Tempe Fire Inspector Phil Rohe credited the building's sprinkler system for putting out the fire before firefighters arrived.
"Had this sprinkler system not been in place, we could have lost lives," he said. "A major disaster was averted here."
Rohe said he believes a candle left burning on a desk in the entryway of a fifth-floor room ignited "a light cotton fabric" that was hung around the door frame.
Residential Life prohibits the use of candles or devices with an open flame in all residence halls.
Officials believed the room was unoccupied at the time the fire started.
Rohe also said the smoke detector mounted near the door had been covered with a plastic film. The fire alarm was triggered when the heat from the fire set off a sprinkler near the door.
Though Rohe said only one sprinkler was triggered, Romero said 10 rooms on the fifth floor sustained water damage.
Psychology freshman Chris Cella, a resident of the fifth floor, said he saw water "pouring out" of another room's window after he evacuated the building.
More than an hour after police and fire officials were called to the scene, water still flooded a stretch of the fifth floor hallway.
Romero said about 20 students have been relocated to empty rooms in Manzanita or other halls because cleanup may take "a couple of days."
Displaced students were escorted back to their rooms and offered the option of staying with friends or relatives, he said.
Reach the reporter at brian.indrelunas@asu.edu.
