9:49 p.m. — Columbia Fire Department confirmed on Twitter it was not a fire but food burnt in a microwave.
@thegamecock @hannahjeffrey34 @UofSCHousing no kitchen fire burnt food microwave..good cooperation by residents..@uofsc have #firesafenight
— Columbia Fire (@ColaFire) January 25, 2015
Original post: Students were evacuated from the Honors Residence Hall Saturday night, after a kitchen fire triggered the alarm, police said.
No one appeared to be injured.
Columbia police, fire and medical personnel piled up on Main St. around 7:30 p.m. Firefighters swiftly entered the building and exited unceremoniously after a few minutes.
“I was just in my room when the fire alarm went up,” said Angela Jessup, a first-year biological engineering student. “As I walked in, a cop walked toward the kitchen. Nobody told me any stories.”
Police officers and resident mentors clustered around the first-floor A hall communal kitchen after firefighters deemed it safe to return inside. Students quickly adjusted to their normal routines, nonchalantly milling about the laundry room adjacent to where the fire took place.
Elizabeth Hancock, first-year early childhood education student and Honors resident, seemed nonplussed by the event, using the time to go out and pick up dinner.
“Someone said someone burnt a steak in the kitchen," Hancock said. "It happens. People burn things.”