Residents of building 3770 at University Woods evacuated the building after a fire broke out at 12:30 a.m. with flames extending from the first floor to the third floor, according to Larry Stanford of the Raleigh Fire Department.

The fire, caused by an electrical short in an HV/AC unit, forced nine residents of the complex to find another place to stay for the night, Stanford said.

“The firefighters formed hand lines in both the interior and exterior of the house and found no people trapped inside the building,” Stanford said.

The fire caused $15,000 worth of damage, he added.

The emergency came at an inopportune time for some students, such as Charles Woelfel, a junior computer science, who said he was getting out of the shower when he smelled smoke.

“Our whole apartment was full of smoke — it wasn’t real thick, but it was full of smoke,” Woelfel said. “We had no idea where the fire came from.”

According to Stanford, the fire department received the emergency call at 12:43 a.m., and the firefighters “weren’t there for a long time.”

Mychal Daniels, a junior textile engineering, said the fire woke him up.

“I awoke to my room filled with smoke and started choking,” Daniels said. “So, we all rushed outside and have been just taking in this scene right here.”

Hunter Pless, a sophomore in biomedical engineering, said the fire caused quite a bit of chaos outside the building as well.

“We were just chilling, and we heard a serious explosion. Then we smelled burning plastic, but we thought it was something in our kitchen,” Pless said. “Then people just started going crazy and yelling about the fire.”

For students such as Andrew Pita, a junior in electrical engineering, the fire was an alarming situation.

“I was passed out and my roommate starts banging on my door,” Pita said. “I’m groggy and the next thing I know he’s yelling ‘Fire!’ So I freak out and start running.”

According to the fire report, water damage was sustained in three apartment units from the third floor to the first floor. Because the fire remained on the exterior of the building, the sprinkler system did not activate.