SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — A smoking heating unit in a Slippery Rock University dormitory kitchen made students evacuate to a different building around 3 a.m. Friday.

There were no flames, according to SRU spokesman Robb King, but smoke from the machine filled the room. King said that it was an in-room heating unit and not a student's personal heater.

Capt. Travis Wunsch of Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company said 378 students were evacuated from the building.

“I'm sure they weren't happy to be out in 5 degree weather at 3 in the morning,” Wunsch said.

The students were evacuated to Watson Hall while firefighters cleared the building, Wunsch said. Fire crews were on the scene for about an hour, he said.

Wunsch confirmed that firefighters never saw flames. When they arrived, he said, they found a “moderate amount of smoke” on the first floor. The heat unit was in a kitchen on the second floor.

In that kitchen, Wunsch said they found “a large amount of smoke from floor to ceiling.”

“It was definitely on the smaller end of things, but it could have been a lot worse,” Wunsch said.

Earlier, around 7:30 p.m. Thursday, the fire department was called to the campus's Vincent Science Center for another smoking heating unit.

Both were electronic heating units, Wunsch said. He said the incidents weren't linked, unless the units were simply overworking themselves to keep up with the intense cold.

King said facility staff members were addressing the heating units during the day Friday.