Either an electric alarm clock or a telephone answering machine caused the fire that gutted 423 Hastings Hall Thursday night, Alpha Fire Chief Robert Kauffman said yesterday.

Kauffman and Tom Hand, a University fire protection engineer, pulled melted electrical outlets and switches from the walls of the room Friday morning and determined they were in working order before the fire.

Hand said he plans to interview fourth floor residents and survey the damaged room today. The clock and answering machine, are being examined.

No one was injured in the fire, which caused an estimated $30,000 of damage to the room and hallway. The furniture, walls, ceiling and floor of the room were blackened by the fire and the hallway was dusted with soot, Hand said.

The residents of room 423, Julie Szymecki (sophomore-communications) and Jane Moore (sophomore-engineering), were not at home when the fire started just before 9:00 p.m.

Hand, also an assistant chief for Alpha Fire Company, said the blaze spread no farther than the room because of the building's concrete construction.

"Had that door been open, I'm sure the fire would have spread down the hall," he said.

Fourth floor residents Lori Knisley (freshman-liberal arts) and Audrey Lupinos (freshman-nursing) pulled a fire alarm after they saw smoke coming from behind the locked door.

"Their smoke detector kept going on and off," Lupinos said shortly after evacuating the building.

The two initially ignored the smoke detector alarm because they thought the residents were using a popcorn maker which sometimes sets off the detectors, Kinsley said. Once they found a fire alarm, she added, it took over 30 seconds to go off after they pulled it.

The alarm came into the University Police Services dispatch center at 9 p.m., firefighters were called at 9:06 and arrived on the scene at 9:14, according to records at the Centre County Communications Center. Once outside the window, firefighters snuffed out the flames in less than 40 seconds with a water hose, Hand said.

He said no residents were in the building when firefighters arrived and entered the dorm. Residents, many of whom thought at first that they were experiencing another fire drill, stared up in disbelief at the orange glow which illuminated the room.

Hand said that because of the excess of false alarms on campus, many students do not take fire alarms seriously.

"Anytime a fire alarm goes off, treat it as the real thing," he said. "If people would assume there's a fire and leave the building when it goes off, then there would be no problem."