Arson is the suspected cause of a small fire in Mifflin Hall, which suffered extensive water damage to several rooms late Sunday after emergency sprinklers activated.

At about 11 p.m., fire alarms rang throughout the building after detecting flames coming from a second floor hallway bulletin board, Penn State Police Capt. Bill Moerschbacher said. No one was injured, he said.

Papers and plastic tacked on the board were intentionally lit on fire by an unknown person, triggering the emergency sprinkler system to spray hundreds of gallons of water in the second-floor hallway, Moerschbacher said. Police are still investigating the arson and have no suspects, Moerschbacher said, adding it is "fairly odd" for a dorm fire to escalate to the point of sprinkler activation.

First-floor resident Jillian Schaffer said "it looked like the Titanic or something."

Monday, the effects were obvious. Schaffer (freshman-pre-medicine) unfurled her musty, damaged beige rug as she described the sprinkler water "rushing out of the elevators."

"The fire itself didn't do too much damage," said Schaffer, who slept in a friend's Shunk Hall room Sunday. "But my rugs were sopping wet. And it smells like musty water."

Moerschbacher said 13 rooms on the first and second floors suffered minor to moderate water damage, but there is no cost estimate available yet. Penn State spokesman Geoff Rushton wrote in an e-mail that housing officials reported 14 rooms were impacted by water.

Signs posted on the doors of affected rooms alerted residents damaged items had been bagged and removed by the Office of Physical Plant and Housing and Residence Life departments. Students were asked to collect their items from storage, the sign read.

Rushton said students were not offered temporary housing but were allowed back into their rooms at 2:45 a.m. Monday. Temporary housing was not offered because the incident was resolved quickly, Rushton wrote in an e-mail Monday night.

Wet clothing bagged Sunday night was either returned to students or the housing office washed and dried the items for them at no charge, Rushton wrote.

He couldn't say whether students would be reimbursed for damaged items, but he wrote students will complete an incident report with the housing staff. The Office of Risk Management will assess any claims made by students for reimbursement, Rushton wrote, adding the housing staff indicated it does not expect to see many, if any, items claimed.

After being evacuated, many students in the six-story building escaped the chilly outdoors to Pollock Commons, fifth-floor resident Courtney Fail (freshman-division of undergraduate studies) said.

"It is really annoying and upsetting," Fail said upon hearing the fire was set intentionally. "I'm pretty sure I failed an exam today, I was completely caught off guard and didn't grab anything."

At midnight, about 100 students crowded the couches, chairs and floors of the commons' lobby, chattering back and forth about when they would be allowed back in the building. Residence Life coordinators offered board games and free pizza to the temporarily homeless students in the commons, Fail said.

With a waterlogged science book in hand, second-floor resident Aditya Vissam said he saw water seeping under his door Sunday night, yanking it open to find a plume of smoke in the hall.

"I ran out and left everything: my cell phone, my television, my computer," Vissam (freshman-civil engineering) said.

Vissam, who stayed with a friend in Beaver Hall Sunday night, said he retrieved his damaged items -- books, shoes and a bag -- after reading the sign on his door.

Matt Mcgowan, a second-floor resident, said he was in the shower when he heard the alarms sound.

"I ran to my door but saw all the smoke, so I just ran downstairs," he said. "I just had a towel and sandals."

A resident assistant gave him her coat while he huddled among evacuated students outside, McGowan (freshman-meteorology) said.

McGowan slept at a friend's room in McElwain Hall and said his hamper and some of his bedding were damaged by the water. But it could have been worse, some said.

"I had a dream that my room was gutted," Schaffer said, noting two of her rugs, a hamper and some of her clothes were damaged by the water. "But thankfully, it wasn't too bad."