The fire happened in a control room at Block B of the campus just before 9am, said Mr Gerald Lum, SIM’s director of brand, marketing and communications.
“Investigations showed that it was due to a short-circuited portable air cooler,” he told CNA, adding that campus operations resumed just before 10am.
When TODAY reached SIM’s Block A campus at about 11am, students were seen sitting at the building’s lobby.
Several said they were allowed back into the building 15 minutes after the evacuation announcement, adding that their classes were cancelled for the rest of the day.
Shanna Goh, 23, a Business Administration student at the university, said that she was in the middle of her psychology module test at the Block B building when the fire alarm went off.
“Around 9.20 to 9.30am, there was a fire alarm but we didn’t think much about it since we were all focused on the exam and nobody was panicking,” she said.
“About five minutes after the alarm there was an announcement that there would be an investigation. (It told us not to) panic, but that it was also not a drill.”
She said that a second announcement followed, with faculty staff and students eventually evacuating to the atrium near the entrance of the school.
According to Mr Lum, there was a class test on Introductory Psychology that ended about the same time the evacuation was made.
“We have made arrangements for students to re-sit the test if they wish to do so,” he said.
When TODAY tried to enter the basement of the building, the stairs that led to the carpark were cordoned off and there was a pungent smell of smoke lingering in the air.
This article was originally published in TODAY.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with information provided by SIM, including confirmation of the location of the fire and a clarification that students were not sitting an examination.