A fire was discovered in a dryer Wednesday night in Room 2011 of the Biological Sciences building.

Vaskar Nepal KC, a senior biological sciences major, was watering plants in the building when he discovered some cloth smoldering on top of a drying oven.

“As I reached the door I smelled some kind of smoke, but I didn’t think it was going to be that significant,” he said.

He said when he opened the door he saw smoke and went in to see if someone had left a coffee pot on or if it was part of an experiment. He then tried calling his professor, but did not get an answer and he kept searching for the source of the smoke. That is when he saw some cloth smoldering on top of the dryer.

He then left the building, continuing to call his professor and came across Steven Malehorn, greenhouse manager, leaving for the day.

Nepal KC said they both went to see what was going on and opened the door of the dryer and flames formed. Nepal KC and Malehorn then left the room and called for help. They then went back with a fire extinguisher, but that did not put out the fire. So they went for more extinguishers and ended up using three total.

Malehorn said the dryers are used to dry out plant materials that have been grown under different conditions and weighed. He said it was probably caused by a student working on a research project and there had not been any classes in that room since 12:30 p.m.

Fire chief Pat Goodwin said Nepal KC and Malehorn were the only people in the building at the time of the fire and no injuries were reported.

The fire damage was contained to the room and dryer. Other than that Goodwin said that Eastern will probably have to send in employees to clean the building to eliminate the smell of smoke.

Marcus Smith can be reached at 581-7924 or masmith6@eiu.edu