Southampton Uni fire which saw students evacuated from the area was caused by a ‘chiller unit’

A fire on campus which led to students being evacuated from the building was caused by a “chiller unit”, the local fire service has confirmed.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue were called out to University Road at 16:45 on Tuesday afternoon after an alarm sounded in a university office building.

Smoke was detected across three floors of the Southampton University building, which was confirmed not to be a residential building.

Six fire engines from nearby stations attended the scene where it took almost an hour before the fire service gave the “stop message” and handed over authority back to the university.

Students and staff were evacuated with all the people in the building being accounted for.

Later that evening, a spokesperson from the fire service described the incident as a “small fire involving a diesel spillage”.

They added, it was quickly detected and put out.

Despite this, students were told by campus security they could not work in the area later that evening, only being allowed back in briefly to collect their bags.

Members of the public were also asked to avoid the area as Hampshire Police closed parts of University Road, Church Lane and Burgess Road.

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