A fire occurred in a bathroom on the first floor of Freedom’s Landing Thursday night due to a wiring malfunction.

A student living above the dorm that caught fire, who does not wish to be named, said that a maintenance worker told them that the fire started due to a wire sparking in the bathroom exhaust.

Julianna Shelly, freshman multimedia film and production major, and her sister Abigail Shelly, junior psychology major, both live on the third floor of building 14 and witnessed the smoke during the evacuation.

“We went downstairs and spoke to the girl whose room it was,” Julianna Shelly said. “She said that she got home and that the wall that her towels were on was on fire.”

Furniture and belongings from the room, including the mattress, were later removed from the dorm.

The student whose dorm caught fire could not be reached for comment.

Shiann Sivell, The George-Anne Enterprise Reporter, gaspecial@georgiasouthern.edu