A small fire broke out at the Franklin-Wilkins Building on Waterloo Campus today at around 4pm. King’s College London (KCL) staff confirmed that the incident had been quickly brought under control by firefighters and classes were held as scheduled.
A security guard outside the Franklin-Wilkins Building told Roar that the incident was caused by a lit cigarette dropped into a ventilation grate outside the building.
Students were evacuated around 4:15pm, after a fire alarm was heard throughout the building.
Prior to the evacuation, students noticed a strong odour of smoke, particularly around the ground floor rising to the first-floor café, with unconfirmed reports of visible smoke rising from vents inside the foyer.
Tamanna Mohammad, a second-year War Studies student told Roar, “We could smell the smoke from the 5th floor, and as we left the building we saw a lot fumes exiting from the side of the it.”
Firefighters arrived at around 4:15pm with several fire engines stationed in front of the building.
At approximately 4:40pm, after the fire in the ventilation system was extinguished, students re-entered the building and firefighters cleared the scene.
Roar reached out to King’s College London and London Fire Brigade for comment.
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