Residents of the east wing of Owen Graduate Hall chatted patiently with each other Thursday morning as firefighters responded to a small fire in the building.

East Lansing fire Capt. Dave Dunham said the fire, which was contained to a trash can and extinguished by a nearby sprinkler, started around 4 a.m. There were no injuries and only minimal water damage from the sprinkler, he said.

By 4:50 a.m., emergency vehicles started to leave the scene. Dunham said the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Because of the water damage, residents on the first floor were told they could not return to their rooms this morning, and that alternate rooms would be found. Information on how many people would be displaced was not immediately available.

Sociology and environmental studies junior Ashley Palmer stood outside one of Owen's eastern exits in a crowd of residents, waiting for firefighters to allow people back in. She is one of the first floor residents.

"I'm a little irritated," she said. Palmer said she was concerned about her laptop computer, which is still in her room. She did not know if her room - nearly at the opposite end of the wing from the location of the fire - had suffered water damage.

Residents as high as the fifth floor reported smelling smoke from their rooms, and light smoke was reported in a staircase.

Mechanical engineering freshman Shana Farmer said she heard a "swooshing" noise outside her room about two hours after she went to bed. She opened the door to her room, looked down the hall, and saw smoke coming from near the trash room.

Farmer has three exams and a make-up test today. Her first is at 10:20 a.m.

Telecommunication senior Adam Feuerstein went to bed at midnight in preparation for two exams on Thursday, the first being an 8 a.m. biology test. The building's fire alarm woke him.

"I woke up and looked out my window to see if there was some blazing inferno," said Feuerstein, who lives on the building's fifth floor.

There wasn't, so he went back to bed, but a few seconds later, smelled smoke and decided to leave, he said.

On the sidewalk across Shaw Lane, third-floor suite mates Jessica Forshee and Tracey Haslitt, both fourth-year veterinary medicine students, sat in pajamas and watched the scene.

Haslitt's job requires her to be on call every third night of the week, in case an animal has a medical emergency.

"I didn't get called in tonight," she said. "The one night I'm not on call."