Daily Staff Writer

About 225 students were evacuated from Roberts Hall early Sunday morning after fire departments responded to an automatic alarm that was sounded.

Paul Sandoval, a firefighter with the Ames Fire Department, said an alarm sounded after someone “shot off a fire extinguisher,” which expelled an extinguishing agent that probably activated the alarm.

Torin Akey, Roberts Hall director, said an extinguisher was discharged but officials are not sure why.

Sandoval said both fire stations in Ames responded to the fire at about 1:58 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Akey said students who wanted to be inside were moved to the Linden Hall Lounge.