It seemed like a normal day at Southwest this past Monday night, with computers buzzing, hallways well lit and the sound of machinery audible throughout the halls.

Then everything went dark.

At precisely 7:48 p.m., the entire campus of Southwest Minnesota State University lost power. It was a chaotic scene as students began converging in the Student Center and lobbies of dorms and RA’s went dashing around campus to make sure everyone was safe.

While the emergency lights still illuminated most of the school, there was still the chance that students could have been trapped in an elevator or behind the doors of the library stairway.

Power was restored to the main part of campus at about 7:55 p.m.,  with most dorms getting their lights back at the same time. Sweetland Hall, on the other hand, remained dark until almost an hour later, with people sitting together with their flashlights in the black until about 8:50 p.m.

Just as all seemed right on campus again, all power was lost again at approximately 9 p.m. The electricity returned at about 9:40 p.m.,  and while the lights flickered and would sometimes go out for seconds at a time, the power held for the rest of the night.

So far there have been zero injuries reported. There was a slight scare with a suspected fire in Charisma early on during the event.

Directly after the first outage, a few students within Charisma smelled smoke, with several calling 911 before moving to Commons East.

A firetruck accompanied by an ambulance and several police officers quickly arrived on the scene, moving a few students out of the building and soon after declaring everything fine and allowing everyone to return.

“We think it’s just the heaters”, Marc Klaith, Marshall’s fire department chief reported. “When the power went out, the heaters were still hot and let off some smoke. One of the students smelled it and called 911.”

Despite it being a false alarm, the fire department still would rather have 911 called if there is any suspicion of a fire. Before leaving, a fireman spoke to a group of students set up in Commons East.

“Don’t hesitate to call again if you smell smoke again or suspect a fire,” the fireman said. “It’s much better to be safe, as a fire would be the last thing needed out here. Trust your instincts.”