A fire in the loading dock on the east side of the MU Student Center forced the entire building to evacuate Monday night.

MU spokesman Christian Basi said the fire did not originate inside the student center, but rather in the trash compactor in the adjacent loading dock.

“It started in a commercial-sized trash compactor, about 30 cubic feet, in a loading dock in Brady Commons,” Columbia Fire Department Capt. John Metz said.

The fire department arrived just after 8 p.m., and Metz said the cause of the fire is still unclear.

“The first crew to arrive could see flames coming from the opening (of the compactor),” he said. “Any number of things could have caused it. It’s a 20-foot-long by 8-feet-tall by 8-feet-wide commercial trash compactor filled with paper and plastic.”

The student center was evacuated for about 30 minutes while the fire department extinguished the flames.

“I was in the Student Orgs office and then the firm alarms started going off,” junior Nicole Herrera said. “It just started smoking.”

Columbia Solid Waste Services came to haul the trash compactor to the landfill. Metz said the fire was contained to the compactor and nothing else was damaged.