A malfunction in the air conditioner transformer caused an electrical fire in the west side of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Friday night.

The Charleston Fire Department was called to the scene at 8:29 p.m.

There was flammable liquid building up in the transformer, which is hard to put out, said Charleston Police Chief Kris Phipps.

Dry chemicals and foam were used to coat the oil that was leaking from the transformer.

Phipps said there was more smoke than fire.

Nikki Yakas, a junior physical education major, was working in the union bowling alley, when she saw the smoke.

She received a call from her supervisor to evacuate the building, even though no alarm sounded on the building’s west side.

After evacuating, Yakas heard two big booms, she said.

Yakas said she was surprised she didn’t hear a fire alarm sound after she saw the smoke. She was worried about the group of 10-year-old boys bowling that night. All 12 lanes were filled, she said.

Donnie Davis, a building supervisor, made the call to have workers evacuate the building.

“When there’s something like this, you have to get everyone else out,” Davis said.

The east side’s alarm sent a few students out of the 24-hour study lounge.

Police officers came into the lounge and told at least one student to leave the building.

Ovais Malik, a senior computer information systems major, said he was surprised the alarm only went off on the east side, the opposite side of the fire.

The fire alarm in the union didn’t go off on the west side.

“The alarm should have gone off on this side,” said Dan Nadler, vice president for Student Affairs.

Sgt. Mike Elam from the University Police Department was standing with Yakas outside the union’s entrance after the building was evacuated.

He said he didn’t think the firefighters could pinpoint exactly what was happening. Smoke poured from a vent on the right side of the entrance of the union.

“But where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” Elam said.

A university electrician said it was strange that this happened now – an overload is more likely during the summer when the transformer is actually in use.

Power to the union was shut down at 9:35 p.m. for an hour so firefighters could safely get into the air conditioning transformer that contained the fire.

The power needed to be shut off long enough for firefighters to get into the room containing the smoke, said Tim Donnell, a building service worker.

The power that feeds back to the west side of the union also feeds into McAfee, Lincoln, Stevenson and Douglas Halls.

Once the room’s doors were open, revealing the transformer, smoke filled the union’s lower and main levels.

Tim Taflinger, the manager of the Union Bowling Alley, got a call telling him about the electrical fire.

This was the first time in his 24 years at Eastern anything like this had happened.

Taflinger was told the situation wasn’t that bad, but he decided to come to see for himself.

“I’ve smelled electrical stuff before, but this is bad,” he said. “It’s going to take a while to air out, looks like.”

Dan Nadler, vice president for student affairs, said he thought it was harder to get rid of the electrical smoke smell, rather than a traditional fire. He thought this smell was stronger.

“You’ll remember this smell – it’s electrical,” said Tim Lewis, Eastern’s network engineer.

Other student workers were evacuated from the building after turning off machines in the union food court.

Workers were told there was an electrical fire in the lower level that may have been a short or a transformer, said Jon Wolf, a sophomore finance major. Wolf was working at Subway at the time of the incident.

The air was still hazy after 11 p.m. when the building would be turned over to the electrician and building service workers to clean up the mess, Phipps said.

Cathy Engelkes, deputy director of the union, said she thought the east side of the building was OK. No weekend events would be canceled, she said, although things might be moved around in the union.

-Sarah Whitney, Adam Tedder, Kevin Kenealy and Matt Hopf contributed to this report.