Firefighters were called Thursday to the Pi Beta Phi sorority house at Kansas University for a small fire connected to construction work being done at the house.
The building at 1612 W. 15th St. had to be evacuated, but the damage was confined to a wall where a welder was working, said Dan Morrow, battalion chief with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical.
House mother Sunny Walsh said none of the students' rooms was damaged.
Walsh said about 20 women were in the building at the time the smoke alarms went off.
"More of the girls were coming home from class and saw all the fire trucks at the house and got panicky," she said.
Walsh said the fire wouldn't hold up construction on the $2 million expansion to add more bedrooms, a library and a larger dining area to the house. She said the work is to be done next August.
Morrow estimated the damage at $500.
The fire was reported at 10:58 a.m. It took firefighters only 10 minutes to control the blaze, Morrow said.
-- Kendrick Blackwood's phone message number is 832-7221. His e-mail address is kblackwood@ljworld.com.
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