Instead of waking to the “Good Vibrations” of the Beach Boys, residents of Virginia-Snider residence hall rose to the flashing lights and piercing sound of a fire alarm Thursday morning.

There was no actual fire, but there was smoke.

Around 4:30 a.m. sophomore Weston Davis took the elevator to the ground floor to pick up his laundry.

On the way back up to his room on the third floor he heard a suspicious noise. When the doors of the elevator didn’t open, he realized he was stuck.

While stuck in the elevator, Davis heard the piercing sound of the fire alarm as he waited for the maintenance crew to arrive.

Maintenance arrived on the scene after the fire alarm was triggered in a matter of minutes, and discovered the oil used to run the elevator was overheating.

Overheating rarely occurs, but is caused when the elevator runs continuously for a long period of time, causing the oil to heat up and produce smoke.

Hall director Angie Harris said the alarm went off around 6:45 a.m., and residents emerged within minutes.

“I was surprised to hear the alarm so early this morning. It’s usually pretty quiet at Virginia-Snider, and we don’t have too many false alarms,” Harris said.

Many of the residents were slow to awaken, but quick to exit the building in fear that this was no false alarm.

“At first I thought my roommate’s alarm clock was going off, but when we saw the flashing lights we knew it was a fire alarm,” first floor resident Michael Hogenmiller said.

Hogenmiller describes the flashing as a disorienting strobe light.

Residents were allowed to return after the smoke cleared on the ground floor around 7:50 a.m.

“The residents were very cooperative, and I was really pleased with the RAs for getting the building cleared so quickly,” Harris said.

Residents who live on the ground floor had to wait longest to enter because the smoke filled the area around their rooms.

“My friends and I decided to watch SportsCenter in the lounge when we weren’t allowed back into our rooms,” said ground floor resident Kirk Voss.

Many residents ate breakfast at Umphrey Lee or sat in the inner circle of the north quad until they were given the OK to re-enter.

Elevator maintenance crew had the right elevator running later in the day, but the left elevator remains out of order until repairs can be made.

Harris says a similar incident occurred in the McElvaney residence hall a while back, but isn’t expected to happen again.