Some Bissell residents reported that the fire was caused by an improperly disposed cigarette butt, but others have speculated that alcohol may have been involved in the incident or that the fire was a deliberate act.
Hanover Police and Safety and Security were unavailable to comment on the official cause of the fire due to the fact that the fire occurred on a Sunday.
The Fire Department dispatched 10 firefighters to the scene, but when they arrived at 5:27 a.m., six minutes after receiving the call, the fire had already been put out with a fire extinguisher, Acting Duty Officer David Hautaniemi said.
"Unless someone was throwing a cigarette in a trash can at five in the morning, it kind of sounds like it was intentional," said Erik Douglas '10, a resident of Suite 201 where the fire occurred.
After the fire was first discovered when a male attempted to use the second floor bathroom only to discover a partially melted, flaming trash can, most residents evacuated the building to find Hanover Police officers already arriving on the scene, Bissell residents said.
The Fire Department cleared the building for reentry at 5:56 a.m., according to Hautaniemi.
"One of the big trash cans was dragged out and had been melted down to about a foot," third floor Bissell undergraduate advisor Jeannie Valkevich '08 said.
The students from the second and third floors were taken to the Bissell-Cohen Lounge where they met with Safety and Security officers, firefighters and Community Director Kristin Deal.
Male residents living in the suite where the fire took place were questioned separately by the police, Michael Zirngibl '10 said. The second floor students, including Zirngibl, said they were informed that unless some individual was determined responsible for the incident, the entire floor would be held financially liable for the damages.
"I do not think that it is fair that the second floor has to pay because most of us are just as innocent as everyone else in the building," Zirngibl said.
Douglas said that police entered the building with a master key, awakening those who were still sleeping and removing those who had ignored the alarm.
This was the second time the fire alarm went off in Bissell this weekend, with the first occurring on Friday evening due to smoke from a bag of burnt popcorn.
"My initial reaction was that it was a false alarm as well, but my roommate saw the smoke in the hallway and we decided to evacuate," Diego Moncada '10 said.
During a community talk in the Bissell-Cohen Lounge, Zirngibl said they were told that it was their communal responsibility to ensure that everyone in the hall safely evacuated the building and that in the future the building would be fined $100 for each student who remained inside.
The bathroom door remained open Sunday, revealing walls still partially covered with ash.
