Mississippi State University students in 18 of the 30 rooms affected by a Sunday night fire will soon return to their rooms in Oak Hall, according to university officials.

Flames were contained to the third-floor room where the fire started, but water damage affected 29 others. University officials believe the fire started by a spark that caught a bed on fire after a student plugged a phone charger into an electrical outlet. No injuries were reported in the incident.

The university offered lodging at the La Quinta Inn near campus for students in the affected rooms.

MSU Chief Communications Sid Salter said 18 of the rooms were minimally impacted and have been restored to a suitable state for students to return.

“That group of students, if they are in a hotel, their room is guaranteed by the university through noon Friday,” Salter said. “If something changes, they’ll be notified by Student Affairs.”

However, Salter said the Student Affairs Division of Housing expects repairs on 12 of the rooms could take up to 30 days to complete.

Salter said the university has offered two options to the students in those rooms.

“Their options are to remain at the hotel, at the university’s expense, or to move into another residence hall where there’s space available on campus,” Salter said. “Some have chosen to stay with friends or family members. They have the option to continue doing that, but the university will take care of them by the hotel route or absorbing them into vacant space in the residence hall system. They have been given contacts to negotiate their individual needs or desires to move forward on that.”

Salter said the university has also told students in the affected rooms to contact their resident advisers to arrange to store their furniture and other personal belongings.

He said MSU also distributed property loss claim forms to students, with instructions on how to claim a loss for property that was damaged in the rooms.

After the fire, MSU extended academic accommodations to affected students, and MSU President Mark Keenum offered further accommodations, such as parking.

“We are fully committed to helping those impacted by this fire in any way we can,” Keenum said. “The safety of our MSU family is a top priority, and I am grateful that nobody was hurt during this incident. I would like to thank the students, staff and emergency officials involved for their efforts in minimizing the harm caused by this fire.”

Salter said the university is still working to determine a cost for the damage.

“Whatever the cost, we’ve got to get these rooms back in shape,” Salter said. “I think the fact that 18 of the rooms had minimal damage is going to help.”

The last time a fire broke out in Oak Hall was in October 2014 when a candle left burning in a third-floor residence ignited a couch and scorched a wall. While no injuries were reported, 30 double-occupancy rooms required extensive repairs and temporarily displaced about 150 students. At the time, the building was about two years old.

The candle fire, Salter told The Dispatch, was in a separate wing of Oak Hall than Sunday’s incident.

Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.