Exams are cancelled and students have been evacuated from residences after a fire cut the heating at York University’s Keele campus.

The Monday afternoon blaze damaged steam boilers and generators used to heat most campus buildings, so the university was forced to postpone exams and send students to alternate accommodation.

The 4,000 residence students are staying with family, friends or at a hotel for Monday and Tuesday night. Exams were cancelled Monday evening and Tuesday at the Keele campus.

All non-essential staff have been asked to stay home Tuesday. The Glendon campus is unaffected.

“We’re unsure how long this will take,” said York spokesman Alex Bilyk, adding the university does not know what caused the blaze.

Firefighters were called around 1 p.m. to the Central Utilities Building, also known as the “chimney stacks.”

First-year student Tom Larkin got an unexpected break from his exams and was headed home to Newmarket Monday night.

“It’s just an inconvenience,” said Larkin. “They’re ethically not allowed to let us write exams in cold lecture halls.”

His roommate, George Qi, was on his way to a hotel arranged by York.

“I think it’s cool,” said Qi, adding he hoped damage from the fire would take long enough to repair that all exams would have to be cancelled.

“Some people are really mad,” said first-year student Ian Stonebridge as he left his residence room.

He has only one exam left, but is concerned rescheduled papers could interfere with his holiday plans.

First-year theatre student Philip Turkiewicz said he wasn’t too stressed about the cancellations. He was using the nights away from residence to go home to Mississauga and get some laundry done.

With files from Tamara Baluja