Two cars caught on fire for unknown reasons in North Hall parking lot Wednesday night.

The cars that caught on fire were a 2003 white Mercedes-Benz CLK55 and a 2009 silver Jeep Liberty according to the police report

The owner of the Mercedes-Benz Gaviel Spears stated that the fire occurred when she pulled into the parking lot, where the vehicle made “popping noises”, had smoke emanated from it, and then burst into flames according to the police report.

There was a loud noise that sounded like an explosion when the fire occurred at around 10:45 p.m. according to Omega Phi Beta Sister Dominique Jordyn Harloff who witnessed it from her car while driving near Choate House.

“You could just see the two cars literally in flames, it was like crisping, it was crazy,” Harloff said. “As we were pulling up we heard a boom, you could tell that the car exploded.”

Members of the Pleasantville Fire Department and the Mount Pleasant Police Department arrived on the scene. The parking lot was closed while the scene was cleaned by the fire department and investigated by the police.

A 2006 Toyota 4-Runner and a 2004 Lexus 330 were also damaged in the fire according to the police report.

“You could just see the fire department rushing and putting out the fires. Once they got the fires out they had to go out and inspect all the cars to make sure nothing else [caught on fire] and they had to make sure the cars didn’t start up in flames again,” Harloff said.

During the incident Entrance Three was closed, however, individuals were redirected to enter and exit through the campus Entrance Two by Pace Security.

Residential Life staff told individuals near the parking lot to evacuate.

“All the [Residential Directors] and everyone told us to leave,” Harloff said.

Individuals who witnessed the fire suspect the cause of it was electrical due to its large size.

“When I was talking to people they were saying it could have been an electrical fire like someone left their car running and the battery exploded,” Harloff said.

Glen’s Towing removed the damaged Mercedes-Benz and Jeep from campus.

A pile of burned rubble can be found in North Parking lot where the incident occurred, blocked by a traffic cone

This is a developing story and will be updated routinely online and in print. For video of the fire visit the Chronicle’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.