By Maegan Clearwood
Editor-in-Chief
A small stovetop fire in the dining hall kitchen set off Hodson Hall’s fire alarm yesterday at around 2:30 p.m. The building was evacuated, and thanks to quick responses from Public Safety and the fire department, students were able to return to the second floor for dinner at 5:30 p.m.
According to Director of Public Safety Jerry Roderick, the fire occurred in the back part of the kitchen due to an unattended pot on a two-burner stove. The sprinkler system was not set off because of the kitchen’s hooded fan system, but the fire alarm sounded automatically.
Dining Hall Services Director Zena Maggitti said she was in a managers’ meeting when a staff member notified her of the incident. An employee quickly extinguished the fire, PS was notified, and everyone inside, including about 100 students, evacuated the building.
PS sent an officer to respond and immediately called the fire department. The Health Department also arrived to “inspect the site and make sure it’s safe to reopen for business.”
“Everything was smooth, the students understood, and we had our employees scheduled to make sure we had everyone accounted for,” Maggitti said. “The fire department was very pleased with the manner in which we handled everything.”
Dining hall employees stood outside the doors and explained the situation to students. Many had only just swiped their ID cards when the alarm sounded, so one staff member brought a tray of cold sandwiches outside with her to hand out to hungry students. The first floor of the building reopened at 2:55 p.m., and students who hadn’t eaten yet were served lunch from the downstairs retailers.
Roderick sent out a campus-wide email explaining the incident to students at 3:28 p.m.
Meanwhile, the health inspector surveyed the second floor. PS was instructed to remove the stove from the building so it could either be recertified or trashed and replaced.
Once the smoke had cleared and the area was cleaned and sanitized, the Health Department said the top floor was safe and ready for business.
The dining hall opened at 5 p.m. and dinner was served at 5:30 p.m.
“Everybody did their part and evacuated the building and it ran fairly well,” Roderick said. “We’re thankful the interruption was so short.”
Maggitti attributed the staff’s calm and efficient responsiveness to
extensive emergency training. The employee who brought the fire under control, for example, smothered the flames in salt, “which is exactly what you’re supposed to do with that kind of fire.”
“Hopefully it never has to happen again, but it went very smoothly and it’s because we’ve done the training and teachings so that the employees knew what to do,” she said.