By Domonic DeGrinney, Staff Writer 

Residents of Justice Hall were evacuated after a fire alarm was tripped in Hoff Dining Commons last Wednesday around 7 a.m., interrupting many students’ sleep and setting off sprinklers in the tripped region. Despite this, the staff of the cafeteria adapted to serve students in a modified manner.

“A worker in the kitchen accidently bumped a fire alarm pull station which activated the ANSUL sprinkler system that is in place over the top of the grill station and other kitchen equipment in the middle of the cafeteria,” Physical Plant Operations Director Jon Prabell said.

The sprinkler dispersed a flame suppressant agent over the homestyle and grill area where the alarm was tripped. 

“We were lucky it did not damage anything, but once all of that cleaning agent was released, it… rendered (all of the equipment) unusable because, from a health perspective, we can’t have anything of chemical nature on or near the cooking area,” Senior Director of Auxiliary Services Bill Moran said.

The cafeteria employees found themselves having to clean both the grill and homestyle stations, while catering to the student body with the two stations inoperable. Auxiliary services worked to renew service in the grill and homestyle section by first contacting Cintas, the fire suppressant partner.

Next, a restoration company came in to clean the kitchen and assess any issues. 

“Once the cleaning began, that’s when we put the sheets up around the main line and started doing the deep clean. Not only did the flame suppressant fall right over where the equipment was, but we figured out that when it came down it splattered out on all of the surfaces from that entire station and on all of the other cooking equipment,” Moran said.

By Thursday morning, all issues within the cafeteria had been resolved. On Friday, a health inspector from the Board of Health came to check and clear the homestyle and grill stations and kitchen.

When reflecting on the incident Moran expressed his gladness that, in spite of the situation, the cafeteria staff were still very much able to execute their planned menu without sacrificing much. He also remarked on the admirable response time of Cintas and of the cleaning company who were able to resolve all the issues of the cafeteria overnight. 

“[Cintas was] immediately on site to do that. Within two or three hours. The cleaning company was another two hours behind them to come in and assess the situation and mobilize their team to do the cleaning. Then they finished up [Thursday]… if you were at lunch [Friday], you’d see kind of a normal level of service again,” Moran said.

According to Moran, another incident like this one is unlikely to happen. Auxiliary Services displayed a great level of competence in dealing with the potential emergency in a pliable and efficient way.