Fire shuts down Dewick at breakfast

Dewick-MacPhie Dining Hall was forced to close during breakfast yesterday morning after a grease fire filled the building with smoke.

The fire began at 6:05 a.m. in the charcoal grill, which had just been turned on to warm up for the day, according to Dewick-MacPhie Unit Manager John Wasserboehr.

The Medford Fire Department was called in and used large fans called "smoke extractors" and opened the windows and doors to clear the smoke that had filtered throughout the kitchen to the dining areas, Wasserboehr said.

Tufts Facilities turned off the building's heat and changed the ventilation filters to get rid of the smell of smoke. The Fire Department helped the Dewick crew clean the kitchen and dining areas, and a health inspector came to make sure the facilities were safe before the dining hall was reopened for lunch. Food that had been exposed to the smoke was thrown away.

The Tufts University Police Department's (TUPD) Captain Mark Keith confirmed that the facility did not sustain any damage.

Carmichael Dining Hall, Hodgdon Take-it-Away, and the Campus Center eateries were "stressed to capacity" with the extra traffic caused by the Dewick shutdown, but Carmichael Unit Manager David Kelley said the extra students were not a problem. The dining hall usually keeps a day's or two days worth of backup food as a precaution.

An estimated 150 more students than usual came to breakfast and about 300 more for lunch at Carmichael, even though Dewick was reopened by noon. Carmichael typically serves 350 students for breakfast and 1,000 for lunch.

The University and the other campus eateries helped in the crunch, Wasserboehr said. "We really pulled a rabbit out of the hat," he said, adding that he hopes "no one was really inconvenienced."

Dining Services does take many precautions to insure the safety of its employees, though kitchens are a "risky environment" to work in, Dining Services Operations Manager Ralph Perrotto said. The kitchens are equipped with fire suppression systems, and staff members are trained in areas of fire safety such as fire extinguisher operation.

Dining Services holds an annual training session for staff in which they work closely with the Safety Department to teach kitchen and fire safety. "We take care of our employees and make sure they're in a safe workplace and are well trained," Perrotto said.