Cal Poly employees evacuated The Avenue and 19 Metro Station campus restaurants, as well as the Pre-Rec center Tuesday afternoon due to a small fire at the Chick-fil-A unit in The Avenue.
No injuries were reported from the fire, but Cal Poly Corporation Marketing and Public Relations director Yukie Nishinaga said she did not know how much property damage the fire caused.
The fire started at approximately 11:40 a.m., when one of the oil fryers at Chick-fil-A caught on fire, Nishinaga said.
According to a Campus Dining employee who was working at Chick-fil-A when the fire started, manager of The Avenue Saul Rios attempted to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher immediately after it started.
“I don’t know if anything else could have caught on fire,” the employee said. “But if something else had caught on fire, his life could have been on the line.”
San Luis Obispo fire marshal Rodger Maggio said the damage was contained to one of the fryers. Because Cal Poly is on state property, government investigators inspect the restaurant today to determine the cause of the fire, Maggio said.
“We don’t know for sure if it was an electrical problem, or a problem with the unit,” he said.
Maggio said he thought Campus Dining employees handled the situation well.
“Everybody kept their head,” he said. “They did what they needed to do to make sure everyone was safe.”
The Avenue was closed immediately after the fire, but is scheduled to reopen after cleaning is finished at 5 p.m. today, Nishinaga said.