Authorities Say Currier Kitchen Fire Mishandled

Currier House dining hall employees did not respond correctly to a kitchen fire Monday night, a Cambridge Fire Department official charged yesterday.

Captain William A. Ridgley said that the Currier staff should have activated the kitchen's Automatic Fire Suppression (ANSUL) system, which would have extinguished the fire with dry chemicals.

"They didn't pull the manual level on the ANSUL system and they could have put it out with that," Ridgley said. "They should have done that no matter how huge the fire was."

Ridgley also faulted the University for not training the employees to deal with fires.

"They should have safety seminars," Ridgley said. "If they don't do that, they are not fulfilling the contractual agreement they have with the students."

But dining officials said the fire was not serious enough to activate the ANSUL system. It was eventually extinguished by firefighters using dry chemicals.

Fire officials were notified by a telephone call because the fire did not set off smoke alarms.

Robert J. Leandro, general manager of the Quad dining halls, said the kitchen staff performed commendably under the situation.

The kitchen staff attempted to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher instead of activating the dry chemicals from the ANSUL system, Leandro said.

"They didn't pull the lever because it was such a small fire," he said. "If you had a fire in your wastepaper basket, would you pull the fire alarm or would you try to put it out?"

The ANSUL system is only used when the situation is desparate, Leandro said. In addition to emitting dry chemicals, the system closes the vents and turns off the gas, he said.

The manual method worked for about a minute until the flames reignited. After three attempts, the staff decided to call the fire department, Leandro said.

In response to Ridgley's charges, Leandro said dining hall managers are familiar with safety procedures butacknowledged that seminars have not been offeredrecently.

"We are going to review the training of theemployees," Leandro said. "If this doesn't startit, nothing will."

Leandro said he accepted blame for the cause ofthe fire. Excess grease had built up fromhamburgers prepared that night. The grease drippedonto the pan below and the tray burst into flames,dining officials said.

"The pan needed to be cleaned," Leandro said."We knew right away that we blew it. Ultimately,it's my fault. But there will be no futureproblems with this.

"We are going to review the training of theemployees," Leandro said. "If this doesn't startit, nothing will."

Leandro said he accepted blame for the cause ofthe fire. Excess grease had built up fromhamburgers prepared that night. The grease drippedonto the pan below and the tray burst into flames,dining officials said.

"The pan needed to be cleaned," Leandro said."We knew right away that we blew it. Ultimately,it's my fault. But there will be no futureproblems with this.