Due to faulty equipment, an oven caught fire Aug. 21 in the Bakersfield College cafeteria kitchen.
According to the fire department’s report, the oven was apparently left on all night in the high position. Due to a broken knob, the kitchen staff didn’t know whether they had left it on high or low when they put some deep-pit meat into the oven the night before. “I informed her and the other employees that they were very lucky that the building did not burn down,” states the report. “There were two open deep fryers right behind the oven.”
According to the report, they also informed the kitchen staff “that if any cooking equipment is broken to get it fixed ASAP.”
There were no reported injuries, and according to BC Director of Marketing and Public Relations Amber Chiang, the damage to the kitchen was nominal. “The fire was contained to the oven,” said Chiang.
There are no smoke detectors and there is no fire suppression system in the kitchen or the cafeteria. According to BC Vice President of Student Learning Ed Knudson, the cafeteria building meets “the required codes” for a building that old.
Shortly after getting to work, BC custodian James Hendrix called the Public Safety department from the Language Arts building about the smoke. “Other custodians thought the kitchen people were in there cooking and I’ve worked in the kitchens before and I know that was way too excessive smoke coming out of the stack,” said Hendrix.
Public Safety officer Kevin Lastovica responded to the call. Hendrix said, “We went in and saw the oven on fire, the third drawer from the bottom blazing upward. We got the fire extinguisher and tried to put the fire out and it wouldn’t go out.” According to Hendrix, they turned off the stove and when the fire still didn’t go out, officer Lastovica called the fire department.
According to the fire department’s report, they responded in less than four minutes. The oven was turned off and two more fire extinguishers were used but the fire still burned. Finally a jump-line (a small hose connected to the fire engine) was used to fully extinguish the fire.
According to Bruce McDaniel of Service Master, BC was billed $6,893 for Service Master’s three-day clean up of the damage caused by the fire and its suppression. The kitchen already has a new oven.