A fire in the Westerlin C-Store on Thursday, Sept. 1 caused minor damages, but created a delay in the opening of the store. Instead of opening at regular hours, a mass email was sent to the student body, postponing its hours until later that night.
“The Westerlin C-store will be closed until 7 p.m. tonight due to a mechanical difficulty,” Dining Administrator, Amy Roehrs, stated in an email. The regular hours for the store are from 4-12 a.m.
At approximately 10 a.m., an outside repair company was working on the refrigeration unit’s compressors, and when using a torch to solder, the unit caught flame. The fire was promptly put out with a fire extinguisher and minimal damage was done to the store.
“There is very little damage besides soot that was on shelves and floors. The company doing the work has hired an outside company to wipe and clean all the shelves and clean the C-Store. We will open as soon as they are finished,” said Gary Griffith, Director of Dining Services.
Many Westerlin residents were unaware of the fire or of the postponed opening.
“Honestly, there are so many emails from this school. I didn’t even hear about the C-Store until someone told me,” first year student Brandie Minogue said.
Other students didn’t look at it as a serious problem.
“I was actually going to go to the C-Store later tonight,” first year student Madison Caldwell said. “I hope everything’s okay, but it’s no big deal– I’ll get cereal in the morning.”
