A dryer in the Noyer Complex dining hall caught fire at about 7 a.m. Monday, causing the hall to be evacuated and the Noyer dining hall to be closed until about 8:30 a.m.
No one was hurt, Ann Talley, director of Ball State University's Dining Service said. She said the incident was a minor occurrence.
"There's a total loss of the dryer," Talley said. "The room will require cleaning, if not painting. We are not sure +â-óGé¼" we are still making those assessments."
Costs will include at least the labor hours plus cost of a new commercial dryer, she said.
"Anything that had been open food in the food court was wasted out," Talley said. "We document what we are throwing away, and it was actually destroyed."
She said she did not yet have an estimate on the costs of damages and loss of money from being forced to throw out some of the food.
"Officially, it being investigated," Talley said. "Unofficially, a dining custodian was drying mop heads, and we think that one of or more of the strings of the mop got caught and got too close to the heating elements, and as a result, I have prohibited the laundering washing or drying of any kind of mop heads in our laundry equipment for the future."
The fire caused no damage to the structure, according to the Muncie Fire Department. "We've had some recent calls out there with some of their dryers," Battalion Chief Jim Clevenger said.
Those problems included overheating and small amounts of smoke, he said.
"The biggest problem this morning was that the fire smoked up the entire basement of Noyer," Clevenger said. "A lot of the smoke was trapped in a lot of the small rooms."
He said the fired department used fans to clean out the rooms and the hallways.
"It was pretty toxic smoke," Clevenger said. "It had like an acid smell to it, and we did not let anyone go in until we had completed ventilated the building."
The Micro Cafe in Studebaker Complex opened about 45 minutes early so that students could get food before they went to class, Talley said.
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