Courtesy Photo
By Rae Jefferson
Staff Writer
The Waco Fire Department responded to a fire at Baylor’s Panda Express around 1 p.m. Wednesday.
The fire occurred at the Panda Express located in the Bill Daniel Student Center.
The fire only lasted for a few seconds and was quickly contained by the restaurant’s fire containment system, said Brett Perlowski, the university’s director of dining services.
“There was a flare-up with one of the woks,” he said. “It was instantaneous, but small and our system contained it.”
The response system, which is heat sensitive, detected the fire and immediately triggered the building’s fire alarm, Perlowski said.
“Our system did what it was supposed to do and stopped the fire quickly,” he said.
Perlowski said standard protocol, which includes alerting authorities and safely evacuating the building, for fire related emergencies was followed. No one was injured during the event.
Rockwall senior Lindsey Yarborough said she was eating lunch in the SUB’s main food court when the fire alarm went off.
“I went outside when the alarm went off,” she said. “There was a small firetruck that came, but they didn’t use their hose or anything.”
Baylor’s dining services does not often experience these kinds of emergencies, Perlowski said.
“I’ve worked with this department for 12 years, and there haven’t been any fire-related emergencies that I know of,” he said.
Panda Express will remain closed Wednesday for a system reset but will resume operation Thursday.
