The dishwasher serving the Canisius dining hall exploded shortly after lunch on Friday, Oct. 21, leaving the dining hall without the means to wash its usual dishware and with disposable plates and silverware.
Due to the size of the explosion, the Buffalo Fire Department was required to respond to it, and an industrial metal table that was next to the dishwasher was bent in half. Despite the damage, nobody was hurt in the incident as the dishwasher attendant left the dishwashing room a few minutes before the explosion occurred.
Alyssa Kornacki, who is the dining hall liaison for the Canisius Undergraduate Student Association, told The Griffin that Canisius has purchased the part that is needed to fix the dishwasher, but that the part will not be installed until a mechanic is available to install it. “Much of the dining team is confident that the dishwasher will be fixed after Thanksgiving,” Kornacki added, “but not before.”
Seeing as the dishwasher is still out of service, chinaware and metal silverware will not be available at the dining hall in the immediate future. The Thanksgiving meal will be served, according to Kornacki, on “nice plasticware.” Kornacki added that “chinaware and metal silverware will return at the beginning of next semester at the latest.”
The dishwasher and the room it was in was not the only thing to be damaged when it exploded. The club rooms underneath the dishwasher room also suffered from water damage. Kornacki recounted how throughout the afternoon of the explosion, people were going in and out of the club rooms underneath the dishwasher with buckets in an effort to prevent damage.
The Griffin’s club room, which is under the dishwashing room, was not spared from the damage. Through part of the week following the explosion, The Griffin’s office was off limits due to water damage. According to the managing editor of The Griffin, Pat Healy, the room was damp enough to require dryers to be brought in to dry up the carpet. “It wasn’t that bad,” Healy said, “but it definitely was not usable for a few days.”