Lowell Dining Hall Temporarily Closed After Oven Fire

The Lowell House dining hall closed Monday after a “small oven fire” broke out just before lunch at 11:30 a.m., according to Harvard University Dining Services spokesperson Christa Martin.

House Administrator Elizabeth Terry wrote in an email to Lowell residents that the dining hall would remain closed for at least 24 hours, adding that it would likely reopen on Tuesday for dinner.

Daniel M. Ramirez ’27 was in the dining hall working and waiting for lunch to open when he first saw smoke coming from the kitchen.

“I hear the cook himself kind of panicking. He was moving frantically, trying to see what was going on, and then immediately they shut the doors,” Ramirez said.

Martin wrote that it was “necessary to close the dining hall to clean the space and repair equipment.”

“The dining hall will re-open once all steps required by the City have been completed,” she added.

In her email, Terry instructed students to eat at Winthrop, Leverett, Eliot, Kirkland, or Quincy House as staff addressed the situation in Lowell.

But despite the real fire, some students said a string of fire drills in Lowell led them to discount the alarms, assuming there was no real risk.

“I woke up to the flashing lights and the loud noise. Today was my sleep in day, so I was quite aggravated by it,” Nick D. Apostolicas ’25 said. “I eventually just put in my AirPods and went back to bed with my eye mask on, and I think after 40 minutes or so, the fire alarm turned off.”

The Cambridge Fire Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday evening.

While Ramirez got to lunch at Quincy House early and skipped the lines, he said the line for dinner stretched all the way down the main staircase.

Though he said he heard some grumblings from students in line about the wait times, Ramirez said the situation was handled well.

“HUDS is, in general, very accommodating and welcoming,” Ramirez said.

—Staff writer Elyse C. Goncalves can be reached at elyse.goncalves@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @e1ysegoncalves or on Threads @elyse.goncalves.