A fire broke out in the CVS at 8 Royce Circle on Saturday evening and the fire department was called at 9:40 p.m., according to deputy fire marshal Andrew Franklin.
The CVS is located beneath part of the Oaks on the Square apartment complex in Downtown Storrs. The store and apartments above it were evacuated because of the fire, according to Franklin.
“There was no structural damage to the space,” Franklin said.
According to a CVS employee who was not working when the fire broke out, the building was filled with smoke, but it reopened on Sunday by noon.
“One of the refrigerating units overheated,” Franklin said about the cause of the fire. “They discovered a malfunction in one of the coolers.”
The fire department arrived at 9:45 p.m., and their response included three fire trucks from Mansfield and one from UConn’s fire department, according to Franklin. UConn’s fire department has a mutual aid agreement with the town of Mansfield, according to UConn Today.
Mutal aid agreements between fire departments exist so that fire departments can assist each other in the event that one department receives too many calls to handle independently or too large of an incident to handle independently.
Mansfield’s fire department is made up of three fire stations and employs over 20 full-time and part-time firefighters and EMTs. It also has additional volunteers, according to the city website. The department was formed in 2005 in a merger between the Eagleville Fire Department and the Mansfield Volunteer Fire Company.
UConn’s fire department consists of 50 employees at maximum staffing, according to a UConn website. The UCFD is made up of three divisions: Fire Operations, Fire Marshal Unit and Fire Administration. It responds to over 5,400 calls annually and response times are faster than the national average.
“UCFD headquarters responds to approximately 100 actual fires annually, which include mutual aid fires, building fires, cooking fires, car fires, dumpster fires and other various fire emergencies,” the website says.
Franklin stressed the importance of paying attention to fire alarms in fire safety.
“In the event of a fire alarm in a place like Oaks, you should heed the alarm and evacuate and not return until given the all clear by the fire department,” he said.
Franklin also gave fire prevention advice.
“For college age students, we stress the use of attentive cooking. Don’t turn something on then leave it,” he said. “Most fires in the home start in the kitchen.”