After a fire broke out in neighboring restaurant Community Food & Juice at 9:40 a.m., residents of 600 West 113th St.—the Nussbaum dorm—were evacuated out of their building on Friday morning.

By 11 a.m., the fire was contained and FDNY firefighters confirmed that they would be evacuating the area within 20 minutes, when students would be able to return to their dormitories. At around noon, Columbia Housing Services sent an e-mail to Nussbaum residents saying that two full suites should expect to move. Though Housing has not been able to assess the full extent of the damage, the e-mail says reports "smoke and water damage, as well as some broken flooring and windows. " Read the full text of the e-mail below.

According to chief firefighter, Thomas McKavanaugh, the flames originated from a “grease fire in the kitchen.” He confirmed that it was “all put out,” at 11 a.m., adding that the fire was fully contained to the restaurant.

McKavanaugh added that the fire did not spread to the dormitories, “only smoke, and very little.”

According to Roberto Juárez, who works in Community’s kitchen, the fire “started on the grill.”

“Something was cooking, and then the fire suddenly goes up,” he said, adding, “All the time, you see fire, but that was just crazy.”

When the fire first broke out, smoke spread through both Community and the Nussbaum dorm, so Columbia Public Safety Officers and firefighters were initially uncertain of the origin of the flames. The Nussbaum building houses undergraduates and graduate students, as well as private tenants.

“There wasn’t smoke on the 8th floor,” said Igor Simic, a Nussbaum resident. “I only saw smoke from the 4th floor down.”

Matthew Hoine, CC '10, said that there was a significant amount of smoke on the 11th floor of the 600 West 113th dormitory, where he lives.

"I thought it was a false alarm, and then I saw that there was a fair amount of smoke in the hallways and I thought I'd better leave. It seemed to be worse on the upper floors. Once we got to the 5th floor there wasn't as much smoke. but people were moving pretty quickly," Hoine said.

Randall Mah, a Nussbaum resident and Journalism School student, said that “a lot of people thought it was a drill, so they were slow to come out.”

“When we were running down we could see the smoke,” he added.

FDNY firefighter J. Feeley of Engine 58 said that, once they confirmed the origin, they wanted to make sure it was under control and that the fire did not spread through the walls into the dormitory.

As of 11 a.m., 113th St. remained blocked off to pedestrians.

Chief McKavanaugh said that he was grateful that the building was concrete, a factor which he said made the scene easy to control.

Firemen on site agreed it was relatively easy fire to contain, one saying, “it was a boring fire.”