At 8:30 p.m. yesterday, Oct. 20, 2025, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Police Department (ULPD) was alerted of a fire at Chick-fil-A in the Student Union. The fire sparked from an outlet which a warmer appliance was plugged into, and did not spread beyond the wall. No injuries were reported.
At the time of the incident, as Chick-fil-A was operating as usual, employees were quickly alerted by the fire and notified the relevant authorities. The area was evacuated by ULPD and the Student Union staff.
Upon arrival, the Lafayette Fire Department was able to get into the wall which was smoking and identified the source of the fire. In order to ventilate the smoke and clear the debris, the Student Union was closed at 9:45 p.m., instead of the usual closing time, 10 p.m.
The Student Union reopened as per normal this morning, however, Chick-fil-A is to remain closed until further notice as they carry out repair works to ensure that operations may resume safely and functionally.
Sergeant Lance Frederick, public information officer at ULPD, said, “They [Lafayette Fire Department] had to kind of cut the wall. So that’s, that’s what’s going to keep Chick-fil-A closed, the repair of the wall. Because they had to cut through the tile and get to the outlet to make sure nothing around it was gonna catch [fire].”
As the fire was isolated within the wall around the outlet that caught on fire and because it was quickly caught and put out, there were no other major damages to the kitchen and the restaurant.
Updates on the closure of Chick-fil-A can be found on UL Lafayette Dining Services’ Instagram, @dine_ul.
At the time that this story was written, a comment from UL Lafayette Dining Services was unable to be received.