AUBURN – A small fire involving Dairy Queen’s roof closed the Minot Avenue ice cream and burger establishment Monday night as firefighters worked to douse flames that erupted over the dining area.

“The flames are in the membrane of the building, between the roof and the ceiling,” said fire Chief Wayne Werts as firefighters wielded a chain saw to cut a hole in the roof to vent heat and access flames.

Owner Nicole Leighton said repairs to that area of the roof had been made earlier in the day.

Werts confirmed that investigators were looking into the possibility that the repairs and the fire were connected, but said, “Nothing had been tied together yet.”

Leighton said employees had noticed a funny smell in the restaurant earlier and called a heating service to investigate.

“The heating service shut down a few units and looked into it, but didn’t find anything,” said Leighton.

Later in the evening, employees noticed a smoky haze in the restaurant and called the heating service back. When the heating crew arrived, they saw smoke coming from the eaves of the building and called 911.

The fire, which was reported at 7:25 p.m., was quickly doused and caused only minimal damage.

“We’ll get this repaired quick and move on,” said Leighton.

Werts said the business would be able to repen its drive-through window today, but the dining area would have to remain closed for a while longer.

“When you have smoke in a building, there is contamination,” Werts explained. “They will have to take care of that before the dining area can reopen.”

No customers were in the restaurant at the time of the fire, and all employees evacuated safely. Leighton was relieved that everyone was safe, but also thankful that her employees were there to report the trouble.

“Had this happened overnight when nobody was here, it could have been a whole different story,” she said.

Gary Simard, Auburn’s fire prevention and investigation officer, was probing the cause of the fire Monday night.