Dudley House residents got an unexpected wake-up call at 6 a.m. yesterday when the kitchen caught on fire—leaving inhabitants of the Co-op known for homecooked meals without a functional kitchen and with dining hall fare for the next few days.

Residents use towels to clean the kitchen and put the dirty towels into a plastic barrel, according to Robert Byrne, facilities manager of Dudley House.

“We believe some greasy towels that were just taken out of the dryer caught on fire due to spontaneous combustion,” Byrne said.

Nine units from the Cambridge Fire Department responded immediately and confined the fire to the bin.

The fire spread to the wall behind the bin, but the damage was not substantial, Byrne said.

“It’s mostly smoke damage,” said Cambridge Fire Chief Gerald R. Reardon.

The firefighters left just before 7 a.m., after which Harvard University Maintenance responded and residents were allowed to return to the building.

Located at 3 Sacramento St., Dudley House Co-op occupies two buildings and is home to 32 undergraduate and graduate students, who cook and clean for themselves.

The building where the fire occurred is home to 17 students, Byrne said.

Reardon said a fire investigator has been assigned to look further into the cause of the fire, as there are myriad possible reasons for the towels’ combustion.

Although damage to the building was minimal, all the food and food containers have been thrown out, due to smoke and chemical contamination, said Ana K. R. Vollmar ’08, a Dudley resident in charge of re-ordering food.

“We are allowed to eat in the dining halls for the next couple of days, until the kitchen is up and running again,” she said.

She predicted that residents will be able to eat in Dudley within five days.

Since Dudley has fire insurance, the co-op will be reimbursed for all the damage, she added.

But, she said, “people were shaken up.”

—Staff writer Anna L. Tong can be reached at tong@fas.harvard.edu.