Pine Market closed for just over 36 hours last weekend after an accident left a grab-and-go refrigerator shattered on the floor and sent a Parkhurst employee to the emergency room.

Parkhurst General Manager Maria Foxall said that on Saturday evening, around 8:30 p.m., a Pine Market employee who was restocking one of the grab-and-go refrigerators stepped up into the fridge to reach the back of a shelf, which caused the fridge to tip forward.

“Instead of getting a little footstool to get up to the top shelf, she stepped into it, and the whole cooler actually landed on top of her,” Foxall said. “We are very fortunate that she did not get hurt more than she did.”

Luckily, the employee had pulled her restocking cart close to her. When the fridge fell forward, the cart took the brunt of the fall.

“It truly, really saved her life because if that cart hadn’t been there, she would have gotten the whole force,” Foxall said. “She got some of it, but the cart took the majority of it, so thank goodness.”

Foxall said the employee went straight to the emergency room but did not suffer any major injuries.

The fridge’s double doors shattered in the fall, spraying shards of glass across the carpet. Immediately after the accident, Foxall closed Pine Market in part to prevent students from injuring themselves on the glass. It took all day Sunday to clean up the mess, according to Foxall.

“It took hours yesterday to make sure there was no glass anywhere,” Foxall said. “Because people come in with flip-flops, or you know, whatever, so we just had to make sure it was safe.”

Foxall said she will have a discussion with the college about who will pay for the damage, but said she thinks Parkhurst will replace the refrigerator.