AUBURN – Flames rolled through a vent and spread to the roof of Arby’s Roast Beef Restaurant on Friday night driving more than a dozen people from the building.

Nobody was hurt in the 7:45 p.m. fire, but it was expected that the Center Street fast food restaurant will remain closed for at least part of the weekend.

Firefighters manning a substation directly across the street from Arby’s responded to the fire and made quick work of the flames shooting from the roof. But by the time the fire was brought under control, there was a hole in the roof and it was believed most or all of the food inside the restaurant would have to be thrown away.

The fire was first reported as flames in the vent above a deep fryer, fire officials said. Minutes later, it was reported that the fire had reached the roof and was burning through.

“At first, all I saw was a huge puff of smoke in the sky over the building,” said Megan Griffey, who was leaving a nearby mall. “It smelled really bad. You could see that the lobby of the restaurant was full of smoke.”

Griffey said the ball of smoke over Arby’s was soon illuminated by fire and the fire crews showed up moments later.

There were approximately seven customers in the restaurant and a similar number of employees when the fire started, according to one of the employees. All of them left the building as fire crews responded from across the street.

The store manager was being briefed about the fire an hour after it was reported. It was not immediately clear how long Arby’s would remain closed. After fire officials complete their investigation, it was expected that state health inspectors would be called in.

The fire drew a crowd of onlookers including diners who had been eating at the 99 Restaurant next door or shopping at the nearby stores.