What went wrong? Fire District report details flash fire that burned Fat Patties cook

A flash fire at a Bluffton restaurant that left a cook severely burned came after he used a piece of paper to light a burner on one of the stoves, according to a Bluffton Township Fire District report.

That report, released late Wednesday, also revealed a “lack of maintenance and cleaning” of kitchen appliances at the time of the incident.

Firefighters arrived at the Bluffton Fat Patties restaurant about 1:30 p.m. July 5 and found Colin Christensen on his knees with his arms and head inside a large ice machine. He had been burned on his legs, arms, fingers, stomach, chest and face. Witnesses told an investigator that he had been using a piece of paper to ignite a burner on one of the stovetops.

“(Christensen) started to light a burner in the kitchen with some sort of paper,” one witness wrote in the report. “I was standing to the right of him, just outside the kitchen at the sink. A large flame and clouds of heat spread about 6 feet. ... The heat pushed him backward, and he was on the ground.”

The witness added that he was able to grab the back of Christensen’s shorts and pull him away as the injured man continued to tuck and roll.

Christensen was later flown to a burn center in Augusta, Ga., for treatment. He is now recovering at his Port Royal home.

The portion of the report written by a fire investigator notes a lack of maintenance and cleaning in the restaurant’s kitchen. The report also determined that the origin of the flash fire is natural gas from kitchen equipment and that the cause was accidental in nature.

“Based on my training and experience, I determined that there was a lack of maintenance and cleaning on the cooking equipment including the gas range, deep fat fryers, flat top griddle, kitchen exhaust hood as well as the area behind the cooking equipment,” the report written by investigator Sandy Stroud of the fire district said.

A representative from the Town of Bluffton’s Building Safety Department went to the restaurant the day of the incident and also noted “several deficiencies” the report said.

The newspaper has requested any of that department’s findings from the town.

According to the most recent restaurant inspection conducted at Fat Patties by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, the eatery received an overall score of 84 percent on a 100 percent scale during its initial inspection on Nov. 21.

Infractions included a “flat-top grill caked with cooked protein residue, pink slime on the interior reflector plate of the ice machine and black organic build up in the soda nozzles at the server station.”

A follow up inspection the next day resulted in a score of 96 percent.

Nick Borreggine, owner of the restaurant, said Thursday via email that, on the day of the incident, staff had just served over 150 meals and was in the process of cleaning when the fire happened.

Borreggine previously said he believed the gas in a stove’s burner built up and traveled to an appliance next to it, causing the flash fire when the pilot light on the second appliance was ignited.

“Our hood and exhaust system is cleaned by a third party every three months and was scheduled to be cleaned on July 20th,” Borreggine wrote. “We had passed our most recent surprise inspection from both DHEC and the fire inspector prior to this accident.”

When asked if it is common practice for employees to ignite stove burners with a piece of paper, Borreggine said, “it is not uncommon for pilot lights to fail in a restaurant setting with cooks using a match or paper to light the burner.”

He added that he was unaware whether Christensen used a piece of paper that day.

Since the incident, Borreggine said all of the pilot lights in the restaurant have been replaced.

“I would also hope other restaurants learn from this accident and realize this serious issue,” Borreggine wrote.

The restaurant has had three safety meetings since Christensen was injured, Borreggine said. A booklet also is being created for management to understand how to handle certain types of emergencies.

This story was originally published July 20, 2017 at 10:01 AM with the headline "What went wrong? Fire District report details flash fire that burned Fat Patties cook."