two people killed in a fire caused by a flambé dish in a restaurant

Two people were killed and ten others injured in a fire that broke out on Friday evening, April 21, in an Italian restaurant in western Madrid (Spain). Of the ten injured, six “were transferred in serious condition to different hospitals in Madrid”, said an official of the emergency department of the Spanish capital. The other four were more lightly affected.

According to witnesses quoted by the daily El País (link in Spanish)the fire broke out as a waiter was about to set a dish on fire in the dining room. “He held the hot plate in one hand and the torch in the other. He passed close to the plants and, in a few seconds, everything burned”, told a customer to the newspaper. According to a trade union quoted by La Vanguardia (link in Spanish)one of the two victims was “employee in the restaurant”.

“We still do not know the exact causes of the fire”was “of high intensity”, said the mayor of Madrid, José Luiz Martinez Almeida, during a press briefing on Saturday morning. The firefighters said they were able to intervene quickly because their station was about 400 meters from the scene of the incident. “People are [venus] while running “that is why “Our response time was very fast, because half of our teams reached the place by running and the other by our vehicles”, explained Carlos Marín, head of the barracks guard team. An investigation was opened and entrusted to the national police.