A fire broke out in a restaurant in central Madrid on Friday when a waiter set fire to a dessert. The daily “La Razon” publishes on Tuesday a shocking account of a person who was in the premises at the time. “We saw people trapped in the flames behind the glass, banging on it, begging for help,” she said.
A fire in the restaurant “Burro Canaglia Bar & Resto”, located in Plaza Manuel Becerra in Madrid, broke out on Friday when the waiter, in accordance with the culinary art of flambéing, was lighting the dessert with a gas burner. The flames engulfed the artificial plants on the ceiling within seconds, as well as other decorations, then the walls. Two men, an employee and a customer of the restaurant died as a result of the fire, and ten people were injured.
Lourdes, one of the customers in the restaurant at the time, told the Spanish newspaper La Razon what she had experienced that evening. The woman had reserved a table on the terrace of the restaurant, but changed her reservation to a table inside a few hours earlier. There was a fire nearby.
The restaurant “Burro Canaglia Bar & Resto” after the fire was extinguished.PAP/EPA
A woman’s account of a fire in a restaurant in Madrid
The woman reporting the events was sitting at a table with her son, daughter-in-law and two other people. approx. At 11:00 p.m., they saw that the dish placed on the table next to it by the waiter was on fire, although the restaurant was full of dried flowers, and the table at which they were lit was next to a column also covered with dried flowers. Suddenly the column caught fire. The waiter tried to extinguish it with an apron, but failed. “My son spilled a jug of water and the waiter ran to fetch the fire extinguisher which was very close by,” the woman said. Despite this, within seconds the flames had spread to the entire ceiling.
The table from which the fire spread was located at the very exit door, which made it difficult for the restaurant guests to escape. In addition, according to Lourdes, customers in the back of the premises initially did not even realize what was happening. They did not see the incident, while those who were nearby were “paralyzed” by the speed with which the fire was spreading. – Suddenly the waiter said to us: “Quick, run!”. We got up immediately, I remember that we left in a very orderly manner and we were almost in disbelief that we had witnessed such a tragedy. We had been to this restaurant several times before, she said.
Restaurant fire in MadridREUTERS
Soon after, the fire department arrived on the scene. After a while, the evacuated people were to notice that there were still other guests inside, behind the glass, according to Lourdes. “We saw people trapped in flames behind the glass, banging on it, begging for help,” she said. Then several people started pounding on the glass to break it, but it didn’t work. According to the woman, a young man eventually cleared a way out through the main door and led several people out.
Lourdes and her family moved away from the restaurant. The smoke in the air made breathing difficult. In an interview with “La Razon” she said that she was grateful to fate that she and her relatives managed to survive. Fortunately, we can tell this story. It was terrible to witness this horror,” she said.
Main photo source: PAP/EPA