"It's shocking" 3 employees survived hotel explosion, restaurant owner says
FORT WORTH - Musume, the Japanese restaurant in the basement of the Sandman Hotel, is part of a North Texas restaurant group owned by Josh Babb.
Babb says his restaurant family is "so shaken" but also "so grateful!"
Babb spoke to the I-Team by phone, because he's been advised not to talk on camera during the investigation.
Babb has been in what he called a "family-run business" since 2007. He owns nine restaurants in North Texas, including the first Musume in downtown Dallas.
While he has been at his Dallas location a bit over the last two days, he's spent most of his time at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth checking on three employees who were preparing for the dinner crowd at the time of the explosion. Fortunately, there were only three employees in the hotel because the restaurant was closed.
Babb tells the I-Team that two of those employees are out of the hospital and home now; however, one woman who suffered burns and a broken rib, remains hospitalized in stable condition.
"I am remaining in touch with our employee's family," said Babb. "She is stable as far as we know. Her care and health and family remain a top priority for us."
Babb says his employees are all very close. They are worried about what went wrong.
While there is a lot of speculation, Babb says he is focusing on the families and the investigation.
He's spent much of the afternoon trying to recover their personal belongings from the wreckage- cell phones, backpacks and laptops.
He says he'll spend the rest of the day personally calling all 40-plus people who worked at the Fort Worth Musume. He will reassign all of them to one of his other local restaurants.
"Of course, we are doing everything possible to assist the professionals as they investigate the cause as well as working with everyone on our team to ensure they're ok."
Babb says he owns a relatively small restaurant group. It partnered with the Sandman Hotel to open the Fort Worth version of the original Dallas-based restaurant six months ago.
"We are thankful for the organized professional response from the City of Fort Worth, fire rescue, police and other responding agencies."