Portuguese dish causes cooking fire, sending Lakeville man, young girl to hospital with burns
LAKEVILLE - A man and young girl are in the hospital after a cooking fire burned them in Massachusetts on Friday.
It happened on Woodland Ridge Drive just after 2 p.m. in Lakeville.
Flash cooking fire
The Lakeville Fire Department said that the residents were cooking a Portuguese dish called Chouriço à Bombeiro, otherwise known as "firefighters' chorizo." The dish involves using alcohol to cook the chorizo on a clay dish.
Firefighters say that the residents were adding more alcohol to sustain the cooking flame when a flash fire happened. A gust of wind may have caused the flame to spread through the kitchen and to the man and young girl who were near the flame, the fire department said.
"This was just a freak accident, and it caused the entire countertop to erupt into really intense, fast flame," Deputy Lakeville Fire Chief Pamela Garant said.
Other people in the home smothered the flames on the victims with towels, rugs, and blankets before extinguishing the remaining fire in the kitchen with a fire extinguisher.
"Even with safety precautions and an extinguisher nearby, accidents happen, you're literally cooking with flame," Garant said.
The man was med-flighted to Rhode Island Hospital with serious burns. The young girl was taken to St. Luke's Hospital with minor burns.
"This was a tragic incident, but it could have been a lot worse, and so we're thankful that the family and the friends that they all acted quickly," Garant said.
First responders say that the man is in serious but stable condition, and the young girl is expected to be ok.
Be careful when cooking with an open flame
She advises people to be careful when cooking with an open flame during the holiday weekend and that this family had done this plenty of times before without incident, but accidents can happen.
"It just goes to show you, you can never be complacent; anytime that you're using flame, you just have to be respectful of it and staffing matters. We were able to expedite that call," Garant said.
