Discarded smoking materials in the mulch of a landscaped area outside Red Lobster are being blamed for a fire at the Bel Air restaurant on Saturday.
Just before 1 p.m. on Saturday emergency personnel were dispatched to the Red Lobster restaurant in the 600 block of Bel Air Road for the report of a building fire.
Restaurant staff was alerted to the odor and sight of smoke within the bathroom of the structure and found the source of the smoke to be a smoldering, exterior mulch bed, adjacent to the exterior wall of the structure. Staff members attempted to extinguish the fire by using a bucket of water and started evacuating the building’s occupants in a safe and organized manner.
Ten firefighters from the Bel Air Volunteer Fire Company responded and had the fire under control within 10 minutes. Quick action by the staff and fire department facilitated a timely mitigation of the emergency.
Deputies from the State Fire Marshal, Northeast Regional Office were requested by Harford County Emergency Services to investigate the origin and cause of the building fire. Investigators arrived on scene and determined the discard of smoking materials into a mulch bed on the exterior of the structure caused the fire.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal estimated the fire caused $3,000 in damage to the structure and another $1,000 in damage to its contents. There were no reported injuries.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal would like to remind citizens to be cautious when discarding smoking materials and avoid discarding into dry vegetation.
Hopefully there is security camera footage to find the disgusting litterbug smoker.
Several years ago when we arrived at Red Lobster we alerted staff to the same problem. They were able to extinguish it with buckets of water before fire company arrived. People throwing discarded smoking materials in the mulch is a problem. We had also witnessed this problem several years before this at a store near where we live.
So many smokers are so careless and litterbugs as well.
Jean C
What? You mean it’s not a smoker god-given right to to just flick their cigarette butts wherever the hell they feel like it?
It certainly isn’t. It is very annoying to pick up their butts and empty packs along my field and in my driveway. Especially since I am and never have been a smoker.
1st world problems.
I too, can walk outside and pick up refuse (trash) on a few acres of property (along a county road) one evening, cigarette butts, liquor bottles, empty fast food containers et al and the next day – 24 hours later, there is the same amount of trash; sometimes more.
I just pick it up and keep my area looking nice. Once a year or so some kid serving community service will come along with those blue trash bags and pick up the trash, or perhaps, attempt to pick up trash (that I already go).
Smokers are dicks, they discard their butts on roadways, waterways, on the beaches and state parks. They are selfish a-holes who care nothing about environment or the damage they cause.
Why are smokers such slobs?
Smoking causes cumulative changes in the central nervous system resulting in an abnormal psychological condition expressed as “I don’t care what you think.”
Why not charge the smoker with Arson?