9-1-1 Calls Reveal Quick Response In Flaming Dessert Mishap

Dramatic 911 recordings reveal what happened in the moments after five guests at Palm Harbor's Ozona Blue restaurant were burned by flames from a flambé dessert Saturday. A Dunedin man was among those burned.

Recordings from the Pinellas County 911 Communications Center reveal how quickly people responded to the accident.

Beginning at 8:58 p.m., four 9-1-1 emergency calls were made from the restaurant within an eight second time span, a fifth call came in about 35 seconds later. In some of the recordings you can hear people making frantic pleas for help.

• Call No. 1 (received at 20:58:10) "...They were making a dessert and the fire, it caught on fire on a lady, she's burned right now… they were cooking dessert and she was sitting on the end of the table and she got burned..."
• Call No. 2 (received at 20:58:10) "...I'm at Ozona Blue restaurant and I've got a woman who just caught on fire..."
• Call No. 3 (received at 20:58:14) "Emergency… Ozona Blue.. fire.. inside a restaurant they had an alcohol induced fire they were trying to pour alcohol… you may have some people who may've been injured in the fire..."
• Call No. 4 (received at 20:58:18) "...I'm at Ozona Blue in Ozona Florida and there was a fire and a girl got burned  very badly..."
• Call No. 5 (received at 20:59:02) "...We need an ambulance out to Ozona Blue restaurant… we had a bananas foster blow up and a lady got hurt..."

A Pinellas County Sheriff's Deputy happened to be outside the Ozona Blue restaurant responding to a different call when the accident happened. 

A sheriff's office spokesperson says Deputy Shawn Heffner heard people yelling for an ambulance. He went inside the restaurant to find a crowd of people had gathered around Katie Hudgins, 25, of Naples, who was laying on a sofa in the lobby area with her upper body covered by a sheet. Heffner cleared the people from the area to make room for emergency crews.  

Deputy Heffner later spoke with food server, Ian Monsalvo, 28. Monsalvo told the deputy that he was preparing two bananas foster desserts near the victims' table. Monsalvo said he remembered seeing a small flame in the bottle of 151 as he was pouring it onto the dessert, he then lost control of the bottle, causing the flaming alcohol to spill from inside the bottle and onto the victims. Deputy Heffner said that Monsalvo was very upset about what had happened. 

Palm Harbor Fire Rescue EMS Chief Bob Markford said Hudgins suffered first, second and third degree burns. She was transported about half a mile away to the parking lot at Dunedin's Causeway Plaza at Bayshore and Causeway boulevards, where she was airlifted to Tampa General Hospital. Patricia Rogers, 56, suffered respiratory burns and was also airlifted to Tampa General Hospital. She has been released.

Three other people were also injured, but refused treatment. They are Jimmy Rogers, 25, of Dunedin, who was burned on his right knee; Jacquelyn Williams, 58, who was burned on her left knee, and Raymond Rogers Jr., 60.

Markford says the restaurant staff responded quickly, "Employees grabbed fire extinguishers and extinguished the fire, another employee helped one of the women whose shirt caught fire."

Palm Fire Rescue spokesperson Liz Monforti says one of the employees of Ozona Blue who helped the victims also recently completed the firefighter's academy and emergency medical technician school. 

sent three fire engines and one ladder truck, also responded.

The Ozona Blue Grilling Company is at 125 Orange St. in the in Ozona.

Bananas foster is a flambé dessert that is usually prepared tableside.

(Editor's Note: Listen to each of the five 9-1-1 calls by clicking on the video clips that accompany this story.)