The lunchtime crowd was evacuated from an Orangeburg Hardee’s after it caught fire.
The fire started around noon Tuesday at the Hardee’s at 1109 John C. Calhoun Drive.
“We were in the middle of lunch. It happened on the roof,” General Manager Tara Rollins said.
“We just heard a ‘pow’ and then a boom,” she said.
Rollins and the assistant manager ran outside to the back of the restaurant and looked up.
“We could see the white smoke, then it started turning green, then it started turning black,” Rollins said.
“That’s when we called 911,” she added.
Rollins evacuated the restaurant. Eight employees and 12 guests were inside.
“I didn’t need anybody to get hurt, so we evacuated the building and got all of the employees out safely. We got all of the guests out safely,” she said.
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Rollins said, “We had our (exhaust) hoods cleaned last night, so I wasn’t sure if that’s something from the hoods being cleaned last night.”
She noted that she had to call the hood cleaning company on Tuesday morning due to exhaust returning into the building.
“He was going to check us and make sure it wasn’t something electrical. It smells like an electrical fire, so I don’t know,” Rollins said.
Rollins wasn’t sure how long the restaurant would be temporarily closed while Orangeburg Department of Public Safety firefighters were at scene.
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