Other Duties as Assigned Fire Man Scott Vollmer, CPCE Director of Catering and Special Events, Flik International
This event, a sales awards meeting, was taking place in December of 2009. It was an all-out event, and the client had requested kind of a different type of elegant bar-top. So we decided that we were going to put wheatgrass flats across the front of the 16-foot bar — but they didn’t really stick out with the lighting, so she wanted to put lights across, votives, in front of each of them. We did as we were told, but then I kind of pushed
them aside, and made a hole for the bartenders to get the drinks out, and she was like, “No, no, let’s keep them there,” and I was like, “Well, people are going to burn their hand!” So she took my suggestion and removed them from in front of the area that was open, so that people could get their drinks. Toward the end of the evening, we had a speaker
who was going to wrap up the event with a few words, thanking everyone for coming. Prior to him getting onstage, one of the attendees had leaned over, I think
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maybe to get the bartender’s attention, and as she turned around, she went to go face the stage, because the person was getting up onstage, and simultaneously — I was on the other end of the bar — she just ignited. Hair products apparently are pretty flammable. It was a quick poof! and smoke, and the smell was worse than anything else. The bartender actually was making a drink at the time and literally threw it on her, while two guys standing next to her patted her down. It cleared the room out pretty quickly. Thankfully she never got any terrible burns or any-
thing, and luckily she didn’t have to get rushed to the hospital. I made contact with the client at the end of the night and kind of had one of those moments of, “Let’s just not bring that up.” And then we went right out and bought a collection of these pretty nice, high-end LED votives the next day. So we don’t ever have to run into that problem again. n