Woman left with devastating second-degree burns after ‘grill at Japanese restaurant exploded in her face’

14 Feb 2020, 13:07 by Christy Cooney

A WOMAN says she was left with second-degree burns on her 26th birthday after a grill in a hibachi restaurant "exploded" in her face.

Samantha Myers said the accident happened while she was celebrating at the Kimono Japanese Steak House in Paragould, Arkansas on Sunday.

She and her family had been sat on benches surrounding a large, flat grill on which a chef was cooking food.

She said that, at one point, the chef drew a heart in a flammable liquid before holding a light to it, and that it "exploded".

She said that both she and the chef caught fire.

“It happened so fast," Myers told local station ABC7.

"I kind of just jumped back and I was like, ‘I’m on fire'.”

Myers rushed to the bathroom and splashed water over her face, but was left peeling skin, singed hair, and burnt-off eyelashes and eyebrows.

Her family said they appealed to staff for help when she went to the bathroom, but that no-one responded.

Myers was taken to hospital and found to have first-degree burns on her face and second-degree burns on her neck and chest.

On Tuesday, doctors also had to treat an infection on her eyelids.

Myers said that when she went to sleep on the night of the incident she had a nightmare in which she caught fire.

"I just feel emotionally and physically drained," she said.

"I'm tired and I'm hurting pretty badly."

The restaurant reportedly did not charge Myers's family for the food they had eaten.

She says she now intends to take legal action against the restaurant.

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