Korean BBQ Explosion at Torrance High School Injures 10 Students

Anne Fishbein

an expert cooks Korean BBQ at Choonchun Dakgalbi

One female student remains hospitalized at Torrance Memorial Medical Center after Friday's lunchtime "cooking accident" at North High School left ten students with injuries. As part of a fundraising activity to benefit Unicef, the students were cooking Korean BBQ to sell to other students when a portable single-burner butane stove malfunctioned, creating an instantaneous fireball or vapor explosion approximately 10-to-15 feet in diameter, according to Torrance Fire Department captain Bob Gebel.

The six students most seriously injured, with 1st- and 2nd-degree burns over their faces, necks and hands, were taken to burn units, four to County USC and two to Torrance Memorial. Flash burns tend to be 1st- or 2nd-degree, said Gebel, and typically do not cause permanent damage. The student who remains hospitalized is in stable condition, according to Torrance Memorial spokesperson Anne O' Brien; no word on when she'll be released. The incident, meanwhile, remains under fire-department investigation.