Burst pipes caused by the weekend's cold weather lead one North Texas barbecue spot to evacuate diners, while a second narrowly avoided disaster.
NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth reports that customers were evacuated from Hurtado's Barbecue in Little Elm on Friday during lunch after water rushed out into the dining room. A burst pipe caused a ceiling collapse in the restaurant's prep room.
No one was injured, according to the NBC 5 report. The kitchen was also not damaged, but meat and paper goods from the prep room had to be thrown out. The restaurant was expected to open Tuesday in time for dinner.
"It is definitely frustrating as a business owner. I mean in the restaurant industry we have Covid, we have meat prices hiking, you have all these different obstacles to overcome and then you have this. So just one more obstacle to overcome," Hurtado told the TV station.
This wasn't the only barbeque restaurant to deal with pipe bursts. Heim's Barbecue in Dallas was able to reopen on Monday after the sound of a burst pipe alerted an early-morning employee who was able to quickly shut off the restaurant's water supply.
"If this had happened five, six hours later it could have flooded the whole restaurant, and been a real big problem," Travis Heim, co-owner, told NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. "So we are thankful for that happening."
