Disneyland Paris facing legal action over creme brulee ‘fireball’
Disneyland Paris is facing legal action from a British holidaymaker who was burned by a blow torch being used to make crème brulée at a hotel restaurant.
Erica Osbourne, 37, claims the chef at the Newport Bay Hotel Restaurant was using the blow torch to light the sugar when ‘a massive fireball came across the counter’ towards her, and narrowly missed her 10-year-old daughter, Abigail.
Mrs Osbourne suffered second degree burns and lost some of her hair and part of her eyebrows in the incident, which happened in February.
She is now taking legal action against Disneyland Paris for personal injury.
"I was so terrified that I froze to the spot but I remember an intense heat on my face. Abigail told me later that I was screaming ‘help me! I’m on fire’. My jumper and my face were on fire," she said.
"One of the chefs jumped over the counter and him and a customer bundled me to the ground and rolled me around to put out the flames. I opened my eyes to see everybody staring at me and there were all of these children screaming. My face was really painful and felt very hot."
Mrs Osbourne was treated by paramedics and spent several hours in hospital.
She claims that just after she was burnt, one of the managers at the four-star hotel told her the incident was ‘no different to falling off a bike’.
"Another person at the park asked if I had been wearing lots of perfume, as if they were trying to say it was my fault. I had been in the park all day with my kids so I definitely wasn’t.
"What I really want out of this is a written apology and for them to make sure this doesn’t happen again."
James Griffin, a specialist travel lawyer from Slater and Gordon, who is representing Mrs Osbourne, said: "This was a terrifying incident that could have resulted in much more serious consequences.
"It was only by pure luck that a child was not seriously injured and only down to the quick thinking of a couple of people that Mrs Osbourne did not suffer more serious burns.
"Tour operators and hotels have a duty to ensure their customers are protected from harm and we would urge them to review their safety procedures if they use blow torches in their restaurants."
A spokesman for Disneyland Paris said: "Incidents of this type are extremely rare.
"As this is an ongoing legal issue which is in the process of being resolved, it would be inappropriate to discuss this further at this time."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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