BELLEVUE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Bellevue’s Phin Sushi and Steak caught fire January 4th. The restaurant is located in a strip mall on Monroe Road, just south of Highway 172.
Investigators listed the cause of the fire as undetermined. Now they plan to take a second look.
“We don’t really like to list it as that but when we cannot come to a conclusion definitively, then we must rule it as being undetermined,” said Eric Johnson, De Pere Fire Departments assistant fire chief.
A popular sushi ingredient has caused fires at two Madison restaurants, and it may be linked to Phin Sushi too.
Tempura is a deep-fried batter made from flour and vegetable oil and it’s commonly used in sushi rolls.
“The problem is that oil mixture gets set in a bowl and off to the side and cannot cool down properly and it actually self combusts into flame,” said Johnson.
Johnson tells FOX 11 fire departments across the country are finding an alarming trend with the food. It’s being blamed for three fires in Wisconsin this year- one in Kenosha and two in Madison.
“Madison’s fire department is putting out information to other fire departments to be on the lookout for this sort of thing.”
The Madison Fire Department used this Surveillance footage from inside Sumo Steakhouse and Sushi bar to determine it was the ingredients that caught fire.
Johnson was on the team that investigated the Bellevue fire this past January.
“It warrants us to take another look.”
He says during the investigation, they looked for things like a heat source and burn patterns. They could determine that the origin was in the kitchen and likely in a trashcan.
“We’re going to have to get back together and look over all our findings, and evidence, and pictures and reexamine this.”
With this new information, Johnson believes the evidence might have more clues to what started the fire.
