The Case of The Burger Bar Fire

The incident

In the early hours of January 1st 2019 the LEGO City Fire Department received a call from Burger Bar owner Curtis Brick – the iconic Burger Bar burger sign was alight.

11 minutes later the LCFD was on the scene. Fire fighter Faye Ires from Riverside Fire Station was dispatched in engine 4, while her partner Sam Maguire travelled by motorbike to the scene for some reason.

Engine 4 is the newest truck at Riverside Fire Station. It is equipped with one of the highest powered water cannons on a small factor truck.

Meanwhile the Fire Motorbike appears hopelessly ill equipped to deal with fighting fires.

Ms Ires recalls this as a particularly easy fire to put out.

“Engine 4 has an extending arm to position the water canon. We were able to get quite close to the sign. While the fire looked bad there wasn’t a huge fuel load so it was extinguished fairly easily. It was a fire that looked impressive but wasn’t really that bad from a technical point of view.”

While Ms Ires tackled the sign fire Mr Maguire put on his SCBA to deal with a secondary fire.

“We noticed that embers from the sign had ignited a trash can. I was able to extinguish this with the Class A extinguisher from Engine 4.”

Despite the quick response, the sign was ruined…

The investigation

LCFD investigator James Allen immediately suspected that this fire was deliberately lit.

“When you hear that a burger place has caught fire the natural assumption from any reasonable person is that it originated in the kitchen. 93% of all restaurant fires originate in the kitchen. The remaining 7% are always fraud related. Fun fact – about half of those fraud cases are actually solved by a bunch of meddling kids.”

The Burger Bar sign was made from ABS Plastic, with no electrical cabling present within the sign itself. Mr Allen found remnants of plastic fuel containers within the burnt sign as well as traces of petrol.

Forensic accountants from LEGO City Police Department (the normal one – not the Sky Police, Mountain Police or Swamp Police) discovered several damning pieces of evidence:

• A hardware store receipt for fuel cans and matches.
• A petrol station receipt dated the day before the fire.
• A new insurance policy that just covered the sign.
• Bank statements showing the dire financial situation of the burger bar.

Further investigations also uncovered:

• Security footage of Mr Brick climbing the sign.
• Photos from by-standers clearly showing Mr Brick smiling during the fire.

Within 48 hours of the fire, Mr Curtis Brick was under arrest for arson. An early guilty plea was entered and Mr Brick is now serving 30 months behind bars – or until such time as a truck or helicopter breaks part of the prison and he is able to escape.

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60214 Burger Bar Fire Rescue is a great set, but it seemed pretty clear to me that this was an insurance fraud job. LEGO City is known for it’s absurdly high crime rate, so I guess it makes sense that this extends to financial crime and arson.

I really love the truck part of the set and the “water” cannon is a great play feature. The burger sign is fantastically constructed but the burger bar itself is pretty basic. I really don’t understand the role of the motorbike and I’d happily sacrifice it for a cheaper RRP.

Australian RRP for this set is $59.99. With a wide availability I wouldn’t want to spend more than $48 for it.

This set was provided to me by the LEGO Community Engagement team, at my request. Opinions expressed above are my own.