Propane tank catches fire at Knights of Columbus food tent during Geneva’s Swedish Days

GENEVA – A broken gas line on a propane tank caught fire at a food tent during Geneva’s Swedish Days festival, but a fast-thinking volunteer put the fire out with an extinguisher, Geneva Fire Chief Michael Antenore said.

Volunteers at the Knights of Columbus food tent at the southeast corner of Third and Campbell streets were selling their usual roasted corn and turkey legs June 21 – the first day of the festival – when the fire started about 2:30 p.m.

“The gas line broke on the propane gas cylinder and it caught an ignition source,” Antenore said. “It was a hose that failed due to age.”

These were not the smaller propane tanks that people pick up at the grocery store, but tall commercial ones, Antenore said.

“This hose fitting failed and fell off, the gas was blowing and it caught flame or a heat source,” Antenore said. “So we had a little excitement.”

A volunteer used an extinguisher and the fire was out by the time the fire department arrived and no one was injured, he said.

“It damaged some of the tenting above the stand and a couple pieces of equipment,” Antenore said. “But they were back in business after the cleanup.”

Not entirely. While the Knights were back to selling turkey legs, brats and roasted corn, the fire fried the fryer so they could not make french fries or fry cheese curds.

“They did their best to find a spare one, but couldn’t,” Antenore said.

Stephen Rogers, the Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus Council 2191, wrote in an email that the council owns the propane tank and that it did pass inspection before the festival.

Brian Johnson was the volunteer who put the fire out with the extinguisher, he said.

“We replaced all the hoses and will put those on a regular replacement schedule for the future,” according to Rogers’s email. “We are also discussing other measures that we can put in place to avoid an incident in the future.”