It definitely wasn't the best day to be an employee at Church's Chicken in Livingston, Texas, on Monday night.
The floor at the restaurant collapsed, causing a deep fryer to fall over and sending employees running.
Livingston Volunteer Fire Department Chief Corky Cochran told ABC News, "When the floor collapsed, the deep fryers titled forward in the direction of three staff members, immersing them in hot grease."
Thankfully, two customers who were giving their order at the time helped rescue two workers. However, another female employee was stuck.
Margaret Henderson, a customer at the restaurant, told KTRK about the stuck woman and said,"Her body was cooking in the grease."
Gary Bryant, who was with Henderson at the time, came to the rescue.
"At first I reached and grabbed her arms and I tried to pull her," Bryant told KTRK. "She wouldn't give. It just rolled all the hide off her. I had two handfuls of hide."
Without both Bryant and Henderson, firefighters said that the employees wouldn't have survived.
"Neither one of us will ever be the same again from seeing it," Henderson told KTRK. "But just imagine those girls' lives. Their lives are ruined."
The three injured employees were transported to Memorial Hermann Hospital to be treated.
As of Thursday, all three were in critical condition, KTRK reported.
Church's Chicken released the following statement to KTRK about the incident:
Our thoughts and prayers are with the employees and their families who were impacted by an unfortunate incident in a franchise location in Livingston, Texas. The Church's Partners Foundation will provide some immediate support to the families. We are working closely with the franchisee who is working with the authorities to determine the cause of the accident. At this time, we do not know when the restaurant will reopen.
There is no word at this point what caused the floor to collapse. The city inspector's office told us they do not do routine inspections on existing structures unless there is a request or they are made aware of some existing issue.
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