What the Hell Happened With That Fire at the Hamptons Goop Store?
On June 25, two men caught fire in a Sag Harbor Goop store. On this, everyone involved — the brand, the men, witnesses, authorities — agrees. But in the intervening weeks, confusion and conflicting accounts have muddied what initially looked like a straightforward (if wild) explanation: According to the East Hampton police blotter, candles exploded after someone added rubbing alcohol into the mix, leaving the two men with serious burns.
Publicly, Goop has said little about the incident aside from taking pains to clarify that candles were in no way involved. In recent years, multiple customers have complained about Gwyneth Paltrow’s vagina candles combusting spectacularly inside their homes. However, Goop would like to make clear that sexy votives did not contribute to the blaze. “There was an accidental fire in connection with a s’mores station at the Goop store recently,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to the Cut. “We are wishing a speedy recovery to the two injured parties and are grateful there were no additional injuries. No candles were in use at the time of the accidental fire.”
The spokesperson declined to provide any more information about what may have caused the fire or whether rubbing alcohol was involved. But according to attorney Justin Blitz — whose firm, Blitz Law Group, handles personal-injury cases and who is representing the two injured men — that is how the whole thing started. According to Blitz, both men were servers at Little Gem, a New York–based catering company (which, for the record, is owned by Blitz’s wife; she confirmed the mens’ injuries). Blitz believes they were “bystanders and victims” of an explosion that occurred at a s’mores station set up as part of a Goop party, where customers were roasting marshmallows over a rectangular stone container emitting a row of flames. The Cut has reviewed footage of this device in action, and a quick spin around Amazon reveals a number of similar-looking products that specify isopropyl alcohol as the preferred fuel. This does not seem like a good or safe idea for a crowd, seeing as rubbing alcohol is highly flammable, but it may help explain the following events.
Read More: The Cut
