Burger King’s alcohol license was pending approval for renewal at the time of explosion in Yerevan – investigation

Aghvan Hovsepyan, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Armenia, chaired a consultation on April 4 to discuss the investigation into the April 2 explosion which took place in the Burger King fast food restaurant in Northern Avenue, Yerevan.

A criminal case was launched on the explosion, with a task force probing the incident. CCTV recordings of the restaurant have been confiscated.

The preliminary suspected cause of the explosion was a pressure cylinder attached to a beer dispenser. Experts are currently looking into what exactly caused the blast.

The investigation revealed that Burger King’s alcohol license was expired at the time of the incident. The fast food restaurant was granted a license to sell alcohol in 2017 November, which was expired in 2017 December. Burger King applied for extending the license after the expiration, but continued selling alcohol without receiving approval.

Chairman Hovsepyan tasked the investigators to find out whether or not Burger King had the right to continue selling alcohol while the request for extension was pending, what proceedings were launched based on the license application, and why wasn’t Burger King notified on the results of discussions of the application.

The investigation will also focus on whether or not the safety conditions were inspected at the fast food restaurant, and who was in charge for technical precautions of the device.