Fire department called when cremation gets out of hand

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Posted: 9:22 AM- A fire broke out at a Salt Lake City funeral home Tuesday afternoon as workers cremated the remains of a man who weighed more than 600 pounds.

"In the process, some of the body fat had liquefied and leaked out ... and caused a fire similar to a grease fire," said Scott Freitag, a spokesman with the Salt Lake City Fire Department.

An employee at Gardner Funeral Home, 1001 E. 11th Ave. put the blaze out with fire extinquisher before firefighters arrived, he said.

The department assisted with smoke removal, and there was no damage to the funeral home, Freitag said.