BELLEVUE, Wash. — A McDonald’s in Bellevue was closed by a public health food inspector Tuesday afternoon because of an imminent health hazard caused by a sewage backup in the women’s bathroom and near the ice machine.
A spokeswoman for the King County Health Department said the problem wasn't noticed during an inspection, but by an inspector who had stopped in on a break.
“It seemed they were aware of it, and when our inspector came on site they already had a plumber at the establishment working to correct the problem,” Becky Elias with the Health Department said. “This is the type of incident a restaurant should shut down for, and they should notify us to work with them to correct the problem.”
However, a spokesman for the McDonald's told us the restaurant wasn't trying to hide anything. He said the plumber was there for routine maintenance that led to a system back-up.
The McDonald's spokesman says the health inspector was just the first one to notice the problem and it was addressed right away.
The McDonald’s is located at 13841 Northeast 20th Street, and it reopened late Wednesday afternoon after an inspector confirmed all issues were resolved. A $911 fine was paid, and much more money was spent on plumbing work and cleaning.
In July, in an unrelated but similar incident, a McDonald’s in Issaquah was also closed because of an imminent health hazard caused by a sewage backup. That restaurant at 1305 N.W. Gilman Blvd. was closed July 7 and reopened later in the week.
Click here to read additional details about that McDonald's closure.
KIRO 7 checked and found the Issaquah McDonald's and the Bellevue McDonald's have different owners. KIRO 7 also pulled food inspection records for McDonald’s, Burger Kings and Wendy’s in King County.
Twenty-nine of the 59 McDonald's in the county had what health department officials call critical violations. Seven of the 23 Burger Kings in the county have had at least one critical violation. Four of the 19 Wendy's had a critical violation.
The health department said a majority of the violations do not result in closures but do put people eating there at risk until they are corrected.
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