A grease fire that broke out at a tableside hot pot and grill inside KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot in Rockville climbed through the building's exhaust ductwork and reached the second floor of the two-story strip mall, causing more than $500,000 in damage. The fire broke out Wednesday night at the restaurant located at 5550 Randolph Road near Nebel Street, inside the Montrose Crossing shopping center.
Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service crews responded around 9 p.m., according to WJLA, finding that the blaze had started at a table-side hot pot and grill before igniting the exhaust vent and ductwork feeding into it. More than 75 firefighters responded to the scene and worked to knock down the flames before turning their attention to lingering hotspots and smoke. MCFRS spokesperson Pete Piringer said the fire was knocked down quickly, and crews later reported no visible fire as they continued mop-up operations.
Restaurant workers and customers evacuated the building safely, and no injuries were reported. Fire officials estimated the damage at more than $500,000, and code enforcement and health inspectors were called to the scene to assess the property.
How the Fire Spread Through a Shared Building
The blaze originated in the first-floor dining area before climbing through the building's internal exhaust ductwork and reaching the second floor of the multi-tenant structure, according to The MoCo Show. That spatial detail underscores how grease vapor drawn directly into individual tabletop exhaust ducts can carry fire well beyond its point of origin, the outlet reported, since the shopping center's layout places commercial space directly above the ground-floor restaurant.
Montrose Shopping Center leasing documentation from Rosenthal Properties shows KPOT operates out of an 11,000-square-foot commercial space on Randolph Road, giving a sense of the scale of the footprint affected by Wednesday night's fire. The same MoCo Show report notes that several open questions remain, including how long the location will stay closed for repairs, the exact extent of structural impact to the second-floor spaces, and what code enforcement and health inspectors ultimately find after evaluating the scene.
An Early DMV Anchor for a Fast-Growing Chain
The Rockville KPOT location originally opened in 2018, making it one of the chain's earliest outposts in the Washington, D.C. area, before the company opened a second Montgomery County location in Germantown in May 2023, per the same local report. KPOT was founded in New Jersey in 2018 by four friends aiming to modernize hands-on Asian communal dining through tabletop cooking paired with full bar service, according to Nation's Restaurant News.
The brand's growth since then has been dramatic. Industry data from Technomic, cited by Nation's Restaurant News, showed KPOT was the second-fastest-growing restaurant chain in the country by sales growth in 2023, expanding from just three locations in 2020 to 55 units and roughly $300 million in systemwide sales by late that year. As of September, the chain had grown to more than 140 locations nationwide, operating largely through franchising, according to a release distributed via PR Newswire.
Why Tabletop Grills Pose a Distinct Fire Risk
Maryland's commercial kitchen ventilation and fire safety rules fall under COMAR 29.06.01, which adopts National Fire Protection Association Standard 96 for commercial cooking exhaust systems and ductwork, according to Express Kitchen Hood Systems. Those standards require routine inspection and cleaning of grease ductwork specifically to reduce ignition risk in high-volume kitchens.
The stakes behind those rules are significant on a national scale. NFPA statistics show cooking equipment is involved in 61% of all reported structure fires at commercial eating and drinking establishments, and failure to properly clean grease buildup from kitchen exhaust systems and ductwork contributes to 22% of cooking equipment fires, according to data reported by Total Fire Protection. Tabletop cooking concepts like KPOT's hot pot and grill setups rely on exhaust ventilation built into each individual table, a design that places grease-laden vapor closer to open flame throughout the dining room rather than concentrated solely above a central kitchen hood.
Montgomery County also requires commercial property owners and restaurant operators to process annual Fire Code Compliance permit renewals online through its ePlans portal, a mandate the county's Department of Permitting Services put in place in September 2025. It remains unclear how long the Rockville KPOT will be closed for repairs or what investigators ultimately determine about the extent of damage to the building's upper floor.
