Hot oil burned him when a car struck his food truck in Wilmington. Now, time for recovery

When Kahlil "Bubba" Floyd describes what happened to him last month in Wilmington's Trolley Square neighborhood, it's hard not to shudder at the scene he paints.

The chef was frying empanadas in his parked Plum Pit Food Truck for his final customers of the night when a car slammed into the rear of the 28-foot truck.

"I don't know if you've ever heard the sizzle of french fries being dropped in a fryer, but that sizzle is what I heard on my skin," says Floyd, recalling the 1:30 a.m. accident Sept. 3 that sent him to Crozer-Chester Medical Center's burn center for 20 days with second- and third-degree burns.

"Thank God, the propane tank was on the other side or we wouldn't be having this conversation," the U.S. Army veteran and father of seven adds. "Our kids would probably be orphans at that point."

After Floyd and his wife, Angie, confronted the man who crashed his car into their brightly colored purple truck, the driver fled on foot when he saw the lights of emergency vehicles first arriving.

He is still wanted by Wilmington police six weeks later. In the meantime, a GoFundMe fundraising page has been created to help the Floyd family with medical costs.

Back in Trolley Square, but for the last time

Even though the Floyds live just north of the Delaware-Pennsylvania border in Upper Chichester and have two Pennsylvania-based The Tattooed Pig restaurants in Aston and Media, they have been a staple of the upstate food truck scene for nearly a decade.

Their Plum Pit Food Truck can regularly be found at events across New Castle County, including Wilmington's Rodney Square on Wednesdays for the city's spring/summer Downtown Farmers' Market.

But for the late-night bar crowd, Floyd's big smile and affable personality are a staple of Trolley Square, serving sandwiches, tacos and empanadas from his truck parked on North Dupont Street since 2016.

But their time there came to a halt two years ago when a female employee was attacked by two men who had been hitting on her, knocking her unconscious in the middle of the street.

"I was like, 'That's it. I'm done,'" Angie Floyd says of working the location.

After some time had passed and a discussion, the Floyds decided to try Trolley Square again over the summer, still carrying reservations about returning to serve hungry nightcrawlers, many of whom have been drinking in the bars that populate the area.

It was their third time back when the car drove into their truck, sending oil into the air and their world into a spiral. Since the accident, they have decided they will never do late-night service there again.

The collision that changed their lives

The couple arrived at their Trolley Square spot in front of Acme Market bordering the Forty Acres neighborhood just before 11 p.m. on Sept. 2, almost immediately drawing their first customers.

It was a busy night, as usual for Trolley Square in the late summer and fall. Just like all their other times there, earlier customers were generally more sober, and the ones who came after last call were more inebriated.

"The zombies come out after 1:30 a.m.," Angie Floyd jokes.

On this night, business had slowed down enough that they decided just before 1:30 a.m. to shut down the truck and get ready for their 30-minute ride home.

Just after they closed the awning, they heard a knock on the truck from a group asking if they were still open. The Floyds decided to take one final order, which included dropping empanadas into the fryer, bubbling with 350-degree vegetable oil.

That's when the collision happened, the force of which knocked them off their feet and caused scorching hot oil to splash.

Kahlil was at the window with his back turned to the fryer when the accident happened, leaving him with burns that stretch up his back to the top of his head. The worst burns were found on his right arm, requiring a three-hour skin graft operation.

"If he or I had been a half-foot closer, it would have covered me or covered his face," says Angie, who was in the rear of the truck and suffered minor burns to her hand and her foot.

In shock, neither of them knew what had happened in the immediate aftermath.

'Sorry': Suspect flees

Kahlil immediately climbed out of the truck and ripped his shirt off once he began to feel the burn, adrenaline pumping hard. He walked into the street, and that's when he saw the red 2019 Honda Accord smashed against the rear of his truck.

The driver of the car, Kahlil says, was laid back and not as apologetic as one would think. His attitude enraged Kahlil just as he began feeling the first wave of pain from the burn.

Angie didn't know her husband was burned. When she got out of the truck, she saw him shirtless, confronting the driver. She pulled him away, not realizing she was hurting him by grabbing where he was burned.

"And then I saw his wrist, and you could see the separation of skin colors," she says, describing the startling sight of how part of his arm and wrist were now bright pink with his Black skin seen only down around his hand. "And then one of the streetlights caught his back and it looked like huge, red scratch marks everywhere."

The crowd of about 40 people that gathered after the crash kept Kahlil from the driver after the confrontation. And staff from nearby Catherine Rooney's brought him to the restaurant to help rinse the oil off his body as they waited for the emergency response.

Meanwhile, the driver was pacing at the scene. And once he saw the emergency lights, he said, "Sorry." He then ran off, remembers Angie, who has been married to Kahlil for 14 years and has known him since their teenage years.

The driver was identified by the Floyds that night after police checked records for the registered owner of the car.

"The suspect is currently wanted for the incident, but has not yet been taken into custody. We are currently unable to provide additional information on the suspect due to the ongoing investigation," says Cpl. Daniel Rice, Wilmington police public information officer.

While Kahili says he's more focused on his recovery and helping his wife keep his businesses afloat, it's clear he isn't happy that the man who has caused so much pain and grief for him and his family is still walking free.

"It's frustrating," he says. "But as a person in business, I have learned patience. Patience is key."

Even so, he has posted a photo of the man he says drove into his truck on his business Facebook page three times, labeling him a "drunk driver" based on the man's behavior and demeanor that night.

Road to recovery

After Floyd was brought to Christiana Hospital to be stabilized that early Sunday morning, he was transferred to Crozier's Nathan Speare Regional Burn Treatment Center, staying there for nearly three weeks.

In between the treatments and surgery, Kahlil felt a range of emotions.

A self-described "goofball," Kahlil let his sense of humor shine on his personal Facebook page. On the same day of the crash, he posted a scene from the 1984 comedy horror film "Gremlins" where the villainous creature Stripe dies due to sunlight, collapsing into a melted mess.

"I couldn't get pics of my back before they peeled the skin off, but I promise this is what it looked like and how I feel now," he joked.

Three days later, he had to shave his head for doctors to treat the burn wounds there. He decided to Photoshop the movie poster for "Barbershop 2," adding his face and his doctor's face before having a nurse print copies out, decorating his room for his doctor to see.

Even though he showed his brave, fun-loving side to friends online, Kahlil would cry each night with his wife. And this was coming from a man who rarely ever showed such emotion.

"I've known him since we were 14 and I'm like, 'You cry? You have emotions that way?' On our wedding day, he only had a nice smile," she teases.

Kahlil now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, replaying the accident in his mind. He hears the sound of the crash and the sizzle on his back on repeat. Once he got out of the hospital and was confronted with real-world sounds, he's been jolted by sounds such as a tractor-trailer going over a pothole.

Physically, he still has pain and is still spooked by the unfamiliar feel of his own skin in the burn areas. He has been told he will be wearing compression garments for up to 18 months to help keep scarring down.

Part of the recovery was also deciding to do something that's out of the former mechanic's comfort zone: asking others for help in the form of a GoFundMe page, which has raised a little more than $8,000 toward its goal of $50,000.

The costs range from a hospital bill exceeding $1 million with insurance claims still being litigated to truck damage and lost revenue due to business closures in the immediate aftermath of the crash.

"That's just not who we are. From our food trucks to our restaurants, there have been zero loans. Everything has been bought from what we've made through product sold," says Kahlil, a culinary arts graduate of the Art Institute of Philadelphia. "So asking people to help us when we've never even done that with a bank ― that's been difficult, even though it's needed."

An unexpected side effect of it all has been witnessing the amount of love and support pumped their way from family, friends, customers and complete strangers.

One of Angie's childhood friends, who they don't keep in regular contact, was one of the first donors, committing $1,000. After more than 120 other donations have been made, he sits in awe.

"It's really been amazing," Kahlil says. "It just blows you away."

Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and X (Twitter) (@ryancormier).

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: His Plum Pit Food Truck is a familiar sight across Wilmington