First off here is the story–

Two men were airlifted to University Hospital after they were burned in a restaurant fire.

The blaze broke out at Steak Thyme Subs on the 8100 block of Princeton-Glendale Road shortly before 9 p.m.

According to a report in the Hamilton Journal News, the restaurant has been vandalized three times since late May. Each time, it appeared that someone had tried to set fire to Steak Thyme.

So far, the extent of the victims’ injuries are unknown, but witnesses said one of the men was unconscious.

An employee from a next-door restaurant, Izzy’s, was transported by ambulance to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

Stay tuned to News 5 and refresh ChannelCincinnati.com for more information as it becomes available.

This article is about an hour old. State and Local fire officials along with ATF agents are on the scene. It is being reported that it was an actual explosion and now being investigated as such. It is also being looked into if this could have been intentional and/or a hate crime. The owners of the restaurant are from Jordan.

This restaurant is about 7 miles from me and about 20 miles north of Cincinnati. This area has been an epicenter for previous racial tensions and hopefully this is not another sign of those problems. I will keep everyone updated on this.

On a side note – being a former firefighter and one who had to respond to an explosion in a retail center, which turned our to be a pipe bomb, this is a very tense situation. You never know what you are walking into.