Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @fixerchick. It's terrific to have you join us and many thanks for your question on repairing a benchtop.
If this is a solid timber benchtop (not a laminate timber-look surface), what you’re seeing is the finish blistering and burning, and the timber underneath has likely been scorched as well. From the photo, the damage looks fairly significant, but the exact depth is hard to judge.
If you’re lucky, the burn may only be surface-deep, in which case you could try a localised sand-back to remove the charred timber and damaged coating.
However, in most cases like this, the heat has penetrated deeper. That means a spot repair will leave a noticeable dip. To fix it properly, you’d need to:
In short, the damaged timber has to be fully removed, then the whole surface refinished to get a consistent, even result.
Here's a helpful guide: How to restore a timber benchtop. You might need to consider using a belt sander over an orbital sander if the damage is quite deep.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
