Yuengling Brewery Fire: Beer Blaze Causes $1 Million in Damage
A storage building at the Yuengling brewery in Tampa, Florida caught on fire Saturday, causing an estimated $1 million worth of damage.
Fire trucks and police cars showed up to the brewery complex in North Tampa around 8 p.m. The blaze was declared a two-alarm fire. About 60 firefighters came to the scene. Thick smoke and extreme heat covered the fifth floor of the building. The fire took an hour to control.
"Firefighters attempted to reach hot spots and embers around the third story of the building between the exterior and interior wall," Tampa Tribune reports.
Aerial ladder trucks operated by dozens of firefighters got the job done.
All Yuengling brewery employees were evacuated safely. One firefighter, however, suffered a minor injury. He was taken to a hospital and has been released. Early on Sunday, officials ruled the fire an accident. Authorities are still trying to determine the exact cause of the fire.
A release from Tampa Fire Rescue Captain Lonnie Benniefield estimates $1 million worth of damage to the brewery, NBC 10 Philidelphia reports. Most of the fire damage was to the structure of the building.
Yuengling is the United States' oldest and biggest brewer. Every year, the company distributes millions of barrels of beer across the East Coast. The Tampa brewery that suffered from fire is Yuengling's second brewery. It was opened in 1999 in a facility formerly known as Stroh's brewery. The facility was also once a Pabst brewery.
The first Yuengling brewery was founded in 1829 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.