Pour one out! A barrel house at the famous Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, has partly collapsed.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Per a report by WKRN, the incident occurred in the early hours of Monday morning. Fortunately, nobody was in the building at the time, and the company reported no employee. Moore County Sheriff Tyler Hatfield acknowledged that a barrel house at the distillery partly collapsed. He also said that the Metro Moore County Sheriff's Department was no longer involved.
"Jack Daniel's has plenty of resources to handle the situation. Everything is contained at this point," he explained.
The Jack Daniels Distillery Released A Statement Regarding The Collapse
Jack Daniels released a statement to The Tennessean confirming there were no people in the building and no casualties. Ashley Schaffner Fletcher, a spokesperson for the company, told The Tennessean:
"We are working to conduct a full assessment of the damage at this time, but believe no more than 15% of the barrels inside the house were impacted. All affected whiskey has been contained, and we are working with all appropriate government agencies as we remediate this incident."
The spokesperson revealed that the collapse occurred at barrel house 2-15, which was built in the 60s. Fletcher also explained that the barrel house has a capacity of roughly 19,000 barrels for maturing whiskey. Despite the lofty number of potentially affected barrels, the Distillery was quickly open for business as usual. Tours of the venue in Lynchburg were running as early as Monday afternoon.
According to The Lynchburg Times, local officials responded to a call about the distillery at 1926 Fayetteville Highway at roughly 5:50 a.m. The outlet also clarifies that only the back corner of the structure was affected. A fire alarm at the premises reportedly notified local officials. The alarm may have tripped when the collapse broke a fire suppression line. The fire alarm reportedly prompted the Distillery's call for local support from Emergency Services, which is standard protocol.
The collapse allegedly affected roughly 15% of the barrels in the building, which officials estimate is likely less than 3000. The Lynchburg Times explains that "distillery officials report they were able to contain the whiskey spill mostly to the site of the collapse."
