Warehouse 30 at Barton 1792 Distillery has completely collapsed, no injuries are reported and no one was inside, Sazerac Co. said tonight.
This comes a little more than a week after the first half of the same warehouse collapsed unexpectedly.
As a result of the first collapse on June 22, the Barton 1792 Distillery team was prepared and had equipment on site to address any further problems from the debris from
the initial collapse or from the structure that remained standing. As before, the Distillery team worked quickly to contain the spill from the barrels. As a result of the Barton 1792
Distillery team’s preparation and quick action, no runoff from today’s collapse entered any waterways.
The Distillery team is working closely with the local fire and police departments, as they did with the collapse of the first half of the warehouse. In addition, the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection (KDEP) was notified immediately, as they were on June 22, and is onsite providing guidance, Sazerac said.
The remaining half of the warehouse that was still standing was unable to be secured after the initial collapse due to worker safety concerns. Warehouse 30 held total 18,000 barrels in total. It is unknown at this time how many barrels can be salvaged.
Officials expect it to be weeks before the root cause is determined. Plans are already underway to construct a new warehouse to store the recovered barrels at the Distillery.
The remaining barrel warehouses at Barton 1792 Distillery have been inspected since June 22nd by third party experts and are deemed safe, Sazerac said. Barrel warehouses at the other two Sazerac owned distilleries in Kentucky have also been inspected and deemed safe, the company added.