The fire that hit Yuengling Brewery in its facility in Tampa, Florida would not affect the company's operations. It would be business as usual on Monday, according to Plant Manager Jim Helmke. The two-alarm fire happened in Saturday. Only the outside wall of the facility was affected.
Sixty firefighters were called to the scene. One was injured and had to be hospitalized. The blaze started at 8 in the evening and was put out a little past nine. No employees were injured.
Helmke told The Tampa Bay Times the fire damage was pegged at USD 1 million. However, he said it could have been much worse. "But none of the beer, none of the product was jeopardized at all. Nothing will prevent us from operating normally. Nobody here will lose an hour of work over this."
Dick Yuengling Jr owns the privately-held company. He bought the company from his father in 1985. Revenues then were only USD 6 million and sold only thousands of barrels of beer, Forbes reported. The company now produces over 2.5 million barrels of beer annually. It has also posted revenues amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
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