Silver Trail Distillery Fire Details

News

April 25, 2015

Photo courtesy of the Silver Trail Distillery.
Photo courtesy of the Silver Trail Distillery.

Details have emerged from the Silver Trail Distillery fire that injured two and burned the facility to the ground.

MB Roland Distillery founder Paul Tomaszewski, a two tour Iraq veteran who quickly arrived at the scene in support of his fellow Western Kentucky distiller, tells me that cousins Jay and Kyle Rogers were never knocked unconscious and suffered liquid mash or vapor burns. They were taken to the Vanderbilt Hospital, which offers the region’s top burn unit and is listed on U.S. News & World Report’s Top 50 hospitals.

The Rogers cousins were blown out of the distillery, Tomaszewski says, and flew through an open-sliding barn-style door. They were not inside when flames engulfed the facility, he says.

“They were standing on the {door} side of the still and went out of the building instead of {hitting} the wall. It’s a miracle it happened the way it did,” he says.

Tomaszewski says they remain conscious and stable through first 24 hours.

Tomaszewski says the Kentucky distillers community has offered to help with production. “Kentucky distillers are coming together and saying if you need help, we’re here,” he says.

The only assistance founder Spencer Ballentine has requested has been prayers. The Kentucky Distillers Association is in the process of creating an online donations page.

 

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