Police and fire crews were called to the Yuengling Brewery in North Tampa shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday and found the building “engulfed in flames.”
Officials said the blaze was started accidentally.
Tampa Fire Rescue officials said workers in the building at 11111 N. 30th St. were evacuated safely.
When crews arrived, they found heavy smoke and fire coming from the brewery's storage building. It was declared a two-alarm fire, and upwards of 60 firefighters were called to the scene, fire officials said.
Firefighters climbed five stories to enter the building, where they were met with dense smoke and high heat conditions. The crews were evacuated, and a defensive operation using multiple aerial ladder trucks was begun.
Crews had the blaze under control about an hour after arrival, fire officials said. Firefighters attempted to reach hot spots and embers around the third story of the building between the exterior and interior wall.
There is no word on a cause of the fire; investigators said early Sunday it was accidental. An exacted cause and origin have yet to be determined.
No brewery workers were injured, but one Tampa firefighter did sustain a minor injury and was transported to a hospital and later released, fire officials said.
Investigators have estimated losses due to smoke and fire damage at $1 million dollars. Fire damage to the structure account for a vast majority of that figure.
Yuengling is the oldest brewer operating in the United States and one of the largest American-owned beer makers, distributing millions of barrels yearly across the East Coast. Their original brewery in Pottsville, Pa., was founded in 1829. The company opened this second facility in the former Stroh's brewery near Busch Gardens in 1999.
The half-century-old brewery originally was owned by Schlitz. Yuengling bought it in April 1999 three months after Stroh's shut it down. Prior to that it had been a Pabst brewery.
