UTICA (New York) FIRE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS RELEASED THE REPORT of their investigation into the large fire at the Matt Brewery last Thursday.  (See Firegeezer stories and videos HERE and HERE.)

Observer-Dispatch

The investigators had previously announced that two brewery workers were welding on the 2nd-floor canning room when the fire started.  After attempting to put the fire out themselves, they started to be overcome by the smoke and fumes and had to leave.

The Observer-Dispatch is reporting that at a City Hall press conference this morning:

(F)ire officials said the type of welding the workers were using did not create any sparks. Instead, city Chief Fire Marshal Raymond Beck said the welding created so much heat that it melted a nearby conveyor belt.

As the conveyor continued to melt and burn, however, it did not create any visible flames, Beck said. The burning belt then caused cardboard and plastic six-pack binding to catch fire roughly 10 feet from the welding area, he said.

Beck estimated the fire had caused more than $10 million in damage.

While the canning room was destroyed, the bottling section was only partially damaged and has a limited availability to resume operations.

The brew house was unaffected by the fire and Matt restored brewing operations today.  All draft beer deliveries will be restored while the canning and some of the bottling operations will be outsourced to other breweries who have offered to assist.

Read this afternoon’s posting from the Observer-Dispatch HERE.

WKTV has a video report on today’s findings:

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed