TAMPA, Fla. — The Citrus County Sheriff’s Office and Inverness Fire Rescue are on the scene of a major structure fire in downtown Inverness on Friday. It’s at the corner of Courthouse Square and North Apopka Avenue at the Storm Distillery.
Officials with the sheriff’s office say that at 10:41 a.m. they received a call for service regarding an urgent request at 105 N. Apopka Ave. in Inverness, with initial reports outlining an explosion along with a commercial structure fire. The explosion came from the Storm Distillery.
The sheriff’s office says three people were injured and transported, and that one of those people was in serious condition and was trauma alerted via helicopter.
A perimeter was established around the Courthouse Square area of downtown Inverness for safety reasons, according to the sheriff’s office.
The building is still intact and from the outside, there is no major signs of a fire.
Crews have been cleaning up debris from outside of the distillery and roads in the downtown Inverness area have reopened.
Fire officials haven’t confirmed a cause or identified anyone who was hurt, but William Cline was among some of the people from neighboring businesses who were among the first on scene.
He said he was standing outside Twisted Vyne, where he works as a chef, when it happened. He said he didn’t hear the explosion, but saw people running and went to see what was going on.
“Apparently his still exploded. Hometown Deli was on fire. His building was on fire. Two older people were out front, laying on the ground from where they were walking by. And, the window blew out and the glass hit them and cut them all up. So we helped them as much as we could,” Cline said.
At this time, Spectrum Bay News 9 is being told that the State Fire Marshal’s Office is the lead on the investigation.
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