JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Manifest Distillery honored the many firefighters who worked tirelessly to prevent the fire at the RISE Doro apartment building from spreading to other buildings, causing an even bigger disaster.
The distillery is one of the neighboring businesses that was in the danger zone of the fire that destroyed the multimillion-dollar luxury apartment complex.
Customers raised their glasses Friday in honor of the firefighters.
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If it wasn’t for those firefighters, the situation could have been much more dangerous because of the distillery’s alcohol production room. The room contains tanks filled with 180-proof alcohol, which is a flammable liquid.
“We’re surrounded by a lot of high-proof alcohol, so something that would happen to this space would be catastrophic. They went out of their way. They made a stand and put two ladder trucks in this road and fought all night to keep everything over there,” Owner David Cohen said.
Any firefighter who took part in battling the blaze got a drink on the house.
“Watching the fire in the video was like, oh my God, we figured this place was gone,” Bruce Bradley said.
Customers were thankful for the firefighters’ hard work.
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“If those firefighters hadn’t been there all night, this place wouldn’t be here right now,” Bari Fitzpatrick said.
Cohen didn’t want to imagine what could have happened if the firefighters hadn’t worked hard to prevent the flames from spreading to his business.
“We have fire precautions in place for this building in terms of fire suppression systems. Safety systems are in place, but you don’t want to go down that road. You don’t want to test the system,” Cohen said.
For several days, the business was closed while fire crews continued to put out the fires that reignited from hotspots. The distillery also remained closed because crews feared the apartment building would collapse.
Demolition crews are working when the distillery is closed so customers are safe.