StillSmart

On the News this morning

Somewhere in England

5 persons killed 1 injured in an explosion in a lockup.

Police are keeping an open mind on what happened, but suspect that were brewing alcohol.

They had the steel doors on the lockup bolted, which mad it difficult for the fire fighters to get in.

Eyewitness said that there was no explosion but a lot of smoke and flames.

I wonder if the were actually distilling, will keep an eye on the story

Link to story is at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-li ... e-14146993

Pyro

Further info from 0800 news

There is a suspicion that the men had been distilling Vodka, as the police had raided a number of local shops selling home brewed Vodka.

Pyro

Seen that this morning Pyro.It was in Boston England. There was a group of guys who escaped the cops and customs several weeks ago and the had a factory running out Vodka at 800 bottles per hour. They came from Rumania or Poland.I wonder if it is the same gang setting up shop again.

More info at http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-storie ... -23269424/

Looking at this, it looks like a similer set up

Pyro

Hard to speculate but at a guess they were heating with propane and had a vapour leak somewhere which caught fire. It's a shame but it bears very little relation to anything we do - these guys are after making a profit so they want to make the cheapest product they can. We're about quality over quantity, and as we drink it ourselves we're certainly not going to skimp on the safety.

Propane gas can be bought anonimously, electricity usage, especially a bulk sudden increase, can easily be detected by the authorities.

And strangely enough, the authorities continue to propagate the "moonshine so it contains methanol" myth.

Which "they" always roll out whenever something of this nature occurs, or an "illegal" operation is uncovered. I suspect that if it was any/mostly eastern chappies, well, they do actually make some good vodka, so of course, it's in the interests of HMRC etc, to continue the myth and frighten off potential home brewers and other unlicensed makers - it makes their job easier.

Me ? I'm just off to the local "methanol shop" to make my humble efforts go further