2 people injured in Kentucky moonshine distillery explosion

An explosion leveled a western Kentucky distillery, authorities said on Saturday, injuring two workers at one of the few facilities permitted by the commonwealth to produce moonshine, a high-octane liquor mostly associated with illegal stills.

Distiller Jay Rogers, 40, his assistant Kyle Rogers, 26, were severely burned by a blast and fire on Friday at the Silver Trail Distillery in Hardin, said Frank Murphy, the director of Marshall County Emergency Management.

The men were airlifted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, where they remained in critical condition on Saturday, hospital spokesman Bill Snyder said.

The pair were entering the building at about 10:30 a.m. Central time to check on a batch that had been distilling for about five hours when the blast occurred, Murphy said, adding that the cause of the explosion is under investigation.

“When they opened the door, it exploded in their face,” Murphy said. “They weren’t quite fully inside the building.”

The company, which produces LBL Moonshine, said on its Facebook page that the two men were injured after “what appears to be a massive equipment failure.”

The company also asked the tight-knit community of Hardin, a small city about 100 miles northwest of Nashville, to pray for the two workers along with master distiller Spencer Balentine whose “anguish and sorrow has not yet found its depth.”

Balentine, who founded Silver Trail Distillery, is the descendant of a long line of Kentucky moonshiners, according to its website.