Imagine waking up one day and seeing red wine flowing down the streets. You might have to pinch yourself to make sure that you're not dreaming. The residents of a small town in coastal Portugal, São Lorenco de Bairro, woke up to one such sight on September 10. The town with a population of around 2,000 was flooded by wine following an accident at a distillery, the New York Post reported.
Two tanks owned by Levira Distillery, containing close to 600,000 gallons of liquor, suddenly gave away, resulting in the 'unfortunate' situation.
The locals were stunned to see a river of red wine gushing through the streets.
Videos were quick to make their way to social media platforms and the incident went viral thereafter. One such video of the incident shows red wine flowing and rushing down a steep hill.
The spill was extremely massive and the wine from the distilleries could have easily filled an Olympic-sized swimming pool, even posing the threat of an environmental alert.
The officials quickly sprung to action and tried to stop the wine before it could reach the Certima River.
Flood was stopped and diverted away from the river to a nearby field by the Anadia Fire Department, the New York Post said citing local media reports.
The basement of a house adjacent to the distillery was flooded with wine, firefighters said.
Levira Distillery has expressed its apologies over the entire incident.
“We assume full responsibility for the costs associated with cleaning and repairing the damage, having teams do so immediately,” it said in a statement.
Levira also added that the wine-soaked soil at the field has been taken to a special treatment plant.
Published 12 September 2023, 11:54 IST