Crow River Winery suffers big losses in storage shed fire: "Pivot we will"

A popular Hutchinson, Minnesota, winery lost its maintenance building in a fast-moving, three-alarm fire Tuesday morning.

The fire started at Crow River Winery shortly after 1:30 a.m., but wasn't spotted until nearly 30 minutes later when a person driving down Highway 7 spotted the flames from the road.

Owners say it only took eight minutes for an electrical short to spread through the building, which serves as a maintenance and storage shed.

"This was a really important resource to us, so it's a big loss," said Erin Rupe, who serves on Crow River's ownership team. "There were some significant things in this building that are central to our business that we will now be piecing together in terms of how to supplement and pivot. There will be a lot of pivots, but pivot we will."

No one was hurt and Rupe says their main building wasn't impacted. Despite the loss of heavy machinery, tables, chairs and bottles, their upcoming events and plans will not face delay, Rupe says.

"It's great to hear from folks," she said. "The people that we've heard from have been pretty broad sweeping. It's great to hear that we matter to so many people; they matter to us. We'll figure out the pivots and keep serving the community."