Fire wrecks Jim Beam warehouse
Destroyed about 1% of bourbon inventory
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A fire destroyed a massive Jim Beam warehouse filled with about 45,000 barrels of bourbon, sending flames shooting into the night sky and generating so much heat that firetruck lights melted, authorities said Wednesday.
Firefighters from four counties responded to the blaze that erupted late Tuesday. Lightning might have been a factor, but fire investigators haven’t been able to start looking for the cause, Woodford County Emergency Management Director Drew Chandler said.
No injuries were reported, Chandler said. The fire was contained but was being allowed to burn for several more hours Wednesday, he said.
“The longer it burns, the more of the distilled spirits burn with it,” he said in a phone interview. “So when they go to put it out, there will be less contaminated runoff that goes into a drinking-water tributary.”
Company officials said they are working with authorities to assess environmental effects.
The distiller hired an emergency cleanup crew and state environmental officials were coordinating efforts to control bourbon runoff into a nearby creek that flows into the Kentucky River, said John Mura, a spokesman for the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet.
State officials warned recreational users on the Kentucky River that runoff will result in water discoloration, foaming and an odor.
The distilling company said the multi-story warehouse that burned contained “relatively young whiskey,” meaning it had not reached maturity for bottling for consumers. Bourbon acquires its color and flavor while aging for years in charred new oak barrels.
The whiskey maker suffered a total loss in the burned warehouse. The destroyed whiskey amounted to about 1% of Beam’s bourbon inventory, it said.
One standard bourbon barrel usually holds about 53 gallons of bourbon that eventually turns into around 150 to 200 750 milliliter bottles, the Courier Journal reported. If all the barrels held bourbon, that would be a loss of at least 6 million bottles, the Louisville newspaper reported.