The flames generated so much heat that firetruck lights melted, authorities said
Flames and smoke rise from a bourbon warehouse fire at a Jim Beam distillery in Woodford County, Ky., on Wednesday. Photo: Pat McDonogh/Associated Press Associated Press July 3, 2019 1:48 pm ET 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.
“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.” The runoff could have a “serious impact on aquatic life,” he said. Runoff is expected to create “low dissolved oxygen levels,” which could result in substantial fish kills, the agency said in a release.
“Given the age of the lost whiskey, this fire will not impact the availability of Jim Beam for consumers,” the spirits company said in a statement. 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.
Firefighters who withstood the intense heat were able to keep the fire from spreading to three other nearby storage warehouses, he said.The destroyed warehouse, near the Woodford-Franklin county line, was about 100 yards from Glenns Creek, a tributary of the Kentucky River, he said. Existing containment berms were reinforced with sand to try to prevent runoff into the creek, he said.
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