A Fire At Two Jim Beam Rickhouses Destroyed 45,000 Barrels Of Bourbon

Local Kentucky news station WKYT reports that two Kentucky barrel warehouses at a Jim Beam aging facility caught fire late Tuesday night. As of now, the cause of the fire is still unknown, but Woodford County Emergency Management Director Drew Chandler lists lightning as a possible cause, though nothing has been officially confirmed. The fire spread after the flames from one of the warehouses ignited a second nearby warehouse, local fire crews were able to put out the fire of the second warehouse, but flames were still visible in the first rickhouse hours after the fire had begun.

No one was hurt in the fire, though approximately 45,000 barrels of bourbon are housed in the warehouse that is still burning, no word on how much bourbon has been lost. Still, aerial photos show the warehouse fully razed so… probably all of it? Chandler speculates fire crews may be on the scene until late Wednesday night.

Dan Cohen, a spokesman for Beam Suntory, the parent company of Jim Beam, ensured customers that this loss wouldn’t affect the availability of Jim Beam, stating “We operate 126 barrel warehouses in Kentucky that hold approximately 3.3 million barrels for our brands, and the warehouse that was destroyed contained 45,000 barrels of relatively young whiskey from the Jim Beam mash bill. Given the age of the lost whiskey, this fire will not impact the availability of Jim Beam for consumers.”

As of now, the fire remains active. Check out the blaze below.

https://twitter.com/bizarrices_lol/status/1146414486196301824

Because no one was hurt, we feel comfortable sharing this tweet as well: