This Irish whiskey disaster sounds like a scene straight out of a movie, but it really happened

The elixir of life has a rich history full of memorable moments and great stories. But the drink’s past also holds its fair share of disasters. Once, thousands of liters of Irish whiskey surged through the streets of Dublin in an event that would go down in history as The Great Whiskey Fire.

This calamity in whiskey’s history unfolded in 1875. A fire broke out at Malone’s Malt House and Store House on Chamber Street. At first it wasn’t particularly large, but the flames spread with alarming speed. Elsewhere in the warehouse, more than 5,000 casks of whiskey and other spirits were stored, and it didn’t take long before the blaze reached them.

The heat split the wooden barrels open, releasing their contents in a sudden torrent of Irish whiskey. The liquor flowed from The Liberties neighborhood down to the Coombe, several streets away. When the liquid itself met the flames, it ignited, turning the stream into a lava-like river burning through the heart of Dublin.

Dublin’s fire brigade arrived, and Captain James Robert Ingram immediately realized that dousing it with water would be useless. The alcohol would simply float on top, risking an even greater catastrophe. Instead, he ordered sand and horse manure to be thrown onto the burning whiskey.

The sand would smother the flames, while the manure was used to build makeshift dams. The firefighters ultimately managed to subdue the blaze, but they couldn’t prevent a tragic loss of life.

Some of the victims were animals that still roamed freely outside homes in the nineteenth century. There were human victims as well. In total, 13 people lost their lives during The Great Whiskey Fire. None of them died from smoke inhalation or the flames themselves, but from a different cause: alcohol poisoning.

Crowds had flocked to the burning river of Irish whiskey, trying to collect as much as they could. They brought pots and pans, and even took off their hats and boots to scoop up the liquor. Many drank as much as they could during that disastrous night. As a result, twenty-four men ended up in the hospital. Thirteen of them ultimately succumbed to the amount of alcohol they had consumed.

If you ever find yourself at the Teeling Distillery in Dublin, you can hear this story among others on their tour.

Want to discover more whisky facts? You can on this page.