Jim Beam Warehouse Fire Threatens 45,000 Barrels

Fire officials in Kentucky are letting a fire burn through a warehouse containing 45,000 barrels of Jim Beam bourbon to avoid ethanol contamination in a nearby creek that runs into the Kentucky River.

The fire started around 11 p.m. in Woodford County on Tuesday and was still burning at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, fire officials said. They expected the warehouse to burn for five more hours. No injuries were reported.

“The biggest issue we are dealing with is the environmental aspect,” said Drew Chandler, the Woodford County emergency management director. “If we put the fire out, we are going to dump a lot of water on it and that water will be contaminated.”

He said that fire officials did not know what had caused the fire, but a spokeswoman for Jim Beam said she believed lightning had sparked it.

“Initial reports suggest the fire resulted from a lightning strike, and we will work with local authorities to confirm the cause and to remediate the impacts,” Emily York, the spokeswoman, said in a statement.

The building is one of 126 barrel warehouses that Jim Beam operates in Kentucky. Altogether, these warehouses hold 3.3 million barrels of bourbon for the Jim Beam brand, Ms. York said.

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A standard barrel typically produces 150 to 200 750-milliliter bottles, according to The Louisville Courier Journal. Prices for a standard bottle of Jim Beam vary, but an estimate of $18 per bottle would mean the fire caused roughly $122 million to $162 million in lost revenue.

“The warehouse that was destroyed contained 45,000 barrels of relatively young whiskey from the Jim Beam mash bill,” Ms. York said. “Given the age of the lost whiskey, this fire will not impact the availability of Jim Beam for consumers.”

Firefighters were spraying water on nearby buildings to prevent the fire from spreading, Mr. Chandler said.

“We are letting that distilled spirit burn out so there is less contamination in the runoff,” he said.

There is one perk to a bourbon warehouse fire, he added, and it has nothing to do with drinking it.

“It’s about the best-smelling fire I’ve ever been at,” Mr. Chandler said. “It is not as pungent like in a house fire because it is mostly old natural wood and a distilled spirit, so it has a bit of a sweetness to it.”