On the 18th of June, 1875, the city of Dublin in Ireland was hit by a devastating flood
– a disaster which killed 13 people, injured twice that number, and destroyed dozens of
buildings.
Unusually for a flood, however, none of these deaths were caused by drowning, and the vast
majority of property damage was inflicted by flames.
On that night in 1875 the substance which flowed through the streets of Dublin wasn’t
water.
It was high-proof, undiluted Irish Whiskey.
And, to make matters significantly worse, it was on fire.
Today Scottish Whiskey – also known as scotch – is one of the most popular kinds of whiskey
in the world… but this wasn’t always the case.
It’s likely that the practise of distilling whiskey actually began in Ireland in the 10th
Century, when equipment used for making perfume was adapted to produce drinkable spirits.
In the 1700s, you could find the first recorded licenced whiskey distillery in the world in
Ireland, and by the 1800s Irish Whiskey had achieved an incredible degree of popularity,
massively outselling spirits like scotch or bourbon.
Irish Whiskey was most often distilled in a pot still, using a mash of malted and unmalted
barley.
Other ingredients were sometimes included, such as raw oats.
After distillation the liquor would be aged in casks for several years, resulting in a
drink that was thicker and spicier than some other whiskies… and which was favoured by
loyal drinkers all over the world.
By the mid-1800s, there were over 1,000 distilleries in Ireland – a figure that takes account
only of registered legal distilleries, and doesn’t factor in the many thousands of
illegal distilling operations.
The distillation of whiskey was a big industry in the country, and nowhere more so than Dublin.
The capital city of Ireland was home to five of the largest distilleries in the country.
As well as these massive distilleries, there were also many warehouses where whiskey could
be stored while it aged.
Malone’s Bonded Malthouse and Warehouse was just one of these storage facilities.
Within its walls were around 5,000 barrels of whiskey and other spirits, containing between
them around 48,000,000 servings of whiskey – enough to more than halfway fill an Olympic
sized swimming pool.
What started the fire which ripped through the warehouse that day is unknown.
Flames were seen and the alarm was raised around 8:30pm, but efforts to contain the
blaze were fruitless.
By 9:30pm it was still burning, and it’s at around this time that casks of whiskey
began to explode from the heat, disgorging their contents onto the warehouse floor.
It should be noted that the whiskey which poured out of these casks had not yet been
diluted ready for human consumption.
It was still extremely concentrated, with an alcohol content far higher than that of
the finished spirit.
As such it burned extremely easily and extremely fiercely.
The outpouring of this highly flammable whiskey not only made the warehouse fire difficult
to fight… but also resulted in rivers of burning whiskey flowing out into the street
and pouring downhill into the neighbourhood to the north of the warehouse.
The first victims of this burning flood were some extremely unlucky pigs.
Their pens stood directly in the path of a river of flaming alcohol, and they were quickly
consumed and burned to death.
The horrifying squeals of these pigs did, however, alert nearby residents to the flood,
prompting a rapid and complete evacuation of nearby houses.
Through their death, these animals at least gave nearby humans a chance to escape.
Escaping from the area, as it happened, was about the only thing residents could do.
The burning tide of liquor set fire to any building it touched, and couldn’t easily
be contained.
Trying to douse the flames with water was useless; the whiskey would simply float to
the top and continue to burn.
Similarly dumping sand or dirt onto the flames had little effect, as the whiskey would simply
soak through.
With no way to fight the flood, residents ran.
Accounts exist of the burning whiskey gushing into a house where residents were in the midst
of a wake, forcing them to hurriedly carry out the body.
Meanwhile animals which had managed to escape from burning pens were running wild through
the streets.
The Dublin Fire Brigade lead the response to the disaster.
In charge was the organisation’s founder, James Ingram.
Ingram was a veteran of the New York Fire Department, and had a wide range of experience
fighting unusual fires.
He realised quickly that trying to save burning buildings was pointless unless they could
contain the flow of whiskey, and so tasked his men with building a series of dams using
gravel and paving stones.
Unfortunately, this didn’t work.
The burning whiskey simply soaked through the loosely-packed gravel and carried on spreading.
Ingram realised that something thicker and more impermeable than gravel was needed.
But what?
The solution that he settled on in the end was a simple and earthy one: horse manure.
Thousands of horses co-existed alongside Dublin’s human population.
With the invention of the motorcar still a few years away, they were a vital way of getting
around and hauling cargo.
Of course, these horses produced a significant quantity of manure, which was scooped up and
stored in yards all over the city.
Now, faced with a seemingly-unstoppable fire, Ingram ordered his men to plunder these manure
stores and use the waste within to build dams to contain the flood.
Though unconventional, this tactic worked.
The spread of the flood was halted, and the flames eventually smothered.
But, despite this victory, the disaster wasn’t over yet.
Many people, drawn to the area by the news of the unusual flood and fire, had come to
bear witness to it first-hand.
Now, with the immediate danger out of the way, some of them chose to celebrate by sampling
the whiskey that ran through the streets.
Accounts of the disaster paint an almost convivial picture, with people whipping off hats and
shoes to use as drinking vessels, and sharing whiskey from jugs and decanters.
Unfortunately, on this occasion, this drinking would have some terrible results.
The Illustrated London Times recounted the scene:
“Crowds of people assembled, and took off their hats and boots to collect the whiskey,
which ran in streams along the streets.
Four persons have died in the hospital from the effects of drinking the whiskey, which
was burning hot as it flowed.
Two corn-porters, named Healy and McNulty, were found in a lane off Cork Street, lying
insensible, with their boots off, which they had evidently used to collect the liquor.
There are many other persons in the hospital who are suffering from the same cause.
Two boys are reported to be dying, and it is feared that other deaths will follow.”
English newspapers would later rely heavily on the narrative that the residents of Dublin
were simply unable to resist drinking to excess.
But this was an incorrect assumption based largely on stereotype.
In most cases those struck down by alcohol poisoning had consumed only a moderate amount
of whiskey, drinking what they normally might on a night out at their local public house.
However, this was not ordinary whiskey.
This was high-proof, undiluted whiskey, many times more concentrated than what they were
used to.
Drinking even a small amount was enough to land someone in hospital… and in the case
of at least 13 unfortunate individuals, the morgue.
At least another 10 people were severely injured by their consumption of the undiluted alcohol,
with symptoms including blindness and brain damage.
No serious injuries or deaths are recorded as having resulted from the flood or flames,
but the Dublin Whiskey Fire was nonetheless a deadly disaster.
In the aftermath, significant structural damage had to be repaired.
Houses had been destroyed, businesses ruined, and whole streets demolished.
Despite this phenomenal destruction, there were some positives to emerge from the disaster.
The excellent performance of the Dublin Fire Brigade helped to legitimise them and demonstrate
their importance.
In the years which followed the temporary headquarters they had been operating out of
was replaced with a permanent, purpose-built fire station.
They are now the largest and most well-resourced fire service in Ireland.
This, and other distillery fires over the years, made distilleries aware of just how
dangerous the storage of huge quantities of whiskey could be.
Numerous fire prevention and fire management measures are now put in place to ensure that
a fire of this type can never again occur in a place as densely populated as Dublin.
The flood is now just a tragic part of the long, storied and ongoing history of whisky-making
in Ireland.