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Drone video shows Jim Beam warehouse destruction after raging fire

A drone video shows the partially burning remains of what used to be a Jim Beam warehouse filled with 45,000 barrels of bourbon at its distillery in Woodford County, Kentucky. The massive fire occurred on Wednesday. It was so hot that it melted the lights on the fire trucks, first responders said.

Drone video shows destruction of Jim Beam warehouse

“It melted lights off some of the firetrucks, it got so hot,” Woodford County emergency management director Drew Chandler said.

The fire started late Tuesday night due to a possible lightning strike. However, Chandler said that the fire investigators haven’t been able to start looking for the cause of the fire yet.

The fire has been contained and no injuries were reported, according to the Wall Street Journal [paywall].

Let ‘er burn

The firefighters decided to let the warehouse burn to get rid of more of the distilled spirits and prevent them from leaking into a nearby drinking-water tributary. However, some runoff did enter the nearby creek and made its way into the Kentucky River.

“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.

The Jim Beam warehouse is the latest building lost by a Kentucky distiller. Last month, one of the warehouses of O.Z. Tyler Distillery in Owensboro partially collapsed after a storm. And another one collapsed at Barton 1972 Distillery in Bardstown last year. Ninety-five percent of the world’s bourbon is produced by Kentucky distillers, according to the Kentucky Distillers’ Association.

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Avatar for Haye Kesteloo Haye Kesteloo

Haye Kesteloo is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at DroneDJ, where he covers all drone related news and writes product reviews. He also contributes to the other sites in the 9to5Mac group such as; 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys and Electrek. Haye can be reached at haye@dronedj.com or @hayekesteloo 


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