A Costly Booze Blaze
The stereotype of the Irish love of whiskey (spelled with an “e” – whisky spelled without an e is Scottish), or more like their excessive love of whiskey, is a longstanding one. It has served as joke fodder for centuries. However, there was one tragicomic episode in the nineteenth century – more tragic than comic – when that lazy stereotype came to blazing life. It took place on the night of June 18th, 1875, when the streets of Dublin were transformed into rivers of flaming whiskey.
An inferno that became known as the Great Dublin Whiskey Fire began in a warehouse that stored 5,000 hogsheads. They contained more than 315,000 US gallons of whiskey. The giant barrels began to explode, and before anybody knew it, a river of fiery whiskey raced through Dublin’s streets. Thirteen people perished, and many more were hospitalized. None of the fatalities were caused by the fire. Instead, as seen below, they resulted from alcohol poisoning, as greedy sots committed a fatally costly mistake when they rushed to lap up the fiery booze from the streets.
