Madness in Dublin: Fire, Drama, and Irish Whiskey

In 1875, Dublin had a thriving whiskey industry. A change in law in 1823 meant that distilleries only had to pay tax on their whiskey when it was put up for sale, instead of when it was put into casks. This opened up the market for duty-free warehouses that would store casks for distilleries.

Lawrence Malone quickly became the biggest name in this industry, establishing a huge storage warehouse in the Liberties. Although he created an industry in Dublin, he also created a ticking time bomb. There was now an enormous amount of flammable liquid in one huge building, located behind narrow city streets, with nothing resembling fire safety.

A burning river of whiskey

On June 18, 1875, at eight in the evening, that bomb unfortunately exploded when a fire broke out on Chamber Street in the Liberties district of Dublin. The cause of the fire remains unknown, but it resulted in a 10-meter-high flame shooting through the roof of Malone's Malt and Storehouse. About 5,000 casks of whiskey were stored here with minimal safety precautions.

Eventually, the whiskey casks burst, and their highly flammable contents poured out, according to an article in the Irish Examiner on June 21, 1875, "in literal streams from doors and windows". It flooded the narrow, steep streets around the warehouse, creating a river of burning whiskey.

Certain factors made the fire particularly devastating. First of all, the whiskey could seep under doors and through cracks in buildings. It was also undiluted, which made it much stronger than it would be at bottling.

Flames, free whiskey, and wild animals

The madness started early, as soon as it became clear that it was whiskey flowing down the street. The sight must have been unusual. It was a mixture of whiskey, immature spirits, and probably some brandy and wine as well. People would not have seen this type of flame-blue liquid before, like the flames on a lit Christmas pudding, but on a massive scale. Allegedly, people used whatever was available so they could take advantage of the situation and get free whiskey. They scooped up whiskey from the river, and the fact that the whiskey was undiluted meant it was much stronger.

In addition to the river of burning whiskey flowing through the streets like lava, several buildings and a tannery also caught fire. At the same time, many people at that time kept pigs to supplement the family's income, and there were also a large number of stables in the area, so when the fire broke out, there were animals everywhere, horses, pigs, and dogs running around.

The Irish were heavily portrayed in foreign media after the Dublin fire. Illustration from L'Illustration, Journal Universel.

400 men to contain fire and chaos

When the fire was reported, fifteen members of the Dublin Fire Brigade arrived at the flames within ten minutes. And when the police arrived on the scene, they quickly got a sense of not only what was happening, but also what could happen, so they sent for massive reinforcements of 150 men.

Soldiers – about 200 – were also called in. They could help rescue valuables, but also operate the pumps so the firefighters could use the hoses, and control the crowd, which became increasingly important. Some soldiers arrived armed and threatened bayonet charges against a group of citizens who attacked them as the soldiers tried to protect 60 casks of whiskey that had been saved.

The first attempts to stop the river of burning whiskey were unsuccessful. Because the fire was already liquid, the alcohol would simply have floated on top if the firefighters had extinguished it with water.

Captain James Robert Ingram of the Dublin Fire Brigade first ordered his men to tear up the road and spread sand and gravel to try to dam the whiskey. Unfortunately, the burning river seeped through this barrier and continued to spread.

Captain Ingram came up with a brilliant idea. He realized he needed something to slow the fire down and absorb the whiskey – something organic. He decided to use the holy trinity of ash, tan, and dung, because that's what was available. It was a poor area, so there were many tanneries nearby, and with the large number of animals in the area, dung was also readily available. A hundred years later, they would have fought the fire with foam, which is also organic, so by using what was available, Captain Ingram was a hundred years ahead of his time. By about 4:00 the next morning, the fire was finally out.

Destruction, deaths, and bizarre events

Although the fire brigade confined the fire to the Liberties, it was unable to prevent the fire from causing significant property damage. Homes and apartments were destroyed, as well as several commercial establishments.

There were also 13 deaths, but not a single one of them was caused by the fire itself. They were all related to the madness that took over, and it is known that at least five of them died from alcohol poisoning. Some of the stories are very sad, but others are also bizarre, and unfortunately show some less flattering sides of human nature.

One story is about a group of mourners holding a vigil for a deceased person. The mourners put themselves in danger to save the body of the deceased. But they only carried the body far enough away to ensure that the deceased would not burn, before they all ran back to get some free whiskey.

Irish shame and the lessons of disaster

After the fire, Dublin became a laughing stock, especially because of British and American journalists who happened to be in the city at the time. The scenes they witnessed were gold for them. There was no point in writing about a big fire in Dublin for American or British readers; there were big fires everywhere, but the story of Irish people running around scooping and drinking whiskey directly from the road, while the streets were in flames, was exaggerated by the British and American press.

Because of this, the Irish press quickly began to downplay the incident. They were made fools of and confirmed all the stereotypes that existed at the time. Within a few days, the Irish newspapers were therefore talking about the great law-abiding citizens. Although on the night itself, one could hardly move for all the people trying to get to the whiskey, the story was suddenly changed, and it was all law-abiding citizens who came to help.

The Dublin whiskey fire led to greater acceptance of more modern fire safety standards for Dublin and the Irish whiskey industry. Before the event, there was resistance to even the idea of a city-wide fire brigade. People believed that the cost of the service was not fairly distributed among the population. But after the disaster, the benefits of having trained firefighters were undeniable. In addition to showing people the importance of Dublin's fire brigade, the fire also prompted whiskey distilleries to upgrade their safety measures, including the establishment of their own fire units.