A warehouse full of Jim Beam bourbon in Kentucky was destroyed by fire the night of July 2-3, with some 40,000 barrels of whiskey feeding the blaze.
The fire broke out at about 11:30 p.m. at the warehouse in Versailles, Ky., belonging to Jim Beam Suntory. Fed by the liquor, the fire eventually caused the warehouse, described as the size of a football field and six or seven stories high, to collapse.
Forty firefighters from five counties struggled to contain the blaze, which roared through the night into sunrise. A crew chief speculated to CNN that the fire was ignited by lightning.
“It's purposefully being allowed to burn for several more hours,” CNN quoted the chief as saying. “The more it burns, the less distilled spirits are in the debris.”
