In 1903, Ardgowan Distillery in Greenock caught fire. Storage casks burst sending a wave of flaming whisky down the street and set fire to a stream leading to a flour mill, which then exploded. A “raging flood of fire” chased people down the street.
Greenock had so many underground streams that flaming whisky raced under houses and streets. People began throwing furniture and belongings into the street at the first sign of fire, but the wave of flaming spirit crashed into them adding to the fires.
The warehouses had 800,000 gallons of whisky which all caught fire. The flood traveled over a kilometre through the town before entering the harbour. Water was hard to collect as the streams were on fire. It took more than 400 people to fight the fires.
7 people died, five were children under 16yrs old. Damages totaled ÂŁ80,000– roughly equivalent to ÂŁ10million today. Another warehouse with 2 million gallons caught fire but was thankfully extinguished in time.
The event was almost repeated during the blitz of 1941. After bombs hit the distillery flaming whisky poured down the same street creating “a sea of fire”.
