The Night the Streets Burned: The Dublin Whiskey Fire of 1875

The Night the Streets Burned: The Dublin Whiskey Fire of 1875

Book Summary

On the evening of June 18, 1875, a catastrophic fire at Malone's bonded warehouse in Dublin's Liberties neighborhood created an unprecedented urban disaster. When flames engulfed 5,000 barrels of aging whiskey, massive explosions released over a million liters of high-proof spirits that flowed through the streets as a river of blue flame. While Fire Brigade Captain James Robert Ingram's innovative use of organic barriers prevented wider devastation, the disaster's most tragic dimension unfolded as desperate residents gathered to drink the freely flowing whiskey. Thirteen people died-not from the fire itself, but from acute alcohol poisoning.

This meticulously researched history examines every dimension of this bizarre catastrophe: the industrial conditions that made it possible, the spectacular emergency response, the deaths and their investigation, the relief efforts for displaced families, and the political aftermath that transformed Dublin's fire protection and sparked debates about industrial safety. Drawing on contemporary newspaper accounts, official records, and historical analysis, the book reveals how this extraordinary disaster exposed the hazards of Victorian industrial capitalism, the vulnerabilities of working-class communities, and the complex interplay of human behavior, institutional failure, and social inequality in nineteenth-century urban life.