Yo Ho Ho, A Fire Has Destroyed 60,000 Liters Of Rum

Last month, a fire at a Barton 1792 distillery sent 9,000 barrels of whiskey crashing to the ground. It also killed a bunch of fish. Well fuckity fuck fuck shit fuck, now a fire at the Jamaica's Long Pond Sugar Factory has spread to Long Pond Distillers, destroying more than 65,000 liters of rum.

First things first: no one was hurt. Per the Jamaica Observer, plant manager Kevin Barnett said that "It's a bad situation, but thankfully nobody has gotten any major injury and there is no loss of life." So I have no qualms bemoaning the loss of all that rum, because while it may sound pretty selfish, we could really use good booze right now, you know what I mean?

The fire began in a sugar cane field and spread quickly to the distillery. The divisional commander for the Trelawny Division of the Jamaica Fire Brigade told the Observer that the property was razed, noting that it affected both the barrel storage area and the section of the distillery in which raw materials for the rum were kept.

Last year, Matt Pietrek of Cocktail Wonk wrote about Long Pond, which had recently resumed operations after a lengthy hiatus. Pietrek's piece is full of cool pictures and addresses the raw materials, including muck pits, directly, so that's a great way to gain insight into the exact level of shittiness of this fire.

In short, someone please keep an eye on the great craft distilleries of the world and maybe replace the batteries in smoke detectors and stuff.