Whisky fire in Cheapside Street in Glasgow

The Glasgow Fire Brigade was alerted to smoke coming from a second floor window of the whisky warehouse by the foreman of the Eldorado Ice Cream Company, which was located near the whisky warehouse.

The warehouse contained over one million gallons of whisky in 21,000 wooden barrels and 30,000 gallons of rum. As the temperature of the fire rose, some of these barrels broke, causing a huge explosion of boiling liquid and expanding steam that blew the front and back walls of the building outwards, sending large amounts of masonry crashing into the street. This collapse killed 14 firefighters and 5 salvagers who were fighting the fire.

In the end, thirty fire engines, five turntable ladders and various specialised vehicles were deployed. A total of 450 firefighters from the Greater Glasgow area were involved in fighting the fire, which took a week to extinguish. Witnesses reported seeing bright blue flames shooting 12 metres into the sky, with the glow of the fire visible across the city. Neighbouring buildings, including a tobacco warehouse, an ice cream factory and the Harland and Wolff engineering works, also fell victim to the flames.