What Was the Worst Ever Rum Disaster?

     When you think about rum disasters you have to think about the ships that hauled the rum and sank or a lost British Royal Naval Vessel.  You would be wrong, because, the biggest rum disaster was in London by the Thames River April 21st 1933. Britain imported large quantities of rum for naval supplies and stored in large vaults at Rum Quay by the India Docks. The adjoining lumberyard caught fire and spread to the rum stores where 3.1 million liters were held in 6,500 puncheons. The rum fire burnt for four days, spreading across the Thames River. The fumes were so potent it intoxicated the firemen. When extinguished the fire had destroyed the equivalent to a year's production of rum from Barbados.

 Damaged vaults at the Rum Quay at the West India Docks after the great fire of 21 April 1933. The fire took four days to put out.   One of the worst fires in the docks occurred at the Rum Quay, at the West India Docks.  One of the main sheds and a vault were destroyed.

That was a lot of rum lost in those four days and a disaster that I hope never occurs again.