Fish jumping out, people jumping in?

http://www.newsday.com/ap/topnews/ap178.htm

Fish Kill Blamed on Bourbon Spill

"FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- A deadly pool of water that may have been caused by bourbon that spilled into the Kentucky River has literally driven fish to jump out of its path and killed everything that breathes with gills."

"The 28-mile-long dead zone slowly made its way down river Tuesday."

"State environmental officials believe the kill is related to the fire last week at the Wild Turkey distillery at Lawrenceburg that sent flaming bourbon pouring into the river."

"The dead zone did not actually start until well down river and a few days after the spill. Officials speculate that algae fed on the alcohol, sucking the oxygen out of the water."

''That more than anything else is what's killing fish,'' said Pete Pfeiffer of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources."

"Fish were driven into tributaries to find water with enough oxygen to survive."

''They were literally jumping over the dam,'' Pfeiffer said. ''Somebody said there were so many bodies across the mouth of Elkhorn Creek, you could literally walk across it.''

"Maleva Chamberlain of the state Division of Water said the water is safe for humans to drink. No communities draw their drinking water from the main stem of the river."

-- Deb M (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), May 16, 2000

Answers

Too bad this article isn't telling about the town of Lawerenceburg. The distilery was located right next to the water treatment plant for the community. If you never seen a distillery burn its quite a site. This is where the bourbon is stored in 55 gal wooden barrels to age. The structures are made of wood and generally about for stories in height. One can only imagine the amount of liquor stored. I think roughly 45%of the worlds bourbon is stored in Kentucky.

Anyway when one of these places catches fire it only takes a few minutes for the structure to burn completly. On this fire I think I heard it was a pile before the FD got there. All they could do was hose down near by structures and let it burn itself out. Flying overhead you could see a "rive of fire" meandoring down the bank toward the river and I think the town had just enough time to shut off the pumps and save what they had.

They are ok now but that bourbon is making its way down river.

-- Heaven Hill burned a few years back (...@.........), May 16, 2000.

At least the fish died happily. The must have been trying to fly!

-- Flash (flash@flash.hq), May 16, 2000.