Ticking timebomb of premises holding 180,000 barrels

But with the bonded warehouse, a ticking timebomb had arrived in the Liberties.

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The last person known to have been in the building was an excise officer, Mr Lynn, who locked up at 4.40pm.

The building held at least 1,800 barrels of whiskey amounting to 570,000 litres of the spirit.

It was a highly flammable premises in an age before effective fire detection or suppression systems. The first indication of the size of the fire was at 8.30pm that evening when the roof of the bonded warehouse collapsed allowing vivid blue flames to climb to 60ft high.

There had been none of the usual indications of a major fire - no smell of smoke or glow from windows.

It was fully developed when it burst from the roof and got unlimited supplies of oxygen to feed the flames. Yet more barrels of whiskey burst and added to the massive fire.

Soon the burning liquid flowed out the doors and windows and began to flow down the street like lava.