LEXINGTON, Ky. — Crews let a Jim Beam bourbon warehouse in Woodford County burn out Wednesday after it caught fire overnight, ruining thousands of barrels that leaked bourbon into a nearby creek and the Kentucky River.

The fire at the Jim Beam warehouse began about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and burned for “double-digit” hours Wednesday while firefighters protected nearby warehouses and crews tried to prevent bourbon from flowing into a creek, according to Drew Chandler, the Woodford County Emergency Management director.

Jim Beam said in a prepared statement that the fire will not affect product availability.

“We operate 126 barrel warehouses in Kentucky that hold approximately 3.3 million barrels for our brands, and the warehouse that was destroyed contained 45,000 barrels of relatively young whiskey from the Jim Beam mash bill. Given the age of the lost whiskey, this fire will not impact the availability of Jim Beam for consumers.”

About 45,000 barrels amounts to 1.89 million gallons of bourbon. The barrels were aging in storage, which allows the taste of the bourbon to mature.

There was hope that flames would destroy the distilled spirit in the barrels, stopping runoff and contamination in nearby Glenns Creek. In addition, Woodford Feed delivered sand requested by firefighters to build embankments to prevent leakage into the creek, Chandler said. But some bourbon found the water.