When firefighter Kevin Mercer was fighting a massive coal silo fire at Jim Beam in 2007, he had a chilling realization: he was completely outside what his training had prepared him to do.  

Mercer, only a few years into the fire brigade at Jim Beam, was 30 feet in the air on the outside of the coal silo, feeling the heat from the fire inside. His chief had told him and some other firefighters to climb the exterior stairs and feed a hose into an opening at the top of the silo so they could begin to pump water inside.

“I remember thinking in that moment: ‘our training’s good, but I don’t know what the hell I’m doing,’” Mercer said. “That’s when I made it my mission to be the best I can, and to learn so I can teach people.”

While they were able to tame the coal fire blaze, that incident proved to be the turning point that led Mercer to pursue every opportunity to train, study, and share distillery firefighting knowledge with others. Over time, his dedication earned him the role of Chief of the Jim Beam Fire Brigade, where he has spent more than a decade building a culture of safety and preparedness in one of Kentucky’s most iconic industries.

A Fire Chief Who Builds and Protects

Today, Mercer still splits his time at the Jim Beam distillery in Clermont, KY doing two very different jobs: carpenter and fire chief. One moment he could be repairing support structures in a warehouse stacked with 60,000 aging bourbon barrels. The next, he could be responding to an EMS call for a visitor on the tour or extinguishing a small blaze from equipment on site.

If there’s one thing both jobs have in common, Chief Mercer says the answer is clear: unpredictability. “Being a carpenter there, there’s just something new every day. So, it’s a lot like the fire department because you never know what you’re going to get involved in.”

This balance between craft and crisis keeps him sharp—and keeps safety front and center at a distillery that welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

In pursuit of his safety goals, Chief Mercer and his team have undergone extensive training—even registering Jim Beam with the state fire commission. Now their training and firefighting experience at the distillery count toward hours required at their volunteer departments.

“Our Jim Beam firefighters are highly trained,” Chief Mercer said. “Honestly, they get more training than is required by some full-time fire departments.”

Pain-Free and Dry with HAIX® Work Boots

Chief Mercer hasn’t always worn HAIX®. He wore Globe boots up until he met a HAIX representative who convinced him to try a new pair. He started with a Fire Hero® Xtreme for his firefighter boots and Airpower® XR26 for his daily work boots. The improvement was immediate.

“Those HAIX were the best work boots I ever had,” he said. “After working all day, climbing stairs, my feet were dry every day. And for the first time in years, I had no aches at all.

“My other boots, I’d feel achy—my knees, my ankles,” he said. “When I tried the HAIX boots, I had no aches at all. Whatever it did, it balanced me out just how I needed.”

These days he swears by his Airpower XR1 Pro boots as his daily wear. He says the combination of safety, waterproofing, and comfort have made him a lifelong fan.

 “Having a waterproof boot that doesn’t rub my feet is awesome,” Mercer said.

For someone moving constantly between carpentry, inspections, and emergency response, that comfort isn’t a luxury. It’s part of what allows him to keep showing up strong.

Bourbon Rickhouse Fire Safety

Mercer’s focus on education has had ripple effects well beyond Jim Beam. He now teaches distillery-specific firefighting at the Kentucky State Fire School and to neighboring departments. His lessons cover hazards that few outside the industry have to consider: high-proof alcohol fires, combustible grain dust, confined-space rescues, and industrial hose operations in cluttered environments.

“Even walking around these places is dangerous,” Mercer says, “You have to keep your head on a swivel. That’s my goal: to help fire departments understand the problems, how to fight them, and to prepare for the problems that will come up.”

So how do firefighters tackle these unpredictable elements? Mercer recommends collaboration between distilleries and local fire departments. These pre-planning sessions involve firefighters walking through the facilities and planning access in the event of fires.  

“Pre-planning these distilleries is everything.” Mercer says. “You can’t predict what will happen in every incident, but you need to be aware what hazards are there.”

Learning From Kentucky Distillery Fires of the Past

The bourbon industry has faced its share of catastrophic fires, from the 1996 Heaven Hill blaze in Bardstown to the “bourbonado” (a fire whirl fueled by burning spirits) that occurred during a Jim Beam distillery fire in 2003.  Recently Jim Beam experienced a headline-grabbing blaze in 2019 when lightning struck a Frankfort warehouse in the middle of the night, sparking a fire that destroyed around 40,000 barrels of bourbon.

Chief Mercer said that people—including tourists at Jim Beam—still mention this fire to him when they learn of his role at the distillery. But he’s quick to point out that not only did it occur at the Frankfort, KY plant, that fire was the result of terrible circumstance and timing. Lightning struck the plant around midnight while their municipal department members were not at peak staff levels. Teams rushed to the facility to battle the fire, but the damage had already been done.

“You can see the lightning strike on the footage,” he shared. “The sprinklers were working, but things just get out of hand so fast. Early detection is everything with any fire, especially in a rickhouse.”

Still, he’s proud of how the Frankfort team handled it: prevention of additional exposure, saving two other warehouses, and no fatalities. While he’s quick to say he takes no credit for how well the Frankfort team handled the fire, it’s hard to ignore how the entire state of Kentucky has benefitted from Chief Mercer’s mission.

For Mercer, the drive is bigger than just protecting bourbon warehouses—it’s about equipping fire departments and plant operators with the knowledge to face the unique challenges of industrial fires.