Fire Destroys Fuente Tobacco Warehouse
Fire, the bane of cigarmakers, tore through one of Arturo Fuente’s tobacco warehouses in Villa González, Dominican Republic, yesterday. The blaze and the attempts to extinguish it resulted in a complete loss of the building and all of the tobacco inside, approximately one million pounds of aged tobacco. No one was injured.
The fire broke out around 5:30 on Wednesday afternoon and firefighters were on the scene for hours. The blaze wasn’t fully extinguished until about 2:35 this morning.
“It is painful but most importantly everyone is OK, thank God,” said Carlos Fuente Jr., owner of Arturo Fuente Cigar Co. “Just a massive loss of irreplaceable aged tobacco. Lots of tobacco from Chateau de la Fuente, among others.”
Chateau de la Fuente is the tobacco farm Fuente owns in Bonao where it grows the wrappers for Fuente Fuente OpusX cigars.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
While the loss of so much tobacco and the warehouse in which it was stored it a setback, Fuente Jr. expressed some relief that it wasn’t worse. The tobacco warehouse—located in a Fuente free zone and known as Warehouse #3—is one of several in that area owned by Fuente.
“Thank God it happened during the day and the fire was contained before spreading to the other buildings on both sides,” Fuente added.
May has been a difficult month for Fuente of late. In May 2022 a freak hailstorm hit Chateau de la Fuente, destroying the tobacco growing in the fields and collapsing the shade that cloaks the fields. Fuente is no stranger to fire, and it has lost warehouses in the past to similar blazes. The company has vast stocks of aged tobacco, and while this is a setback, it should not impact the company’s production.
“Fire, trials and tribulations have been a way of life for us,” Fuente said. “It will only continue to forge our determination to move forward and prevail. We lost a lot, but never, ever our faith and will.”
Read Next: STG Posts Slightly Higher Sales But Reduced Profits In First Quarter
