# Great Wisconsin Cheese Flood? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 5, 2001, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552 "2001-10-05T12:02:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Snaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Snaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snaf)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/1 "2001-10-05T12:02:33Z")
My Dad tells me that when he visited Wisconsin in the early 90s he read a story about a ‘Great Cheese Flood’ that occured in the 1920s. Supposedly, a cheese factory burnt down and the nearby streets were flooded with molten cheese. Is this true? Is it even possible? I’ve searched the web for info to no avail. The mental image of a town-wide fondue is highly amusing 🙂 Anelie ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/2 "2001-10-05T12:14:09Z")
Why else would they give a town a crazy name like Fondue Lac ?😃 ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/3 "2001-10-05T12:58:43Z")
Ahem, **Squink**. 🙂 Perhaps he’s confused about remembering the [great molasses flood](http://members.tripod.com/~earthdude1/molasses/molasses.html) in Boston in 1919. A college friend told me his great-grandfather drowned in it that day. Part of the storage tank wall is still standing, btw. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/4 "2001-10-05T13:01:18Z")
Not in the 1920s, but in the early 1980s. A government warehouse for surplus cheese burned down, filling the streets of … Eau Claire, I think it was … with molten cheese. I remember clipping the article out of the newspaper for the amusment of my non-Wisconsonite friends. Mind you, there are lots of cheese warehouses in Wisconsin, and lots of fires, so no doubt the cheese-lava effect has happened more than once. ---
**Author:** ![Snaf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Snaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snaf)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2001, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/5 "2001-10-05T13:10:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wumpus \* > \*\*Not in the 1920s, but in the early 1980s. A government warehouse for surplus cheese burned down, filling the streets of … Eau Claire, I think it was … with molten cheese. I remember clipping the article out of the newspaper for the amusment of my non-Wisconsonite friends. \*\* Thankyou Wumpus! My Dad’s quite triumphant over having this outlandish story verified 😃 Anelie PS Squink: Hehehehehehe ---
**Author:** ![DoctorHobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@DoctorHobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorHobo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/6 "2023-03-22T04:23:57Z")
This just happened again back in January of this year! Except it wasn’t cheese, it was butter. A three inch river that eventually clogged fire hoses & a nearby canal. It was in Portage, Wisconsin, which is about as far south from Green Bay as Eau Claire is east of the Twin Cities (if that made sense?) [“ Melted Butter Floods Into Wisconsin Canal After Fire At Dairy Plant” NBC Chicago](https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/melted-butter-floods-into-wisconsin-canal-after-fire-at-dairy-plant/3038929/?amp=1) ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/7 "2023-03-22T10:39:01Z")
The great butter and cheese fire of Madison WI, 1991 > **[The great butter and cheese fire of 1991](https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/opinion/columnists/2022/05/11/over-20-m-lbs-commodities-lost-great-butter-fire-1991/9650051002/)** > > 30 years after a fire swept through the CSW complex, firefighters say it was the most significant fire and environmental hazard Madison had seen. ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/8 "2023-03-22T12:13:09Z")
I was just about to post this. I was there; an awful smell pervaded the E. side of town. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/9 "2023-03-22T14:42:40Z")
With great cheeses come great dangers! We must always stand ready!! Sign up to get regular alerts as crises occur. [![](https://i.postimg.cc/rwTKppZv/cheese-alert.jpg) ](https://i.postimg.cc/rwTKppZv/cheese-alert.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![DoctorHobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@DoctorHobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorHobo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2023, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/10 "2023-03-23T00:22:55Z")
Butter AND cheese? Hope those first responders brought their macaroni. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2023, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/11 "2023-03-23T12:47:57Z")
Reminds me of the Gret London Beer Flood > On Monday 17 October 1814 a bizarre industrial accident in St Giles, London claimed at least eight lives when a three-storey high vat of beer exploded inside a brewery and unleashed a tsunami of porter onto the streets around Tottenham Court Road. > **[The History Press | The London Beer Flood](https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-london-beer-flood/)** > > On 17 October 1814 a bizarre industrial accident in St Giles, London claimed mutliple lives when a three-storey high vat of beer exploded inside a brewery. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2023, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/12 "2023-03-23T23:16:04Z")
That was a bad one. [![](https://www.fabio.com.ar/images/reviews29/londonbeerflood.jpg) ](https://www.fabio.com.ar/images/reviews29/londonbeerflood.jpg) Given that beer is Wisconsin’s other major export after cheese, could a repeat occur? ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2023, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-wisconsin-cheese-flood/85552/13 "2023-03-23T23:23:08Z")
Burning whiskey flooded the streets of Dublin in 1875. [Dublin whiskey fire - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_whiskey_fire)