Another Fire in The Cigar Industry

Last week, I received a concerning message about yet another fire affecting the cigar industry. Alsack Labels, a Dominican-based supplier of boxes and labels for numerous cigar companies, experienced a significant fire on October 3. While not a cigar manufacturer itself, this incident will impact several brands' ability to package their cigars. The fire is believed to have originated on the second floor of the building, where the company stored tobacco for many of its customers.

 

This incident is just one of several devastating stories related to fires in our industry over the past few years. In September 2024, Universal Leaf—one of the largest tobacco providers in the world—lost a building to a fire. In May 2023, Fuente lost a warehouse containing a substantial amount of their tobacco. And in September 2022, Tabacalera William Ventura suffered a complete loss of their operations due to a fire.

 

The question arises: why is our industry experiencing so many fire-related losses?

 

The most obvious reason is that tobacco is highly flammable. Even a small spark can create significant problems for facilities housing thousands of pounds of combustible materials. Additionally, many of these facilities often have significantly lower safety standards than those typically found in the U.S. While the infrastructure varies across different cigar-producing countries, lower safety standards can lead to more frequent electrical fires, particularly due to the absence of commercial fire suppression systems.

Many fires are also caused by human activities, with accidental ignition sources including welding, grinding, faulty machinery, discarded cigarettes, cooking, and campfires.

 

While it may seem that these fires have become more common in recent years, they are not a new issue. Hopefully, this series of unfortunate events will begin to slow down. I am confident that our industry is working together to improve processes and mitigate these risks as much as possible.