Recently I've been touting the benefits of molasses, the by-product of the sugar refining process. And while it does have numerous health benefits, it was lethal for 21 people one balmy day in Boston on January 15, 1919.
That was the day of what has become known as the Great Boston Molasses Flood. The disaster occurred at the Purity Distilling Company. The temperature had risen above 40 degrees, climbing rapidly from the frigid temperatures of the preceding days. Stored in a tank 50 feet tall and 90 feet in diameter was 2,300,000 gallons of molasses. Just after the noon hour the tank collapsed, unleashing a wave of molasses 25 feet high, moving at 35 MPH. Several blocks in Beantown were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 feet. Nearby buildings were swept off their foundations.
The Boston Globe reported that people "were picked up by a rush of air and hurled many feet." One truck was picked up and hurled into Boston harbor, others had debris hurled at them from the rush of sweet-smelling air. Witnesses reported that as the tank collapsed they felt the ground shake and heard a roar, a tremendous crashing, and a deep growling. And as the rivets shot out of the tank the sound resembled that of a machine gun.
In all, approximately 150 were injured, 21 people and several horses killed, some were crushed and drowned in the molasses. It took four days before the rescuers stopped searching for victims, many of the dead were so glazed over in molasses that they were difficult to recognize.
There are claims that even today on a warm spring day the sweet smelling scent of molasses wafts through the city, a grim reminder of the Great Flood.
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