Boston’s Not So Sweet Disaster

A flood of molasses may sound like the latest film from Pixar, or something that would happen in Willy Wonka’s factory, but in 1919 this was far from fiction. On January 15th in Boston Massachusetts at the Purity Distilling Company between Willow Street and Evereteze Way the weather was unseasonably hot. Temperatures had risen rapidly after being frigid in the days before the accident. A molasses tank 50 feet tall and 90 feet wide sat at 529 Commercial Street. The quickly changing temperature inside the tank caused the molasses to produce ethanol, an active ingredient in munitions. As pressure built up inside the tank witnesses reported hearing a machine gun like sound. This was the pressures inside the tank forcing out metal riveting that was holding the tank together. Eventually the structure collapsed sending 2,300,000 gallons of molasses flooding into the Boston streets. The result was a 25 foot wave of molasses crashing into onlookers at 35 miles per hour killing 21 people, and injuring 150. Horses, carts, trucks and railroad cars were tossed like toys into Boston Harbor. Nearby buildings were destroyed and pushed off of their foundations. It took 2 weeks to clean up the mess and reports were that the harbor was filled with molasses for months afterward. Residents claim that on hot summer days the faint odor of molasses still fills the air in the area. Boston’s molasses flood is at least one time in history there really was to much of a good thing.