The Boston Molasses Disaster!

I found out about this little gem of history from my mother who heard it on a TV show. I was amazed that I'd never heard of it before.

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On January 15, 1919 in the north end of Boston, Massachusetts, a large molasses storage tank burst, and a tidal wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph, killing 21 and injuring 150!  Back then molasses was a very popular sweetener. It could be fermented to produce rum and ethyl alcohol and was a key component in the manufacture of munitions.  The huge storage tank (50 feet tall, 90 feet wide and holding 2,300.000 gallons of molasses) sat near Keany Square awaiting transfer to the Purity Distilling Company. Little did the residents know that the tank had been poorly constructed and insufficiently tested. Not only that but the rising temperatures of the day (from 2 degrees F to 41 F) caused CO2 to form inside the tank, increasing the internal pressure.

Witnesses stated that they heard a loud rumbling sound, like a machine gun as the rivets shot out of the tank, and that the ground shook as if a train were passing by. The bursting tank produced a wave of molasses between 7 and 15 feet high and traveling at 35 miles an hour.  Buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Even trains were tipped off their tracks as the wave suffocated everything in its path, leaving behind a sticky oozing pool of molasses 2 to 3 feet high.

The Boston Globe reported that people "were picked up by a rush of air and hurled many feet." Others had debris hurled at them from the rush of sweet-smelling air. A truck was picked up and hurled into the harbor. Approximately 150 were injured; 21 people and several horses were killed —crushed and drowned by the molasses.

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Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage. Here and there struggled a form — whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was... Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings — men and women — suffered likewise

Cadets from the nearby Massachusetts Nautical School were the first to arrive, followed by the Red Cross, the Boston police and the Army. Some nurses from the Red Cross dived into the molasses, while others tended to the wounded, keeping them warm as well as keeping the exhausted workers fed. Many of these people worked through the night. The injured were so numerous that doctors and surgeons set up a makeshift hospital in a nearby building. Rescuers found it difficult to make their way through the syrup to help the victims. It took four days before they stopped searching for victims; many dead were so glazed over in molasses, they were hard to recognize.

It took over 87,000 man hours to remove the molasses from the streets, theaters, businesses, automobiles, and homes. The harbor was still brown with molasses until summer.  Some residents claim that on hot summer days, the area still smells of molasses.

Fatalities

Name	Age	Occupation
Patrick Breen	44	Laborer (North End Paving Yard)
William Brogan	61	Teamster
Bridget Clougherty	65	Homemaker
Stephen Clougherty	34	Unemployed
John Callahan	43	Paver (North End Paving Yard)
Maria Distasio	10	Child
William Duffy	58	Laborer (North End Paving Yard)
Peter Francis	64	Blacksmith (North End Paving Yard)
Flaminio Gallerani	37	Driver
Pasquale Iantosca	10	Child
James H. Kinneally	Unknown	Laborer (North End Paving Yard)
Eric Laird	17	Teamster
George Layhe	38	Firefighter (Engine 31)
James Lennon	64	Teamster/Motorman
Ralph Martin	21	Driver
James McMullen	46	Foreman, Bay State Express
Cesar Nicolo	32	Expressman
Thomas Noonan	43	Longshoreman
Peter Shaughnessy	18	Teamster
John M. Seiberlich	69	Blacksmith (North End Paving Yard)
Michael Sinnott	76	Messenger

^{Information taken from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Molasses_Disaster}