On January 15, 1919, a massive wave of molasses tore through the streets of Boston's North End leaving a sticky trail of destruction in its wake. The wave swept up everything in its path. Twenty-one people were killed and 150 were injured.
Prelude to disaster
The story of the molasses flood actually starts in 1915 with the construction of a holding tank, 50 feet high and 90 feet in diameter, on the North End's waterfront at the edge of a densely populated neighborhood of Italian immigrants. The tank was built quickly to meet the rising demand for molasses, which in addition to being used for rum was used to produce industrial alcohol for ammunition.The tank gave warning signs almost from the beginning. It leaked constantly, drawing concern from workers and neighborhood residents alike. Company officials, more concerned with continued production than safety, largely ignored these complaints.
The tank remained intact until 1919 when Purity Distilling put through an unusually large batch. When the last shipment of molasses was added to the tank—filling it to near capacity with 2.3 million gallons of molasses—the warm molasses mixed with the cool triggering a fermentation process, producing gas that increased pressure against the walls.
The New York Times reported that:
A dull, muffled roar gave but an instant's warning before the top of the tank was blown into the air. The circular wall broke into two great segments of sheet iron which were pulled in opposite directions. Two million gallons of molasses rushed over the streets and converted into a sticky mass the wreckage of several small buildings which had been smashed by the force of the explosion.The waves of molasses, initially 25-30 feet high, pushed out in all directions at 35-miles per hour destroying buildings, cars, wagons, people, animals, and crashing across Commercial Street and into the tenements. It ripped apart the North End Paving Yard building, shattered windows, and tore the nearby firehouse from its foundation. A piece of the molasses tank crashed into a column of the elevated train, buckling the tracks. Many who perished in the flood died of suffocation. The mess would take weeks to clean up.
Source: The New York Times. "12 Killed When Tank of Molasses Exploded." 16 January 1919 (p. 4).
After the flood
At the end of the lengthy legal battle that ensued, Purity Distilling's parent company, United States Industrial Alcohol Co., paid almost $650,000 to settle the claims. And the molasses tragedy led to some positive changes. Boston industries, fearing similar disasters and lawsuits, imposed stricter safety regulations. Nationwide, the case lead to the adoption of engineering certification laws and stricter requirements for obtaining building permits. And Boston's Italian immigrants became more vocal, getting involved in politics, seeking citizenship in greater numbers and voting.
Recommended Reading:
Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puleo.
