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| What a mess! |
On January 15, 1919 in Boston Massachusetts there was a flood, the result of an industrial accident and facility collapse.
Purity Distilling Company owned a holding tank for molasses, the tank burst and two million, three hundred thousand gallons of molasses ran down hill. The molasses was used as a sweetener, to make rum and even in munitions at that time.
It was said the bursting tank sounded like a machine gun with all the rivets breaking loose, and there was a loud rumble as the molasses escaped. Twenty-one people were killed and over seventy were injured as a result. A section of the elevated railroad was destroyed along with a score of buildings in a wave of molasses 8 to 15 feet high.
I can't even imagine how all of this was cleaned up.
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| The remains of the holding tank |
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| The story in the paper |
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| This plaque is at the site of the accident. |
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