Boston’s Deadly Molasses Flood

In 1919, Boston was nearly wiped out by… molasses. Tha's not a metaphor. Actual molasses.

A massive steel tank holding over two million gallons of the stuff suddenly exploded without

warning. Witnesses heard a roar like a cannon blast as a fifteen-foot-high wave of sticky syrup

surged through the streets at thirty-five miles an hour. Buildings collapsed. Train tracks bent.

Horses were lifted off the ground. People were trapped, drowning slowly because molasses

is thick enough to stop you from moving. Rescue workers waded through waist-deep

syrup for days. The smell lingered for decades. Twenty-one people died.

Over a hundred were injured. And to this day, on hot summer afternoons, locals swear you